There is growing demand to separate “profound autism” into its own diagnosis, outside current parameters.

Since 2013, autism diagnoses have been split into three levels, ranging from “some support required” to “requires very substantial support”, said The Autism Service. The addition of a “profound autism” category was first proposed in 2022 by a board of international experts in The Lancet. 

Those who support the idea think it could bring welcome extra support to those who require it most, but critics say it could mean other members of the autistic community are neglected.

What is profound autism?
The proposed term would describe individuals with autism who “have little or no language (spoken, written, signed or via a communication device), who have an IQ of less than 50, and who require 24-hour supervision and support”, said neurodevelopment experts Kelsie Boulton, Marie Antoinette Hodge and Rebecca Sutherland on The Conversation. 

In their study of 513 autistic children assessed between 2019 and 2024, they found that around 24% met, or were likely to meet, the criteria for profound autism.

Why is the new definition needed?
Having a more specific category in future clinical guidelines could allow governments, disability services and clinicians to plan and deliver support more effectively, said the research trio. Recent broadening of the current spectrum means it is possible that those with the highest needs are “overlooked”, so the new category would “rebalance their under-representation in mainstream autism research”.

Current understanding of an autistic spectrum ranging from “mild” to “severe” can be “misleading”, said public health professor Aimee Grant on The Conversation. Autism is made up of many different elements, so “there can be no single line on which every autistic person is placed”.

What are the arguments against it?
Some experts say a new category would be “unhelpful”, said Grant. On its own, “it tells us nothing about a person’s particular challenges or the type of support they require”.

Some advocates in the autism community see “unity as the best protection for everyone on the spectrum” and value being “part of one shared story”, said Forbes. Others in the community fear that creating a separate diagnosis would “reduce attention on the broader spectrum and the individual needs of everyone on it”, said The Independent.

As most parents in England tackle the first day of the February half-term, they may welcome the head of Ofsted saying it’s time to “have a good old look” at the “bizarre” timing and length of school holidays.

Martyn Oliver, the chief inspector of the school watchdog, told the Financial Times that current arrangements might be worsening the “stubborn” gap between advantaged and disadvantaged children.

Harvesting history
Most state schools in England have a six-week summer holiday, two weeks at Christmas and Easter, plus three one-week half-term holidays. Oliver called for a “debate” about shortening these holidays so that children spend more time in class, because pupils are in school for a “ridiculously low” proportion of each year: only 190 days in total.

“It’s interesting to think that the holiday period was very much determined around harvesting fields,” he said. “Some things are pretty bizarre.” He also pointed out that it’s “pretty hot usually in May, June and July, just at the point you’re asking children to sit down and take an exam”.

“Six weeks is a long time away from learning,” said the BBC’s education editor, Branwen Jeffreys – particularly for children whose parents are working or who “can’t afford lots of costly day trips, activities or a long family holiday”. All children “may forget a little of what they have learnt”, but better-off families can “enrich their understanding by giving them other experiences”, which “widens the learning gap”.

Regional variations
The school year schedule in Scotland is causing “fatigue for both children and school staff”, said Gillian Hunt, an education consultant and former teacher, in a report for the Enlighten think tank last year. She called for a four-term year to reflect “modern society”. Like England and Wales, Scotland has a six-week summer break, but it tends to start and end earlier, meaning that the autumn term begins in mid-August. In Northern Ireland, schools close for all of July and August.

A report by the Nuffield Foundation in 2024 said that it was “time to consider reforms to a school calendar that has been stuck in place since Victorian times”. It also argued that “spreading school holidays more evenly across the year could improve the working lives of teachers”.

A Portela samba school reveller performs on the opening night of the Rio Carnival. It is considered the biggest celebration of Carnival in the world, with two million people per day on the streets of Rio de Janeiro. There are three days of parades, featuring four top samba schools each day.

Pablo Porcincula / AFP / Getty Images

When hot honey burst onto the food scene about five years ago, it was “something unusual” to drizzle over pizza or use as a meat or halloumi glaze, said Lucy Knight in The Guardian. But now the demand for it has “gone a bit crazy”.

It’s all about its “swicy” – sweet and spicy – appeal. For Gen Z in particular, “swiciness reigns supreme”. And even brands like Walkers and Kellogg’s Crunchy Nut have jumped on board, with limited-edition hot-honey-flavoured crisps and cornflakes.

It’s definitely the “buzzy new flavour sheriff in town”, said Abha Shah in The Standard. Hot honey is versatile and a very “approachable way to enjoy chilli”. 

You can easily make it yourself: just put some honey in a pan over a low heat and then add dried chilli flakes (or diced fresh chilli) and a dash of vinegar or hot sauce. Simmer gently and then allow to cool. Strain the chilli out before serving or, if you like a bit of punch, leave it in.

If you’d rather buy it from the professionals, the “acacia and Pasilla chilli pepper rendition” in Daylesford Hot Chilli Honey, £15, is a seductive luxury choice, said Shah in The Standard

Hot honey may have “made waves” in the food industry but it does split opinion, said Alice Reynolds in The Independent. It’s “arguably the new Marmite” because people “either hate it or can’t get enough.” Either way, “it’s here to stay’.

We owe it to every victim of Jeffrey Epstein to better protect women and girls in Britain. And we will
Jess Phillips in The Guardian
“‘Never waste a crisis’ is my mantra,” writes safeguarding minister Jess Phillips. Although I’m “furious” that institutions need women “to bleed first”, I see the “fallout from the Epstein files” as “an opportunity to push for” more action. Labour has a target “of halving violence against women and girls”, and I will use the current momentum to get more political attention on this, “like the scrappy kid at the dinner table of a large family that I am”.

Astrology used to be fun – now it’s ruining my friendships
Esme Gordon-Craig in The i Paper
My generation’s “devotion to astrology has gone too far”, writes Esme Gordon-Craig. Friends said “my distress” about work and relationships last month was just “the wolf supermoon” and I should wait for the “personal transformation” coming with “February’s planetary parade”. Yet here I am, “still jobless, single, stressed”. We can’t make compassion “contingent on zodiac signs” or let “tapping into the cosmos” stop us supporting each other. From now on, I shall be “navigating life without planetary assistance”.

Give Jim Ratcliffe a break. He’s just a billionaire
Caitlin Moran in The Times
“Just because” billionaires “have huge houses and helicopters”, writes Caitlin Moran, we “think they’re fine” and don’t “see their problems”. Jim Ratcliffe was criticised for saying Britain has been colonised by immigrants, but I “felt immense sympathy”: the man “runs more than 30 businesses” and, “on top of this already frazzling nightmare”, he has to cope with being a tax exile. He’s “spread wafer thin”. Billionaires “are not masters of the universe”; they’re “very tired, bewildered old men”.