What happens during a C-section

To mark International Dawn Chorus day we’ve asked wildlife experts to make their case for why their favourite songbird deserves your vote. Cast your vote in the poll at the end of the article and let us know why in the comments. We hope their words will inspire you to step outside and soak up some birdsong this spring.

Song thrush

Championed by Cannelle Tassin de Montaigu, Research Fellow in Ecology and Evolution, University of Sussex

When people talk about the UK’s best bird songs they often go straight for the big names – loud, dramatic performers that grab your attention. But quietly in the background is the song thrush, a bird whose song is far more impressive than it first appears.

What sets the song thrush apart is not volume or flair, but structure. Its song is built from short, clear phrases, each repeated two or three times before moving on. It’s as if the bird is politely checking that its audience is paying attention. In a dawn chorus that often feels a bit chaotic, there’s something refreshingly organised about it. It’s a bird that’s actually thought things through.

It might not have the dramatic flair of the common nightingale, and it’s less showy than some of the usual favourites. There are no soaring crescendos or dramatic flourishes. But that’s part of its charm. The song is neat, rhythmic and surprisingly memorable once you start listening for it.

In the early morning soundscape, where many birds seem determined to out-sing one another, the song thrush isn’t trying to steal the spotlight. It just quietly does its thing, and does it very well. Underrated? Definitely. Worth your vote? I’d say so.

Robin

Championed by Judith Lock, Principal Teaching Fellow in Ecology and Evolution University of Southampton

The European robin is a delightfully common sight in gardens. You will very likely have heard the characteristic “tic”, followed by a tuneful verse lasting a few seconds. In noisy urban environments they sing louder, less complex songs, in order to be heard.

The male robins use their spring song (January to June) to signal their quality to females, then forming breeding pairs, and to signal competitive ability to other males. The spring song lasts one to three seconds, composed of four to six short motifs. They have an impressive repertoire of about 1,300 motifs, indicating that song is the particularly important for robins, in comparison to birds that rely more on colourful plumage or behavioural displays to communicate with each other.

Most birds sing mainly in the morning but robins sing all day. People often mistake their lovely evening song for a nightingale’s. Constant territory defence from non-migrating robins means that the robin song is a year-round soundtrack too. From July to December, both males and females sing the autumn song, of higher-pitched long, descending notes, with interspersed warbles. This song is to defend their individual winter territories. This indicates that song first evolved first in songbirds to ensure survival, before it became a signal used by males for reproduction. Each robin’s song is dynamic, constantly changing in response to the condition and age of the bird, and their rival.

Great tit

Championed by Josh Firth, Associate Professor of Behavioural Ecology, University of Leeds

Its song may not be as flashy as the nightingale or as poetically melancholy as the blackbird. But scientists have been taught so much by the great tit’s song, heard across British habitats from ancient woodlands to urban gardens. This spring marks 80 continuous years of UK-based scientists studying great tits at Wytham Woods, Oxford, the world’s longest-running study of individually-marked animals.

The unique dataset includes a family tree totaling over 100,000 great tits, with some birds’ lineages traceable back 37 generations. Early research on
Wytham’s great tits during 1970s-1980s resulted in some the first studies to inform the scientific world about how bird song can help males find mates and defend territories, how larger song repertoires can bring more reproductive success, and how young birds learn these repertoires from neighbours (not just their fathers).

And a pioneering study published in 1987 taught us how male great tit song even tracks female fertility, increasing their singing efforts as their female partner’s egg-laying period approaches, and then quietening after she starts laying. Modern technological advances are allowing insight into the hidden meaning embedded in great tits’ songs. In-depth processing of 109,000 recordings of great tit songs has revealed how each bird’s melody tells the story of their own identity as well as that of their local culture and social circles.

A great tit’s age also affects their song: older males keep singing rarer, fading song types while younger birds adopt newer ones. So, Britain’s greatest song belongs to the great tit’s “teacher-teacher” call, for all it has taught us, and for all we have left to learn.

Chaffinch

Championed by Joey Baxter, PhD Candidate in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Sheffield

Why change a winning formula? As far as I’m concerned, the chaffinch sings the biggest banger that UK birds have to offer. While the blackcap attempts to impress with ostentatious bells and whistles, the chaffinch keeps things simple with a catchy riff. Where the starling goes for quantity and novelty, with a frankly plagiaristic repertoire of mimicry, the chaffinch goes for quality, singing proudly in the knowledge that it is delivering a true earworm.

Bubbling trills accelerate before tumbling downwards, slowing to rich watery chirps and finishing with the final flourish. This jaunty lick, the real hook of the song, is often punctuated by an upward inflection at its end, the rising intonation giving it the air of an unanswered question. The chaffinch’s song has rhythm, it has melody, and it’s instantly recognisable. It possesses the wisdom that sometimes it is better not to do everything, but to do one thing well.

The identity of United’s next full-time manager remains uncertain with only four matches left to play this term, though former long-serving midfielder Carrick is widely believed to be the frontrunner for the permanent role after impressing since taking the interim reins in January following the sacking of Ruben Amorim after only 14 months in charge.

Footage from the security checkpoint shows officers taking down magnetometers when the alleged gunman emerges from a doorway and starts sprinting toward them with a firearm

Prosecutors have shared a video of the moment authorities say an armed man stormed the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in an attempt to kill the US president.

Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for Washington, posted the video on social media on Thursday, April 30. The nearly six-minute video shows the alleged gunman, Cole Tomas Allen, walking back and forth down a hallway the day before the attack, and briefly checking out the hotel gym.

Footage from the security checkpoint shows federal officers taking down magnetometers when the alleged gunman emerges from a doorway and starts sprinting toward them. The gunman quickly reaches the officers before most of them appear to notice him.

Only one officer visible in the video appears to have drawn his gun before the gunman passed; Pirro said he’s the one who was shot and returned fire.

Prosecutors had previously claimed the agent was shot in the bullet-resistant vest during the melee, but had not confirmed it was Allen who shot the agent. Pirro said that there is no evidence that the officer was hit by friendly fire.

Allen, 31, from California, was injured but was not shot during the incident at the Washington Hilton, which disrupted the event packed with journalists and administration officials, including top-ranking leaders.

Allen earlier on Thursday agreed to remain jailed while he awaits trial. He did not enter a plea during his brief appearance in federal court.

Court papers state that Allen took a picture of himself in his hotel room minutes before the incident, and that he was outfitted with an ammunition bag, a shoulder gun holster and a sheathed knife.

Allen reportedly referred to himself as a “Friendly Federal Assassin” and alluded to grievances over a range of Trump administration actions.

He was charged on Monday with the attempted assassination of the president and two additional firearms counts, including discharging a weapon during a crime of violence.

He faces up to life in prison if convicted of the assassination count alone.

The summer holidays are almost here

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Passengers flying with easyJet have been reminded about an “important” 30-day rule – and ignoring it could cause a few issues. According to the airline, the online check-in process, which is “quick and easy”, should be done anywhere from 30 days up until 2 hours before departure.

And with many gearing up for the summer holidays, the more organised you are, the faster you can board without all the hassle.

Travellers are reminded: “You can check in between 30 days and 2 hours before your flight departs and you can download or print your boarding passes for all your flights. You may need your passport or identity card and we‘ll ask you to confirm your contact details.”

You can store your boarding pass in the free easyJet mobile app or print it out. A PDF on your phone won’t work because airport security can’t scan it. If you lose it, you can print it again – make sure it’s printed clearly.

You may need a new boarding pass

easyJet stress: “If you make any change to your booking – like adding hold luggage or flight changes – make sure you check in again, and print off a new boarding pass.”

It adds: “If you have any technical problems whilst checking in, please don’t give up and do try again later. If you continue to have difficulty, please ask our ground crew for help when checking in at the airport: this must be done before the bag drop closing time.”

“You’ll miss your flight”

Urging people to read its “important timings” section, easyJet stresses that all passengers need to ensure they have all documents ready and arrive at the airport in time or risk missing their flight.

It reads: “These are the important timings when you travel with us. You need to have all your documents ready and leave enough time to get through the airport so that you can be on time for your flight. If you’re late, we may not accept you for travel and you’ll miss your flight.

“All timings are based on your flight’s scheduled departure time. Unless we tell you otherwise, these timings still apply even if your flight is delayed, as we always do what we can to make up any delay.”

The budget airline flies to over 150 destinations across Europe and North Africa. It also operates from a host of airports and in an exciting update for holidaymakers, it introduced new flights to the Canary Islands, Egypt, France, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Poland and Slovenia.

The new routes will launch in winter this year, and will see easyJet be the only airline to offer some of these holiday hotspots from three UK airports.

What’s the point of play? Is it simply a way to keep children occupied, or something more? For some, it’s about learning literacy and numeracy. For others, it’s how friendships form and relationships deepen. But it can be all of these at once, and more.

Most parents recognise that play matters. But there’s less agreement on what kind of play is best. Should children be guided towards activities designed to build specific skills, like sports for coordination, or construction for maths and engineering? Or should the child’s own interests lead the way, regardless of perceived educational value?

Our research focuses on a type of play often dismissed as “just for fun” – playing with dolls. Across a series of studies, we found that doll play can help children understand other people’s thoughts and feelings. This is a skill that underpins social interaction throughout life.

There is pressure on parents to create the “right” environment for development, often filled with toys that promise clear educational outcomes. STEM-focused toys (science, technology, engineering and maths), in particular, are widely seen as beneficial for learning. Doll play, on the other hand, can be viewed as having little educational benefit.

Our findings challenge that assumption.

More than make-believe

When playing with dolls, children often play out scenes between characters. These may seem simple on the surface but could present opportunities for the child to develop social and emotional skills.

As parents, it seems obvious that playmates are important for building and learning about relationships and other people, and recognising others’ emotions (empathy). But what if children can develop these skills even when playing alone?

Previous studies have found that children who engage more in pretend play tend to have stronger social understanding and empathy. Earlier studies, however, didn’t often use controlled methods to separate out the different factors linking pretend play and social understanding.

So, we set out to test this more directly. We worked with children aged four to eight, assessing their ability to understand that others can hold different beliefs and desires to their own. This is an important milestone in social development. If children recognise that their own mental states may vary from others, this should help them better understand other people and know how to interact with them.

After that initial assessment session, children were randomly assigned either a set of dolls or a tablet with open-ended creative games. They were asked to play several times a week, with parents logging how and when play occurred. We didn’t instruct children how to play because we wanted to understand their natural behaviour.

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After approximately six weeks, both sets of children came back and again completed the task about understanding others’ mental states. We found that the children who had been assigned dolls to play with, rather than tablets, showed a greater improvement in their understanding of others’ mental states during the intervening period.

The findings suggest that doll play can actively support the development of social understanding. This is consistent with prior research of ours showing that areas of the brain linked to social processing are activated during doll play, and that children use more language about thoughts and feelings when playing with dolls than when using tablets.

Why it matters beyond childhood

For parents, the message is reassuring – playing with dolls lets children practice skills that they can also use when playing with playmates, like understanding others, anticipating behaviour and responding appropriately.

These abilities matter far beyond childhood. They help us collaborate, resolve conflicts and navigate relationships. In a world that often feels increasingly divided, the capacity to see things from another person’s perspective is not just useful – it’s essential.

Reports of ants rocket in the UK during spring as they emerge from their winter homes but they can be hard to clear

Finding you have a stream of ants around your garden or even inside your home can be annoying and uncomfortable. According to pest clearing experts Pest UK, April is the time of year that they get most enquiries on how to clear the insects.

It said: “Depending on the weather they come out of hibernation (or over wintering, insects don’t hibernate in the same way that mammals and rodents do) in March or early April. Often ants in April will forage inside buildings as it may still be too cold outside.

“When its cold they can be difficult to control. The reasons for this are that the metabolism of the ants is still slow and so any uptake of insecticide will take time to work.

“Another reason is that only part of the nest may be active which means that it may take some time for ants from the rest of the nest to come into contact with the insecticides. The ants that you are seeing probably come from several nests.

“They follow pheromone trails left by ants and these trails will attract ants from many different nests. Control is not just finding the nest and killing it because most cases it will not just be one ants’ nest.”

The firm said it uses insecticide bait, a residual insecticide spray or a residual insecticide dust, adding that one or more of these types of treatments may be carried out.

However if you want to try a home grown treatment one expert set out their method using “ingredients you probably already have”. Thach Nguyen, a real estate expert, said: “If you got ant problem in your rental house or even your own primary house, here’s the way how to get rid of it.

“Now you probably have these ingredients already in house, Borox, sugar, cotton balls and water.” He said you should mix together three-quarters of a cup of water, one-quarter cup of sugar and three-quarters of a tablespoon of this Borax.

While Borax is not available on general sale in the UK Borax substitutes that are available will do the same job. These cost as little as £6 for 500g on Amazon.

The expert explained: “Then you take the cotton ball, say, like two or three or four of them, depending how many you need. You dip it inside this mixture where you made then you put these cotton balls where you see a lot, where the ant comes out, and you put it there.

“And then basically, they come and they got to drink this stuff. They’re gonna bring it back to the nest.

“They’re gonna kill all the colony. Now, the next day you wake up, you’re gonna see you ain’t have no ants.”

Metformin is the main treatment for type 2 diabetes but research is also investigating its potential for other conditions, including PCOS

People taking Metformin, the primary treatment for type 2 diabetes, have been informed that it can deliver numerous additional beneficial effects – alongside some adverse ones. Writing on The Conversation website, Dipa Kamdar, Senior Lecturer in Pharmacy Practice at Kingston University, explained that it has helped millions manage their blood sugar levels, and has sparked renewed research interest in areas ranging from ageing and cancer to cardiovascular health and fertility.

The drug originates from a plant called galega officinalis, also known as French lilac or goat’s rue, which was originally used in folk remedies for symptoms now understood to be linked with diabetes, such as excessive thirst and frequent urination. During the early 20th century, scientists extracted blood sugar-lowering compounds from the plant, Ms Kamdar explained. Following years of development and clinical testing, metformin proved to be a relatively safe and effective treatment, and was launched in the UK during the late 1950s.

Clinical trials demonstrated that Metformin was successful at reducing glucose levels while also decreasing diabetes-related complications. It subsequently became the principal treatment for type 2 diabetes throughout much of the world.

Scientists are currently investigating whether Metformin could be beneficial for other conditions. Ms Kamdar said: “One common off-label use, meaning a medicine is prescribed for a condition it has not officially been approved to treat, is polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).

“Many people with PCOS have insulin resistance, which means their bodies do not respond properly to insulin and need to produce more of it to keep blood glucose stable. High insulin levels can stimulate the ovaries to produce more androgens, a group of hormones that includes testosterone.

“Raised androgen levels can disrupt ovulation and contribute to irregular or absent periods. By improving insulin sensitivity, metformin can help reduce these effects and may help regulate the menstrual cycle.”

Ms Kamdar revealed the drug was also being investigated for its potential impact on ageing and longevity. She said: “Although early findings are intriguing, there is still no conclusive evidence that it slows ageing in humans, and it is not approved for that purpose.

“Some research has suggested that metformin may have neuroprotective effects, meaning it could help protect the brain and nervous system, particularly with long-term use. But the evidence is inconsistent, and large, long-term clinical trials are still needed to determine whether metformin really can protect against dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases.”

Those taking Metformin may encounter side-effects, Ms Kamdar noted – amongst them nausea, stomach discomfort, diarrhoea, changes in taste, and loss of appetite. More seriously, users can also be affected by vitamin B12 deficiency, which has consistently been observed in people with type 2 diabetes who take metformin. “This may happen because the drug reduces how well vitamin B12 is absorbed in the gut.

“Over time, low vitamin B12 can lead to anaemia or peripheral neuropathy. Anaemia means the body does not have enough healthy red blood cells to carry oxygen properly, while peripheral neuropathy refers to nerve damage, usually in the hands or feet, that can cause tingling, numbness, pain or weakness.”

Read the full article here.

Confirming the news, Mr Trump posted on his Truth Social platform: “In honor of the King and Queen of the United Kingdom, who have just left the White House, soon headed back to their wonderful Country, I will be removing the Tariffs and Restrictions on Whiskey having to do with Scotland’s ability to work with the Commonwealth of Kentucky on Whiskey and Bourbon, two very important Industries within Scotland and Kentucky.