If you want to improve your health and don’t already exercise, starting to do so may be one of the biggest ways to ensure you age well.

Strength training, for instance, can help us live longer, may reduce our risk of dementia, and makes us less likely to fall.

Meanwhile, aerobic training, like jogging, walking, and swimming, is linked to better heart health in older age and might benefit our brains too.

In cases like these, could an injection do some of the work for us?

Maybe, one day, a recent mouse study has suggested.

They found something unexpected during this experiment, though. Speaking to New Scientist, study author Ng Shyh-Chang said: “This thing was contracting under the skin continuously, and we thought, ‘This thing is like non-stop exercise.’”

The scientists then took samples of muscle stem cells from the mice and developed them into contracting muscle cells called myocytes. When they injected those into the animals (dubbed a “myograft”), a patch of tissue with its own blood networks formed near the injection site.

This area stayed pulsing, even when the mice slept.

And that action seemed linked to some of the benefits you’d expect from a heat-pumping workout.

For instance, mice given the graft developed more muscle across their whole bodies, saw better immune function, and appeared to have stronger bones and greater strength in their older age.

What’s more, the “patch” still seemed to be doing its job six months after first injection.

Still, the researchers write, their method offers a “different approach toward [cell and gene-based therapy] CGT for ageing-related chronic diseases”.

We don’t need to tell you this: tech is expensive. Keeping up to date with the latest gadgets can put a serious dent in your wallet, but the price tag doesn’t do much to quell our desires for a new phone.

Especially when one as enticing as the Google Pixel 11 Pro drops.

Available for pre-order now, and to buy from 20 August, the Pixel 11 Pro comes in four shades (Canyon pink, Olive green, Fog blue and Obsidian black).

The phone retails at £1,079, which is up nearly £500 from the Pixel 10. But, good news Google heads: you can get it for less when you trade in an old device.

Eligible devices include phones from Google, Samsung, and Apple, among tons of other brands, so if you’ve been thinking about switching to Google, this is as good a chance as any.

Depending on the phone you’re trading, you could save up to £850, which in case you need a little help with the maths, means your new phone could cost as little as £229. Woah.

When you consider the array of upgrades Google has made from its predecessor, the Pixel 10, that’s an insane steal.

The first Google phone to use its Tensor G6 chip, it’s considerably speedier than the Pixel 10, with Google claiming you’ll see 25% speedier browsing and 3.5 times faster Gemini processing.

Speaking of, the Pixel 11 Pro is loaded with Gemini Intelligence, which can help you with everything from brainstorming to finding information.

The camera is often the most important aspect of a phone (for us, at least) and this one delivers big time. Pixel 11 boasts Google’s longest zoom yet (up to a whopping 120x) and 30% better light sensitivity so your photos always come out looking crisp and sharp.

One of our favourite elements is Magic Capture mode, which means you can simply press a single button to let your phone take over the heavy lifting of taking photos and videos, so you don’t have to think about the best mode to capture the moment.

The offer runs until 1 September, so run, don’t walk – because you could miss out on £850 in savings on the Pixel 11 Pro as well as up to £260 when you trade in a smart watch for the new Google Pixel Watch 5.

Andy Burnham hit back at Kemi Badenoch’s criticism over his delayed appearance in front of fellow MPs with a quick reminder of Liz Truss.

The prime minister succeeded Keir Starmer on July 20, just days after Westminster’s scheduled summer recess began.

He therefore did not have to answer any direct questions from his opponents in the House of Commons for the first six weeks for his premiership.

So the Conservatives’ leader Badenoch used her first opportunity on Tuesday to remind MPs how Burnham enjoyed the summer without much scrutiny.

Burnham replied: “The Honorable Lady said the fact that I had been in my position for 43 days.

“Can I turn that round and say that means in six days, this government will have outlived the Truss government? And will be here for a lot, lot longer.”

Truss was forced out of office in October 2022, after just 49 days in Downing Street.

Her own MPs kicked her out following the economic turmoil caused by her disastrous mini-Budget, which contained £45 billion of unfunded tax cuts, sending interest rates and inflation up while the value of the pound went into decline.

Truss’s name is now regularly used as a stick to beat the Conservatives by its opponents.

Burnham also used his time at the despatch box to remind the Leader of the Opposition just how many of her own front bench had been tightly tied to the Truss government.

“I noticed yesterday she appointed a new shadow cabinet,” the prime minister said. “The new shadow chancellor, I welcome him to his position too – I believe the author of the mini-Budget?”

This jibe sparked uproar from across the House, as Burnham added: “I think at least half of the shadow cabinet supported the Liz Truss government.”

Badenoch removed Mel Stride and promoted Andrew Griffith to the top job over the bank holiday.

Griffith robustly defended the mini-Budget during the dying days of Truss’s premiership when he was financial secretary to the Treasury.

He said: “We think they’re the right plans because those plans make our economy competitive.

“What we politicians are responsible for is making the economic decisions that will drive continued growth.”

Truss also welcomed news of Griffith’s promotion on Monday, writing on X: “Congratulations to Andrew Griffith on becoming Shadow Chancellor.

“The economic establishment of the last three decades has failed Britain. They must be taken on.”

Listen to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.

Donald Trump has been mocked after posting an AI meme of Canada Geese with his hairstyle defending “Lake America”.

The so-called “Donald Ducks” are shown firing machine guns in the clip, which the US president posted on Truth Social.

It follows Trump’s controversial bid to re-name Lake Ontario over his ongoing trade war with Canada.

He signed an executive order last week changing its name to Lake America – triggering an angry backlash from Canadian politicians.

Lake Ontario is one of the five “Great Lakes” which straddle the two countries.

Trump said the name change was “official, effective immediately”.

Responding on X, Canadian prime minister Mark Carney blew Trump’s claims out of the water by pointing out it has been known as Lake Ontario for centuries and will remain so “now and always”.

Undeterred, Trump posted the Donald Ducks meme on Saturday – sparking ridicule online.

One X user said: “It’s confirmed. The president is insane.”

A separate AI video also posted by Trump shows him replacing the Lake Ontario sign with a Lake America one before doing his signature dance.

Listen to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.

About half an hour after my childhood dog fell asleep, the following routine would kick in.

First, his snoring would break up into periods of excited snorting. Then, his hind leg would start to twitch.

Minutes later, he’d be cycling his limbs frantically, an expression of intense concentration on his snoozing visage. We were convinced he was chasing animals in his dreams (friends have described similar experiences with their own dogs).

But do dogs even have what we’d recognise as dreams? And if so, what goes on in their canine minds?

It looks like they probably do.

One study that tracked the animals’ sleep patterns found that, like humans, dogs seem to experience the rapid eye movement (REM) stage of sleep associated with dreaming.

And we know that mammals like rats appear to dream similarly to people (their minds tend to replay what happened during their days).

Some researchers have applied that finding to all mammals, including cats and dogs, based on how similar their brain structures are.

That’s less researched – but again, experts have their theories.

For instance, David Peña-Guzmán, author of the book When Animals Dream, told Scientific American that dogs might dream in scents (they rely on their nose a lot more than people do).

As with the rats in the aforementioned study, dream researcher Deirdre Barrett, who wrote The Committee of Sleep, told the publication that dogs might replay the events of the day in their dreams.

“Whatever you can observe dogs being interested in by day is what you would expect to show up in their dreams… That’s so much how it works for us that it would be surprising if they somehow did the compensation pattern,” she stated.

If your dog loves food, running around the garden, or simply being with their beloved owners, then those events probably feature heavily in their dreams.

Studies seem to back this theory.

Scientists have previously tracked what happened when scientists disabled the part of dogs’ brains that stopped them from moving to their fullest extent while they slept.

That meant the usual muscle-locking mechanisms that keep mammals (mostly) still during vivid physical dreams were temporarily out of order, so dogs acted out their dreams.

Stanley Coren, a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of British Columbia and the author of Do Dogs Dream? Nearly Everything Your Dog Wants You to Know, told Live Science: “What we’ve basically found is that dogs dream doggy things.

“So, pointers will point at dream birds, and Dobermans will chase dream burglars. The dream pattern in dogs seems to be very similar to the dream pattern in humans.”

One last fact – the professor said that smaller dogs seemed to have smaller dreams, while bigger species had more long-lasting ones.

Keir Starmer is having to find a new house because of a firebomb attack on the one he lived in before becoming prime minister, it has emerged.

The former PM’s biographer, Tom Baldwin, said he had been advised not to return to the property “for security reasons”.

Two men were jailed in June following a trial at the Old Bailey over arson attacks on property connected to Starmer.

The jury heard Roman Lavrynovych and Stanislav Carpiuc had been recruited by an anonymous Russian-speaking figure called “El Money” on the messaging service Telegram.

In the early hours of May 12, 2025, a fire broke out at Starmer’s former home in Kentish Town, north London, where his sister-in-law and her family were then living.

Lavrynovych and Carpiuc were also convicted of setting fire to a car once owned by Starmer, and the front door of a property in north London that Starmer had previously managed, earlier the same month.

Speaking in the House of Commons at the time, the then PM said it was “an attack on all of us, on democracy and the values that we stand for”.

Starmer and his family divided their time between Downing Street and the country grace-and-favour residence Chequers when he was prime minister.

But he left No.10 last month after being replaced as PM by Andy Burnham.

On Sky News on Sunday, Baldwin was asked how Starmer is coping with life out of power.

He said: “He’s had a holiday, which is something he didn’t get in his first summer. He is looking for a place to live, because he can’t go back to his old house for security reasons.”

HuffPost UK has contacted Starmer’s representatives for comment.

Listen to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.

In the UK, an estimated eight million people are living with anxiety at any given time. But not all types of the condition are equally common.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, for instance, about 7% of the US population experiences social anxiety. Selective mutism, meanwhile, is “the least common anxiety disorder”, affecting somewhere between 0.47% and 0.76%.

HuffPost UK spoke to BACP-accredited therapist and anxiety expert, Kamalyn Kaur, about the phenomenon.

This “is an anxiety disorder whereby someone is unable to speak in certain situations, despite being able to speak comfortably in others,” the therapist said.

“For example, a child may talk freely at home but be unable to speak at school, or an adult may struggle to speak in particular social or professional settings but be absolutely fine when with close friends.”

Kaur stressed that even though people with selective mutism can speak freely in some situations, that doesn’t mean they’re choosing to stay silent in others. They might desperately want to talk, but their ability to do so is hampered by anxiety.

• Not being able to talk in situations that make the person with selective mutism feel anxious, vulnerable, and exposed,
• Freezing or becoming very still,
• Avoiding eye contact,
• Difficulty responding, even non-verbally,
• Appearing withdrawn or expressionless,
• Intense fear of being judged or drawing attention to themselves.

When we asked Kaur whether she thinks the condition is misunderstood, she replied: “Yes, I think it often is.

“Selective mutism is less widely understood than conditions such as generalised anxiety or panic disorder, and it can be mistaken for shyness, defiance, rudeness, or simply a lack of confidence,” she added.

“One of the biggest misconceptions is [due to] the word selective, which can make it sound as though the person is consciously choosing when not to speak. In reality, the inability to speak is often… outside their control”.

Accepting you have the condition and trying to remove the pressure to “just speak more” is a great start, the anxiety expert said.

“In fact, telling someone to ‘just speak more’ can be some of the worst advice, as it minimises the condition and can make the person feel inadequate… For someone experiencing selective mutism, it isn’t that simple; their inability to speak in certain situations is driven by anxiety, not a lack of willingness or effort.”

Treating selective mutism can begin with professional therapy, which could be useful in identifying the anxiety behind the behaviour.

Other helpful tools might include understanding your triggers and anxiety patterns, trying manageable, gradual, expert-led exposure therapy, cognitive behavioural approaches, and confidence-building.

“The key and important thing to remember is not to pressure, shame or punish someone for being unable to speak, as this can increase anxiety. Creating a sense of safety, a non-judgemental space, and gradually expanding communication is generally much more helpful,” Kaur ended.

In general, “Greater awareness is important because when selective mutism is recognised early and responded to with understanding rather than pressure, people can receive the right support and avoid years of misunderstanding (and labelling).”