Power struggles in Washington DC are nothing new. The US capital is a one-industry town, and that industry is the politics of the single most powerful government in the world – so it is hardly a shock that it attracts ferociously ambitious people, nor that such people occasionally clash.
Against that backdrop, reports that the Secretary of the Army. Daniel Driscoll – a veteran who served in the Iraq War – is to step down from his role after clashing with Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of War, seem almost normal, when compared to the usual antics of the Trump administration.
Driscoll is believed to owe his job to a long-standing friendship with Vice President JD Vance – both men are part of tech-industry-related social networks organised in part by Palantir founder Peter Thiel – and has been staunchly in favour of modernising the US military to use tactics derived from the battlefields of Ukraine.
us news
Meta agrees to pay up to $17bn to settle social media case
Meta has reached a settlement with US states and territories to resolve a court case related to child safety.
The agreement will require the social media giant to pay up to $17bn (£12.5bn).
What has Meta agreed to?
Meta agreed to establish safeguards for teenage users, including daily usage limits and night-time blocks nationwide in the US.
This is the first time Meta has been forced to change how its platforms function.
As part of the settlement, the company denies wrongdoing.
What happened at the trial?
- It was alleged the company had violated numerous federal and state privacy laws for children.
- The states suing Meta claimed it used its platforms “to ensnare youth and teens”, and ignored the damage they did to the “wellbeing of America’s youth”.
- After the settlement was announced, District of Columbia attorney general Brian Schwalb called it a “monumental public health victory”.
What did Meta say?
Today, we are announcing an agreement with a bipartisan group of 52 attorneys general across US states, territories, and the District of Columbia, building on our long-standing efforts to empower parents and support teens
Calls for TikTok to follow
- The company said TikTok and YouTube should also implement the same safety features for their younger users.
- “Our new Time Limit commitments, Night Mode features and usage limits during school hours set the right path forward for our whole industry, but this framework will only work if all our peers join us,” Meta’s chief legal officer, CJ Mahoney, said.
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The subtle eye signals your dog may be sending you
Researchers have found that dogs blink more frequently when they see their owners doing so, which may mean that they are communicating more than just a need to momentarily close their eyes.
What did the study find?
Writing in the journal , Dr Chiara Canori from the University of Parma described how 35 different breeds were shown two videos with three people in them, one of them being their owner. In one video the humans blinked every three seconds and in the other they did not blink.
The researchers found that the dogs blinked more when the humans did, and this increased when shown their owner.
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What do the blinks mean?
Previous research has found that dogs turn on puppy eyes when humans look at them and can distinguish happy human faces from other expressions.
However, there may not be a huge amount of meaning behind dogs’ blinks. Canori said: “As of today… we cannot say that a dog deliberately blinks in order to convey a particular message. It may provide subtle feedback about attention or engagement.”
Blinking can be influenced by social context
Our study does not show that every time a dog blinks it is deliberately ‘saying’ something (…) What our work suggests is that this apparently simple and automatic behaviour can nevertheless be influenced by the social context
Dr Chiara Canori, University of parma
Downpours and thunderstorms will continue to bring the risk of flooding to parts of the UK on Wednesday and Thursday.
A yellow warning for thunderstorms is in place in large areas of the country from 3am until 10pm on Wednesday, then again from 6am until 10pm on Thursday.
Where does the warning cover?
The Met Office warning covers much of the Midlands, parts of northern, eastern and southern England as well as the far east of Wales.
A yellow warning means severe weather is possible and could cause travel disruption.
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Wednesday’s weather warning
Thursday’s weather warning
Rain to fall after prolonged drought
Many areas of the country have recently experienced drought, with the next few days likely to bring the wettest weather in many weeks.
- The punishing heat has made the ground hard, meaning the water cannot soak in and flash flooding is a real concern.
Scientists find ‘window of opportunity’ to start to cut dementia risk
A large new study of postmenopausal women in the UK has found that a common treatment for menopausal symptoms may significantly lower the risk of dementia.
What you need to know
The study, led by experts from the University of East Anglia and University of Exeter, found taking hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was associated with a 10 per cent reduced risk of all dementia and 16 per cent reduction in risk of Alzheimer’s disease specifically.
- The team discovered that starting treatment between the ages of 46-56 “conferred the greatest benefit”.
A closer look at the results of the study
The research analysed more than 183,000 postmenopausal women taking part in the UK Biobank study.
- An average 13-year follow-up found that almost 4,000 of them were diagnosed with dementia.
- After examining information on the dementia diagnoses, they found that those who started HRT between the ages of 46-50 had a 13 per cent reduced risk of dementia.
- Those who started taking HRT when they were aged 51-56 had a 23 per cent reduced risk.
- Women who took HRT after surgical menopause had a 26 per cent lower risk.
What else did the study find?
The study also found that women who naturally had lower exposure to oestrogen over their lifetime appeared to have a 16 per cent lower chance of dementia after taking HRT.
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Why nicotine vapes are still best chance to quit smoking
Smokers are more likely to quit their habit by using vapes compared to conventional methods such as nicotine gum and patches, according to a new study.
Quit rates are higher
The Cochrane Review examined 80 studies involving almost 30,000 people and found that quit rates were higher with vape use, with it leading to 61 per cent increased odds that a quit attempt would be successful after six months.
- That means that eight to 10 out of 100 people using vaping to quite smoking might succeed compared to six of 100 people using nicotine-replacement therapy.
Providing vapes can help
Researchers looked at behavioural support – offered through advice and counselling – and found that people who were also given nicotine vapes were more likely to quit.
The expert view
We have very strong evidence that regulated nicotine e-cigarettes are substantially less harmful than smoking. Based on the consistency of the findings here, it’s clear that they are a proven and viable option for people wishing to quit cigarettes
Dr Jamie Hartmann-Boyce, senior author of the review from University of Massachusetts Amherst
How shingles jab ‘could slash heart risks’
The shingles vaccine currently used by the NHS may slash the risk of heart failure, heart disease and stroke, according to a new study.
What you need to know
Shingles is a viral infection that causes a painful rash and the jab that protects against it – Shingrix – is available on the NHS for people aged 65-70, people aged 70-79 (as part of a catch-up program) and for those over 18 with a severely weakened immune system.
Experts say that if all over-60s had the jab, it could prevent tens of thousands of deaths.
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The study
The NHS switched to Shingrix from the former vaccine, Zostavax, three years ago. Researchers from the University of Oxford compared the risk of stroke, ischemic heart disease or heart failure between the two vaccines over seven years.
- They analysed data from more than 70,000 people and found that up to seven years after the jab, people who had Shingrix lived 9 per cent longer without developing a cardiovascular disease.
more on health from the i paper
Children’s eyesight is getting worse. This is what parents can do about it
The rise in short-sightedness is not directly caused by too much screen time, but a related change in children’s behaviour. Fortunately it can be reversed.
Dolly Parton – a life in pictures
Dolly Parton died on Tuesday at the age of 80. Tributes from around the world have honoured the country music superstar, who passed away following a “brief battle with cancer”.
The singer was best known for her genre-defining hits including “9 To 5”, “I Will Always Love You” and “Jolene”.
Born into a musical family in 1946
Dolly Rebecca Parton was born in 1946, the fourth of 12 children, into a poor farming family who lived in a one-bedroom cabin in Tennessee.
Her father, Robert Lee Parton, was a tobacco farmer. Parton spoke about her mother, Avie Lee, singing folk songs all the time, and her aunt played the guitar.
Country star’s unique style
During her teens, Parton began modelling herself on a local character known as the “town tramp”.
The lady wore bright red nail polish, low-cut tops and high heels – young Dolly thought she was beautiful.
A musical powerhouse
Despite being unable to read sheet music, Parton was proficient on several instruments including the banjo, harp, piano and saxophone. She had her first No 1 hit with the song “Joshua” in 1971.
- It was the theme song that Parton wrote for the 1980 movie 9 to 5 that fully propelled her to stardom.
A nearly 60-year marriage
Parton maintained a deeply committed, nearly 60-year marriage to Carl Dean until his death in 2025. “Carl and I spent many wonderful years together. Words can’t do justice to the love we shared,” Parton said when he died.
Dean remained out of the public eye, choosing to focus on his asphalt-paving business in Nashville. The couple had no children.
Parton’s life in pictures
At least 15 newborn babies die in Islamabad hospital fire
At least 15 infants were killed when a fire broke out at a state-run hospital in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, triggered by a fault in air conditioning systems, local broadcaster Geo TV reported.
Here is everything we know about the incident so far.
What happened?
The blaze started at around 7am local time on Wednesday at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences on the third floor of the mother and child health ward.
The incident is among the deadliest hospital fires in recent years in the country, where government healthcare is subsidised but facilities are overburdened.
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The story in pictures
A closer look at the detail
- There were 16 newborns in the ward when the fire broke out, one of whom was rescued, Geo reported.
- Prime minister Shehbaz Sharif has directed authorities to conduct an immediate investigation, his office said.
- “Those responsible should be identified, and the strictest action should be taken,” Sharif’s office said.
Hegseth’s priorities, meanwhile, have generally been elsewhere. He has focused on rules around soldiers shaving their beards, the introduction of testosterone testing for troops, blocking the promotion of numerous women and soldiers of colour and summoning senior officers from around the world to tell them the US military would now require the “highest male standards”.
US cabinet secretaries often mistrust senior officials who have a power base independent of their own, and with his direct line to Vance and other senior figures in the White House, Driscoll was exactly that – and disagreements between him and Hegseth had made their way into the media on more than one occasion.
Still, if Driscoll was the only high-profile departure in the ranks around Hegseth, this might just be yet another example of DC power plays at work. But the reality is that the top of the Pentagon is starting to have the kind of staff turnover more commonly associated with a failing bar. One or two senior departures look like cleaning house. More than that looks like carelessness. What has happened around Hegseth appears to be an exodus.
Early chaos around the self-titled “Secretary of War” as he made the transition from weekend Fox News host to the leader of the world’s most powerful military saw the departures of his chief of staff, his deputy, a senior adviser and a senior Pentagon spokesman. The Secretary of the Navy – a peer of Driscoll – abruptly departed in April this year.
The mayhem hasn’t been restricted to the civilians within the Pentagon – those in uniform might even have experienced greater turmoil. Within Hegseth’s first three months, he had fired the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff – America’s highest-ranking military officer – alongside the chief of naval operations and many of the military’s most senior lawyers. The head of US cyber command was summarily removed without explanation.
That initial flood turned into a steady trickle: senior officers, including the chief of staff of the air force, were abruptly removed without explanation or retired early, often with several years left to run on their terms of service. Beyond that, Hegseth has blocked the promotions of dozens of senior officers – an unprecedented move by a defence secretary, which has left the US military short of experienced officers to fill its top ranks.
The US is currently trying to end a complex war in the Middle East against Iran, which has drawn in almost every country in the region and led to the near blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil would usually pass.
At the same time, it is trying to broker peace between Ukraine and Russia – ending a shooting war in Europe – and between Israel and Hamas. The US also faces having to restock its key strategic missiles and interceptors, which have been depleted by more than two-thirds, and which would be vital for any future conflict between the US and Russia or China.
The defence chief – Hegseth himself – is central to all of these goals, and yet the team around him is in constant turmoil. Almost all of the joint chiefs are new in post, the army and navy secretary roles are in turmoil, and Hegseth’s own team of advisers has been in churn.
Thankfully, Hegseth seems to have one voice upon which he can rely: his wife Jennifer, who he met when she worked as a producer on his Fox News show, where she eventually rose to become a vice president.
Jennifer Hegseth has attended meetings with senators, sat in on Hegseth’s meeting with the UK’s then-defence secretary John Healey and reportedly weighs in on sensitive matters of military strategy.
Driscoll’s exit might just be the latest in a long line of departures, but it serves as a reminder of how the Department of Defence operates in Donald Trump’s second term. Where once the Pentagon was full of veterans and professionals, some fear the world’s most powerful military is currently being run by a Fox News daytime anchor and his wife.