UK Parliament votes to end ‘cruel' abortion prosecutions for women

In 2023, Carla Foster received a 28-month prison sentence after she admitted taking abortion pills to induce a miscarriage during the initial COVID lockdown in 2020, when she was between 32 and 34 weeks pregnant. She was released after just one month in custody following a successful appeal.
Another case involved Nicola Packer, who was charged after taking the medications mifepristone and misoprostol at about 26 weeks of pregnancy. She denied knowing that she was more than 10 weeks pregnant and was acquitted by a jury.
The reform does not extend to medical professionals or anyone else involved in abortions performed outside existing legal frameworks. Nor does it alter the clinical requirements of the 1967 Act, which permits abortions up to 24 weeks with authorisation from two doctors, and after that point only under limited and exceptional circumstances.
Not all within the government backed the change. Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood opposed the amendment, warning of risks it might introduce.
'I am deeply concerned to see these measures being progressed in the name of women's rights, when the potential physical and mental impacts on women would be so devastating,' she wrote to constituents.
'I oppose extending abortions up until the point of birth beyond the exemptions that currently exist, as doing so would not only be unnecessary but dangerous.'
Antoniazzi made clear the measure would not affect healthcare provisions: the clause 'would not change any law regarding the provision of abortion services within a healthcare setting', she said, reiterating that the current time limits and clinical conditions would remain.
The UK vote lands at a moment of flux in abortion access across Europe, where legal protections are often undermined by logistical or cultural barriers.
Despite most EU countries allowing abortion under certain conditions, many women — an estimated 4500 in 2022 — still travel abroad to access care.
Loading
The Netherlands received 2762 women from Germany, Poland, Belgium, France, and Ireland in 2022 alone. Spain recorded about 1500 cross-border abortion cases in the same year. Hundreds more travelled to the UK for the same reason.
Notably, only two EU member states – Malta and Poland – impose near-total bans. But restrictive time limits, a lack of providers and religious or cultural resistance elsewhere mean that abortion, while legal on paper, is inaccessible in practice.
Women in France, Italy, and Croatia, for example, often struggle to access care due to 'conscientious objectors' – doctors who refuse to perform abortions. In some Italian regions, up to 90 per cent of physicians decline to carry out the procedure. Even in France, one-third of the UK-based Abortion Support Network's clients are French, many from rural areas without clinics.
A recent survey found the average delay between discovering a pregnancy and accessing an abortion was four weeks – often because of waiting periods, lack of information, or difficulty in securing funds and time off work.
A citizen-led initiative titled My Voice, My Choice has gathered more than a million signatures calling on the EU to fund abortion access across borders.
But progress has been slow. The EU's health commissioner said the bloc 'stands ready to support member states,' but reiterated that abortion remains a matter of national jurisdiction.

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

ABC News

3 hours ago

• ABC News

Chronically stressed? These small changes can help

Sana Qadar: I thought I knew what it meant to feel stressed, or overworked, or underslept, or close to burnout. I mean, I feel versions of these often enough. But then Dr Rangan Chatterjee told me a story that's almost unbelievable. It's the story of his father. Dr Rangan Chatterjee: So my dad grew up in India. He came to the UK in 1962. And dad basically worked to give his family in the UK, so my mum, me and my brother, and his family back home, a better life. But the way dad worked, looking back now was mind-blowing, honestly. Like, because for 30 years, my dad only slept three nights a week. Sana Qadar: Did you catch that? Three nights a week. Dr Rangan Chatterjee: So he was a consultant physician at Manchester Royal Infirmary. And I can remember this so clearly. Dad would do his day job in the middle of Manchester. So we lived in a suburb of Manchester. So he'd drive home, maybe take him 40 minutes or so. And he'd come in about 6, 6.15pm. Mum would have dinner ready for him. He'd go to the kitchen, he'd have dinner. He'd go upstairs and shave. And then at 7pm, he'd leave the house to do GP house calls all night. And he'd arrive back again at 7am. When he got in at 7am, he'd have breakfast in the kitchen. He'd go upstairs and shave again. And then he'd drive 45 minutes in traffic back to Manchester to do his day job. So for 30 years, dad was doing both of these jobs, and he only slept three nights a week. And I didn't know this at the time. And there was a lot of stress at home. And of course, there's, you know, he was exhausted all the time. Sana Qadar: At the age of 58, all of that chronic stress and sleep deprivation finally caught up with Rangan's father. First, he was diagnosed with lupus, which is an autoimmune disease where the immune system starts attacking healthy tissues and organs. Dr Rangan Chatterjee: And basically he had to medically retire. His kidneys completely failed. He lost the sight in one of his eyes. And then he was literally chained to a dialysis machine three times a week for 15 years. And so what's really interesting for me is, you know, reflecting back now, although my dad's case might seem quite extreme, I have seen many iterations of that in my practice for years. People think they can keep pushing, pushing for more, better job, a bit more money, another promotion, a nicer holiday, whatever it might be. But yeah, the thing is, that quest for more is driving so many people to stress themselves out in the belief that at some point in the future, everything's going to be okay and I can chill and relax. But I've seen time and time again, people come in wishing they'd stopped earlier. Sana Qadar: Dr Rangan Chatterjee is a GP with more than 20 years experience. And his focus and his passion has long been lifestyle medicine. Dr Rangan Chatterjee: In fact, 80 to 90% of what we see as medical doctors today is in some way related to our collective modern lifestyles. Sana Qadar: But you might recognize him from his mega popular podcast, Feel Better, Live More, where he delves into the science of lifestyle medicine and wellbeing. And in his experience, one of the biggest lifestyle factors impacting people's health is chronic stress. Dr Rangan Chatterjee: The 53 year old executive who kept pushing and working every weekend and coming back late until he gets the heart attack. The 46 year old mother who never does anything for herself, everything is for her partner, her children, her elderly parents. I've seen this so many times. And for me, it's always trying to get to the root cause. And I would say for so many people, chronic stress is at the root of many of their short term symptoms and their long term health problems. Sana Qadar: So today on All In The Mind, we are focusing on chronic stress, what it's doing to our brains and bodies, everything from our decision making abilities to our libidos. And we're also finding out the signs and red flags to look out for that tell you your stress levels are unhealthily high. We'll also find out what you can do about it. This is All In The Mind. I'm Sana Qadar. Sana Qadar: Just going back to when you were first talking about your dad's story and how he was working for 30 years while you were growing up. I just wondered, like, whether you or your family did anyone think that his pace of work was nuts? Or was it kind of just normalized, the fact that he was only sleeping three days a week? Dr Rangan Chatterjee: I think as a kid, that's just your normal. You're just like, you're used to dad not being around. Oh, dad's working tonight. Dad's working this Sunday, or whatever it might be. So on a personal level, me and my brother, I'm not sure we were aware. I think it was normalized for us. I do remember mum often saying, why are you doing this? You don't need to work on Christmas Day. You don't need to work on Boxing Day to gain even more money to send home. Why don't you just stay? So I don't want to speak about my parents' marriage in the sense that I don't know what went on. But I certainly think as kids, we didn't really see the full impacts of it. I think for us, it was normalized. Sana Qadar: It's such an immigrant thing for especially that generation to want to work so hard and send quite a lot back home to help sisters and brothers. It's a familiar story in a way. Not that anyone in my family was only sleeping three nights a week, but the other details of it are similar. Dr Rangan Chatterjee: Yeah, but that's why I feel as I've got older, I've just become, I'm pretty non-judgmental these days. I think I used to be. I just think more and more, none of us know what's going on in someone else's life. I think once you really get that, you just become a lot less judgmental and more compassionate to the world around you. Sana Qadar: Now, you would think watching his father's punishing schedule, the chronic stress, the lack of sleep would put Rangan off a career in medicine. But like I said, he followed in his footsteps and also became a doctor. But early on in his medical training, Rangan started to feel like something pretty important was missing from the medical system. Dr Rangan Chatterjee: Yeah, I think when I qualified from Edinburgh Medical School back in 2001, I thought that I'd been taught all the tools that I needed to go out there into the world and help my patients. So when you qualify, you start off in hospitals and I did that for quite a few years. And I think there was a frustration early on in my career that what I'd been taught to do was suppress symptoms often with medications. And that was really front of mind for me when I did move into general practice because I thought a lot of these patients who are coming in, we're not really getting to the root cause of their problems. In fact, 80 to 90% of what we see as medical doctors today is in some way related to our collective modern lifestyles. Yet not only do we not get trained in how our lifestyle specifically affects different aspects of our health, we're not really taught how we actually put that into practice. So our default as medical doctors often ends up being prescribing pharmaceutical medications for symptoms that are driven by our lifestyle. And for me, that was very unsatisfactory. And I tell you, Sana, one really seminal day for me was when I finished a long day in NHS general practice where I'd probably seen about 50 patients. And I was tired. It was the end of the day. And I looked at my patient list on my computer screen and I asked myself, Rangan, how many patients have you really helped today? Like honestly. And hand on heart, I thought, well, I think I probably helped about 20% of people. The other 80%, sure, I was professional. I listened to them. I might have sent them for a test or given them a medication to help hide a symptom. But I thought, they're going to be back. I didn't really help them get to the root cause of their problem. So that day, I realized that actually I can't do this for the next 40 years of my career. There must be another way. And for me, that way is what we call lifestyle medicine. Sana Qadar: Lifestyle medicine is a relatively new field. It's a branch of evidence-based health care that focuses on trying to prevent diseases before they start, rather than just treating them once they set in. Chronic diseases like Alzheimer's, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, and stroke. It's a response to the fact that in the modern post-industrial era, there's been a shift in the kinds of diseases that most affect people in high-income countries. That's a shift from mostly infectious diseases to mostly chronic diseases, which often have lifestyle or environmental drivers. Dr Rangan Chatterjee: I want to be really clear, Sanaa. I'm not blaming people here. I understand that modern life is challenging, and a lot of people are not able to eat as well as they want to. Their jobs mean that they're sedentary for a lot more time than they might choose to be. They're chronically stressed, chronically sleep deprived. I'm not saying that people are doing this to themselves. I'm saying I don't think there's enough awareness that our lifestyle, and if you can personalize and change specific parts, what I call the four key pillars of health, food, movement, sleep, and relaxation, you can have profound impact on all aspects of our health, short-term and long-term. Sana Qadar: And so that brings us back to chronic stress, one of the main lifestyle factors wrecking havoc on people's health. Because stress sets off a whole bunch of responses in the body. It makes your blood pressure rise Dr Rangan Chatterjee: so that more oxygen can be delivered around your body. Sana Qadar: It makes your blood sugar levels rise Dr Rangan Chatterjee: so more glucose can get to your brain. Sana Qadar: It also throws your amygdala, Dr Rangan Chatterjee: which is the emotional reactive part of your brain, into high alert so you're hyper-vigilant. Sana Qadar: And while we evolved this stress response to keep us safe, the problem is our brains can't fully tell the difference between the threat posed by a lion or tiger who wants to eat us versus our email inbox. Dr Rangan Chatterjee: Yeah, you know, the email inbox, the children we have to rush to pick up after work, the elderly parents we're having to look after when we don't even have our tribe community around us anymore, the three social media channels we're trying to keep up to date with, the constant bombardment of negativity on the news, whatever it might be, our bodies are responding in very similar ways, whether it is a real physical threat or the emotional, psychological stresses that are coming at us in the 21st century. So just to tie the loop up, blood pressure going up in the short term when you're running away from a tiger or a lion, great. Blood pressure going up temporarily while you're doing a 30-minute spinning workout at the gym, great, no problem. But blood pressure going up day in, day out to the state of your life, well, that's what's going to increase your risk of a heart attack or stroke. And you talk about the brain, the amygdala, the emotional part of our brain. If you think there's a wild predator there, the emotional part of your brain becomes hyper-vigilant. Why is that important? So you can hear everything, a pinprick, or there's a rustling in the bush. If that's happening to the state of your daily life, well, that's what we call anxiety. So once you understand the stress response, you actually understand stress is there for a reason, but we're not designed to be stressed all the time. Sana Qadar: I want to dive deeper into how chronic stress affects our brains, specifically our mood and cognition, because you might have noticed, I definitely have, that when you're super stressed, you are probably more moody and snappy and you struggle to make decisions. Dr Rangan Chatterjee: Chronic stress has a huge impact on the way we make decisions. Okay, so think about your brain in two parts. It's a slight oversimplification, but I think it really helps us understand this concept. One part is the front of your brain, the prefrontal cortex at the front of your brain, where you make your logical and rational decisions. And then further back, the emotional part of your brain, where the stress response comes from when you think you're in danger. Ideally, you want both of those parts online and in balance. But when you're chronically stressed, you switch off the prefrontal cortex, that part of your brain that makes logical and rational decisions, it goes offline. So you're left with the emotional brain ruling the roost, which is one of the reasons why we struggle when we're chronically stressed to make good decisions. In fact, many of us know that feeling at the end of the day when we've not taken a lunch break, we're a bit frazzled, and an email comes in and we need to make a decision, and we can't. We don't have the clarity. And that's because our logical brain has gone offline. And that's why stress reduction practices, you know, a bit of breath work, a 10-minute walk at lunchtime, one minute of jumping jacks or moving your body, whatever it might be, just helps to break the cycle, lower the stress response, and then that front part of your brain where you make those logical decisions from starts to come back online. Sana Qadar: And this also explains why when you're stressed, you can be more emotionally dysregulated. And this is a real problem long term, because chronic stress doesn't just change the functioning of the brain, it can change the structure. For example, there is a well-established link between chronic stress and depression, and we also know that chronic stress can shrink the hippocampus, a part of the brain that's critical for learning and memory. I could go on, but I'll stop there because I think you get the point. Chronic stress is bad for many different reasons. But just two other points I do want to briefly make is that, one, there is plenty of research finding that people from poorer backgrounds often experience higher levels of chronic stress because of the precariousness of their lives. That puts them at a higher risk of being impacted by these kinds of changes in the brain. Second, there's also growing research in Australia, the UK, and the US suggesting Gen Z are the most stressed generation, thanks to a combination of factors, including the COVID pandemic, financial insecurity, and the rising cost of living, and the impact of social media and technology. Sana Qadar: Okay, so I want to ask, when should a person start to be worried about the amount of stress they're feeling? Like, when can you know, what are the signs to look out for that you've been chronically stressed for too long? Dr Rangan Chatterjee: I mean, it's highly individual for all of us. And the problem is that the more you get used to chronic stress, the harder it is to tune into your own body and figure out that, oh my God, I need a break. You know, this is going on for too long. One of the big factors is also that these boundaries between work and home have been decimated with technology. Right? So 25 years ago, there were natural endpoints to the working week. You know, when you left the office, you were kind of done. So, you know, how can people know? Well, one good sign is when their mind is racing at night and they can't switch off to fall asleep. That's a good sign that your mind has been overactive and you've not given yourself a chance to sort of wind down. Sana Qadar: Another sign, Rangan says, is stomach problems. Dr Rangan Chatterjee: We know from a bit of research done a few years ago that in the UK at least, and I've no reason to believe that it will be different in Australia, 84% of UK adults have some form of gastrointestinal symptom each year, which is incredible. The number one cause is not, in my view, diet, it's stress. Sana Qadar: The connection between our stress levels and gut health has been well studied and the relationship seems to go both ways. Our gut can influence our mood and stress levels, as well as our stress levels influencing our gut. It's an idea that was popularized in a big way in a book called Gut by Julia Enders back in 2014. Dr Rangan Chatterjee: Think about it. If you think there's a predator about to attack and you have to keep yourself safe, your body will switch off functions that are not essential to your survival. You do not need to be able to digest food efficiently if your body thinks it's in danger, which is also why some of the time we're trying to eat our healthy whole food meal, but we're also doing it whilst answering work emails. The reality is you're not going to absorb that food properly. Now, I'm not judging. I will also do this despite knowing it, but the truth is sometimes, and I've had patients who think they're intolerant to certain foods, but once I taught them a simple breathing technique called the 3-4-5 breathing technique to help them downregulate their stress response before they eat, they find, oh man, I'm not getting symptoms anymore. Sana Qadar: If you're wondering how that breathing technique works, keep listening. We'll explain that in a moment. Dr Rangan Chatterjee: Now, of course, there are true food allergies. I'm not talking about that, but for some intolerances, you're not actually reacting to the food, you're reacting to the fact that you're eating that food in a stressed out state. So, if you're getting a lot of indigestion, a lot of bloating, constipation, or whatever it might be, that might indicate that you're chronically stressed, right? Sana Qadar: And then just one other sign we'll mention that can tell you you might be chronically stressed is if you find your libido is starting to suffer. Dr Rangan Chatterjee: We, as doctors, are seeing more low libido in younger and younger and age groups than we've ever seen before. Number one factor is chronic stress. Again, think about it through that evolutionary lens. If you think your body's in danger, your body doesn't think, oh, I need to now be able to chill out and procreate with my partner. So, it switches off libido, and this is a massive issue because it affects relationships, it affects how men and women feel about themselves and their vitality. And again, I've treated lots of cases of low libido by helping people lower their stress levels. Sana Qadar: I want to know more about, you mentioned the breathing exercises, I want to know more about tools and tips for de-stressing. What do you advise people do? Because, you know, work is still stressful, the news is stressful, like modern life doesn't fully change, we have to change how we relate to it. What do you suggest people do? Dr Rangan Chatterjee: Yeah, so the first thing I want to say here is that one thing that 23 years of medicine has taught me is there's very rarely one thing that works for everybody. We've all got different gut microbiomes, we've all got different emotional histories, and so we respond to different things. Let me give you a selection of things that I recommend to people and then people can sort of play around and see what works for them. I believe the way you start your day has a huge impact on the rest of your day. So, I think a useful way to look at the way we start the day is through the lens of what I call micro stress doses. Okay, so what's a micro stress dose? It's a little dose of stress that in isolation we can handle just fine, but when those micro stress doses accumulate, they get you closer and closer to what I call your personal stress threshold. And at your personal stress threshold is when things start to go wrong. So, let's say you went to bed late because you were watching Netflix and your alarm goes off on your phone at 6am. That is what I call micro stress dose number one or MSD number one. Okay, because it jolted you out of a deep sleep. You look at it, you go, I'm still tired, you put snooze on. Six minutes later, the alarm goes on again. Micro stress dose number two. Then whilst you're in bed, you open up your email app. Oh man, there's three work emails I didn't do from yesterday. I need to get onto that today. You're nodding your head a lot here at the moment. Sana Qadar: (Laughs) you're describing my mornings pretty much. Dr Rangan Chatterjee: MSD number three. Okay, then you go to the news app and see about some gas explosion that has happened that's killed people, whatever it might be. Okay, and I don't mean that to sound negative. Obviously, if people are dying with something, I'm deeply compassionate about that. The point I'm trying to make is that many people I've seen in practice over the years, in the first hour of the day, they've accumulated 10 to 15 micro stress doses. It means you are very near your personal stress threshold, which means you have less capacity in the day to deal with it. So it won't take much to tip you over. So going back to your question, some of us have got more agency to make decisions and change things than others. I'm saying that for some of us, we don't need to start our day with 10 to 15 micro stress doses. If you had an alarm clock instead of your phone, for example, that can be game changing. Sana Qadar: Simple, but effective. Rangan also recommends a morning routine that he recognizes people can sometimes balk at the idea. Dr Rangan Chatterjee: They're like, oh man, I don't have time for a morning routine. The thing is, everyone already has a morning routine. The question is, are you conscious of that morning routine? Right? You've got a routine, that routine I just mentioned. That's a morning routine (both laughing). Sana Qadar: That's my routine, the emails and the social media. Dr Rangan Chatterjee: You're repeating that routine every day. Fine, but that's going to have an impact on you. So I believe a nice framework to think about a morning routine is what I call the three M's, mindfulness, movement, and mindset. You don't have to do all three, but I think if you have the time, all three can be done quite beautifully in quite a short period of time. So mindfulness could be anything like a bit of meditation, breath work, whatever, drinking a coffee in silence, right? Just paying attention to the coffee and not actually scrolling your emails or Instagram at the same time. Movement can be some stretches, a few weights, whatever it might be. And mindset is something to put you in the positive frame of mind. So it could be reading a little bit or journaling. Now I get it. A lot of people will be going, I don't have time for any of that in the morning. Okay. Let me give you an example of one of my patients who said that to me. She was a single mother. I think she was about early forties from recollection. She had really bad skin that was flaring up lots and it was making her life miserable. And I got a strong sense that chronic stress was driving her skin flare ups. So what I suggested about a little morning routine, she said, I don't have time for any of this stuff. Right. I said, okay, do you have 15 minutes? No. Do you have 10 minutes? No. Do you have five minutes? Well, yeah, I've got five minutes. I said, okay, great. So M number one mindfulness, she did what I call the three, four, five breaths. Let me just explain what that is because I mentioned it before as well. Anytime your out breath is longer than your in breath, you help to switch off the stress part of your nervous system and activate the relaxation part of your nervous system. Okay. So three, four, five breath is simply you breathe in for three, you hold for four and you breathe out for five. One of those breaths takes 12 seconds. Five of them takes simply one minute and it will literally change your physiology in just that one minute. Sana Qadar: And this is something you can do obviously at any time, not just as part of a morning routine before a big meeting, before an exam. But the question I have is, is the breathing exercise or even the routine enough on its own to actually have a long lasting impact? Dr Rangan Chatterjee: Well, it is because I'll tell you why. So let's go back to that patient then. So she did one minute of three, four, five breathing, two minutes of movements, and she used to love yoga, but since she became a mother, she never had time. So she did three or four of her favorite yoga moves and then she did two minutes of mindset. And for her, it was just affirmations. Now, there is quite a bit of research on affirmations and what they can do for our wellbeing and our stress levels. They're a little bit controversial. Not everyone buys into the research, but nonetheless, I think it's a very positive, empowering thing for someone to do. So she would say for two minutes, I'm happy, I'm calm, I'm stress-free. I'm happy, I'm calm, I'm stress-free. Remember, this took her five minutes. Sana Qadar: Rangan says that over the next 10 days, this patient's skin flare-ups reduced significantly. Dr Rangan Chatterjee: Because it's not just about those five minutes. What do those five minutes do? They remind you of what it feels like to be calm and relaxed. Once you started doing that, she was much more likely to stop at lunch and go for a 10 minute walk around her office block. She was much more likely to pay a bit more attention to her evening meal and make it a bit healthier. Sana Qadar: Basically, that small change had a ripple effect. Now, despite his own busy schedule, there's a lot that Rangan does in his own life as well to keep stress at bay. Things like having a hobby, he plays guitar, journaling daily, making time for some form of physical activity every day. Dr Rangan Chatterjee: I now, at this stage in my career, have quite a bit of autonomy. And I recognize that, okay? Not everyone does. I'm able to structure things so that I can. Sana Qadar: And one of the ways he's restructured his life recently is he quit his medical practice. He did that to free up time to focus on his podcast and his books and his public speaking and his role as a visiting professor of health education and communication at Chester Medical School. It's a very different life to his 30s when he was working full-time, taking care of his young family, and helping to care for his ailing father. Sana Qadar: I'm curious to know, what do you think your father would think about the life you've carved out for yourself and the work life you've carved out for yourself? Dr Rangan Chatterjee: Yeah, that's a great question. I actually think about this quite a lot. You know, dad died, I think, yeah, 12 years ago, just over 12 years ago. One of the things on a personal level that used to make me sad was that all the things that my dad would have been proudest about, you know, as an Indian immigrant to the UK in the 1960s, the fact that, you know, I had my own primetime BBC One TV show. I've had six Sunday Times bestselling books. I have the largest health podcast in Europe, whatever it might be. My dad got to see none of those things. And it used to really upset me. But at the same time, now I realize that if my dad was still alive, I wouldn't be doing any of these things. Because, well, there's two reasons for that. One is, and if there's anyone listening who's a carer, you know, they'll know how stressful life is when you're a carer. You know, I came back to the northwest of England to help my mum and my brother look after my dad. I didn't have time for anything else. You know, it was hard enough just to look after dad, just about keep my job going and see my wife. Right? It was very, very stressful. So number one, if dad was still alive, I don't think I'd have time to do the things that I've done. But secondly, the most important things I've learned have come from my dad's death. And now I've reframed my dad's death to believe that dad actually gave me a gift through him dying. Because the man I am today, the questions I started to ask myself after my dad died, I'm not sure any of those things would have happened until dad had died. So actually, again, I understand the death of a parent is a really challenging time for most people. I'm not expecting or asking anyone else to reframe their own parents' death in this way. But I do believe that life is simply a set of experiences and it's the story we put onto those experiences that ultimately determine the quality of our life. And I'm able to 12 years on now, reframe my dad's death as being, that was a gift to me. Because all this wisdom, I hope that I can share with people that really helps them. A huge part of that has been through my dad's death. Sana Qadar: And you mentioned other patients you've worked with who had also kind of worked themselves to the bone, regretted not stopping earlier. I'm wondering, do you know if your father wished he hadn't worked quite so hard by the time he got sick? Did he wish he had stopped earlier? Dr Rangan Chatterjee: You know, there's only one question I would love to ask my dad if I was still alive. And I don't know the answer. One of the questions, the only question is, dad, was it worth it? Because being truthful, although dad worked himself to ill health, I've changed my view on this over the past years. I now think, Rangan, you have no right to think that your dad made a mistake. You don't know that. Dad may say, if he was alive, he may go, I'd do that all over again. Because my only purpose in life was to look after my family back home and to give you and your brother the very best start in life that I could. Now, if that is true, which I believe it to be true, my dad may say, well, I kind of did that, right? I looked after everyone at home and look at what you're now doing, son. Look at how many people you're helping all over the world with what you do. I would do that all over again. So I'm hypothesizing here. I honestly don't know. Do I believe my dad could have done those things and not got ill at the same time? Yeah, I do believe that was possible. But how can I possibly know? But he never said to me, to be clear, I wish I'd stopped earlier. So I'm speculating. Sana Qadar: Rangan, it's been so lovely chatting to you. Thank you for sharing your family story and the story of your patients and everything you've learned over the course of your career. We really appreciate it. Dr Rangan Chatterjee: Yeah, thanks so much for having me on. Sana Qadar: That is Dr. Rangan Chatterjee, until recently a practicing GP, and he's also the host of the Feel Better Live More podcast. Rangan is going to be touring Australia in mid-July with live events in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. If you want to find out more, just search An Evening with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee. He'll be at Melbourne Town Hall, the State Theatre in Sydney and Brisbane City Hall. That is it for All in the Mind this week. Thanks to producer Rose Kerr, senior producer James Bullen, and sound engineer Tegan Nicholls. I'm Sana Qadar. Thank you for listening. I'll catch you next week.

The Australian

6 hours ago

• The Australian

Military metals rise on rage of war

Metals used in munitions and military technology are in the spotlight as war rages in the Middle East and Ukraine Tungsten, tin, antimony, rare earths and beryllium among the key commodities to follow These ASX stocks are moving to stake out a position in critical minerals markets The rise of fresh tensions in the Middle East has put the spotlight on the minerals needed for military operations. The wars in Ukraine and Gaza continue to rage, and even escalate, while the outbreak of hostilities between Israel and Iran is leading to fears of a much larger regional, or even global, conflict. While the first few days of the conflict have boosted the price of oil, it's also a sad fact that military operations are metals intensive. Even without an additional conflict, US President Donald Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' will see the country's defence spending hit US$1 trillion next year for the first time. In a recent presentation in Toronto, Hallgarten + Company analyst Christopher Ecclestone noted that most of the combatants in World War I and, to a lesser extent, World War II, had all the metals and minerals they needed domestically – which is not the case today. He also pointed out that war materials are exceedingly high-tech, both in composition and metal inputs, adding that rare earths 'weren't a thing' in WWII. While loads of different metals, including aluminium and titanium, are needed for defence applications, Ecclestone listed the 'headline' military metals as tungsten, antimony, rare earths, tin and beryllium. While there aren't any options on the ASX for beryllium, we have a look at some of the juniors with near-term production potential in the other four metals. Tungsten Vancouver-based investment firm Mission Critical Metals, of which Ecclestone is also CEO, describes tungsten as the key military metal, due to its use in making bulletproof vehicles, armoured tanks, armour-piercing rounds, high-speed cutting tools, and rocket and aircraft parts. Mission says that given the turnaround in the tungsten price is relatively recent, the space is yet to attract many new players. Outside of the ASX's two listed tungsten producers, Almonty Industries (ASX:AII) and EQ Resources (ASX:EQR), there are a couple of other hopefuls. Tungsten Mining (ASX:TGN) is considering an early production pathway for its Hatches Creek project in the Northern Territory. Last month, the company reported a maiden inferred resource of 12 million tonnes at 0.17% tungsten trioxide, which will feed into a scoping study. Preliminary metallurgical studies have successfully produced a tungsten concentrate grading at 50% tungsten trioxide. Meanwhile, Rumble Resources (ASX:RTR) discovered a tungsten sweetener at its Western Queen gold project in Western Australia last year. High-grade tungsten mineralisation remains open in all directions with a maiden resource to be reported in the September quarter. The company will then complete metallurgical testwork to determine the quantum of the tungsten revenue stream and incorporate it into the Western Queen South mining schedule. Antimony Antimony is used in military applications including fighter jets, military primers, night vision goggles, lasers, military detonators and military smoke agents. There's been an explosion of ASX companies seeking exposure to antimony due to a price surge driven by shortages. Larvotto Resources (ASX:LRV) is one of the more advanced companies globally, with its Hillgrove project in New South Wales due to start production next year. Nearby, Trigg Minerals' (ASX:TMG) Achilles project contains the Wild Cattle Creek deposit, with a resource of 1.52Mt at 1.97% antimony containing 29,902 tonnes of antimony, which the company says makes it Australia's highest grade primary antimony resource. Trigg also recently boosted it antimony portfolio with the addition of the Antimony Canyon project in Utah, which has a non-JORC resource of 12.7Mt at 0.79% antimony for 100,300t of contained antimony. Felix Gold (ASX:FXG) could be in production the soonest from its Treasure Island project in Alaska. The company is working towards small-scale antimony production by the end of this year from the Scrafford deposit, which previously produced up to 58% antimony. Also in Alaska, Nova Minerals (ASX:NVA) has applied to the US Department of Defense (DoD) for funding to potentially fast track antimony production from its Stibium deposit. Resolution Minerals (ASX:RML) is a newer entrant to the antimony space, last week securing the Horse Heaven project in Idaho to complement assets in NSW. On Wednesday, Resolution appointed Washington DC-based Clewett Global Services as external affairs advisers as it considers applying for DoD funding. Larvotto and Trigg have also reported tungsten resources, while Resolution's new project also has tungsten potential. Rare Earths Rare earths are essential to the defence sector, making the development of new supply chains a matter of national security for countries including the US. Neodymium and praseodymium permanent magnets are used in F-35 fighter jets and unmanned aerial vehicles, while lanthanum is used in night vision goggles and terbium is used in naval sonar systems. Shares in Dateline Resources (ASX:DTR) have exploded recently after Trump tweeted his support for the Colosseum rare earths project in California. Last week, Dateline confirmed further public support from members of the Trump Administration, including Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum. Locksley Resources (ASX:LKY) is a more recent entrant to the space, but its Mojave project in California sits right next to the US' only operating rare earths mine, MP Materials' Mountain Pass, and is also prospective for antimony. This week, Locksley Resources launched strategic collaboration initiatives, targeting engagement with US agencies, national laboratories, US universities and downstream technology partners. In Australia, Victory Metals (ASX:VTM) recently received a letter of interest from the Export-Import Bank of the United States for up to US$190 million in project financing for the development of the North Stanmore heavy rare earths project in WA. The project is set to produce both heavy and light rare earths, as well as gallium and scandium as by-products. VHM (ASX:VHM) is targeting rare earths and mineral sands production from its Goschen project in Victoria in late 2026 after receiving a mining license for the project recently. The company is working towards a final investment decision in the December half. Tin According to the DoD, tin is used in many defence applications, such as soldering to enable electrical connections in semiconductors, high-end capacitors, and other electronic components in nearly all military hardware. There's not a lot of tin exposure on the ASX outside of long-time producer Metals X (ASX:MLX). Metals X-backed Elementos (ASX:ELT) could be next in line after releasing a definitive feasibility study for its Oropesa project in Spain in April. The company is now working on permitting and financing ahead of a making a final investment decision. Stellar Resources (ASX:SRZ) says its Heemskirk tin project in Tasmania has the potential to be a global top 10 producer. A prefeasibility study is due in the second half of this year, with the company expected to move straight into a DFS. Sky Metals (ASX:SKY) holds the advanced Tallebung project in NSW, a historical tin producer. The company is advancing a bulk sample metallurgical program to optimise the process flowsheet and produce marketable tin concentrates ahead of offtake marketing. Earlier stage explorers include Brazilian focused Australian Mines (ASX:AUZ) and Perpetual Resources (ASX:PEC), who are trying to find new deposit in a waning tin power which almost 40 years ago supplied 22% of the world's primary tin. At Stockhead, we tell it like it is. While Victory Metals, Locksley Resources, Resolution Minerals, Tungsten Mining, Australian Mines and Perpetual Resources are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.

The Advertiser

15 hours ago

• The Advertiser

No diplomatic breakthrough as Israel-Iran war drags on

Talks aimed at de-escalating fighting between Israel and Iran have failed to produce a diplomatic breakthrough as the war enters its second week with a fresh round of strikes between the two adversaries. European ministers and Iran's top diplomat met on Friday in Geneva, Switzerland, as President Donald Trump continued to weigh US military involvement and worries rose over potential strikes on nuclear reactors. European officials expressed hope for future negotiations, and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he was open to further dialogue while emphasising that Tehran had no interest in negotiating with the US while Israel continued attacking. "Iran is ready to consider diplomacy if aggression ceases and the aggressor is held accountable for its committed crimes," he told reporters. No date was set for the next round of talks. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel's military operation in Iran would continue "for as long as it takes" to eliminate what he called the existential threat of Iran's nuclear program and arsenal of ballistic missiles. But Netanyahu's goal could be out of reach without US help. Iran's underground Fordo uranium enrichment facility is considered to be out of reach to all but America's "bunker-buster" bombs. Trump said he would put off deciding whether to join Israel's air campaign against Iran for up to two weeks. The war between Israel and Iran erupted June 13, with Israeli air strikes targeting nuclear and military sites, top generals and nuclear scientists. At least 657 people, including 263 civilians, have been killed in Iran and more than 2000 wounded, according to a Washington-based Iranian human rights group. Iran has retaliated by firing 450 missiles and 1000 drones at Israel, according to Israeli army estimates. Most have been shot down by Israel's air defences, but at least 24 people in Israel have been killed and hundreds wounded. Israel's defence minister said on Saturday it killed a commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guard who financed and armed Hamas in preparation for the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that sparked the 20-month long war in Gaza. Saeed Izadi, who was commander of the Palestine Corps for the elite Iranian Quds Force, was killed in an apartment in the city of Qom. Addressing an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, warned against attacks on Iran's nuclear reactors, particularly its only commercial nuclear power plant in the southern city of Bushehr. Israel has not targeted Iran's nuclear reactors, instead focusing its strikes on the main uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, centrifuge workshops near Tehran, laboratories in Isfahan and the country's Arak heavy water reactor southwest of the capital. Iran previously agreed to limit its uranium enrichment and allow international inspectors access to its nuclear sites under a 2015 deal with the US, France, China, Russia, Britain and Germany in exchange for sanctions relief. But after Trump pulled the US out of the deal during his first term, Iran began enriching uranium closer to weapons-grade levels and restricting access to its nuclear facilities. Iran has long maintained its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. Israel said its warplanes hit dozens of military targets across Iran on Friday, including missile-manufacturing facilities, while an Iranian missile hit Israel's northern city of Haifa, wounding at least 31 people. Iranian state media reported explosions from Israeli strikes in an industrial area of Rasht, along the coast of the Caspian Sea. Israel's military had warned Iranians to leave the area around Rasht's Industrial City, but with Iran's internet shut off - now for more than 48 hours - it's unclear how many people could see the message. The Israeli military believes it has destroyed most of Iran's ballistic missile launchers, contributing to the steady decline in Iranian attacks. But several of the roughly three dozen missiles that Israel said Iran fired on Friday slipped through the country's aerial defences, setting off air-raid sirens across the country and sending shrapnel flying into a residential area in the southern city of Beersheba, where a hospital was hit on Thursday. Talks aimed at de-escalating fighting between Israel and Iran have failed to produce a diplomatic breakthrough as the war enters its second week with a fresh round of strikes between the two adversaries. European ministers and Iran's top diplomat met on Friday in Geneva, Switzerland, as President Donald Trump continued to weigh US military involvement and worries rose over potential strikes on nuclear reactors. European officials expressed hope for future negotiations, and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he was open to further dialogue while emphasising that Tehran had no interest in negotiating with the US while Israel continued attacking. "Iran is ready to consider diplomacy if aggression ceases and the aggressor is held accountable for its committed crimes," he told reporters. No date was set for the next round of talks. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel's military operation in Iran would continue "for as long as it takes" to eliminate what he called the existential threat of Iran's nuclear program and arsenal of ballistic missiles. But Netanyahu's goal could be out of reach without US help. Iran's underground Fordo uranium enrichment facility is considered to be out of reach to all but America's "bunker-buster" bombs. Trump said he would put off deciding whether to join Israel's air campaign against Iran for up to two weeks. The war between Israel and Iran erupted June 13, with Israeli air strikes targeting nuclear and military sites, top generals and nuclear scientists. At least 657 people, including 263 civilians, have been killed in Iran and more than 2000 wounded, according to a Washington-based Iranian human rights group. Iran has retaliated by firing 450 missiles and 1000 drones at Israel, according to Israeli army estimates. Most have been shot down by Israel's air defences, but at least 24 people in Israel have been killed and hundreds wounded. Israel's defence minister said on Saturday it killed a commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guard who financed and armed Hamas in preparation for the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that sparked the 20-month long war in Gaza. Saeed Izadi, who was commander of the Palestine Corps for the elite Iranian Quds Force, was killed in an apartment in the city of Qom. Addressing an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, warned against attacks on Iran's nuclear reactors, particularly its only commercial nuclear power plant in the southern city of Bushehr. Israel has not targeted Iran's nuclear reactors, instead focusing its strikes on the main uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, centrifuge workshops near Tehran, laboratories in Isfahan and the country's Arak heavy water reactor southwest of the capital. Iran previously agreed to limit its uranium enrichment and allow international inspectors access to its nuclear sites under a 2015 deal with the US, France, China, Russia, Britain and Germany in exchange for sanctions relief. But after Trump pulled the US out of the deal during his first term, Iran began enriching uranium closer to weapons-grade levels and restricting access to its nuclear facilities. Iran has long maintained its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. Israel said its warplanes hit dozens of military targets across Iran on Friday, including missile-manufacturing facilities, while an Iranian missile hit Israel's northern city of Haifa, wounding at least 31 people. Iranian state media reported explosions from Israeli strikes in an industrial area of Rasht, along the coast of the Caspian Sea. Israel's military had warned Iranians to leave the area around Rasht's Industrial City, but with Iran's internet shut off - now for more than 48 hours - it's unclear how many people could see the message. The Israeli military believes it has destroyed most of Iran's ballistic missile launchers, contributing to the steady decline in Iranian attacks. But several of the roughly three dozen missiles that Israel said Iran fired on Friday slipped through the country's aerial defences, setting off air-raid sirens across the country and sending shrapnel flying into a residential area in the southern city of Beersheba, where a hospital was hit on Thursday. Talks aimed at de-escalating fighting between Israel and Iran have failed to produce a diplomatic breakthrough as the war enters its second week with a fresh round of strikes between the two adversaries. European ministers and Iran's top diplomat met on Friday in Geneva, Switzerland, as President Donald Trump continued to weigh US military involvement and worries rose over potential strikes on nuclear reactors. European officials expressed hope for future negotiations, and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he was open to further dialogue while emphasising that Tehran had no interest in negotiating with the US while Israel continued attacking. "Iran is ready to consider diplomacy if aggression ceases and the aggressor is held accountable for its committed crimes," he told reporters. No date was set for the next round of talks. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel's military operation in Iran would continue "for as long as it takes" to eliminate what he called the existential threat of Iran's nuclear program and arsenal of ballistic missiles. But Netanyahu's goal could be out of reach without US help. Iran's underground Fordo uranium enrichment facility is considered to be out of reach to all but America's "bunker-buster" bombs. Trump said he would put off deciding whether to join Israel's air campaign against Iran for up to two weeks. The war between Israel and Iran erupted June 13, with Israeli air strikes targeting nuclear and military sites, top generals and nuclear scientists. At least 657 people, including 263 civilians, have been killed in Iran and more than 2000 wounded, according to a Washington-based Iranian human rights group. Iran has retaliated by firing 450 missiles and 1000 drones at Israel, according to Israeli army estimates. Most have been shot down by Israel's air defences, but at least 24 people in Israel have been killed and hundreds wounded. Israel's defence minister said on Saturday it killed a commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guard who financed and armed Hamas in preparation for the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that sparked the 20-month long war in Gaza. Saeed Izadi, who was commander of the Palestine Corps for the elite Iranian Quds Force, was killed in an apartment in the city of Qom. Addressing an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, warned against attacks on Iran's nuclear reactors, particularly its only commercial nuclear power plant in the southern city of Bushehr. Israel has not targeted Iran's nuclear reactors, instead focusing its strikes on the main uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, centrifuge workshops near Tehran, laboratories in Isfahan and the country's Arak heavy water reactor southwest of the capital. Iran previously agreed to limit its uranium enrichment and allow international inspectors access to its nuclear sites under a 2015 deal with the US, France, China, Russia, Britain and Germany in exchange for sanctions relief. But after Trump pulled the US out of the deal during his first term, Iran began enriching uranium closer to weapons-grade levels and restricting access to its nuclear facilities. Iran has long maintained its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. Israel said its warplanes hit dozens of military targets across Iran on Friday, including missile-manufacturing facilities, while an Iranian missile hit Israel's northern city of Haifa, wounding at least 31 people. Iranian state media reported explosions from Israeli strikes in an industrial area of Rasht, along the coast of the Caspian Sea. Israel's military had warned Iranians to leave the area around Rasht's Industrial City, but with Iran's internet shut off - now for more than 48 hours - it's unclear how many people could see the message. The Israeli military believes it has destroyed most of Iran's ballistic missile launchers, contributing to the steady decline in Iranian attacks. But several of the roughly three dozen missiles that Israel said Iran fired on Friday slipped through the country's aerial defences, setting off air-raid sirens across the country and sending shrapnel flying into a residential area in the southern city of Beersheba, where a hospital was hit on Thursday. Talks aimed at de-escalating fighting between Israel and Iran have failed to produce a diplomatic breakthrough as the war enters its second week with a fresh round of strikes between the two adversaries. European ministers and Iran's top diplomat met on Friday in Geneva, Switzerland, as President Donald Trump continued to weigh US military involvement and worries rose over potential strikes on nuclear reactors. European officials expressed hope for future negotiations, and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he was open to further dialogue while emphasising that Tehran had no interest in negotiating with the US while Israel continued attacking. "Iran is ready to consider diplomacy if aggression ceases and the aggressor is held accountable for its committed crimes," he told reporters. No date was set for the next round of talks. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel's military operation in Iran would continue "for as long as it takes" to eliminate what he called the existential threat of Iran's nuclear program and arsenal of ballistic missiles. But Netanyahu's goal could be out of reach without US help. Iran's underground Fordo uranium enrichment facility is considered to be out of reach to all but America's "bunker-buster" bombs. Trump said he would put off deciding whether to join Israel's air campaign against Iran for up to two weeks. The war between Israel and Iran erupted June 13, with Israeli air strikes targeting nuclear and military sites, top generals and nuclear scientists. At least 657 people, including 263 civilians, have been killed in Iran and more than 2000 wounded, according to a Washington-based Iranian human rights group. Iran has retaliated by firing 450 missiles and 1000 drones at Israel, according to Israeli army estimates. Most have been shot down by Israel's air defences, but at least 24 people in Israel have been killed and hundreds wounded. Israel's defence minister said on Saturday it killed a commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guard who financed and armed Hamas in preparation for the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel that sparked the 20-month long war in Gaza. Saeed Izadi, who was commander of the Palestine Corps for the elite Iranian Quds Force, was killed in an apartment in the city of Qom. Addressing an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council, Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, warned against attacks on Iran's nuclear reactors, particularly its only commercial nuclear power plant in the southern city of Bushehr. Israel has not targeted Iran's nuclear reactors, instead focusing its strikes on the main uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, centrifuge workshops near Tehran, laboratories in Isfahan and the country's Arak heavy water reactor southwest of the capital. Iran previously agreed to limit its uranium enrichment and allow international inspectors access to its nuclear sites under a 2015 deal with the US, France, China, Russia, Britain and Germany in exchange for sanctions relief. But after Trump pulled the US out of the deal during his first term, Iran began enriching uranium closer to weapons-grade levels and restricting access to its nuclear facilities. Iran has long maintained its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. Israel said its warplanes hit dozens of military targets across Iran on Friday, including missile-manufacturing facilities, while an Iranian missile hit Israel's northern city of Haifa, wounding at least 31 people. Iranian state media reported explosions from Israeli strikes in an industrial area of Rasht, along the coast of the Caspian Sea. Israel's military had warned Iranians to leave the area around Rasht's Industrial City, but with Iran's internet shut off - now for more than 48 hours - it's unclear how many people could see the message. The Israeli military believes it has destroyed most of Iran's ballistic missile launchers, contributing to the steady decline in Iranian attacks. But several of the roughly three dozen missiles that Israel said Iran fired on Friday slipped through the country's aerial defences, setting off air-raid sirens across the country and sending shrapnel flying into a residential area in the southern city of Beersheba, where a hospital was hit on Thursday.