BBC Words in the News 13/19 with transcript video

Alzheimer’s disease is a growing burden around the world. Yet basic questions such as what causes it or how to diagnose it remain unanswered. A global team of scientists searched through the DNA of more than 50,000 people in the hunt for clues. The study, published in Nature Genetics, identified 11 new genes on top of the ten already discovered. All can increase the chances of developing the dementia.

One of the lead scientists, Professor Julie Williams from Cardiff University, said working out the genes’ role in Alzheimer’s could lead to treatments. “It’s not, you know, 21 different theories about Alzheimer’s. They are forming patterns so we can look at a few different processes and try and understand those and then produce treatments from there.”

Those patterns centre on the immune system, how the body deals with cholesterol and how cells in the brain transport material. But this is the first step. Further studies are now needed to identify precisely what is going wrong and to begin the slow process of converting the findings into treatments.

Lines of police blocked roads in the grimy eastern city of Xinyu as the three activists were brought to court. Liu Ping, Wei Zhongping and Li Sihua were unknown outside their hometown before now.

But their trial is being seen as highly significant. Their crime: to gather a dozen, mostly elderly, people in the courtyard of their apartment block last April, and unfurl a banner, calling on President Xi Jinping to make Chinese officials publicly disclose their wealth. They’re charged with illegal assembly.

Since he took over the leadership of the Communist Party a year ago, President Xi’s government has launched its own anti-corruption drive. But Mr Xi has also overseen the broadest crackdown China has seen in recent years. Dozens of campaigners and lawyers have been detained, many linked to a loose group called the New Citizens’ Movement that’s been calling for greater civil and political rights for ordinary Chinese.

President Xi appears to be taking a tougher line even than his predecessors on any who publicly challenge the authority of the Communist Party.