What is frontotemporal dementia and how does it affect people?
Bruce Willis has been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, one of the rarer types of dementia.
His family said difficulties with communication are “just one of the challenges” the 67-year-old actor faces.
So what is frontotemporal dementia and what are people diagnosed with it likely to experience?
Frontotemporal dementia and its symptoms
Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is thought to account for less than one in 20 of all dementia cases.
It is named for the parts of the brain it affects: the frontal and temporal lobes. It is sometimes called Pick’s disease or frontal lobe dementia.
There are different types of frontotemporal dementia. Behaviour variant FTD is the most common and mainly causes changes in someone’s personality and behaviour.
People with behavioural variant FTD may lose motivation; struggle to focus on tasks, make plans and decisions; lose their inhibitions; show repetitive behaviours and become less considerate of others.
The other main type of FTD is primary progressive aphasia (PPA) which has two sub-types: semantic variant PPA and non-fluent variant PPA.
Semantic variant PPA causes a person to forget the meaning of words.
The person is likely to lose their vocabulary over time and forget what familiar objects are used for.
Non-fluent variant PPA causes a person to have problems with speaking.
Over time, the person will find it more difficult to get their words out and may start to put words in the wrong order, miss out words and say the opposite of what they mean.
Last year, the Die Hard star retired from acting after being diagnosed with aphasia.
Bruce Willis in 1999
How is it different to other types of dementia?
The first noticeable symptoms of FTD are different to other types of dementia.
While people with Alzheimer’s disease often have early problems with day-to-day memory, many people in the early stages of FTD can still remember recent events.
By contrast, the early symptoms of FTD are changes to personality and behaviour and/or difficulties with language.
Who does it affect?
FTD typically affects people between the ages of 45 and 64 but can affect people younger or older than this.
How is it treated?
There’s currently no cure for frontotemporal dementia or any treatment that will slow it down, according to the NHS.
However, treatments such as medicines, therapies and memory activities can help control some of the symptoms.
There’s also a glimmer of hope for people with FTD thanks to researchers at Durham University working on developing treatments.
Professor Andy Whiting said they had conducted some “promising” research that “directly addresses the reasons why there is nerve cell loss”.
He said he was “hopeful” the current lack of treatment could change over the next few years.
Brain scans from a study targeting the earliest brain changes in dementia. Pic: Matt York/AP
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What is the outlook for people with FTD?
As FTD progresses, the differences between behavioural variant FTD and primary progressive aphasia become less obvious.
People who started with language difficulties often develop changes in their behaviour and vice versa.
People may eventually lose all speech.
The later stages of all types of FTD bring a greater range of symptoms, which are similar to the later stages of other types of dementia.
The person may become forgetful, have delusions or hallucinations, get agitated easily and no longer recognise family and friends. They may require full-time care.
How quickly FTD progresses and the person’s life expectancy will depend on the individual.
The average survival time after symptoms start is 8 to 10 years, according to the NHS.
How is FTD caused?
FTD is caused by damage to cells in areas of the brain called the frontal and temporal lobes.
There is a build up of proteins which clump together and damage the brain cells, eventually causing them to die.
It’s not fully understood why this happens, but there’s often a genetic link according to the NHS.
Around 1 in 8 people who get frontotemporal dementia will have relatives who also experienced the condition.
Jurors in the trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs have reached a verdict on four of the five counts against him – but the hip-hop mogul will have to wait to learn his fate.
In tense scenes towards the end of the court day on Tuesday, jurors sent a note to say they had reached verdicts on two charges of sex trafficking and two charges of transportation for prostitution, but had been unable to reach a unanimous decision on the charge of racketeering conspiracy.
Combs‘s lawyers surrounded him at the defence table after the note was sent to the court, and at one point he held his head in his hands.
After discussions with prosecution and defence lawyers, Judge Arun Subramanian told jurors to continue deliberating on Wednesday rather than deliver a partial verdict.
Combs and one of his lawyers, Marc Agnifilo, earlier in the day. Pic: Reuters/Jane Rosenberg
The jury has testimony from more than 30 witnesses to consider – including Combs’s former long-term partner Casandra “Cassie” Ventura and another former girlfriend called “Jane”, who testified under a pseudonym to protect her identity.
Prosecutors allege the 55-year-old rapper used his fame and power to force Cassie and “Jane” into drug-fuelled sex sessions with male sex workers, which were referred to as “freak-offs”, “wild king nights”, or “hotel nights”.
He was also physically violent and blackmailed them with footage, jurors were told.
They also heard from “Mia”, a former employee who alleged she was sexually assaulted by the rapper on several occasions during her career. She also testified using a pseudonym.
Combs has pleaded not guilty to all charges and his defence team has argued that prosecutors are attempting to criminalise what they say was a consensual “swingers lifestyle”.
The rapper chose not to testify and his lawyers did not call any witnesses, building their arguments instead through lengthy cross-examinations of the witnesses called by the prosecution.
What is racketeering conspiracy?
Racketeering conspiracy, which is count one on the verdict sheet, is the most complicated of the charges against Combs.
Jurors need to decide not only whether the rapper created a “racketeering enterprise”, but also if he was involved in various offences as part of this, including kidnapping, arson and bribery.
The charge falls under the US’s RICO laws (the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations Act), which is best known for being used in relation to organised crime and drug cartel cases.
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Defence’s closing argument
After closing arguments last week, jurors began deliberation on Monday and had spent about 13 hours discussing in total by the time they sent their note.
Before reaching the verdict on the four counts, they had requested to review crucial testimony from Cassie about her account of an assault in a hotel in Los Angeles in 2016.
Captured on CCTV, the footage was played in court several times – showing Combs, wearing only a towel and socks, beating, kicking and dragging Cassie in a hallway.
His defence team admitted in their opening statement that this was domestic violence, and said the music star regretted these actions – but that they did not amount to any of the federal charges against him.
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What we learned from Cassie’s testimony
As well as Cassie’s evidence on that assault, they asked to see her testimony on an incident at the Cannes Film Festival in 2013 – when she said Combs accused her of taking drugs from him and kicked her off of his yacht.
On their way back to the US, she told the court, he threatened to release explicit videos of her having sex with an escort.
Jurors also wanted to review testimony given by a male sex worker at the start of the trial.
Combs could face 15 years to life in prison if he is convicted of all charges.
Jurors will continue deliberating on the racketeering conspiracy charge on Wednesday.
Elon Musk has stepped up his attacks on Donald Trump’s sweeping tax and spending bill – weeks after a spectacular fallout between the world’s richest man and the US president.
Following weeks of relative silence after clashing with Mr Trump over his “big beautiful bill”, the billionaire vowed to unseat politicians who support it.
In a post on X, Musk said those who had campaigned on cutting spending but then backed the bill “should hang their heads in shame”.
He added: “And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth.”
Musk also threatened to put their faces on a poster which said “liar” and “voted to increase America’s debt” by $5trn (£3.6trn).
The posts attracted a swift reply from Mr Trump, who claimed the billionaire “may get more subsidy than any human being in history” for his electric car business.
“Without subsidies, Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa,” he wrote on Truth Social.
“No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE. Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard, look at this? BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED!!!”
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Elon’s dad on the Musk-Trump bust-up
Musk spent at least $250m (£182m) supporting Mr Trump in his presidential campaign and then led the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which sacked about 120,000 federal employees.
He has argued the legislation would greatly increase the US national debt and wipe out the savings he claimed he achieved through DOGE.
As the Senate discussed the package, Musk called it “utterly insane and destructive”.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO said the bill’s massive spending indicated “we live in a one-party country – the PORKY PIG PARTY!!”
“Time for a new political party that actually cares about the people,” he wrote.
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Musk previously said some of his social media posts during his dramatic fallout with Mr Trump “went too far”.
He had shared a series of posts on X, including one that described Mr Trump’s tax and spending bill as a “disgusting abomination”.
He also claimed, in a since-deleted post, that the president appeared in files relating to the disgraced paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
But Musk later wrote: “I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far.”
In response, the president told the New York Post: “I thought it was very nice that he did that.”
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