United Kingdom

The Mongee Banana costs £4.20 (Pic: D&T Farm) Gone are the days of going through the tiring chore of actually peeling a banana - farmers in Japan have successfully grown completely edible fruits thanks to a DNA method mimicking the Ice Age. Named the Mongee Banana, which translates to “incredible” in Japanese, the new and improved banana is the result of the freeze thaw awakening” method. The method, which is being used by D&T Farm in Japan’s Okayama Prefecture, recreates temperatures and growing conditions of the ice age, resulting in bananas that are much sweeter - and fully edible. To mimic the growing methods of plants from 20,000 years ago, and create Mongee bananas, farmers at D&T Farm freeze banana saplings to -60°C, before replanting them once they thaw. This temp...

Some hospitals defended the charges, saying some or all of the money was put back into patient care or was spent on site maintenance. NHS hospitals made a record £174m from charging patients, visitors and staff to park in 2016/17, up 6% on the previous year. Data from 111 hospital trusts across England shows that as many as two-thirds are making more than £1m a year. More than half of trusts now charge disabled people to park. Some trusts defended the charges, saying they were essential to pay for patient care. But opposition parties and patient support groups were critical, with one group saying they were “cynical” but blaming the state of NHS finances rather than the trusts themselves. The Liberal Democrats condemned the charges as a “tax on sickness” while Labour said it was commi...