What happened
New results from the Health Survey for England indicate a marked shift in drinking habits, with 24% of adults saying they had not consumed alcohol in the past 12 months. That represents a rise from the long-standing level of roughly one in five seen over the previous decade. The change is most pronounced among younger people, particularly men, while abstention remains far less common among older age groups. 

Who said what
Campaigners welcomed signs that fewer people are engaging in high-risk drinking but warned against complacency. Jem Roberts, head of external affairs at the Institute of Alcohol Studies, said: “Millions of people are still drinking at levels that significantly increase their risk of serious harm, from alcohol-related cancers to life-changing injuries and long-term illness, and we have seen record high alcohol deaths in recent years.” This is the birth of “Booze-free Britain”, said Barney Calman in the Daily Mail. Sobriety is now seeing a “sharp jump after years of relative stability”.

What next?
Advocates argue that stronger public health measures, including pricing reforms, clearer labelling and tighter marketing rules, are needed to curb alcohol-related harm, particularly among older and heavier drinkers.

What happened
Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” has received the most nominations at this year’s Bafta Film Awards, with 14 in total. Vampire horror smash “Sinners”, which made history last week with a record 16 Oscar nominations, followed close behind with 13. 

Who said what
The dominance of “Sinners” and “One Battle” suggests audiences are eager to find points of connection in “a fractured and confused world”, said Bafta chair Sara Putt. 

“Two actors whose absence was most notable at the Oscars” – Chase Infiniti (pictured above), who starred as Leonardo DiCaprio’s daughter in “One Battle”, and “Hamnet” leading man Paul Mescal – both made the Bafta shortlist, said the BBC. DiCaprio received his seventh nomination for leading actor, tying “the all-time record”.

Shock snubs were “largely absent”, said The Guardian, “in part because Bafta’s acting shortlists number six, rather than the Oscars’ five”, and “because loins had already been girded for high-profile shut-outs such as ‘Wicked: For Good’.”

What next?
The awards, hosted by actor and TV presenter Alan Cumming (taking over from David Tennant), take place in London on 22 February.

While many people are scared of sharks thanks to their rows of razor-sharp teeth, the changing waters might be rendering the creatures from “Jaws” a little less fearsome. Growing acidity in the world’s oceans is changing the structure of sharks’ teeth, scientists investigating the “corrosive effects from acidification” on the “morphology” of those teeth reported in a marine science journal. This weakening of the teeth of the apex predators could affect the broader marine ecosystem, too.

The study was helmed by a group of German scientists examining the effects of ocean acidity. The scientists “investigated the corrosive effects from acidification on the morphology of isolated shark teeth,” said the study, which was published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science. The average ocean pH is currently 8.1, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, but it is expected to become more acidic in the coming centuries.

The dental stress “would add to sharks’ other problems, which include prey shortages caused by overfishing,” said The Guardian. Many shark species can replace lost teeth naturally, but increasing ocean acidity could “speed losses past replacement rates.” And more than just sharks could be affected, as there could be “effects on the teeth of ocean predators in general when they are highly mineralised structures like we have in sharks,” Maximilian Baum, the study’s lead author, said to The Guardian. 

The study’s “main takeaway is that not only small organisms like corals or mollusks are at risk: even the teeth of apex predators show visible damage under acidified conditions, suggesting that ocean acidification could impact sharks more directly than previously assumed,” Baum said to CNN.