Tag: nanny state

NHS plans to DNA test all babies to assess disease risk

Every newborn baby in England will have their DNA mapped to assess their risk of hundreds of diseases, under NHS plans for the next 10 years.

The scheme, first reported by the Daily Telegraph, is part of a government drive towards predicting and preventing illness, which will also see £650m invested in DNA research for all patients by 2030.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said gene technology would enable the health service to “leapfrog disease, so we’re in front of it rather than reacting to it”.

It comes after a study analysing the genetic code of up to 100,000 babies was announced in October.

The government’s 10-year plan for the NHS, which is set to be revealed over the coming few weeks, is aimed at easing pressure on services.

The Department for Health and Social Care said that genomics – the study of genes – and AI would be used to “revolutionise prevention” and provide faster diagnoses and an “early warning signal for disease”.

Screening newborn babies for rare diseases will involve sequencing their complete DNA using blood samples from their umbilical cord, taken shortly after birth.

There are approximately 7,000 single-gene disorders. The NHS study which began in October only looked for gene disorders that develop in early childhood and for which there are effective treatments.

Currently, newborn babies are offered a heelprick blood test that checks for nine serious conditions, including cystic fibrosis.

The health secretary said in a statement: “With the power of this new technology, patients will be able to receive personalised healthcare to prevent ill-health before symptoms begin, reducing the pressure on NHS services and helping people live longer, healthier lives.”

Streeting added: “The revolution in medical science means that we can transform the NHS over the coming decade, from a service which diagnoses and treats ill-health to one that predicts and prevents it.”

Sequencing DNA gives a lot of information about a person which can then be used to make predictions about the likelihood of them having particular genetic diseases, according to Prof Robin Lovell-Badge, a geneticist at the Francis Crick Institute.

These include conditions like muscular dystrophy, liver diseases and some kidney problems, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

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Minnesota To Mandate Mental Health Warnings on Social Media; First Amendment Questions Loom

Minnesota has positioned itself at the forefront of a deeply contentious regulatory frontier by enacting the nation’s first law requiring social media platforms to display mental health trigger warning labels to all users.

Tied to the 2025 Special Session Health and Human Services bill and awaiting the governor’s signature, the law takes effect July 1, 2026, and imposes unprecedented obligations on digital platforms to act as public health messengers.

We obtained a copy of the bill for you here.

Drafted by State Representative Zack Stephenson (DFL-District 35A), the measure compels platforms to display prominent mental health warnings on login, highlighting alleged risks associated with usage, particularly among youth, and directing users to crisis services like the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

These alerts must be acknowledged before access is granted, cannot be hidden in terms of service, and must not be dismissible without interaction. Content for the mandated warnings will be controlled by the Minnesota Commissioner of Health, alongside the Commissioner of Commerce.

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Aspen Police Department Warns Kids Having Fun Is a Crime

“When you see this, do you think it’s just fun? Or do you think that it’s illegal? It is definitely the latter. Whether it’s fun or not.”

This is the beginning of a Facebook post by Colorado’s Aspen Police Department (APD). What is this possibly fun but definitely illegal activity?

The post includes a photo that shows two children on a bike—one child sitting on the seat and the other on the first rider’s lap—riding on a sidewalk. 

“Colorado law says that two-up riding on a single seat bike is against the law, and of course, bikes are not allowed on sidewalks,” the post continues. “These ‘Sidewalk Sallys’ could potentially hurt themselves or others.” (If you had to Google “Sidewalk Sally” you are not alone, as it’s not a real term. A daytime talk show seems to have coined and used it once, unrelated to riding a bike on a sidewalk.)

The APD post goes on to inform Aspen’s citizens that this behavior could result in a “ticket or a trip to the emergency room,” both of which seem like rather dramatic consequences for an activity that has been popular since the invention of bikes. The tone-deaf post is signed “The Aspen Police Department—protecting the Wild West on two wheels since the 1880s,” which seems to inadvertently imply that APD officers get around exclusively on bikes.

The post has garnered over 300 comments—far more than the department’s other posts—most of which are not thankful for the Department’s caution and concern:

“Tell me you don’t have real crimes in Aspen without telling me you don’t have real crimes.”
“‘Kids never go outside anymore!’ Proceeds to police every single thing kids do.”
“Lol yes. Our children should really be playing IN the traffic. Not away from it. Got it.” (That one really resonated. My mom made me ride on the sidewalks, so it’s not obvious to all of us that biking on the sidewalk is a crime.)

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Britain Is Sleepwalking Into Total State Control of Our Daily Lives

In a gloomy piece for the Telegraph, Sam Ashworth-Hayes warns that Britain is blindly sleepwalking into total state control, sacrificing individual freedom to an ever-expanding, intrusive government that now dominates every aspect of daily life. Here’s an excerpt:

Thank God we won the Cold War. For a while there, it was touch and go, the future of the world on a knife-edge.

On one side, we had a system permeated top to bottom by an official state ideology. Employment and freedom was made contingent on adherence, an extensive network of censors and informers was established to maintain the illusion that dissenters were a minority, harsh punishments were meted out to political prisoners and the state took control of vast swathes of the economy.

On the other, the promise of freedom: freedom of conscience, freedom of speech, freedom of religion and association, freedom to do as you would with your private property.

It was, as I said, close. But in the end, despite Thatcher’s brief, doomed fightback, the Socialists won.

It’s a tongue-in-cheek reading of British history, but it doesn’t take a great deal of exaggeration to see how it could be true.

As AJP Taylor once wrote, “until August 1914 a sensible, law-abiding Englishman could pass through life and hardly notice the existence of the state beyond the post office and the policeman”.

That is emphatically not the case today. Having won the wars, the advocates of freedom comprehensively lost the peace. They lost to such a degree that those of us born and raised afterwards find it hard to comprehend the scale of the change.

It’s easiest to start with the size of the state. To be sure, socialism in Britain has receded from its high point. The nationalisation of coal, iron, steel, electricity, gas, roads, aviation, telecommunications and railways has been mostly undone, although steel and rail are on the way back in.

But by comparison to our pre-war starting point, we live in a nearly unrecognisable country. In 1913, taxes and spending took up around 8% of GDP. Today, they account for 35% and 45% respectively. To put it another way, almost half of all economic activity in Britain involves funds allocated at the behest of the government, and over half of British adults rely on the state for major parts of their income.

And if anything, this understates the degree of government control. Outcomes which are nominally left to the market are rigged by a state which sees prices as less as a way for markets to clear, and more as a tool for social engineering.

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Texas Ban On Social Media For Under 18s Fails To Pass Senate

Legislation that would have banned anyone under the age of 18 from using or creating social media accounts in Texas stalled in the Senate this week after lawmakers failed to vote on it.

House Bill 186, filed by state Rep. Jared Patterson (R-Frisco), would have prohibited minors from creating accounts on social media sites such as Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, and others by requiring the platforms to verify users’ age.

The measure previously passed the GOP-controlled state House with broad bipartisan support in April, but momentum behind the bill slowed at the eleventh hour in the state Senate this week as lawmakers face a weekend deadline to send bills to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk.

The legislative session ends on Monday.

In a statement on the social media platform X late Thursday, Patterson said the bill’s failure to pass in the Senate was “the biggest disappointment of my career,” adding that no other bill filed this session “would have protected more kids in more ways than this one.”

The Republican lawmaker said he believed its failure to pass meant “I’ve failed these kids and their families.”

“I felt the weight of an entire generation of kids who’ve had their mental health severely handicapped as a result of the harms of social media,”  the lawmaker said. “And then there’s the others – the parents of Texas kids who’ve died as a result of a stupid social media ‘challenge’ or by suicide after being pulled down the dangerous rabbit holes social media uses to hook their users, addict them on their products, and drive them to depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation.”

“Finally, there’s the perfectly happy and healthy teens in Texas today, who will find themselves slowly falling off the edge before the legislature meets again in 2027,” he stated.

Patterson suggested he would try and pass the measure again when the Texas Legislature meets in 2027.

House Bill 186 would have prohibited a child from entering into a contract with a social media platform to become an account holder and required platforms to verify that a person seeking to become an account holder is 18 years of age or older before allowing them to create an account.

The legislation would have also required social media platforms to delete accounts belonging to individuals under the age of 18 at a parent or guardian’s request.

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France BANS smoking in nearly all outdoor spaces

France will ban smoking in all outdoor places that can be frequented by children, like beaches, parks and bus stops, the health and family minister said on Thursday.

‘Where there are children, tobacco must disappear,’ Catherine Vautrin said in an interview published by regional outlet Ouest-France.

The restrictions will come into force on July 1, and failure to comply with the draconian ban could result in a £114 fine, the minister said, adding that children have the ‘right to breathe clean air.’

Cigarettes will also be banned in areas close to schools to prevent students from ‘smoking in front of their establishments.’ 

The ban does not apply to cafe terraces – or include electronic cigarettes. 

The government’s National Anti-Tobacco Programme for 2023 to 2027 proposed a smoking ban similar to the one announced by Vautrin, calling for France to ‘rise to the challenge of a tobacco-free generation from 2032.’ 

But anti-tobacco organisations had voiced concern the authorities were dragging their feet on implementing the measures. 

Vautrin said there were no plans to place additional taxes on cigarettes ‘at the moment’. 

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Minnesota’s Latest Law May Effectively Ban Keys

Standard household keys may soon be illegal in Minnesota.

Starting in July, keys for cars, houses, and boats will be illegal under Minnesota’s new statute, 325E.3892 LEAD AND CADMIUM IN CONSUMER PRODUCTS; PROHIBITION.

The new statute aims to ban everyday items containing a tiny percentage of lead and cadmium, which keys contain.

Many locksmiths have warned lawmakers that the new law will ban nearly all of their products because they contain more lead and cadmium than the state’s new 0.09% limit.

Rob Justen of Doyle Security Products stated, “Approximately 75 percent of all products that we stock have become prohibited for sale.”

Other locksmiths have warned that replacing the now-banned materials with aluminum or steel will make them too brittle and prone to rusting.

Per Reason:

Come July, common keys for houses, cars, boats, and motorcycles will be illegal in Minnesota, save for uncertain intervention from the state Legislature.

That’s when the state’s ban on the manufacture, sale, or import of keys, toys, dishes, and other common items containing more than a tiny percentage of lead or cadmium goes into effect.

The purpose of that law was to remove dangerous heavy metals from products that come into contact with children. The trouble is that almost all keys sold today have more lead than the new law’s 0.09 percent limit on lead content.

Locksmiths have been warning that the state’s lead ban will outlaw most of the products they sell. Alternative metals would require lengthy and expensive transition to using less functional materials, they say.

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USDA Approves Nebraska’s Banning Soda and Energy Drinks From Food Stamps

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins issued a waiver on May 19 restricting the use of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) funds to buy soda or energy drinks in Nebraska, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said in a May 19 statement.

This is the first-ever state waiver banning soda and energy drinks from SNAP, popularly known as food stamps.

“Prior to this waiver, SNAP recipients could buy anything except alcohol, tobacco, hot foods, and personal care products,” said the statement.

The waiver, which takes effect on Jan. 1, 2026, is part of the Trump administration’s Make America Healthy Again agenda, the USDA said, adding that this “historic action seeks to reverse alarming disease trends across the country.”

One in three children between the ages of 12 and 19 is affected by prediabetes, it said. Forty percent of school-aged children and adolescents suffer from at least one chronic condition, while 15 percent of students in high school drink a minimum of one soda per day.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order in February establishing the President’s Commission to Make America Healthy Again. The agency is tasked with investigating the “root causes of America’s escalating health crisis,” including chronic disease among children, according to a White House fact sheet.

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Virginia’s new social media law targets teen access via parental consent, age checks

Virginia is preparing to enforce one of the nation’s most sweeping new restrictions on social media access for teens, requiring parental consent, time limits and age checks for users under 16.

The law, signed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin in May, takes effect Jan. 1, 2026, and applies to any platform that allows public profiles, messaging and shared content feeds.

Senate Bill 854 requires users to use a neutral age screen to determine if a user is under 16 and then secure verifiable parental consent before allowing more than one hour of daily use per service.

It also bars platforms from treating a minor’s data as if it belongs to an adult, even when shared through browser plug-ins or common devices.

Virginia joins more than a dozen states that have passed or proposed laws since 2023 to regulate children’s access to social media, including Utah, Texas, Florida, Maryland and California. While the details vary, most require age verification and parental consent for minors to create accounts or use apps beyond a time limit.

Privacy advocates say the law could have unintended consequences. Jason Kelley, associate director of digital strategy at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the measure may increase data collection rather than limit it.

“Any time a company is required by law to collect more information, there are data privacy risks,” Kelley said, noting that platforms may turn to tools like geolocation, facial scans or ID verification to meet the law’s requirements.

He also raised legal concerns, pointing out that similar laws in other states have been paused or overturned in court.

“Like similar laws in other states, it’s unlikely Virginia’s law will survive judicial scrutiny,” Kelley said.

He also raised concerns that verification systems may not work for all families.

“These systems don’t necessarily take into account a large number of non-traditional families,” Kelley said. “Regardless, such restrictions are not enforcing parental authority. They are imposing governmental authority, subject only to a parental veto.”

Supporters of the law say it gives parents a stronger role in managing their children’s online habits. In a written response, Sen. Schuyler Van Valkenburg’s office said the law is enforced under the existing Consumer Protection Act and handled by the Virginia Attorney General’s Office.

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Drastic new cigarette rules that will change the way Aussies smoke forever

Aussie smokers will see some types of cigarettes banned under tough new rules designed to make smoking as unappealing as possible. 

The new measures, which are set to come into force from July 1, will outlaw certain ingredients, flavours and accessories. 

For example, menthol, rum and clove-favoured cigarettes and those with crush balls in the filter will be banned. 

‘These mask the harshness of tobacco, make it more addictive, easier to smoke and harder to quit,’ a Department of Health spokesman said.

Cigarette manufacturers will also be banned from using words like ‘smooth’ and ‘gold’ because they can create the false impression that some products are less harmful.

The new rules will also force all cigarettes to be consistent in their size and shape, with unique filters banned. 

Each packet will come with health warnings and contain information cards offering support to quit.

It comes after manufacturers were forced to print grim warning messages, such as ‘poison in every puff’ and ‘toxic addiction’, on the filter of each cigarette from April.

Health Minister Mark Butler said Australia was ‘one of the first countries in the world to include this new public health measure’.

He said the aim was to ‘educate but also dissuade smokers from using this deadly product’.

Cigarette prices in Australia are among the highest in the world due chiefly to heavy taxation. A standard 20-pack costs more than $50, depending on the brand, with 70 per cent of the retail price ($35) going to the government in excise tax.

Cigarette excise taxes increase twice a year in line with average wages. On March 1, the tax per cigarette rose by 2.8 per cent to $1.27816, up from $1.24335.

The regular tax hikes and resultant high prices have created a booming black market, with millions of Australians now buying illegal, counterfeit cigarettes sold in convenience stores.

The lucrative black-market trade has seen tobacco stores taken over by criminal gangs, with violent turf wars and arson attacks. 

And despite the tax increases, government revenue from tobacco has plummeted due to fewer people buying the expensive product – dropping 39 per cent in just four years, from a peak of $16 billion in 2019/20 to $9.8 billion in 2023/24.

The ATO now estimates that nearly one in five cigarettes smoked in Australia comes from criminal syndicates that evade taxes and sell at deep discounts.

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