Damage to the brain's "control centre" may be behind the long-term breathlessness, fatigue and anxiety experienced by long Covid sufferers, new research suggests. Scientists from the universities of Cambridge and Oxford used ultra-high-resolution scanners to study the brains of people who had been admitted to hospital with severe Covid-19 early in the pandemic, before vaccines were available.

The findings, published in the journal Brain, may help scientists and clinicians to better understand the long-term effects of Covid-19 on the brain and the rest of the body.

What did the study find?
Powerful MRI scanners, known as 7-Tesla or 7T, were used to study in fine detail the brains of 30 people who had suffered severe Covid, and compare them with the scans of 51 people with no history of infection. Researchers found signs of inflammation in the brainstem, a "small but critical structure that governs life-sustaining bodily functions such as breathing, heart rate and blood pressure", said The Guardian.

What does it mean?
The scans suggest that severe Covid infections can provoke an "immune reaction" that inflames the brainstem, "with the resulting damage producing symptoms that can last for months after patients have been discharged", said the paper.

That these "abnormalities" were in the parts of the brain associated with breathing "strongly suggests that long-lasting symptoms are an effect of inflammation in the brainstem following Covid-19 infection", said Dr Catarina Rua, a neuroscientist at the University of Cambridge and first author on the new study.

The condition known as long Covid or post-Covid syndrome can cause extreme tiredness, shortness of breath, brain fog, dizziness, heart palpitations and muscle aches lasting for 12 weeks or more, according to Nice guidelines.

The study found that the former Covid patients with the highest levels of brainstem inflammation also had the highest levels of depression and anxiety, another key symptom of long Covid.

Does this change how Covid should be treated?
This study doesn't "conclusively prove" the causes, but it does "point a finger at one possible suspect for some of the symptoms experienced", said Paul Mullins, a professor in neuroimaging at the University of Bangor. The results suggest it might be useful to "reduce inflammatory responses during initial Covid infection".

A new TV show awash with champagne, "gigantic" hair and "rumpy pumpy" is heading your way, and it's all thanks to Jilly Cooper. Disney+ has adapted the novelist's 1988 "bonkbuster" book "Rivals" to create an eight-part series that is already grabbing critics' attention.

'Vamped up'
The second book in Cooper's "Rutshire Chronicles" series, "Rivals" is "set in the not-so-glamorous halls" of television production, said Yahoo! Entertainment, and "follows the rivalry between two high-flying people in power", politician Rupert Campbell-Black (played by Alex Hassell) and TV exec Declan O'Hara (Aidan Turner).

The "first rumpy pumpy" begins just nine seconds into the first episode, said Carol Midgley in The Times. "It is one of the most kitsch, vivacious, knowingly corny openings that I have seen in quite some time", but the show is a "riot".

It is "all so vivid" that "you can almost smell the fag smoke and hairspray, wet dogs and sex", said Jane Fryer in the Daily Mail. Everything "Jilly" feels "vamped up", including the "huge, sprawling honey-stoned Cotswolds mansion with croquet lawns" and "herbaceous borders to die for", not to mention the "endless boozing on champagne" and "gigantic" hair.

'More than just a romp'
This "tumescent adaptation" is stuffed with "pneumatic talent", said London's The Standard. The cast ranges from David Tennant and Emily Atack to Rufus Jones and Danny Dyer, while the "human heart" is Katherine Parkinson playing a popular novelist. 

In the 1980s, Cooper's books were "considered raunchy" but the sex was "primarily silly, absurd", as the show's lead writer Dominic Treadwell-Collins and director Elliott Hegarty clearly understand.

Perhaps, suggested Cooper in a BBC interview, part of the appeal is the decade itself. "The Eighties really were the most fun time," she said, with "masses of sex, masses of drinking, masses of parties", so "the younger generation all wish they had been born then".

The show certainly is "more than just a romp", said Anita Singh for The Telegraph, giving it a five-star review. Yes, "everyone commits adultery and smokes like a chimney". They also "hunt and shoot" and "tell off-colour jokes" but, just "like the author herself, it has bags of heart".

A "sauna craze" has gripped the country, said the BBC. Almost 100 "hot, sweaty saunas" have cropped up across the UK in recent years – the "perfect counterpart" to cold-water swimming. Here are some of the best.

Beach Box, Brighton
The destination that "kicked off Britain's outside sauna trend" now comprises three saunas: two in converted horse boxes and a third, bigger cedar sauna, said The Times. With the sea "just a short hobble across the pebbles", Beach Box is the perfect setting for a swim/sauna combo.

Pool Bridge Farm, York
"Open-water swimmers will never want to leave Pool Bridge Farm," said The Observer. Two shepherd's huts have been "lovingly restored" and turned into saunas, and there are three "mirror-like lakes to paddle in".

Rooftop Saunas, London
It's a "badly kept Hackney secret" that as well as housing east London's "favourite skyward drinking den", Netil House also features a collection of private sauna cabins and cold-water plunge barrels, said Time Out. When you're finished, head next door to Netil360 for pizza and drinks.

Seaside Sauna House, Dorset
Down at the shingle beach in Seatown sits this charming wood-fired sauna, said The Observer. Consider timing your visit to coincide with the full Moon to join a "night-time sauna party on the beach", and book a room at the cosy Anchor Inn across the road.

Elie Seaside Sauna, Fife
"Perched on the dunes at Elie Harbour" in Fife, this converted horse box has floor-to-ceiling windows revealing sweeping views across Woodhaven Bay and Elie Beach, said The Times, and is a great place to "warm-up post dip".

Why is it all going so wrong for Rachel Reeves?
Henry Newman at London's The Standard
Rachel Reeves has suffered a "shaky start" as chancellor, writes Henry Newman. Her decision to cut winter fuel payments was "condemned right across the political spectrum" and she has also made a "series of bizarre decisions" within her department. Undoubtedly, her looming Budget will be a "key moment" to lay out Labour's plans, but it will take "more than a new hairstyle" to convince the public of her competency.

Vladimir Putin's 72nd may have been his unhappiest birthday yet
Mark Galeotti in The Spectator
The "Kremlin's spin doctors" are out in force, presenting an idealised picture of their "septuagenarian sovereign" on his birthday, writes Mark Galeotti. Russians were "reassured" that "the rest of the world" was celebrating Vladimir Putin yesterday, even if the president apparently wasn't "making much" of his big day. Putin "wants to have his birthday cake and eat it". While he acts "uninterested in pomp and praise", it is clear he is happy to accept both "real and manufactured adulation".

Tories must take the Sabrina Carpenter approach to get back on top
Emma Revell in City A.M.
The music charts are "dominated by Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan, who have worked for a decade to become overnight successes", says Emma Revell. "The same applies to policymaking." The Conservatives might not feel like now is a good time to talk about ideas, but they need to put the groundwork in if they want future success. "Politicians cannot afford to see policymaking as something that can wait until tomorrow."