In the first weeks after giving birth to my daughter, I thought I was losing it – mostly because every time I’d have a shower, I would hear her cry.

I’d dash out of the shower and rush into our bedroom – traipsing shampoo and wet footprints across the carpet – and find our baby in her bedside crib, silent as a mouse, her tiny chest rising and falling, her eyes clamped shut.

I experienced this for months and months. I don’t recall exactly when it stopped, but it was probably about the three to four months mark.

And it turns out I’m definitely not alone in my experience. It’s very much A Thing.

Mothers have reported hearing phantom cries in the shower, but also throughout the night and while their baby is napping. You could be in another room doing the ironing and swear you hear them cry, only to find them fast asleep in their Moses basket.

Like many things involving women – and indeed, mothers – it’s not particularly well-researched, but doctors insist it’s a pretty normal occurrence that happens after having a baby.

Dr Kiran Rahim, a paediatric doctor, told HuffPost UK: “Phantom crying is a fairly common phenomenon experienced by most mothers. Whilst we don’t fully understand it, we do know that having a baby changes the brain cells and the neural connections in a mother’s brain.”

And this probably has a lot to do with why we’re hearing sounds that aren’t there all of a sudden.

As Megan Gray, an ob-gyn with Orlando Health Physician Associates, told Popsugar: “It most likely has to do with a highly stimulated maternal brain that is being wired to be cued by baby’s cries, leading to a heightened awareness to sound.”

Similar changes occur in dads’ brains as well, but likely on a lesser scale, according to Robert Froemke, associate professor at New York University Langone.

On top of that, our brains are adapting to some pretty big life changes. We’re no longer sleeping properly, we’re on high alert trying to keep a baby alive, our routines and lifestyle choices (exercise, eating a healthy diet, self-care) have been completely thrown out of the window.

“In those first few months of having a new baby, some of these connections in the brain can get a bit criss-crossed so that you hear crying, when in fact, your baby is asleep,” suggested Dr Rahim.

“Most parents are in a ‘permanent’ state of stress in the early days which wears the body down and places parents in a ‘hyper alert’ state, perpetually ready to respond to even the slightest stress.”

Phantom crying is also – in the most unsurprising news ever – linked to sleep deprivation and postnatal mental health, particularly anxiety and depression, according to Dr Rahim.

“Up to one in five women develop postnatal mental health problems, so phantom crying is more common than we might think,” she said.

The good news is that generally it settles after three to six months, as parents ease into their new normal.

But if you’re experiencing a lot of phantom crying, it might be worth making some changes. For instance, can you get extra help with the night feeds and nappy changes so you can get some more sleep?

And if phantom cries are affecting your day-to-day life, it’s well worth speaking to a professional – whether that’s a midwife, GP or therapist – who can offer further support.

Robert Jenrick has accused Andy Burnham of launching a “death tax” to pay for his social care reforms.

But the government has not actually confirmed any new levies linked to fixing the struggling sector.

The prime minister held a press conference on Wednesday to reveal his three-point plan to overhaul the broken care system.

That includes speeding up an independent review for how to set up a national care service, prioritising the workforce, and launching cross-party talks with the Lib Dems and the Tories.

Neither Reform nor the Greens were invited to Burnham’s discussions about fixing social care yesterday.

Reform leader Nigel Farage said it was clear the PM “is conspiring behind closed doors with the failed political establishment to foist further tax rises on the country.”

But the Conservatives have insisted they will only work with the government if it rules out further tax rises.

Burnham also called for political unity on Wednesday.

He said: “We have to find common ground and listen to others to find a way forward. It’s time to draw a line under people playing politics when the human cost of that means carers struggling, families paying the price and our NHS buckling under the strain.”

But in a press conference on Thursday, Jenrick – Reform UK’s Treasury spokesperson – claimed Burnham has spent the last two decades pushing to introduce a new so-called “death tax”.

The Labour politician has previously backed the idea of a blanket 10% levy on inheritance when he was health secretary under Gordon Brown.

However Downing Street has said this week “there are no plans for this”.

“If that was his sole aim, there are other ways to fund it, like cutting foreign aid or benefits for migrants. No,” Jenrick said.

“He’s shown again and again that he thinks the savings that you’ve earned, no matter how little that you’ve scrimped and saved for. Whether you’re rich or poor, he says, the tax man deserves a bit more.”

Jenrick said Burnham was “Labour’s answer to the Pied Piper”, who is “playing an enticing tune but actually leading… our country into more desperate trouble.”

He continued: “Andy Burnham knows rightly, to be fair, that [Reform] will never go along with a betrayal of people who’ve paid in their whole lives. And make no mistake, that is what Andy Burnham is planning to do. That is the purpose of the talks that the other parties are now engaged in.”

He claimed Burnham’s new tax, on top of inheritance tax, would “cost families almost £30 billion a year”, describing it as a “truly extreme proposal”.

He said while the social care system “needs to change”.

He claimed Burnham is also looking to scrap technology used to consolidate patient details and help hospitals, GPs and the care system communicate.

That tech is provided by Palantir which also provides software for the Israeli Defence Forces.

Jenrick said the prime minister is “going to scrap the tech that’s actually working to help discharge in hospital” because the “British Islamists were unhappy about it” and Burnham wants to “get a few votes back”.

He claimed his party would keep the technology in place, cut benefits overseas aid and funding for quangos, and “pay care workers properly”.

“This country does not lack money for care. It lacks a government with the courage and determination to put its own people first,” the Newark MP said.

Hunter Biden wasn’t interested in playing polite when asked if the relationship between the Biden and Trump families was just as ugly behind the scenes as it appears in public.

During a nearly three-hour sit-down on Barstool Sports’ Macrodosing podcast, the former president’s son and attorney-turned-artist disputed the idea that animosity between Democrats and Republicans was all political theater, sending a sharp “Fuck them” to US President Donald Trump and his entire brood.

“I’m not running for anything, so I can say whatever the fuck I want,” he said, unleashing his highly uncensored opinion on everyone in Washington, DC, he thinks double-crossed his dad, former US President Joe Biden.

That included calling Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) a “piece of shit” who “fucked” his dad over by pressuring him to drop his 2024 bid for reelection following his infamous debate against Trump.

The younger Biden also gave a firm “fuck that” to the expectation that former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was owed respect for all she’s done for the Democrats, telling his hosts, “I don’t have anything nice to say about her.”

But he reserved his sharpest takedown for Trump, saying, “Fuck him, fuck his sons, fuck his daughter … All of them. The whole family down to the grandchildren.”

Telling the Barstool boys he hoped the Trump name would be forever tarnished, Biden said he had no problem with his tirade going viral.

“What would you expect me to say about a man that treats my father that way publicly?” he asked. “What would you expect me to say about a man that treats my mother that way, that treats my sister that way? They stole her fucking diary and published it, said my dad is a pedophile.”

Biden rejected the “all is fair in love and war and politics” defense before finishing with a firm “Fuck them and fuck that.”

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.

Tom Holland has previously named who he thinks should don the Spidey suit after him after his Spider-Man run is over. He told Esquire in June that Owen Cooper, the star of Netflix hit Adolescence, “would be awesome” for the job.

“He’s super-talented and the talk of the town right now,” Tom added. Owen has previously spoken about wanting to play the iconic Marvel hero.

But it wasn’t clear until now how seriously the The Odyssey star seems to be taking the selection process.

Speaking on Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast, the actor explained that plans have been taking place behind the scenes for five years.

“There’s a whole plan that we have been working on for, I would say, since we finished Spider-Man: No Way Home,” which released in 2021, he explained.

“It’s laid out. It’s gonna change for sure, but I have a really clear vision to the passing on of the baton, and I think it’s really exciting.”

He didn’t mention a name in this interview, nor did he mention the exact role his successor might take.

Speaking to Empire previously, Tom said: “For whoever’s next, whether that is a Miles Morales or a Spider-Gwen or a Spider-Woman or something like that, I would love to be a part of setting up the next chapter.

And, he said, he’d like to mentor whoever comes next.

“Whatever that looks like, I don’t know. But if I could do what [Robert Downey Jr] did for me, then I would be so content swinging off into the sunset.”

The actor has previously praised Downey’s role in his Marvel journey, saying he gave him “the best advice” he’s ever got for acting.

You can watch the Happy Sad Confused podcast in full here.

After an exceptionally hot and dry summer, large swathes of south-west France and parts of Spain are currently experiencing enormous wildfires.

The flames have meant over 220,000 residents have been evacuated in France and Spain. Authorities are working hard to contain the large-scale burning.

Brignoles, the town in which stars George and Amal Clooney live, has also been affected.

They left the property with their two children earlier this week.

In a letter, George wrote to the area’s mayor, Didier Brémond, to say: “Dear Didier, At this point we have no idea whether our beautiful home makes it through this terrible moment and as we evacuate Brignoles we want to emphasize 2 things.

“First we hope you and the people of our city are safe and second that Amal and I are committed to making sure that whatever happens to our village, we are part of this community and we’ll be part of making it whole. We love Brignoles and our friends who live there.”

The Fantastic Mr Fox actor has previously spoken about his decision to move to the European country.

He said he didn’t love the idea of children Ella and Alexander growing up with Paparazzi and “being compared to somebody else’s famous kids,” adding, “We live on a farm in France. A good portion of my life growing up was on a farm, and as a kid, I hated the whole idea of it.

“But now, for them, it’s like – they’re not on their iPads, you know? They have dinner with grown-ups and have to take their dishes in. They have a much better life,” he told Esquire.

French President Emmanuel Macron has called the wildfires which have raged across the country since mid-July “unprecendented,” describing the phenomenon as the “toughest since World War Two”.