Politics
How Sleeping On Sofa Can Harm Sleep Quality
Falling asleep on the sofa can feel like an easy way to unwind after a long day. As mental fatigue sets in, dozing off there can feel effortless and comforting.
But sleep experts warn that regularly drifting off outside the bedroom can undermine sleep health over time.
“Good sleep quality isn’t just about getting enough hours. It depends on adequate duration, typically seven to nine hours for most adults, intact sleep architecture, and proper circadian alignment – meaning your sleep occurs at the biologically appropriate time for your internal clock,” said Dr. Saema Tahir, an adult and paediatric sleep specialist, and adolescent and adult pulmonary disease specialist.
And sofa sleep could be throwing that out of whack.
Most adults cycle through four distinct sleep stages, including light sleep, deeper light sleep, deep sleep and REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, ideally about four to six times per night in repeating cycles, according to Tahir.
Each stage plays a specific role. While deep sleep supports physical repair, immune support and metabolic regulation, REM sleep is critical for memory consolidation and emotional regulation.
“When sleep is shortened, fragmented or misaligned with your circadian rhythm, you lose restorative stages – and that directly translates into poorer concentration, slower reaction time, increased irritability, higher stress hormones and impaired glucose regulation the next day,” Tahir said.
When you’re on your sofa, your “cognitive control is lower, and the nervous system is winding down,” said Annie Miller, therapist and founder at DC Metro Therapy, who specialises in working with sleep disorders, chronic pain and trauma. “People are no longer trying to sleep. They’re watching TV, scrolling or relaxing. Sleep happens naturally and without pressure.”
For those who struggle with insomnia, the bedroom can carry its own pressure and a sense that you should be sleeping, which can trigger frustration. “The couch, in contrast, is associated with relaxation and distraction. Sleep happens there accidentally, which often feels easier and less stressful,” Miller said.
But once you’ve drifted off, moving from the sofa to bed can be surprisingly difficult. “Biologically, once someone has started a sleep cycle, waking up to move interrupts that process,” according to Miller. “When they get into bed, their sleep pressure has already been partially relieved, so falling back asleep may be harder.”
There’s a behavioural component, too. If falling asleep on the sofa becomes habitual, your brain starts associating it with successful sleep. “Moving to the bed can feel like switching environments from ‘safe and sleepy’ to ‘effortful and uncertain,’” Miller explained.
Other ways your sofa and living room mess with your sleep
Falling asleep on the sofa might feel harmless in the moment, but both posture and environment impact how well you move through the sleep stages your body needs.
“Poor neck and spinal alignment can increase awakenings, worsen snoring and sleep apnea, reduce time spent in restorative deep sleep and REM sleep,” Tahir said.
The setting matters, too. Living rooms are often brighter and noisier than bedrooms, which can further disrupt deep sleep and REM. Unexpected or intermittent noise, like passing traffic or fluctuating TV volume, can also activate the body’s stress response. Even if you don’t fully wake, nighttime noise can trigger small spikes in heart rate and sympathetic nervous system activity.
Over time, this low-level activation interferes with restorative sleep. Light exposure adds another challenge, disrupting circadian timing and suppressing melatonin production, leading to lighter, more fragmented sleep. “That combination means less deep sleep, less REM and poorer next-day focus, mood, and physical recovery,” Tahir said.
Beyond contributing to insomnia, sofa dozing may also carry long-term health risks. “Chronic circadian misalignment is associated with increased risk of metabolic dysfunction, mood disorders and cardiovascular disease,” Tahir noted.
fcafotodigital via Getty Images
How to break the habit
“Occasional couch dozing is completely normal and not harmful,” Miller said.
It becomes more concerning when it happens most nights, when going to bed feels stressful, when nighttime sleep worsens after sofa dozing or when you feel you sleep better on the couch than in your bed. “When this pattern shows up, it usually means the brain has started associating sleep with the couch instead of the bed,” she added.
The good news is that this is a learned pattern, which means it can be unlearned with the right strategies.
“The most important thing is to rebuild your brain’s association with your bed and sleep,” said Dr. Shelby Harris, a sleep specialist at BetterSleep, pointing to the first step in breaking the habit. “Start getting into bed before you get tired. If you do happen to fall asleep on the couch, it’s important to relocate to the bed rather than staying on the couch.”
Creating a smooth transition from evening relaxation to bedtime helps, too. “Some people might try to shut things down too quickly, jumping from a show or movie straight to bed,” Harris noted. “Instead, they can try a nighttime ritual that helps them wind down for 10 to 20 minutes before trying to fall asleep.”
That ritual could be as simple as dimming the lights, changing into sleepwear, and switching to a low-stimulation, predictable audio cue or soundtrack in the bedroom, rather than random TV or music in the living room.
Harris also recommended setting a bedtime alarm to signal when it’s time to move from the sofa to the bed. “This helps make sure your brain associates sleep with the bedroom, not somewhere else in your home,” she explained.
Gradually dimming smart lights at night or brightening them in the morning can also support your circadian rhythm. “That way, you can cue your body to get up out of bed, or get ready for bed at the appropriate time,” Harris said.
With a few intentional shifts, your bed can reclaim its role as the place for quality sleep.
Leading Washington strategist Juleanna Glover publicly argued for a third-party presidential candidate halfway through Donald Trump’s first term, calling for a “morally lucid” leader akin to abolitionist Abraham Lincoln.
At the same time, she was privately trading emails with Jeffrey Epstein — a decade after he went to jail on child prostitution charges — to share possible presidential tickets “outside the partisan lanes.”
Glover even offered some “radical combinations” in an August 2018 email to a group of “third party thinkers” she then forwarded to Epstein via his now infamous address jeevacation@gmail.com. Her list of dream tickets mixed and matched figures like former Facebook executive Sheryl Sandberg, former Republican Govs. Larry Hogan of Maryland and Nikki Haley of South Carolina, and Microsoft tycoon Bill Gates, coincidentally an Epstein associate himself.
Glover proposed: “Biden/Romney? Bill Gates/Hogan? Bloomberg/Haley? Howard Schultz/Bob Corker? Sandberg/Kasich?”
Their correspondence about centrist fantasy politics was only a small piece of a professional and political relationship that stretched across more than a year. Their workaday messages about third party campaigns, conversations that could have easily been with a well-regarded opinion columnist, underline the degree to which a large number of influential people treated Epstein as if he was just another rich guy to be courted rather than a convicted sex criminal with a troublesome reputation.
Glover, who has long been a leading Never Trump figure, told POLITICO in an interview that her motivation for engaging with Epstein was solely focused on unearthing any potential information that could sink Trump’s reelection.
Despite that claim, there are no emails between Glover and Epstein that show her soliciting information from him about Trump. While she referred POLITICO to a fellow Never Trumper to corroborate that motivation, a second person involved in some of her interactions with Epstein at the time, said they were not aware of her approach.
And in an interview, Glover acknowledged she had also asked Epstein for help in a business matter in 2017 involving her then-most prominent client, Elon Musk, and Saudi Arabia. In one Tesla-related email, Glover said that if Epstein was advising any sovereign wealth funds wanting to help “a prominent company go private,” she could help. In the second email to Glover, Epstein criticized Musk for not being “fluent” in how to deal with Middle Easterners’ “bluster” and “bloviating bragging” after Saudi funding did not come through.
Glover took a stab at helping reintroduce Epstein to parts of mainstream society and made a brief attempt to fashion him into a champion of democracy, arranging a meeting with the head of the nonprofit group Freedom House in 2017. And it wasn’t just Glover advising Epstein — he also offered suggestions on how to talk to New York Times reporters writing about Musk’s rumored drug use.
Glover’s and Epstein’s relationship encompassed several dozen emails, two in-person meetings and a number of calls, according to a POLITICO review of the Epstein files released by the Department of Justice. Her name returns 191 results in the files, although many mentions are duplicates.
Glover characterized the relationship as a limited series of interactions comprised of 31 emails that she sent him, of which 12 dealt with logistics and 15 regarded Tesla. (The Tesla emails showed that Glover was leveraging the relationship with Epstein to help her client.) She said they had two meetings and three calls. She said the remaining were two emails on third party politics, one on MAGA stalwart Steve Bannon and the last connecting Epstein to a pro-democracy nonprofit. Glover said that he was never a client and she “never took anything of value from him.”
Their dynamic, catalogued here in full for the first time, further demonstrates the expansive reach of the late sex offender’s connections across the political spectrum. His Rolodex ranged from moderate former Republicans like Glover to Bannon and giants of the American left like Noam Chomsky.
Glover, a former aide in the George W. Bush White House and an adviser to John McCain’s presidential campaign, had by 2017 largely moved on from professional electoral politics and built a thriving practice as an adviser to executives and corporations seeking to navigate the media landscape.
Her townhouse in Kalorama is a gathering place for a wide array of D.C. operators, think tankers, campaign funders and journalists. She has built goodwill across the town and a thriving personal network in part with her willingness to host book parties, new job celebrations and more: Indeed — she was a co-host of an engagement party in 2023 for the author of this article, and has thrown book parties for multiple past and present POLITICO reporters.
Glover consulted for Axel Springer, POLITICO’s owner, several years ago, according to a company spokesperson.
‘Captive’ to Elon Musk
Glover came to know Epstein through another type of fixer who was also advising him on PR strategies. The journalist Michael Wolff, a shared acquaintance of the two, first mentioned Glover to Epstein in March 2017 as she was consulting for Musk.
“I rolled the dice when Michael Wolff asked me to meet with Epstein against the backdrop of Epstein talking publicly about Trump,” she said in a statement. “My interactions with Epstein were in service to that objective; not to help him in any way or improve his image. Wolff was seemingly positioning me as someone smart enough for him to take advice from.
“To wit, I repeatedly steered Epstein to talk to top investigative journalists including Jim Stewart of the NY Times and Epstein eventually did so, ultimately talking to Stewart about writing his book. I never knew what Epstein was planning to say, but a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist almost found out,” she said, referring to Stewart.
At the time of her interactions with Epstein about Stewart, Musk’s move to try to take Tesla private led to a Securities and Exchange Commission probe and rumors of drug use. He needed all the communications help he could get.
“[T]here’s a Washington PR type named Juleanna Glover with whom you might want to ch=t,” Wolff wrote to Epstein that spring. “Elon Musk basically owns her now and I’m not sure she can take on o=her clients, but she will have a valuable perspective on how you get to wh=ere you want to be.”
Two months later with the subject line “More PR,” Wolff reminded Epstein that they had spoken about Glover, reupping the Musk connection.
“She’s captive to him, so not hireable. But she’s exceedingly smart and well connected and has interesting things to say,” he wrote. “She can offer an extremely informed overview on how to think about larger steps. Not so much about the trial per se, but going forward. Anyway she is in NYC on Thursday with some time if you wanted me to arrange a meeting.”
Within an hour, Epstein wrote back, “Yes please.”
Three days later, Epstein, Glover and Wolff had lunch together on a day that Epstein was set to have breakfast with private equity investor Leon Black and dinner with director Woody Allen and his wife Soon Yi Previn, according to his schedule. (Black has been accused of sexual assault by two women but has denied all allegations.)
Wolff has written books critical of the president and in 2016 even told Epstein “you’re the Trump bullet” to stop his rise given their former relationship. Last November, Wolff posted an Instagram video in which he said, “These two men, Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump, had the closest of relationships for more than a decade.”
Trump has said he wasn’t involved in any of Epstein’s criminal activity and that they had a falling out years ago. Epstein was once a frequent visitor at Mar-a-Lago and court records indicate that Trump flew at least once on one of Epstein’s planes and his phone numbers were in Epstein’s directory. There’s no evidence to suggest Trump took part in Epstein’s trafficking operation.
Wolff said in a statement that he worked on an effort with Glover to get Trump to publicly respond to questions about his relationship with Epstein during the 2016 presidential campaign. Glover said that Wolff had called her in the fall of 2015 to try to have reporters ask Trump about Epstein. That’s why Wolff emailed Epstein that year regarding how Trump might handle questions about their shared history.
“In 2017, I encouraged Juleanna to see Epstein in the hope that she might help convince him to go public about what he knew about Trump,” he said. “I believe she suggested to Epstein that Jim Stewart at the Times would be receptive.”
Glover referred POLITICO to an anti-Trump political consultant, Rick Wilson, with whom she had been in touch about Epstein in 2015, years before her correspondence with Epstein began.
Wilson told POLITICO that he and Glover had a phone call in the fall of 2015 to try to figure out if Epstein had any dirt on Trump.
“She’s a great communicator, and that’s why people seek her out, and that’s why she was so valuable in this anti-Trump fight at the time,” he said. “She was definitely in the pursuit of trying to stop Trump.”
In the summer of 2018 she asked Epstein about Stewart, who was writing a piece on Musk.
“Do you like Jim Stewart?” she wrote to Epstein in August 2018. “Will send him to you for deep backgound [sic] convo if y=u like? But only if you like.”
“[N]o thanks,” Epstein replied. “I live in dark background.”
During several days in August, the two exchanged emails and calls about Musk, who was looking for wealthy investors to buy out shareholders.
“If you are advising re: sovereign wealth funds looking to help a prominent company go private, let me know if I can help w any approp additional information,” she wrote Epstein on Aug. 12.
“Clever,” he replied. She also offered a primer on how Tesla’s Autopilot worked.
Epstein passed along names of potential candidates to join Tesla’s board, suggesting former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, former Obama White House counsel Kathy Ruemmler and Margaret Thatcher, not realizing she had been dead for five years. (Summers and Ruemmler have apologized for their connections to Epstein and left their jobs after their ties to him were highlighted in the files.)
Epstein also offered to “help shape your story” and gave Glover advice on how Musk should talk on the record to Stewart or then-Times reporter Landon Thomas Jr. about the situation.
“Will try,” Glover replied.
Two days after Epstein’s death, Stewart wrote a column recounting a meeting he had with Epstein in which he claimed to know information about wealthy and famous people that was “potentially damaging or embarrassing, including details about their supposed sexual proclivities and recreational drug use.”
Thomas Jr. left the Times in 2019 after he solicited a major charitable gift from Epstein, who’d been a source, according to an investigation by NPR and a statement the publication made to the New York Post. Thomas Jr. declined to comment to NPR and didn’t respond to a request for comment from POLITICO.
Stewart said in a statement that he wasn’t aware at the time of any relationship between Glover and Epstein and didn’t know about anything Epstein might have told her.
“As I would with any potential source, I reached out to Epstein because I’d heard he was recruiting board members for Tesla at the behest of Musk,” he said. “Epstein wanted to meet in person, so I went to his townhouse. (I subsequently wrote about that encounter.) I don’t recall using anything Epstein had to say in any story about Musk. He certainly didn’t ‘shape’ any story I was involved in.”
Times spokesperson Danielle Rhoades-Ha said in a statement that Thomas Jr. hadn’t worked at the Times since 2019 “after editors discovered his failure to abide by our ethical standards. Times editors were not aware at the time of Thomas’s now-public emails with Epstein.”
Referring to Musk, Epstein told her that he only said “great things about your boy” while sharing that “some of the papers are looking into whether you [sic] boy was on drugs.” He then asked Glover if there are “different colors of cocaine. ? ! ectasy [sic]. (I know zero about drugs).”
“Nothing to it,” she replied. “He barely even drinks.” She acknowledged three days later, “Oh and re burning man, he hasn’t gone in years but may go w his musician girlfriend the last weekend in aug – that is the best the rumor mongers can do.”
After the Times published the interview, Elon Musk Details ‘Excruciating’ Personal Toll of Tesla Turmoil, Epstein emailed Glover, saying “good work – interview apart from the one short seller comment. :)”
Glover responded: “Glad you think it improves situation.”
The exchanges about Musk show how their relationship was a give-and-take compared to a more formal adviser-client set up with Epstein giving positive feedback to one of the nation’s leading communications strategists on her own media approach. At the same time, Glover also steadfastly defended her client, insisting he didn’t do drugs less than a month before he smoked marijuana live on The Joe Rogan Experience.
Glover said that her interactions with Epstein about Musk came during a tense time as Tesla’s leadership was pushing hard to take the company private, which Musk had announced the Saudis and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman were key to getting done.
“Epstein had bragged that he was close to MBS, so I reached out,” she told POLITICO. “Musk was unaware that I’d done so. I shared publicly available information about the company, with the intent that Epstein would advise the Saudis to hold steady on their commitment to Musk to take the company private. I was trying to encourage him to weigh in with the Saudis to keep their word to Musk. I do not believe he was in any way useful to this effort as there are no known communications with MBS in the DOJ files.”
Musk didn’t respond to requests for comment.
An attempt at a pro-democracy rehabilitation
Glover’s firm Ridgely Walsh emphasizes “bespoke public affairs services” and the DOJ files reveal the kind of strategic matchmaking services she might offer clients. For Epstein, who needed to burnish his image, she found an advocacy group in need of funding.
After their first lunch meeting in May 2017, Epstein thanked Glover for her time and said he was happy to meet the leadership of the democracy nonprofit Freedom House as he tried to overhaul his public reputation after he pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting prostitution from a minor and was sentenced to 18 months in jail. (He served 13 months on a work release program that allowed him to go to his office during most days.)
“The pro- democracy fund=ng is a good idea, no matter what positive fallout it may have on me perso=ally,” he wrote.
He also invited Glover and a guest to see the Tony-award winning play Oslo, in which he bragged that he had bought out the entire Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center so that many U.N. diplomats could attend. “[Y]ou would be part of the private gatherings. Many interesting people will attend,” he noted.
Glover doesn’t appear to have replied to Epstein’s invitation but seven weeks later she told Epstein she had secured a date for Michael Abramowitz, the then-head of Freedom House, to come see him. They were all supposed to meet in person on July 24, but Epstein ended up being out of town so the three joined a call. Glover, who has long worked for international dissidents of various stripes, connected the two via email after the call with Abramowitz responding, “nice to meet you. Talk soon I hope.”
A month later, Abramowitz emailed Epstein, saying he hoped he had a good summer and had enjoyed talking to him. While he sent four attachments about the organization, Epstein had the brusque reply “thx” with a link to an article on HuffPost promoting his work funding scientists. (The articleno longer appears on HuffPost.)
The pair ups didn’t always work, although for Freedom House the mismatch turned out to be a positive. Numerous politicians have had to give away Epstein donations to charitable causes and other figures associated with the late sex offender have lost their jobs or resigned from posts.
Freedom House referred a request for comment to Abramowitz.
“I was asked to have a conversation with him about philanthropy,” Abramowitz said in a statement. “It was a brief phone call, and Freedom House never accepted money from him.”
Glover said she connected Epstein to Abramowitz because Epstein was interested in funding nonprofits. Glover and her firm have experience working with pro-democracy efforts including work on the Magnitsky Act, much of which she does pro-bono. (The Magnitsky Act allows the U.S. government to punish foreign officials for human rights abuses.)
“We do much work in the pro-democracy space, so I asked Freedom House to talk to Epstein about what overseas nonprofits might prove to be the most effective in supporting democracy efforts in Russia and Eastern Europe (at that time Russians were in the streets in large numbers protesting Putin),” she said.
“There was was also growing awareness about Putin directing interference in the U.S. 2016 election and the U.S. was certainly not going to step up to support free elections given Trump’s growing closeness to Putin so I suggested Epstein do it,” Glover said.
“I suspected these foreign groups would welcome his money in their vital, but cash-strapped work,” she added. “I have apologized to the good leaders of Freedom House for connecting this storied institution to this monster. Nothing came of that conversation. Epstein of course lied about his intent and/or ability to marshal money.”
A warning about Steve Bannon
There were tensions embedded in Epstein’s relationship with Glover, a classic establishment GOP operator, and his similarly newfound friendship with Bannon, the conservative firebrand who was separately giving him strategic advice. It’s an illustration of Epstein’s success at cracking the political world that he was able to maintain relations with both of them.
In their 2018 correspondence about unconventional presidential tickets, Epstein took care to write “(not bannon)” when telling Glover that his other “friends with great knowledge of the system” thought the third party idea was “brilliant.”
Glover replied back with a link to a New York Times op-ed she authored about third parties “that says something of the same.”
In December 2018, Epstein replied back to a blast from Glover sharing a POLITICO Magazine op-ed she had written about how Joe Biden should run on a unity ticket with Mitt Romney.
“[Y]ou are right of course,” Epstein wrote.
Months earlier, Glover passed along a request by the BBC to put the outlet in touch with Wolff about Epstein. Wolff forwarded it to Epstein, who told him to get more information on the matter.
“On the job,” Wolff replied.
Glover emailed him to say she was going to be in New York City the next day and wanted to check in. Epstein wrote back that he “would have loved to however i am in the caribean [sic] please try again next time.”
“Will do,” Glover replied. “Take care.”
In April, Glover checked in again to ask if Epstein would be free in a few days in New York City, adding “Hope all is well.” He told her he was not in town that day. But the two met up in July after Glover emailed him again asking if he was in Manhattan, adding “Hope all is great.”
On her way to the meeting at his Upper East Side mansion, she apologized for being a few minutes late, saying “I am so sorry!”
Among the topics of discussion at their meeting was Epstein’s dealings with Bannon.
“On reflection, I don’t think any good can come from Steve being in your sphere,” Glover wrote to Epstein the next day. “I have only met him once but there is a malice and manipulative vengeful nature there that can only cause you harm. He will use his access to you to leverage something unwelcome – not sure what, but he’s conjuring dark forces and access to you is only energizing him.”
Epstein thanked her, and added, “I will take advice.” (Despite telling her that, hecontinued to talk to Bannon up until his arrest the next year on new sex trafficking charges and sat down for interviews with Bannon for a documentary he was making.)
Asked why she had warned Epstein about Bannon, Glover told POLITICO that Epstein had mentioned to her he was seeing Bannon later in the day during their July 2018 meeting. “I warned Epstein away from Bannon, as I thought Bannon would block Epstein from saying what he knew about Trump,” she said.
A spokesperson for Bannon declined to comment.
The last instance of Glover in the files is in March 2019 when Epstein emailed hera link to a letter to the editor of the Times that his four lawyers had written defending Epstein and saying “the number of young women involved in the investigation has been vastly exaggerated.” It continued that the earlier “case lacked the credible and compelling proof that is required by federal criminal statutes.”
She did not reply.
He died by suicide in his New York jail cell five months later on Aug. 10, 2019.
Politics
From Scalloped Plates To Ribbed Glassware: 11 Elegant Homeware Buys For Your 2026 Dinner Parties
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There’s something about the ideal of being a great host that is just so uniquely appealing.
Maybe it’s the retro glamour of it all – in any decade, the idea of being an it-girl who’s got it all figured out always seems to go hand-in-hand with the ability to throw a great party.
If you’ve got the urge to boost your hosting skills, here’s everything you need to throw the dinner party of your dreams – from statement salt and pepper shakers to chic napkins and lots more.
(Mim Friday / Alamy)
3 min read
My son was born in Blackpool. As a bald fact it means he is likely to live 10 years less than a boy born in Hampshire. A decade stolen before he has even had the chance to live them. Not fate. Not chance. Policy choices.
Life expectancy is shaped by the decisions we take in Parliament. Decades of uneven investment have carved inequality into the lives of children in coastal towns. Unless we act with urgency, they will inherit a Britain that rewards wealth and punishes geography.
When Keir Starmer visited my by-election in May 2024, he spoke about the pride and ambition of our town and the frustration when that pride is met with neglect rather than investment. He was right. Blackpool has never lacked pride or ambition. What it has lacked is sustained commitment from those with the power to change things.
Nine of England’s 10 most deprived neighbourhoods are in coastal communities, seven being in Blackpool alone. Low wages, poor health, insecure work and deep-rooted disadvantage are not isolated problems; they are symptoms of a national economic model that has left coastal communities behind.
If we are serious about rebalancing Britain, we must confront the system that has historically channelled investment away from towns like ours. That is why reforms to the Treasury’s Green Book are so significant. For years, benefit-cost ratios were treated as a blunt pass-or-fail test. Projects in already prosperous areas where returns are easier to measure, scored highest. Places with entrenched deprivation, where social returns are transformative but harder to quantify, were too often marked down.
The updated guidance allows investment decisions to account properly for social impact and regional need. In simple terms, coastal towns finally get a fairer hearing.
This is not abstract policy. It means transport, housing or regeneration projects in deprived communities can be judged on their ability to reduce inequality, improve health and raise wages, not simply on short-term financial return. The framework for change is there. What matters now is the resolve to use it boldly.
Economic rebalancing must move from rhetoric to reality. Growth has too often been concentrated in the South while coastal towns remain trapped in cycles of seasonal, low-paid work. For Blackpool, that means attracting high-value employment with clear routes for progression. Government should lead by incentivising private investment and backing sectors such as clean energy, digital services, health innovation and our visitor economy.
Coastal communities also face distinct challenges: ageing populations, fragile local economies, housing pressures, poor connectivity and stark health inequalities. These issues cut across departments, yet responsibility in Whitehall remains fragmented. That is why the recommendation of the House of Lords for a dedicated coastal communities minister deserves serious consideration. Coastal Britain cannot remain everyone’s secondary responsibility and no one’s primary focus. A dedicated minister would provide co-ordination, accountability and a clear voice to ensure policy is coherent rather than piecemeal.
Health inequality remains the starkest injustice. The life expectancy gap between Blackpool and Hampshire is preventable. Prevention, early intervention and properly funded local health services must sit at the heart of our agenda, because without health, opportunity is hollow.
People in coastal communities are not asking for favours; they are asking for fairness, investment that reflects need, decisions that respect local knowledge and change visible in everyday life. Pride without progress becomes frustration. Ambition without delivery becomes disillusionment.
When Blackpool succeeds, Britain succeeds. The test before us is simple: will we use the power of government to close the gap or allow another generation, including my son, to inherit neglect measured in years they never get to live?
Chris Webb is the Labour MP for Blackpool South
Kay Burley said Keir Starmer should not resign over the Peter Mandelson scandal, despite admitting to not being a supporter of the prime minister.
The government released its first tranche of documents related to the appointment of the ex-Labour peer as the UK’s ambassador to the US this week.
The files reveal Starmer was repeatedly warned about the “reputational risk” that came with hiring Mandelson, because of his friendship with the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Pressure has subsequently grown on the prime minister to resign. He has taken full responsibility over the appointment, and expressed his regret over hiring Mandelson.
Asked if Starmer should quit on BBC Question Time, Burley immediately said: “No, he shouldn’t.
“He’s a bit busy trying to keep us out of World War 3 at the moment.”
She was referring to the PM’s attempts to distance Britain from Donald Trump’s attacks on Iran.
Despite intense pressure from the States, Starmer has refused to let the US use British military bases to target Iran unless for “defensive” and “limited” strikes.
Burley said: “Yes it’s embarrassing for him, yes on balance he should have been more cautious and asked more questions.
“I can see why Mandelson would have been chosen, if not at random. He is a Trump whisperer, he’s very good at his job.
“But as it became more and more apparent that he was still involved with a wrong’un, then absolutely he was the wrong person for the job.”
She added: “I’m not a supporter of Starmer, I think he has done lots of things which have not been very supportive for the country, I think he flip-flops a lot, but I don’t think he should resign.”
Times columnist Fraser Nelson also told Question Time: “Getting rid of Keir Starmer right now would destabilise the country even more.
“I think we’ve had enough of this constant rotation of prime ministers and just once I would love the electorate the chance to make that choice.”
Meanwhile, Conservative MP Harriet Baldwin said he should quit, saying: “He himself has apologised but not really said anything more than that or taken full responsibility.
“The way people take full responsibility in our democracy is they resign.”
She also questioned the £75,000 severance pay Mandelson received, saying Starmer should not have used public money to avoid further embarrassment from the ex-ambassador.
Green Party MP Sian Berry called for Starmer to resign too.
She said: “He chose to overlook those victims, overlook that fact, freely chose Mandelson as the ambassador. To me, that is a very big moral failing.”
Sanofi is working with the transplant community to support improved outcomes in GvHD
With the NHS in a critical period of change,1 there is an opportunity to look at where system reform can support necessary improvements in care. We believe one such area in need of review is the post-transplant care pathway.
For many people, a stem cell transplant can be lifesaving.2 Yet for up to 30–40 per cent of transplant recipients, graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) presents a new set of challenges.2 GvHD is caused by an immune response following a stem cell or bone marrow transplant, where the immune cells from the graft attack the host cells.3
The symptoms of GvHD are wide-ranging and affect each individual differently – but its impact can be life-changing.3 It can affect nearly any organ in the body, with symptoms ranging from rashes and skin dryness, painful joints and muscles, nausea and vomiting, and shortness of breath.3 These symptoms can have a significant impact on mobility, independence and quality of life.4
GvHD also has an economic impact. In 2022, Sanofi commissioned a survey with the help of Anthony Nolan of 27 participants to understand the physical, psychological, and social/economic impact of chronic GvHD (cGvHD).4 More than half of respondents cited a high impact on their ability to work, exercise, enjoy life and plan for the future.4
*Please note, symptoms are not exhaustive and patient experiences may differ.
Bringing the community together to map out priorities for change
To better understand the challenges and identify opportunities for meaningful improvement, a group of leading voices from across the transplant clinical and patient community came together for a roundtable discussion – organised and funded by Sanofi – in September 2025.
Among these voices was Steve, who developed severe GvHD following treatment for acute myeloid leukaemia. Over the course of his illness, he was admitted to hospital dozens of times, saw more than 160 clinicians and experienced complications ranging from sepsis to steroid-induced diabetes.
Leukaemia was one thing, but the aftermath of the transplant was a huge thing to deal with. – Steve
The group agreed there was a need to develop a robust set of recommendations for change within the post-transplant care pathway.
Health system reform offers a window of opportunity
The healthcare system offers significant potential to deliver change for people impacted by this condition. Discussions at the roundtable showed that by harnessing emerging technologies, better utilising data and adopting more effective models of care, improved care is within reach.
Further to the publication of the Government’s 10 Year Health Plan, the NHS is undergoing considerable reform nationally and locally – including shifting care from hospital into the community and the establishment of a Neighbourhood Health Service.1
NHS reform provides an opportunity to transform GvHD care – demonstrating the Government’s commitment to supporting the transplant community and ensuring that the needs of the GvHD patient and carer community are not overlooked.
A vision for change
Based on insights gathered from key stakeholders in the transplant community, action is needed on the following priorities to drive change in the GvHD care pathway:
- Improving access to multidisciplinary team care, to improve patient experiences and outcomes: post-transplant care should be integrated into emerging Neighbourhood Health Services, enabling patients to receive different services closer to home and avoid unnecessary hospital admissions. Mental health support must also become a core component of consistent, high-quality post-transplant care.
- Utilising data and research to identify, and reduce, the risk and severity of GvHD: better use of data and investment in research can help to improve donor matching and predict, prevent and personalise GvHD care. This should include reviewing existing registries to enhance data quality and usability.
- Harnessing technology, to support holistic, patient-centred follow-up care: digital infrastructure should be set up to enable transplant recipients to manage their ongoing care, for example through the NHS App or a dedicated post-transplant tool – including symptom monitoring and rapid access to advice. Patient data should also be fully interoperable across settings so that all healthcare professionals, including GPs, can support a transplant recipient across their care journey.
At its heart, this vision is about coordination and continuity. It is focused on ensuring that people feel they are receiving the best care following a transplant.
Taking these calls forward
GvHD may be a complication of transplant, but the gaps in care witnessed by these stakeholders are not inevitable. We believe, through collaboration between policymakers, clinicians, patient organisations and industry, meaningful change is within reach – and that we have a window of opportunity with current system reform to act on it.
As a parliamentarian, you have an opportunity to champion these calls in Parliament and raise them with the Government – helping to deliver improvements for the GvHD and transplant community.
Stem cell transplantation saves lives. Our shared ambition must now be to ensure that those lives are supported with high-quality, equitable and joined-up care — before, during and after transplant.
A Vision for Change in GvHD care
If you have any questions, please contact Sanofi via Laura Wetherly at [email protected].
MAT-XU-2600469 V1.0 February 2026
- Department of Health and Social Care (2025). 10 Year Health Plan for England: fit for the future. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/10-year-health-plan-for-england-fit-for-the-future [Accessed February 2026]
- Anthony Nolan. 2021. Analysis of hospital activity and costs following allogeneic stem cell transplantation in England. Available at: https://www.anthonynolan.org/sites/default/files/2021-03/analysis-of-hospital-activity-and-costs.pdf [Accessed February 2026]
- Anthony Nolan. 2021. An essential guide to graft versus host disease (GvHD). Available at: 2630PA Essential Guide to GvHD_Website.pdf [Accessed February 2026]
- Hart D, et al. 2022. Investigating the Impact of Chronic Graft-Versus-Host Disease on Patient and Carer Health-Related Quality of Life: A Quantitative Study.
Donald Trump has shown an “alarming lack of knowledge” about Iran despite attacking the Middle Eastern country, according to a BBC expert.
Jeremy Bowen, the corporation’s international editor, has said there is no evidence the Iranian regime is crumbling after more than two weeks of strikes from the US and Israel.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4′s Today programme, Bowen said: “I think there was an expectation – from reports coming out of Washington and conversations and so on that I’ve had – seem to suggest that the Americans thought that was once the supreme leader was killed on the first day of the war, that there would be a fairly rapid disintegration after that.”
Trump himself suggested this week that the Iran war would end “soon”, and that the conflict “is very complete, pretty much”.
However, days before that he also claimed he would not stop the war until Iran’s “unconditional surrender”.
Bowen said: “Trump is a man who believes in strong leadership and if the leader goes, then maybe his theory was the regime would go, or there would be a Venezuela-style event where the top guy goes and then other people within the regime decide to effectively capitulate and do as the Americans say.
“If they really did believe all of that, it shows an alarming lack of knowledge about the way the regime is structured and the ideological nature of it.”
The White House kidnapped the Venezuela president Nicolas Maduro in January.
His replacement, Delcy Rodriguez, is hanging onto the US support in the meantime by abiding by their demands.
But, as Bowen noted, the Iran’s regime’s DNA is made up of “defiance and hatred” against the US.
While Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed, his son – Mojtaba Khamenei – has already been announced as his replacement.
He has sworn to retaliate against the US and Israel, saying: “We will not refrain from avenging the blood of your martyrs.”
Bowen also pointed out that neighbouring Gulf countries could be left with a “terrible mess” to clear up in the region as the US are unlikely to commit to nation-building after the war.
“That particularly means Gulf countries are looking at all their strategy,” he said. “Their strategy was to be close to the Americans, and that will continue, but now they’re thinking they need to diversify a little bit.”
We couldn’t help but wonder… was Zendaya feeling the Carrie Bradshaw fantasy during her most recent red carpet appearance?
On Thursday evening, the Euphoria star was among the A-list guests at Essence magazine’s Black Women In Hollywood Awards, making her way into the event in a short white dress with an enormous flower dress.
And if you’re a Sex And The City fan, you might just recognise the red carpet look, as it was first worn by Sarah Jessica Parker in the opening scenes of the TV show’s first spin-off movie in the late 2000s.
Zendaya’s long-time publicist Law Roach confirmed that the homage was intentional in an Instagram post he shared shortly after the ceremony.
“And just like that… I found it!” the RuPaul’s Drag Race regular enthused, praising his client for sporting one of “the most iconic dresses in movie history”.
US broadcaster HBO – who helped bring Sex And The City to the masses in the 1990s – also commented on the post, writing: “And just like that, you found the perfect dress.”
Asked about Zendaya and Tom’s nuptials on a red carpet last week, Law appeared to let the cat out of the bag when he quipped to reporters: “The wedding has already happened. You missed it!”
The Trump administration’s love of stealing intellectual property to make cringe-inducing war propaganda continues unabated.
Having already used clips from “Transformers,” “Star Wars,” “Breaking Bad,” “Tropic Thunder,” the NFL, MLB, and celebrities like Sabrina Carpenter, Ben Stiller, Kesha and others without their consent, they’re now onto Nintendo.
A new propaganda video shared on social media Thursday borrows liberally from Nintendo’s Wii Sports, splicing videos of Wii characters hitting balls at targets with footage of US military strikes killing people, all set to Nintendo’s iconic music.
By midday, the post had racked up 11.7 million views on X and more than 8,000 comments — almost none of them positive.
Earlier this week, the White House ticked off Steve Downes, the voice behind the soldier Master Chief from the Halo video game franchise, by using his likeness without his consent.
They’ve also used clips from Pokémon, Call of Duty, and Grand Theft Auto.
Nintendo didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Given Nintendo’s reputation for vigorously defending its intellectual property, though, the company likely isn’t thrilled to be unwittingly running interference for war crimes.
Nintendo is already suing the Trump administration over its unlawful tariffs, which forced the company to delay pre-orders for the highly anticipated Switch 2 to reevaluate pricing.
The company is asking for a refund of all the duties it was forced to pay, plus interest.
Nicole Kidman is shrugging off the debate around whether or not she deserved the Oscar she won more than two decades ago.
In 2003, the Australian star picked up the Best Actress prize at the Academy Awards for her performance as Virginia Wolf in the star-studded movie The Hours.
Ever since, there’s been a lot of debate about this win, with some claiming much of the acclaim for Nicole’s role in The Hours centred around the transformative prosthetic she wore, rather than her actual acting performance.
During a recent interview with Variety, Nicole was asked about the suggestion that the Oscar win was her “being rewarded for being a beautiful woman who made herself less so for her art”.
“Whatever,” Nicole responded. “People are always going to say whatever.”
She insisted: “The performance was there. [Costume designer] Ann Roth, [director] Stephen Daldry and [screenwriter] David Hare all agreed they wanted Virginia to have a different profile than mine.
“My profile is very distinct, and it needed to be different. I have a very particular nose. I like when I’m able to change up my appearance, as someone trained to be a character actor.
“Some people are employed to look and be exactly themselves. I’ve been trained as a character actor, so therefore when I’m working, I’m not here to be Nicole. On a talk show, I am, but not in a film or play or TV show. If that means changing my physical appearance? Of course. You have to walk differently, breathe differently, talk differently. The timbre of your voice has to change. All of the internal mechanisms affect the external.”
Nicole has five Oscar nominations to her name, three of which came after her win for The Hours.
In 2011, she was nominated for her work in John Cameron Mitchell’s Rabbit Hole, followed by nods for her performances in Lion and Being The Ricardos in 2017 and 2022, respectively.
Joshua Guillen is a Conservative candidate in the Jubilee Ward for the Enfield Council elections in May.
The local elections in May are widely expected to be damaging for the Conservatives, with both the centre-left and the right – in the form of the Liberal Democrats and Reform UK – set to be the ultimate beneficiaries in areas historically well-rehearsed at returning blue councils. Yet despite this, here in bright red Enfield, there is life in the old Tory dog yet thanks to the complacency of our local Labour council.
While it would be foolhardy to assume that Labour are guaranteed to lose control of a borough they have governed since 2010, they will inevitably benefit from a handsomely-funded ground game – some forecasts have predicted them to be defeated for the first time in over a decade and a half.
To understand why, take the example of Jubilee Ward, where I am a Conservative candidate. Habitually red, it was, until recently, considered to be safe enough for the former Leader of Enfield Council, Nesil Caliskan, to be a councillor. Yet, upon vacating her seat for the House of Commons, the subsequent by-election in October 2024 saw us get our highest ward share since 2006, which represented a swing of just over ten per cent. Other than the local picture, which was characterised by decaying public services and an ever-increasing debt-burden, to compete with Labour so soon after they had won a landslide in Westminster was a shock.
Yet it is precisely because of the council’s record of delivery, or more accurately, lack thereof, that has boosted our competitiveness in the Ward – and has made the May elections a referendum on the viability of Enfield Labour. Consider first that the London Borough of Enfield is currently indebted to the tune of £1.23 billion, and was forecast to hit £1.5 billion by the end of this financial year. Such financial distress corrodes public services, weakens the council’s fiscal resilience and creates a race to the bottom for services deemed to be discretionary or of limited importance.
While there have been many suspect decisions in this genre, the gutting of weekly household bin collections remains top of the Labour chargesheet. Nominally inexpensive and a genuine public good, their decision to remove weekly waste removals has hastened fly-tipping and made streets less pleasant. Despite barbs to the contrary, we take no pleasure in pointing this out across our campaign; we want to live in a London Borough that is clean and rubbish-free. We have made the case that having pride in place is a prerequisite to a tolerant and prosperous neighbourhood. That is why we have committed to bringing them back. Yet the reality is inescapable: Labour has made Enfield less clean, and the days of spendthrift decision-making must end.
The point I am getting at here is not necessarily one about hyper-local service provision – however crucial that is – but instead one about fairness. Enfield was recently ranked as the sixth most deprived Local Authority in England, with 37.7 per cent of the population living in a deprived household, and the Jubilee Ward itself placed among the most deprived 20 per cent in the country. So, when I hear on the doors that residents feel let down by consecutive Labour administrations, the Conservative principles upon which we campaign become more apparent. Hence, when Enfield Labour refuse to substantively address the Borough’s spiralling fly tipping crisis, it is important we call it out for what it is: a cynical assumption that people will not vote differently, no matter how bad things become. To my mind, and to those of my campaign colleagues, such an indifference implies that proper waste services are the preserve of the wealthy – and that dirty streets in the N9 postcode aren’t actually all that bad.
The same attitude persists with the top-down imposition of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs) – or, as Labour insists on calling them, “Quieter Neighbourhoods” (they promise they’re different). Purportedly designed to create “safer, greener and more inclusive streets”, these definitely-not-LTNs merely serve to push congestion into avenues, by-roads and highways predominantly occupied by poorer neighbourhoods. In essence, gridlocked traffic is now the new normal.
But my contention – and this is something I have heard on the doorstep – is that is goes beyond that: it is a foul injustice. Cars are crucial to an outer London borough like ours, and are often a prerequisite for people earning a living. Even to those who may not afford to drive, busier roads lead to slower buses, in turn depriving people of an ability to earn and gain a sense of independence. Both us and TfL know LTNs lead to disruption. That Labour cannot compute this – local grandstanding aside – and refuse to acknowledge this reality, goes some way in demonstrating why they are in for one hell of a fight this May.
The fact is, Jubilee Ward, alongside other parts of Enfield, are competitive for the first time in my adult life, showing that the Conservative principles of fairness, autonomy and sound money are still in vogue. After all, stranger things have happened – and Enfield may just be the blueprint for a Tory revival.
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