The White House has lashed out at actor Mark Hamill, calling him “one sick individual” after he posted an AI-generated image of Donald Trump in the grave.
The Hollywood star, who has long been an outspoken critic of Trump, posted a picture to his BlueSky account that showed the President lying with his eyes closed in a shallow grave surrounded by daisies, beneath a gravestone with the words “Donald J Trump 1946-2024”. The image was accompanied by a caption that began: “If Only.”
However, Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars films, rejected that sentiment, suggesting Trump should live long enough to be held accountable for his actions.
Shorts – Quick stories
HEALTH
The diet that can slash high blood pressure risk by 30%
Various kinds of vegan protein sources on beige background. Set of food supplements. Gluten free cereals as ground hemp seeds, quinoa. Nuts and legumes (green mung beans, chick-pea, red lentil, kidney bean, almonds, hazelnuts). Flat lay, top view – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
Eating beans, lentils and soy products dramatically reduces your risk of high blood pressure, a study has found.
The high levels of minerals, fibre and bioactive compounds in the plants also reduce the risk of other heart problems, especially when consumed daily.
How to be full of beans
Colorful Array of Mixed Beans – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
Eat 170g per day of legumes like beans, lentils or chickpeas.
Pair with 60-80g daily of soy such as tofu, edamame or soy milk.
Include regular exercise in your routine to further protect the heart.
LIFESTYLE
6 min read
What did the study find?
Eating a portion of legumes and soy each day led to a 28-30 per cent reduction in risk of high blood pressure. Those on this diet had up to 19 per cent less risk than those eating the least of these products.
Experts writing in the British Medical Journal looked at the results of 12 previous studies for this research and concluded that the high levels of potassium, magnesium and dietary fibre contributed to the lowering of risk.
Charity urges us to eat more beans
Simple swaps, like choosing beans, lentils, chickpeas or tofu in place of processed meats, can make a meaningful difference and help support healthier blood pressure as part of an overall balanced diet.
TRACY PARKER, SENIOR DIETITIAN AT BRITISH HEART FOUNDATION
Adult and child hands holding red heart, health care, donate and family insurance concept,world heart day, world health day,,health care, concept – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
TRAVEL
The next airports which could suspend EES checks
Joe Duggan
Senior Reporter
Greece has suspended EES checks for UK holidaymakers until at least September after queues of three hours or more at the border.
As the summer holiday season approaches, other popular destinations for British tourists could follow suit.
Why are the queues so long?
The new European border system, launched last month, requires non-EU citizens to have a facial scan and fingerprints taken to enter the Schengen Area.
Passengers have reported having to queue for the checks several times. A body representing 600 airports says the queues are causing “major concerns” with some passengers missing flights.
TRAVEL
4 min read
TRAVEL
4 min read
Which countries could pause checks mext?
While only Greece has fully suspended checks for British tourists so far, airports in Portugal, France and Italy have all initiated temporary pauses to help ease long queues. Belgium has postponed introducing EES.
Syros is a quieter alternative to Mykonos (Photo: Getty)Caption: City of Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain. Europe. Photographer: Jose A. Bernat Bacete Provider: Getty Images Source: Moment RF Copyright: @
The Spanish and Dutch governments have said there are no problems with the new system despite the delays. Opposition parties in Spain are calling for checks to be lifted, with one leader saying the queues are “typical of a Third World country”.
Health
How eggs could lower your risk of Alzheimer’s
Eggs were once the original superfood, but then concerns over their cholesterol and fat content led to them being seen as bad for the heart (Photo: Getty)
Clare Wilson
Science Writer
Eggs were once the original superfood, but then concerns over their cholesterol and fat content led to them being seen as bad for the heart. So, what do and don’t we know about the effects of eggs on our health? And does the way that we cook them make a difference?
How has health advice about eggs changed?
Up until the 1970s, eggs were considered a nutritious breakfast, as the famous marketing slogan “go to work on an egg” suggests. People were later advised to limit their egg intake because of the cholesterol in the yolk, which was considered to be bad for the heart. As understanding of how cholesterol works has improved, eggs have been restored to their “superfood” status. The NHS now recommends eggs as part of your diet, with no upper limit.
LIFESTYLE
5 min read
LIFESTYLE
7 min read
What does the study show?
Having eggs at least five times a week suggests a…
27%
lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s, compared with those who rarely or never eat them.
The research followed nearly 40,000 adults aged 65 and over for an average of 15 years.
980,000
people are estimated to be living with dementia in the UK, with Alzheimer’s the most common cause.
This is forecast to rise to 1.4m by 2040 as the population ages.
What’s so special about eggs?
Photographer: Andrew Brookes Provider: Getty Images/Image Source Source: Image Source Copyright: Copyright Andrew Brookes
A no-brainer
Eggs contain choline, which the body uses to make acetylcholine, a chemical involved in memory and learning.
Nutritious and delicious
Eggs contain lutein and zeaxanthin, the yellow-orange pigments in food which could slow down eyesight loss.
(Photo: Laurie Ambrose/Getty).
Caption: Eggs are seen in a carton on Monday, April 13, 2026, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane) Photographer: Jenny Kane Provider: AP Source: AP
Egg-ceptional
They also provide some omega-3 fatty acids, which have been linked with cognitive function.
Caption: A detail of cracked egg falling into the pan as woman holds egg shells in both hands. Photographer: SimpleImages Provider: Getty Images Source: Moment RF
You must be yolking
By just having the whites, you could be forgoing all of these beneficial nutrients.
Nutrition researcher Dr Emma Derbyshire advises against the cartons of egg whites favoured by bodybuilders for their low-fat, high-protein content.
All the nutrients associated with health effects are found in the yolk, so you must eat the whole egg to benefit from the boost.
Starmer’s plan revealed as Labour loses seats in local elections
Sir Keir Starmer will pivot his political message to deliver a more left-wing pitch to voters in a bid to fend off a leadership challenge.
We’ve built a political class allergic to spontaneity and terrified of taking risks (Photo: Toby Melville/AFP)
Starmer’s four-point plan to fight off Labour coup
The Prime Minister is understood to have abandoned the election strategy that helped secure a landslide in 2024 to one that will aim to unite progressive voters in both working-class and urban areas. It marks a shift away from trying to court Reform voters with strong immigration rhetoric.
Analysis
3 min read
Big Read
10 min read
Focus shifts to progressive block
Insiders say the view is that whoever can unite the left or the right will win the next general election, with Starmer hoping to appeal to progressive voters by focusing on issues they care about.
Closer relations with the EU including greater alignment with the single market.
Increased defence spending including a long-delayed investment plan.
Commitment to the environment and energy security through green sources.
Focus on values and making the case for a diverse and tolerant Britain.
Local election results as they come in
Labour loses nine councils so far – as Reform gains hundreds of seats
Of the 136 local authorities in England holding elections, 40 have so far declared their results.
Labour suffered significant blows, losing more than 240 seats across England overnight.
Reform has taken Newcastle-under-Lyme and Havering, London, gaining over 350 seats
Counting began in Scotland, Wales and the remaining English councils this morning.
Labour MPs react to losses
The Defence Secretary has supported Starmer as the man who can “turn it around” for Labour, saying that he “won the mandate for five years from the public” and he thinks “he can still deliver”.
Caption: Defence Secretary John Healey delivers a statement on recent UK operational activity at 9 Downing Street in Westminster, central London. Mr Healey said the UK and allies monitored a Russian attack submarine and two spy submarines in the North Atlantic for a month before they retreated. Picture date: Thursday April 9, 2026. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire Photographer: Yui Mok Provider: Yui Mok/PA Wire Source: PA Copyright: PA Wire Sir Keir Starmer is faced with finding a replacement for Shadow Education Secretary after he sacked Rebecca Long-Bailey (Photo: AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Not everyone in the party is so confident in their leader, though, with Labour MP Johnathon Brash calling for Starmer to resign and Rebecca Long-Bailey labelling it a “soul-destroying night”.
Starmer takes the blame
We have lost brilliant Labour representatives across the country; these are people who put so much into their communities, so much into our party. And that hurts, and I take responsibility…Tough days like these don’t weaken my resolve to deliver the change that I promised. They strengthen my resolve.
PRIME MINISTER SIR KEIR STARMER
Caption: LONDON, ENGLAND – MAY 08: British Prime Minister and Labour leader Keir Starmer speaks to supporters and councillors following local elections at Kingsdown Methodist Church on May 08, 2026 in London, England. Voters went to the polls yesterday in the local elections across England. Results counted overnight show widespread losses for the Labour Party. Several key Labour councils have surrendered their majority as Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats make significant gains. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images) Photographer: Leon Neal Provider: Getty Images Source: Getty Images Europe Copyright: 2026 Getty Images
Caption: HARTLEPOOL, ENGLAND – MAY 07: A general view outside a polling station during the local elections on May 07, 2026 in Hartlepool, England. The 2026 UK local elections involve approximately 5,000 seats across 136 local councils in England, taking place alongside major devolved elections for the Scottish Parliament and the Senedd (Welsh Parliament). (Photo by Ian Forsyth/Getty Images) Photographer: Ian Forsyth Provider: Getty Images Source: Getty Images Europe Copyright: 2026 Getty Images
Politics
Election results at a glance – and key battlegrounds to come
Some English councils have already declared their results, with counting now underway across England, Scotland and Wales.
We take a look at what the results mean so far, as well as some to watch out for later today.
The results so far
Early results paint bleak picture for Labour
Of the 136 local authorities in England holding elections, 62 have so far declared their results.
Heavy losses for Labour, including ten councils, have translated to wins for the smaller parties across the board.
Reform has taken control of Newcastle-under-Lyme. Essex, Suffolk and Havering in London
Hackney has elected the first ever Green mayor, beating Labour by almost 10,000 votes
When will we get results in Scotland and Wales?
Counting began this morning and will likely take most of the day
Scotland: 12pm-6.30pm
SNP projected to lose their majority but retain control as the biggest party.
Wales: 2pm-5:30pm
Labour leader has already said they will not form the next Senned government.
Interview
7 min read
Key seats to watch
Caption: PENARTH, WALES – MAY 7: Zack Polanski, Leader of the Green Party, talking outside of a polling station at St Augustine’s Parish Hall on May 7, 2026 in Penarth, Wales. The 2026 Senedd election marks a major overhaul of the Welsh Parliament as the number of Members increases from 60 to 96. Under a new proportional system, voters cast a single vote for a party list across 16 new constituencies, each electing six representatives. (Photo by Jon Rowley/Getty Images) Photographer: Jon Rowley Provider: Getty Images Source: Getty Images Europe
All eyes are on the Greens as their target London councils declare.
Five London boroughs and Watford await new mayors.
Six county councils in southern England will declare later today.
Big Read
5 min read
The Government is being urged to focus on providing practical steps and clear communication to the public to avoid panic-buying of fuel (Photo: Michael Garner/Getty)
NEWS
How cutting speed limits could reduce Iran war price impact
Lowering speed limits on motorways and urban roads could lower drivers’ costs, according to a think-tank.
This is part of a package of measures which it says would soften the impact of price hikes resulting from war in the Middle East.
What the Institute for Public Policy Research calls for
Cut fuel duty by 10p
This would be a temporary measure.
Energy price cap £2,000
The cap would be per customer per year.
Lower speed limits by 10mph
Across 30mph and 70mph zones.
Explained
8 min read
How would this help?
Reducing the speed limit on motorways to 60 mph and 20mph in towns and cities could stretch fuel further in a shortage, as well as capping demand and helping drivers save money.
International bodies for fuel monitoring have recommended that countries impose speed caps to curb fuel usage.
CONSUMER
3 min read
NEWS
5 min read
‘A dual win’ – thinktank
[Benefits include] lowering fuel demand, while safer streets support swapping short trips to walking and cycling. This should be packaged with advice on how to drive more efficiently alongside recommendations for increased home working and carpooling.
INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY RESEARCH
Photographer: Justin Paget Provider: Getty Images Source: Digital Vision
Caption: Undated handout composite photo issued by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) of Chung Biu Yuen (left), 65, a former Hong Kong police officer currently working at the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London, and Chi Leung Wai, 40, a former UK Border Force officer and special constable with the City of London Police. Both individuals were convicted under the National Security Act 2023 following a trial at the Old Bailey. Issue date: Thursday May 7, 2026. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: CPS/PA Wire
NOTE TO EDITORS: This handout photo may only be used in for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned in the caption. Reuse of the picture may require further permission from the copyright holder. Photographer: CPS Provider: CPS/PA Wire Source: PA
CRIME
UK immigration officer among two guilty of working for Chinese intelligence
A Border Force official and a retired Hong Kong police officer have been found guilty of conducting “shadow policing” operations for China on British soil.
What you need to know
Dual Chinese-British nationals Peter Wai, 38, and Bill Yuen, 65, were convicted of assisting a foreign intelligence service under the National Security Act. Wai was also convicted of misconduct in a public office by searching the Home Office computer system for people of interest to Hong Kong authorities.
Caption: Chung Biu Yuen arrives at the Old Bailey court, during a trial where he and co-defendant Chi Leung Wai are accused of assisting a foreign intelligence service, in London, Britain, May 6, 2026. REUTERS/Toby Melville Photographer: Toby Melville Provider: REUTERS Source: REUTERS
Exclusive
4 min read
A closer look at the detail
The jury, which deliberated for 23 hours and 38 minutes, was discharged after failing to reach a verdict against the defendants in respect of a charge of foreign interference by forcing entry into the Pontefract home of alleged fraud suspect Monica Kwong on 1 May 2024.
Caption: Chung Biu Yuen arrives at the Old Bailey court, during a trial where he and co-defendant Chi Leung Wai are accused of assisting a foreign intelligence service, in London, Britain, May 6, 2026. REUTERS/Toby Melville Photographer: Toby Melville Provider: REUTERS Source: REUTERS Caption: LONDON, ENGLAND – MARCH 02: Chi Leung Wai arrives at the Old Bailey on March 02, 2026 in London, England. Chi Leung (Peter) Wai and Chung Biu Yuen have been charged under the National Security Act with assisting the Hong Kong intelligence service and foreign interference, for allegedly agreeing to undertake information gathering, surveillance, and acts of deception. A third man, a Home Office immigration officer and former Royal Marine, Matthew Trickett, had also been charged, but was found dead in Maidenhead in May 2024. (Photo by Jack Taylor/Getty Images) Photographer: Jack Taylor Provider: Getty Images Source: Getty Images Europe Copyright: 2026 Getty Images
The prosecution announced the Crown would not seek a retrial and the defendants were remanded into custody to be sentenced on a date to be fixed on 15 May.
Who were their targets?
Wai worked for Border Force at Heathrow Airport having formerly been in the Royal Navy.
He had gathered intelligence on the orders of ex-Hong Kong superintendent Yuen, who was a senior manager at the Hong Kong Economic Trade Office (HKETO) in London.
Targets included Hong Kong dissidents and protesters living in the UK – with “special attention” paid to politicians including Sir Iain Duncan Smith.
Analysis
8 min read
“He should live long enough to witness his inevitable devastating loss in the midterms, be held accountable for his unprecedented corruption, impeached, convicted & humiliated for his countless crimes,” Hamill wrote. “Long enough to realise he’ll be disgraced in the history books, forevermore.”
Mark Hamill has faced criticism for his post on BlueSky (Photo: Mark Hamill/BlueSky)
The White House hit back, using its official Rapid Response 47 account on X to say that: “These radical left lunatics just can’t help themselves. This kind of rhetoric is exactly what has inspired three assassination attempts in two years against our President.”
Republican Texas Senator Ted Cruz, meanwhile, called Hamill’s post “sick, twisted and evil” and blamed left-wing politics, a familiar response from the GOP following high-profile violence.
Hamill, who has previously described Trump as “the worst thing that’s ever happened to this country”, soon deleted the post and wrote in a separate message: “Actually, I was wishing him the opposite of dead, but apologise if you found the image inappropriate.”
‘Trump can dish out dirt – but he can’t take it’
The latest White House spat with a prominent Trump critic has brought back to the fore the increasingly heated debate over growing political violence in the US, and the President’s role in it.
Last month, an armed man tried to break into the White House correspondents’ dinner where Trump and many of his Cabinet were in attendance. It was believed to be the third major attempt on the President’s life in less than two years. Meanwhile, the high-profile deaths of figures including the conservative activist Charlie Kirk have led to accusations from both the left and right that the other side is responsible for the increasing violence.
One figure is often at the centre of this. Trump has spent years posting crude insults and open threats against his opponents, fostering an environment in which public threats of violence have been largely normalised.
Donald Trump reposted a video of truck depicting Joe Biden hogtied on the back (Photo: Truth Social)
The US President has published AI videos of himself in a fighter jet bombing anti-Trump American protesters with faeces; he has reposted images showing former president Joe Biden hogtied in the trunk of a truck; and has shared an image of Chicago as a war zone, captioned “Chicago about to find out why it’s called the Department of WAR” while he ramped up immigration crackdowns on Democrat cities.
Trump has also threatened to use the military against Americans whom he dubs “the enemy from within” and just weeks ago threatened an entire country with annihilation on social media.
“Trump can dish out the darkest of dirt but he absolutely can’t take it,” said Mark Shanahan, an associate professor of political engagement at the University of Surrey. “He is incredibly thin-skinned and we’ve seen increasingly in this second term that his only defence against even the softest provocation is to go heavily on the attack.”
Shanahan added: “There’s a cognitive disconnect within him that simply can’t compute that when he shares AI images of the Obamas as monkeys or him as Jesus that it will provoke a reaction.”
Republicans have repeatedly made excuses for Trump’s behaviour. Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House, defended the AI video of excrement being dumped on protesters as “satire”.
Yet, this is apparently no excuse when it comes to Trump’s opponents. When the comedian Jimmy Kimmel made a joke on air about Trump’s advanced age last month, Trump called for him to be punished. Shortly afterwards, the US Federal Communications Commission launched a review of ABC’s station licences.
Comedian Jimmy Kimmel has been a continued target of ire for the President (Photo: Chris Delmas/AFP)
Trump’s politics is powered by retribution
It’s not just words or graphic images with Trump. The President has used the nominally independent Department of Justice to try to prosecute and imprison his opponents, including former FBI director James Comey (twice), former national security adviser John Bolton and New York’s Attorney General Letitia James.
He also accused his former chairman of the joint chiefs, General Mark Milley – who called Trump “fascist to the core” – of treason, and pointedly said the sentence for that crime would once have been death. He then stripped Milley of his security detail.
And, notoriously, Trump urged his supporters to “fight like hell” after he lost the 2020 election, culminating in the riots at the US Capitol on 6 January, 2021.
There is little sense that the President sees his own rhetoric as stoking the flames of violence.
“Trump views all events only through the prism of how they personally affect him,” Shanahan said. “His key driver now appears to be retribution against anyone he judges to be his political enemy – from members of Congress to late-night TV comics, and now Star Wars actors.”
Shanahan said that for a long time Trump’s opponents believed they could rise above this. “That’s no longer the case. Increasingly, when Trump goes low, his opponents are getting right down there with him,” he added. “That’s hugely damaging for US political discourse which has lost all nuance and is ever more hyper-polarised.”
Nigel Farage and his supporters celebrated in the east London borough of Havering this morning, not just delighted, but also with a sense of relief that any worries they had these last few days they might under-perform in these elections had been totally misplaced.
They’ve not only taken control of Havering, but also Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, other councils are likely to follow later, and an influx of well over 1,000 new Reform councillors.
Some critics and experts thought Reform might not match last year’s local election results. They’ve done just as well as May 2025 in fact, with their national share of the vote projected at around 30 per cent, way above the other four main parties – Labour, Conservative, Greens and Lib Dems, battling it out between around 15 to 20 per cent.
On those figures, Nigel Farage would probably become prime minister in 2028 or 2029 with an outright majority.
Yet in the last few days Reform seemed to suffer a wobble over serious controversy surrounding a personal donation of £5m which Farage received just before the general election in 2024 from the crypto currency billionaire Christopher Harborne. It emerged that Farage had failed to declare on the Commons register of interests when he became an MP a few weeks later.
Farage said the donation was for his personal security, having suffered several threats on his life over the years, yet £5m seemed a huge sum just for security. It’s more than most will earn in a lifetime. And it looked especially fishy that Farage has since announced a new policy to relax rules on crypto currency and promote it as an industry.
Reform seemed so worried about this late controversy that, last Sunday, Farage pulled out of a substantial BBC interview with Laura Kuenssberg.
Today it’s clear Farage and Reform need not have worried. Voters don’t seem to judge Farage and his party by the same standards of other political figures. He’s what’s known as a Teflon politician – the term coined by former US Democrat senator Pat Schroeder about scandals in the Ronald Reagan White House in the 1980s. Like the famous non-stick frying pan, the dirt never seems to stick.
Farage joins Reagan, Donald Trump and of course Boris Johnson in the Teflon category. Voters judge them by different standards, arguing that these figures are “authentic”, entertaining, and if they have flaws, that shows how they’re “just like us”.
Remarkably, Reform has been top of every national opinion poll since April of last year – almost 300 polls in all. And voters didn’t seem to care that last December one of Teflon Nigel’s closest allies over many years, Nathan Gill – leader of Ukip in Wales, and briefly of Reform there – was jailed for 10 and a half years for accepting bribes to make pro-Russia statements in the European Parliament and in the media favouring Russia’s position on Ukraine. Farage said Gill was one “bad apple”; Reform called Gill’s actions “reprehensible, treasonous and unforgivable”.
Voters seemed unconcerned when The Guardian and Channel 4 reported that when Farage was a schoolboy at Dulwich College in south London he was a racist and antisemitic bully who taunted Jewish boys and sang a horrific song called “Gas ‘Em All”. Farage responded to the allegations that he “never directly racially abused anybody” at Dulwich and said there is a “strong political element” to the allegations emerging now.
And it seems to have made no difference to Reform’s polling figures that Nigel Farage is a long-term friend and admirer of Donald Trump, even though Trump is deeply unpopular in Britain, especially now his war in Iran is causing huge damage to the British economy.
Last May, Reform took control of 11 councils, where their performance has ranged from mediocre to disastrous. None of the 11 Reform councils kept their promises to cut council tax. Instead they all raised it – in Worcestershire by a whopping nine per cent.
And in these councils, Reform made very little progress in making big spending cuts as they’d promised voters last year. They found substantial cuts weren’t possible as councils had already cut budgets to the bone. More than 60 Reform councillors quit their posts or left the party. In Staffordshire – where Reform just took over Newcastle-under-Lyme Council – the party’s county council leader stepped down over accusations of past racism only to be replaced by another leader who then had to step down because he too was accused of past racist remarks.
Now, with several more councils being run by Reform, the country has more evidence on how Farage’s party performs in power, and how they might operate if they achieved a majority in the Commons. But again, further personal failings, past racism, broken promises, and alleged corruption may not erode Reform’s core support of around 25-30 per cent of the electorate.
These voters will argue Reform is no worse than other parties in these respects, and yet only Farage has the toughness and strength to make the change Britain needs, and which Labour promised yet failed to deliver.
But I still think it unlikely Nigel Farage will become PM. There was a strong element of protest about this week’s polls – there always is in mid-term local elections.
At the next general election two factors will combine to stop Farage reaching Number 10. First, amid his threadbare and fluctuating economic policies, voters will come to doubt if he’s the right man to handle the economic crisis. Second, can he, the ultimate Brexiteer, bring Europe together amid the threats from Putin and Trump?
And, unlike this week, there will be much more tactical voting at the next election. As we saw in the Caerphilly and Gorton and Denton by-elections, voters will gang up on Farage’s party – as he’s often suffered personally in the past. Constituency by constituency, voters will gather round the candidate best placed to beat the Farage nominee.
Sir Keir Starmer is being urged by a previously loyal minister to set out a timetable for his departure after a night of devasting election losses.
The loss of hundreds of council seats to Reform and the Greens saw the Prime Minister’s position once again come under intense pressure with a previously loyal minister telling The i Paper: “Keir won’t take us into the next general election.”
Labour lost around half the seats it was defending and the Conservatives also went backwards overall despite some positive results.
Shorts – Quick stories
Starmer’s plan revealed as Labour loses seats in local elections
Sir Keir Starmer will pivot his political message to deliver a more left-wing pitch to voters in a bid to fend off a leadership challenge.
We’ve built a political class allergic to spontaneity and terrified of taking risks (Photo: Toby Melville/AFP)
Starmer’s four-point plan to fight off Labour coup
The Prime Minister is understood to have abandoned the election strategy that helped secure a landslide in 2024 to one that will aim to unite progressive voters in both working-class and urban areas. It marks a shift away from trying to court Reform voters with strong immigration rhetoric.
Analysis
3 min read
Big Read
10 min read
Focus shifts to progressive block
Insiders say the view is that whoever can unite the left or the right will win the next general election, with Starmer hoping to appeal to progressive voters by focusing on issues they care about.
Closer relations with the EU including greater alignment with the single market.
Increased defence spending including a long-delayed investment plan.
Commitment to the environment and energy security through green sources.
Focus on values and making the case for a diverse and tolerant Britain.
Local election results as they come in
Labour loses nine councils so far – as Reform gains hundreds of seats
Of the 136 local authorities in England holding elections, 40 have so far declared their results.
Labour suffered significant blows, losing more than 240 seats across England overnight.
Reform has taken Newcastle-under-Lyme and Havering, London, gaining over 350 seats
Counting began in Scotland, Wales and the remaining English councils this morning.
Labour MPs react to losses
The Defence Secretary has supported Starmer as the man who can “turn it around” for Labour, saying that he “won the mandate for five years from the public” and he thinks “he can still deliver”.
Caption: Defence Secretary John Healey delivers a statement on recent UK operational activity at 9 Downing Street in Westminster, central London. Mr Healey said the UK and allies monitored a Russian attack submarine and two spy submarines in the North Atlantic for a month before they retreated. Picture date: Thursday April 9, 2026. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire Photographer: Yui Mok Provider: Yui Mok/PA Wire Source: PA Copyright: PA Wire Sir Keir Starmer is faced with finding a replacement for Shadow Education Secretary after he sacked Rebecca Long-Bailey (Photo: AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Not everyone in the party is so confident in their leader, though, with Labour MP Johnathon Brash calling for Starmer to resign and Rebecca Long-Bailey labelling it a “soul-destroying night”.
Starmer takes the blame
We have lost brilliant Labour representatives across the country; these are people who put so much into their communities, so much into our party. And that hurts, and I take responsibility…Tough days like these don’t weaken my resolve to deliver the change that I promised. They strengthen my resolve.
PRIME MINISTER SIR KEIR STARMER
Caption: LONDON, ENGLAND – MAY 08: British Prime Minister and Labour leader Keir Starmer speaks to supporters and councillors following local elections at Kingsdown Methodist Church on May 08, 2026 in London, England. Voters went to the polls yesterday in the local elections across England. Results counted overnight show widespread losses for the Labour Party. Several key Labour councils have surrendered their majority as Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats make significant gains. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images) Photographer: Leon Neal Provider: Getty Images Source: Getty Images Europe Copyright: 2026 Getty Images
Health
How eggs could lower your risk of Alzheimer’s
Eggs were once the original superfood, but then concerns over their cholesterol and fat content led to them being seen as bad for the heart (Photo: Getty)
Clare Wilson
Science Writer
Eggs were once the original superfood, but then concerns over their cholesterol and fat content led to them being seen as bad for the heart. So, what do and don’t we know about the effects of eggs on our health? And does the way that we cook them make a difference?
How has health advice about eggs changed?
Up until the 1970s, eggs were considered a nutritious breakfast, as the famous marketing slogan “go to work on an egg” suggests. People were later advised to limit their egg intake because of the cholesterol in the yolk, which was considered to be bad for the heart. As understanding of how cholesterol works has improved, eggs have been restored to their “superfood” status. The NHS now recommends eggs as part of your diet, with no upper limit.
LIFESTYLE
5 min read
LIFESTYLE
7 min read
What does the study show?
Having eggs at least five times a week suggests a…
27%
lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s, compared with those who rarely or never eat them.
The research followed nearly 40,000 adults aged 65 and over for an average of 15 years.
980,000
people are estimated to be living with dementia in the UK, with Alzheimer’s the most common cause.
This is forecast to rise to 1.4m by 2040 as the population ages.
What’s so special about eggs?
Photographer: Andrew Brookes Provider: Getty Images/Image Source Source: Image Source Copyright: Copyright Andrew Brookes
A no-brainer
Eggs contain choline, which the body uses to make acetylcholine, a chemical involved in memory and learning.
Nutritious and delicious
Eggs contain lutein and zeaxanthin, the yellow-orange pigments in food which could slow down eyesight loss.
(Photo: Laurie Ambrose/Getty).
Caption: Eggs are seen in a carton on Monday, April 13, 2026, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane) Photographer: Jenny Kane Provider: AP Source: AP
Egg-ceptional
They also provide some omega-3 fatty acids, which have been linked with cognitive function.
Caption: A detail of cracked egg falling into the pan as woman holds egg shells in both hands. Photographer: SimpleImages Provider: Getty Images Source: Moment RF
You must be yolking
By just having the whites, you could be forgoing all of these beneficial nutrients.
Nutrition researcher Dr Emma Derbyshire advises against the cartons of egg whites favoured by bodybuilders for their low-fat, high-protein content.
All the nutrients associated with health effects are found in the yolk, so you must eat the whole egg to benefit from the boost.
TRAVEL
The next airports which could suspend EES checks
Joe Duggan
Senior Reporter
Greece has suspended EES checks for UK holidaymakers until at least September after queues of three hours or more at the border.
As the summer holiday season approaches, other popular destinations for British tourists could follow suit.
Why are the queues so long?
The new European border system, launched last month, requires non-EU citizens to have a facial scan and fingerprints taken to enter the Schengen Area.
Passengers have reported having to queue for the checks several times. A body representing 600 airports says the queues are causing “major concerns” with some passengers missing flights.
TRAVEL
4 min read
TRAVEL
4 min read
Which countries could pause checks mext?
While only Greece has fully suspended checks for British tourists so far, airports in Portugal, France and Italy have all initiated temporary pauses to help ease long queues. Belgium has postponed introducing EES.
Syros is a quieter alternative to Mykonos (Photo: Getty)Caption: City of Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain. Europe. Photographer: Jose A. Bernat Bacete Provider: Getty Images Source: Moment RF Copyright: @
The Spanish and Dutch governments have said there are no problems with the new system despite the delays. Opposition parties in Spain are calling for checks to be lifted, with one leader saying the queues are “typical of a Third World country”.
HEALTH
The diet that can slash high blood pressure risk by 30%
Various kinds of vegan protein sources on beige background. Set of food supplements. Gluten free cereals as ground hemp seeds, quinoa. Nuts and legumes (green mung beans, chick-pea, red lentil, kidney bean, almonds, hazelnuts). Flat lay, top view – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
Eating beans, lentils and soy products dramatically reduces your risk of high blood pressure, a study has found.
The high levels of minerals, fibre and bioactive compounds in the plants also reduce the risk of other heart problems, especially when consumed daily.
How to be full of beans
Colorful Array of Mixed Beans – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
Eat 170g per day of legumes like beans, lentils or chickpeas.
Pair with 60-80g daily of soy such as tofu, edamame or soy milk.
Include regular exercise in your routine to further protect the heart.
LIFESTYLE
6 min read
What did the study find?
Eating a portion of legumes and soy each day led to a 28-30 per cent reduction in risk of high blood pressure. Those on this diet had up to 19 per cent less risk than those eating the least of these products.
Experts writing in the British Medical Journal looked at the results of 12 previous studies for this research and concluded that the high levels of potassium, magnesium and dietary fibre contributed to the lowering of risk.
Charity urges us to eat more beans
Simple swaps, like choosing beans, lentils, chickpeas or tofu in place of processed meats, can make a meaningful difference and help support healthier blood pressure as part of an overall balanced diet.
TRACY PARKER, SENIOR DIETITIAN AT BRITISH HEART FOUNDATION
Adult and child hands holding red heart, health care, donate and family insurance concept,world heart day, world health day,,health care, concept – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
Caption: HARTLEPOOL, ENGLAND – MAY 07: A general view outside a polling station during the local elections on May 07, 2026 in Hartlepool, England. The 2026 UK local elections involve approximately 5,000 seats across 136 local councils in England, taking place alongside major devolved elections for the Scottish Parliament and the Senedd (Welsh Parliament). (Photo by Ian Forsyth/Getty Images) Photographer: Ian Forsyth Provider: Getty Images Source: Getty Images Europe Copyright: 2026 Getty Images
Politics
Election results at a glance – and key battlegrounds to come
Some English councils have already declared their results, with counting now underway across England, Scotland and Wales.
We take a look at what the results mean so far, as well as some to watch out for later today.
The results so far
Early results paint bleak picture for Labour
Of the 136 local authorities in England holding elections, 41 have so far declared their results.
Heavy losses for Labour, including ten councils, have translated to wins for the smaller parties across the board.
Reform has taken control of Newcastle-under-Lyme. Essex and Havering, London
Hackney has elected the first ever Green mayor, beating Labour by almost 10,000 votes
When will we get results in Scotland and Wales?
Counting began this morning and will likely take most of the day
Scotland: 12pm-6.30pm
SNP projected to lose their majority but retain control as the biggest party.
Wales: 2pm-5:30pm
Labour leader has already said they will not form the next Senned government.
Interview
7 min read
Key seats to watch
Caption: PENARTH, WALES – MAY 7: Zack Polanski, Leader of the Green Party, talking outside of a polling station at St Augustine’s Parish Hall on May 7, 2026 in Penarth, Wales. The 2026 Senedd election marks a major overhaul of the Welsh Parliament as the number of Members increases from 60 to 96. Under a new proportional system, voters cast a single vote for a party list across 16 new constituencies, each electing six representatives. (Photo by Jon Rowley/Getty Images) Photographer: Jon Rowley Provider: Getty Images Source: Getty Images Europe
All eyes are on the Greens as their target London councils declare.
Five London boroughs and Watford await new mayors.
Six county councils in southern England will declare later today.
Big Read
5 min read
The six reasons your partner might cheat
Cheating is still the number one cause of divorce, and one in five Brits admit to doing it.
But what are the main drivers of infidelity?
‘If she feels unappreciated by me, sex is off the agenda,’ says the reader (Photo: Getty)
Why your partner might cheat
They want a way out
Sex and relationship therapist Cate Campbell says exit affairs are one of the three “big reasons” she sees.
Fear of commitment
This often happens when a person doesn’t feel good about themselves, or have a fear of being found out.
‘Fathers, it seems, are still expected to put work first and family second’ (Photo: Getty Images)
Senior husband and wife having relationship difficulties – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
A mid-life crisis
Transitions like moving house, new jobs or becoming parents makes cheating more common.
Why your partner might cheat
They’re getting too close to a colleague
This dynamic is usually an unhappy man who confides in a woman in a work context, and it switches from a supportive friendship into an affair.
Side view of affectionate happy couple sitting in the cozy cafe. – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)‘Although problems with sex are very common, very few people come for help,’ says one GP (Photo: Getty)
They want something new in bed
Desires change – consiously or not and people may believe they want something different, or to experiment.
Elderly woman sitting alone in her living room – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
WHY YOUR PARTNER MAY CHEAT
They feel lonely
Nobody stays the same in a relationship – and if we’re not communicating that to each other, it can be disconnecting.
Susie Masterson, a relationship therapist, says when people feel undervalued, or stretched too thin in day-to-day life, they can look at their relationship and realise it isn’t filling the gaps.
How to recover from an affair
Infidelity doesn’t have to be the end of a relationship
Psychotherapist Esther Perel says in her book The State of Affairs that affairs can actually save a relationship, by forcing us to address deep-rooted issues and come back stronger.
Campbell says couples should be having conversations about infidelity and what it means to them.
“Often it’s not the affair that ends the relationship, but the fallout – and the way it’s managed. Which is why it’s useful to get some therapy if you can,” she adds.
Fifa chief’s bizarre pledge to any World Cup $2m ticket holder
The president of the football giant has said anyone who pays the exorbitantly inflated price for a ticket to the final will receive a “hot dog and a Coke” from him personally, amid fan backlash.
Caption: MEXICO CITY, MEXICO – MARCH 28: FIFA President Gianni Infantino during an international friendly between Mexico and Portugal at Banorte Stadium on March 28, 2026 in Mexico City, Mexico. (Photo by Antonio Torres – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images) Photographer: Antonio Torres – FIFA Provider: FIFA via Getty Images Source: FIFA Copyright: IG. @TONOTORRESTELLEZ
Ticket prices go sky-high
Fifa boss Gianni Infantino made the extraordinary promise after tickets for behind-the-goal seats for the 2026 World Cup final were listed for almost $2.3m (£1.7m) on Fifa’s official resale platform.
Speaking at a conference on Tuesday, he also pointed out that the listing “doesn’t mean that somebody will buy these tickets”.
FOOTBALL
3 min read
FOOTBALL
4 min read
A closer look at the figures
It would cost…
£6,500
to get tickets for all of England’s group stage matches. Factoring in travel from the UK, food and accommodation, the total cost would be well over £8000.
Ticket prices for later games are even higher.
£8,333
is the cost of a ticket to the final, as sold by Fifa.
Resale tickets could cost up to 10 times as much, with prices reported to have reached £8.5m as of today.
The Government is being urged to focus on providing practical steps and clear communication to the public to avoid panic-buying of fuel (Photo: Michael Garner/Getty)
NEWS
How cutting speed limits could reduce Iran war price impact
Lowering speed limits on motorways and urban roads could lower drivers’ costs, according to a think-tank.
This is part of a package of measures which it says would soften the impact of price hikes resulting from war in the Middle East.
What the Institute for Public Policy Research calls for
Cut fuel duty by 10p
This would be a temporary measure.
Energy price cap £2,000
The cap would be per customer per year.
Lower speed limits by 10mph
Across 30mph and 70mph zones.
Explained
8 min read
How would this help?
Reducing the speed limit on motorways to 60 mph and 20mph in towns and cities could stretch fuel further in a shortage, as well as capping demand and helping drivers save money.
International bodies for fuel monitoring have recommended that countries impose speed caps to curb fuel usage.
CONSUMER
3 min read
NEWS
5 min read
‘A dual win’ – thinktank
[Benefits include] lowering fuel demand, while safer streets support swapping short trips to walking and cycling. This should be packaged with advice on how to drive more efficiently alongside recommendations for increased home working and carpooling.
INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY RESEARCH
Photographer: Justin Paget Provider: Getty Images Source: Digital Vision
The party also lost the mayorality in Hackney, east London, to the Greens – with results to be declared later on Friday afternoon expected to see further Green inroads into Labour’s urban heartland in the Capital.
But few people currently expect a direct challenge to his leadership to emerge in the coming days – and there are questions over Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham’s future as Labour suffered heavy defeats in the North-West of England.
Labour is also expected to lose control of Wales, fall far short of taking over the Scottish Government, as well as face a strong challenge from the Greens in London and other big cities.
Starmer: ‘I’m not going to walk away’
Starmer insisted on Friday morning that he is not planning to quit, saying: “The voters have sent a message about the pace of change, how they want their lives improved. I was elected to meet those challenges but I’m not going to walk away from those challenges.”
He admitted to “unnecessary mistakes” by the Labour Government, and added: “Although we were right to level with the public about the scale and depth of the challenges we face, we didn’t do enough to convince them that things will get better, that things will improve, the hope.”
The Prime Minister is expected to give a speech next week setting out a more positive vision for the future, ahead of the King’s Speech which will announce which laws the Government hopes to pass in the next year.
Despite the scale of the early losses, some in Labour have argued that the results were not quite as bad as feared and pointed to signs that Reform’s support may have peaked.
“The results appear to be panning out very badly but are maybe not as bad as they could be,” one MP said. Another added: “I suspect there will be a lot more chuntering and a bit of stress over the weekend, and it won’t really come to very much.
“It keeps coming back to this: in 2006 there was Gordon Brown was stood in the wings and everyone could see he was capable of being Prime Minister and he was impatiently waiting. There’s quite a few people that are impatient because they would like the idea of being Prime Minister, but none of them is a slam dunk.”
‘People want to smash the system’
Labour insiders argue that of the main leadership favourites, only Wes Streeting would benefit from an immediate contest because Burnham is currently ineligible to be a candidate as he is not an MP, and Angela Rayner is still under investigation over her taxes.
A number of Government aides are understood to have privately resolved that Starmer cannot lead the party into another general election – but that any leadership election should not take place until the party and country’s situation has stabilised, and the competing visions of those vying to replace him have become clearer.
In a sign that some loyalists may now be turning away from the leadership, a minister who has previously been supportive of Starmer said the Prime Minister needs to set a timeline for his departure.
“Keir deserves respect and to be treated decently rather than a coup,” the minister said. “The best thing is to set a timetable that shows him that respect and dignity. Then we get Andy in. Keir won’t take us into the next general election.”
They went on: “We need serious change. Not just a speech about tinkering with the system. But proper change. People outside of ‘comfortable’ areas want to smash the system, that’s why they are looking right and left. They think things are broken.
“If we continue to offer to patch up or worse still ‘manage’ a broken system then voters will continue to leave us. We need to be a proper Labour party. We don’t want policies that ‘treads lightly on people’s lives’, we want politics that is a wrecking ball to a broken system and reshapes it in a way that works for working class communities.”
Chaning leader ‘can make things worse’
A Cabinet minister warned that removing Starmer was more likely to make the government’s situation even worse.
“There’s moves, but I don’t think there’s movement,” they said. “There are individuals who all the way through who have put their own position ahead of that of the party. To use a challenging moment in the party’s electoral life and make it about them and not about the country and the overall party, it’s unforgivable.
“No one in the Cabinet is going to move. I think the party wants us to get our act together, speak with clarity and get on with it.
“I don’t think there’s a majority of the membership who wants to use this moment. The lesson I keep hearing about from members, and I’ve been all over the country, is that the Tories thought that a change of leader would always deliver a better outcome, but things couldn’t get any worse.
“And the lesson is it can get worse. There’s no certainty that comes with any of the candidates who are thrusting at this moment in time
”Things can move quickly’
Another minister said there was little immediate sign of a leadership challenge, but warned: “Things can move quickly.”
None of Burnham, Rayner and Streeting offered any response to the results or Starmer’s future on Friday morning, even as other senior figures pledged loyalty to the current leader.
An MP said they were “not hearing anything from colleagues from the various camps” but added: “At least one camp claims to have the numbers, so the ball is really in their court.”
To launch a formal challenge to Starmer, a candidate would need to win the backing of 80 other Labour MPs, which would trigger a vote in which party members choose between the incumbent leader and the challenger.
Burnham, the favourite to take over as Labour leader, would need to return to Parliament in a by-election in order to be eligible to stand to replace Starmer.
A number of Labour MPs pointed to poor results in the North-West as evidence that the Mayor of Greater Manchester could struggle to win any such by-election, even if a sitting MP were willing to stand down to make way for him.
One said: “Burnham has some difficult-to-explain results. If there’s this amazing ‘Manchesterism’ or whatever, why are the worst results in the country in Greater Manchester? And the kind of policy or strategy he promotes – how does that address the loss of working class votes to Reform?
“There’s also a mechanical problem in where’s the seat that he could now win if you’re going to become an MP? And then all of the stats so far indicate we would also just be giving away the mayoralty of Greater Manchester.”
Defeat in Scotland and Wales also likely
So far, nearly all of those who have openly called for Starmer to quit have come from the staunch left-wing faction which has always opposed the Prime Minister – such as former party chairman Ian Lavery, who told the BBC that “the most effective thing that he could do would be to have an organised withdrawal from his leadership of the Labour party”.
It remains unclear whether expected defeat in Wales and Scotland will boost calls for the leader’s departure. A Scottish Labour source said: “We are looking at another five years in opposition here in Scotland and the party needed a better pledge than just to get the ‘basics right’, very much felt like people don’t know what Scottish Labour stand for and so we need to go back to the founding principles.”
Oxford Economics warned in a note to clients on Friday that the local election results would cause fresh market uncertainty owing the question mark over Starmer’s position.
Alexander Harvey, an economist at the consultancy firm, said: “The key risk is that any instability triggered by these results – such as a leadership challenge – causes markets to lose faith in the Government’s fiscal plans, driving bond yields up further and weakening economic growth dynamics.”
Holidaymakers are being urged to insure themselves ahead of travelling this summer over fears of flight cancellations due to jet fuel shortages.
Since the conflict in Iran began earlier this year, gas and oil prices have shot up, impacting the price of jet fuel. A barrel is currently trading at $181 – when in January 2026 it cost under $100.
As of May 6, 120 flights in the UK have been cancelled out of a total of 22,613 scheduled flights, according to data by aviation analytics firm Cirium, which found airlines cut 13,000 flights in May so far globally.
For the thousands of people who have booked holidays, flight cancellations could be a possibility, but what can you do to best protect your money if you find yourself in this scenario? We spoke to travel experts to find out.
Package holiday vs DIY
Booking a package holiday provides consumers with more protections than a DIY holiday – where you book your flight and hotel separate.
Tim Knighton, travel insurance expert at Compare the Market, said: “If a package holiday is cancelled, travellers will usually be entitled to a refund or suitable alternative from the tour operator.
“For DIY trips, recovering costs can be more complicated, particularly where flights, hotels and transfers have been booked separately or include non-refundable elements. In these cases, travellers may need to pursue refunds from each provider and will likely be dependent on the T&Cs.”
The Civil Aviation Authority – the regulator for the industry – confirmed even if a flight is cancelled because of a jet fuel shortage customers will still be eligible for a refund or a suitable alternative like re-routing you to another flight at the earliest opportunity, as they would if a flight was cancelled normally.
Refunds will also still apply for package holidays booked even if the flights are cancelled due to fuel shortages.
However, with DIY holidays where flights, hotels and extras like car hires are booked separately, each element stands alone.
Scott Dixon, consumer rights expert, said: “Hotel and car hire bookings are not covered because they are separate contracts. Providers will say that the accommodation and car hire remains available and can still proceed, and they are not responsible for flight disruption.
“That’s the choice and risk you take when booking DIY holidays.”
Dixon urged those in this position to check the terms and conditions, as in some cases providers may offer refunds, credit notes or allow you to amend the booking to a later date as a gesture of goodwill, even where they are not legally obliged to do so.
However, you will not be able to make a Section 75 claim on your credit card – which makes credit card providers jointly liable with retailers for purchases between £100 and £30,000 – as the card provider will likely say there has been no “breach of contract”.
Flight cancellation or delays
If your flight is delayed, your airline should be your first point of contact, as they have a duty of care to provide support such as meals, accommodation and rebooking, depending on the circumstances.
However, during major disruptions, travellers often have to pay out-of-pocket first – whether that’s for a last-minute hotel, food at the airport or even alternative flights to keep your plans on track.
If a flight is cancelled less than 14 days from the date of your departure, you are usually entitled to compensation. The amount hinges on when the flight was cancelled, distance of the flight and the rescheduled times.
If a flight its more than 14 days, you are not entitled to compensation although you are still entitled to a full refund or re-routing.
What have airlines said?
Easyjet has committed to its full summer schedule and said prices will not increase post-booking, protecting customers from rising fuel costs.
It said in the event airlines are forced to cancel any flight, customers are always guaranteed a flight voucher, refund or an alternative flight. For any holidays that are cancelled, customers will be offered an alternative holiday or full refund.
Ryanair said it had hedged 80 per cent of its jet fuel until March 2027 at $67 a barrel – less than half of current prices – and therefore said it did not plan to make any cuts to its schedule this summer as did Jet2, adding if it cancels a flight, customers are entitled to a refund.
Dixon said: “It’s unclear whether compensation on top of a flight refund would apply if it’s due to fuel shortages (which may be classed as an extraordinary circumstance).
“Airlines usually don’t have to pay compensation if delays or cancellations are caused by ‘extraordinary circumstances’. This definition usually covers strikes (but not airline staff strikes), acts of terrorism or civil unrest, disruption to airspace including drones, IT outages and technical issues.”
Rhys Jones, travel insurance expert at Go.Compare, added: “If you decide to rebook flights yourself without the airline’s agreement, there’s no guarantee you’ll be reimbursed unless you can show the airline failed to meet its obligations.”
Dixon emphasised the importance of always keeping receipts for claims. Photos, screenshots and texts of delays are also useful as evidence for compensation claims.
What travel insurance could cover
Travel insurance may help cover some unexpected expenses that cannot be recovered elsewhere.
Knighton said: “Insurers often won’t cover claims related to events that were widely known about before the policy was purchased. This is why it is important for travellers to read the policy documents before purchase to ensure the cover meets their needs.”
When choosing travel insurance, it’s important to look beyond the headline price and understand what’s included.
Standard insurance policies will usually exclude “acts of war” and other extraordinary circumstances in their terms and conditions like fuel shortages.
Alicia Hempsted, travel insurance expert at MoneySuperMarket, said: “Where a cancellation is covered, insurance may cover the cost of unused flights.
“However, accommodation costs are less likely to be refunded if the hotel itself is still available and the booking cannot be used due to flight disruption, unless the policy includes additional protection, such as trip abandonment cover.”
How to protect yourself
If you haven’t booked a package holiday, then flexibility can be just as importance as price.
Jones said: “Prioritising flexible bookings, such as refundable hotel rates or amendable flights, can help reduce your risk if plans change.
“It’s also important to check the cancellation terms for each part of your trip, as the cheapest options often come with the least flexibility.”
Using a credit card will give you protection on purchases over £100 under Section 75.
Dixon also warned not to use third-party websites because they act as intermediaries.
“This means they break the direct contract between you and the provider, and you cannot make a Section 75 claim with your credit card provider. Booking direct gives you a clear contract with the business and makes it easier to enforce your consumer rights,” he added.
Travellers could be left thousands of pounds out of pocket if they have booked a DIY holiday, so paying a slightly higher fee for a package holiday could be the better option.
Jones from GoCompare.com, said: “To put this into perspective, a family of four booking a DIY summer holiday could easily spend close to £4,000 across flights, accommodation and extras.”
This includes transfers, excursions, overnight delays, food and other essentials with no guarantee of reimbursement.
Jones added: “The key issue isn’t usually losing the entire holiday cost, but the financial gaps between what airlines refund, what suppliers keep, and what insurers will cover. That’s where travellers can really feel the impact if they’re not properly protected.”
On 15 March, an American supersonic B1-B “Lancer” bomber heaved into the skies above Gloucestershire and headed for Iran. While the Pentagon doubtless wanted to keep the jet’s flight path and ultimate target a secret, a Chinese satellite data company had other ideas.
Within moments of the heavy bomber’s take-off from RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, staff at MizarVision began collating satellite information tracking the aircraft’s position, altitude and likely destination – an Iranian missile launch site near the Strait of Hormuz. The data was then posted on the partially state-owned company’s social media feed on China’s popular Weibo platform for all to see.
The episode was one of several in recent weeks where MizarVision, based near Shanghai, has caused alarm from Washington to London by publicly posting detailed images of sensitive military hardware. These have ranged from American F-22 stealth fighters at an Israeli airbase to an assault ship being re-stocked at the joint UK-US naval base of Diego Garcia, as well as various sorties from UK air bases.
Shorts – Quick stories
Starmer’s plan revealed as Labour loses seats in local elections
Sir Keir Starmer will pivot his political message to deliver a more left-wing pitch to voters in a bid to fend off a leadership challenge.
We’ve built a political class allergic to spontaneity and terrified of taking risks (Photo: Toby Melville/AFP)
Starmer’s four-point plan to fight off Labour coup
The Prime Minister is understood to have abandoned the election strategy that helped secure a landslide in 2024 to one that will aim to unite progressive voters in both working-class and urban areas. It marks a shift away from trying to court Reform voters with strong immigration rhetoric.
Analysis
3 min read
Big Read
10 min read
Focus shifts to progressive block
Insiders say the view is that whoever can unite the left or the right will win the next general election, with Starmer hoping to appeal to progressive voters by focusing on issues they care about.
Closer relations with the EU including greater alignment with the single market.
Increased defence spending including a long-delayed investment plan.
Commitment to the environment and energy security through green sources.
Focus on values and making the case for a diverse and tolerant Britain.
Local election results as they come in
Labour loses nine councils so far – as Reform gains hundreds of seats
Of the 136 local authorities in England holding elections, 40 have so far declared their results.
Labour suffered significant blows, losing more than 240 seats across England overnight.
Reform has taken Newcastle-under-Lyme and Havering, London, gaining over 350 seats
Counting began in Scotland, Wales and the remaining English councils this morning.
Labour MPs react to losses
The Defence Secretary has supported Starmer as the man who can “turn it around” for Labour, saying that he “won the mandate for five years from the public” and he thinks “he can still deliver”.
Caption: Defence Secretary John Healey delivers a statement on recent UK operational activity at 9 Downing Street in Westminster, central London. Mr Healey said the UK and allies monitored a Russian attack submarine and two spy submarines in the North Atlantic for a month before they retreated. Picture date: Thursday April 9, 2026. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire Photographer: Yui Mok Provider: Yui Mok/PA Wire Source: PA Copyright: PA Wire Sir Keir Starmer is faced with finding a replacement for Shadow Education Secretary after he sacked Rebecca Long-Bailey (Photo: AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Not everyone in the party is so confident in their leader, though, with Labour MP Johnathon Brash calling for Starmer to resign and Rebecca Long-Bailey labelling it a “soul-destroying night”.
Starmer takes the blame
We have lost brilliant Labour representatives across the country; these are people who put so much into their communities, so much into our party. And that hurts, and I take responsibility…Tough days like these don’t weaken my resolve to deliver the change that I promised. They strengthen my resolve.
PRIME MINISTER SIR KEIR STARMER
Caption: LONDON, ENGLAND – MAY 08: British Prime Minister and Labour leader Keir Starmer speaks to supporters and councillors following local elections at Kingsdown Methodist Church on May 08, 2026 in London, England. Voters went to the polls yesterday in the local elections across England. Results counted overnight show widespread losses for the Labour Party. Several key Labour councils have surrendered their majority as Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats make significant gains. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images) Photographer: Leon Neal Provider: Getty Images Source: Getty Images Europe Copyright: 2026 Getty Images
Health
How eggs could lower your risk of Alzheimer’s
Eggs were once the original superfood, but then concerns over their cholesterol and fat content led to them being seen as bad for the heart (Photo: Getty)
Clare Wilson
Science Writer
Eggs were once the original superfood, but then concerns over their cholesterol and fat content led to them being seen as bad for the heart. So, what do and don’t we know about the effects of eggs on our health? And does the way that we cook them make a difference?
How has health advice about eggs changed?
Up until the 1970s, eggs were considered a nutritious breakfast, as the famous marketing slogan “go to work on an egg” suggests. People were later advised to limit their egg intake because of the cholesterol in the yolk, which was considered to be bad for the heart. As understanding of how cholesterol works has improved, eggs have been restored to their “superfood” status. The NHS now recommends eggs as part of your diet, with no upper limit.
LIFESTYLE
5 min read
LIFESTYLE
7 min read
What does the study show?
Having eggs at least five times a week suggests a…
27%
lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s, compared with those who rarely or never eat them.
The research followed nearly 40,000 adults aged 65 and over for an average of 15 years.
980,000
people are estimated to be living with dementia in the UK, with Alzheimer’s the most common cause.
This is forecast to rise to 1.4m by 2040 as the population ages.
What’s so special about eggs?
Photographer: Andrew Brookes Provider: Getty Images/Image Source Source: Image Source Copyright: Copyright Andrew Brookes
A no-brainer
Eggs contain choline, which the body uses to make acetylcholine, a chemical involved in memory and learning.
Nutritious and delicious
Eggs contain lutein and zeaxanthin, the yellow-orange pigments in food which could slow down eyesight loss.
(Photo: Laurie Ambrose/Getty).
Caption: Eggs are seen in a carton on Monday, April 13, 2026, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane) Photographer: Jenny Kane Provider: AP Source: AP
Egg-ceptional
They also provide some omega-3 fatty acids, which have been linked with cognitive function.
Caption: A detail of cracked egg falling into the pan as woman holds egg shells in both hands. Photographer: SimpleImages Provider: Getty Images Source: Moment RF
You must be yolking
By just having the whites, you could be forgoing all of these beneficial nutrients.
Nutrition researcher Dr Emma Derbyshire advises against the cartons of egg whites favoured by bodybuilders for their low-fat, high-protein content.
All the nutrients associated with health effects are found in the yolk, so you must eat the whole egg to benefit from the boost.
TRAVEL
The next airports which could suspend EES checks
Joe Duggan
Senior Reporter
Greece has suspended EES checks for UK holidaymakers until at least September after queues of three hours or more at the border.
As the summer holiday season approaches, other popular destinations for British tourists could follow suit.
Why are the queues so long?
The new European border system, launched last month, requires non-EU citizens to have a facial scan and fingerprints taken to enter the Schengen Area.
Passengers have reported having to queue for the checks several times. A body representing 600 airports says the queues are causing “major concerns” with some passengers missing flights.
TRAVEL
4 min read
TRAVEL
4 min read
Which countries could pause checks mext?
While only Greece has fully suspended checks for British tourists so far, airports in Portugal, France and Italy have all initiated temporary pauses to help ease long queues. Belgium has postponed introducing EES.
Syros is a quieter alternative to Mykonos (Photo: Getty)Caption: City of Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain. Europe. Photographer: Jose A. Bernat Bacete Provider: Getty Images Source: Moment RF Copyright: @
The Spanish and Dutch governments have said there are no problems with the new system despite the delays. Opposition parties in Spain are calling for checks to be lifted, with one leader saying the queues are “typical of a Third World country”.
HEALTH
The diet that can slash high blood pressure risk by 30%
Various kinds of vegan protein sources on beige background. Set of food supplements. Gluten free cereals as ground hemp seeds, quinoa. Nuts and legumes (green mung beans, chick-pea, red lentil, kidney bean, almonds, hazelnuts). Flat lay, top view – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
Eating beans, lentils and soy products dramatically reduces your risk of high blood pressure, a study has found.
The high levels of minerals, fibre and bioactive compounds in the plants also reduce the risk of other heart problems, especially when consumed daily.
How to be full of beans
Colorful Array of Mixed Beans – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
Eat 170g per day of legumes like beans, lentils or chickpeas.
Pair with 60-80g daily of soy such as tofu, edamame or soy milk.
Include regular exercise in your routine to further protect the heart.
LIFESTYLE
6 min read
What did the study find?
Eating a portion of legumes and soy each day led to a 28-30 per cent reduction in risk of high blood pressure. Those on this diet had up to 19 per cent less risk than those eating the least of these products.
Experts writing in the British Medical Journal looked at the results of 12 previous studies for this research and concluded that the high levels of potassium, magnesium and dietary fibre contributed to the lowering of risk.
Charity urges us to eat more beans
Simple swaps, like choosing beans, lentils, chickpeas or tofu in place of processed meats, can make a meaningful difference and help support healthier blood pressure as part of an overall balanced diet.
TRACY PARKER, SENIOR DIETITIAN AT BRITISH HEART FOUNDATION
Adult and child hands holding red heart, health care, donate and family insurance concept,world heart day, world health day,,health care, concept – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
Caption: HARTLEPOOL, ENGLAND – MAY 07: A general view outside a polling station during the local elections on May 07, 2026 in Hartlepool, England. The 2026 UK local elections involve approximately 5,000 seats across 136 local councils in England, taking place alongside major devolved elections for the Scottish Parliament and the Senedd (Welsh Parliament). (Photo by Ian Forsyth/Getty Images) Photographer: Ian Forsyth Provider: Getty Images Source: Getty Images Europe Copyright: 2026 Getty Images
Politics
Election results at a glance – and key battlegrounds to come
Some English councils have already declared their results, with counting now underway across England, Scotland and Wales.
We take a look at what the results mean so far, as well as some to watch out for later today.
The results so far
Early results paint bleak picture for Labour
Of the 136 local authorities in England holding elections, 41 have so far declared their results.
Heavy losses for Labour, including eight councils, have translated to wins for the smaller parties across the board.
Reform has taken control of Newcastle-under-Lyme and Havering, London, as well as almost 400 seats.
Many councils remain in no overall control as all the parties struggled to command majorities.
When will we get results in Scotland and Wales?
Counting began this morning and will likely take most of the day
Scotland: 12pm-6.30pm
SNP projected to lose their majority but retain control as the biggest party.
Wales: 2pm-5:30pm
Labour expected to lose control for the first time since devolution in 1999.
Interview
7 min read
Key seats to watch
Caption: PENARTH, WALES – MAY 7: Zack Polanski, Leader of the Green Party, talking outside of a polling station at St Augustine’s Parish Hall on May 7, 2026 in Penarth, Wales. The 2026 Senedd election marks a major overhaul of the Welsh Parliament as the number of Members increases from 60 to 96. Under a new proportional system, voters cast a single vote for a party list across 16 new constituencies, each electing six representatives. (Photo by Jon Rowley/Getty Images) Photographer: Jon Rowley Provider: Getty Images Source: Getty Images Europe
All eyes are on the Greens as their target London councils declare.
Five London boroughs and Watford await new mayors.
Six county councils in southern England will declare later today.
Big Read
5 min read
The six reasons your partner might cheat
Cheating is still the number one cause of divorce, and one in five Brits admit to doing it.
But what are the main drivers of infidelity?
‘If she feels unappreciated by me, sex is off the agenda,’ says the reader (Photo: Getty)
Why your partner might cheat
They want a way out
Sex and relationship therapist Cate Campbell says exit affairs are one of the three “big reasons” she sees.
Fear of commitment
This often happens when a person doesn’t feel good about themselves, or have a fear of being found out.
‘Fathers, it seems, are still expected to put work first and family second’ (Photo: Getty Images)
Senior husband and wife having relationship difficulties – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
A mid-life crisis
Transitions like moving house, new jobs or becoming parents makes cheating more common.
Why your partner might cheat
They’re getting too close to a colleague
This dynamic is usually an unhappy man who confides in a woman in a work context, and it switches from a supportive friendship into an affair.
Side view of affectionate happy couple sitting in the cozy cafe. – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)‘Although problems with sex are very common, very few people come for help,’ says one GP (Photo: Getty)
They want something new in bed
Desires change – consiously or not and people may believe they want something different, or to experiment.
Elderly woman sitting alone in her living room – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
WHY YOUR PARTNER MAY CHEAT
They feel lonely
Nobody stays the same in a relationship – and if we’re not communicating that to each other, it can be disconnecting.
Susie Masterson, a relationship therapist, says when people feel undervalued, or stretched too thin in day-to-day life, they can look at their relationship and realise it isn’t filling the gaps.
How to recover from an affair
Infidelity doesn’t have to be the end of a relationship
Psychotherapist Esther Perel says in her book The State of Affairs that affairs can actually save a relationship, by forcing us to address deep-rooted issues and come back stronger.
Campbell says couples should be having conversations about infidelity and what it means to them.
“Often it’s not the affair that ends the relationship, but the fallout – and the way it’s managed. Which is why it’s useful to get some therapy if you can,” she adds.
Fifa chief’s bizarre pledge to any World Cup $2m ticket holder
The president of the football giant has said anyone who pays the exorbitantly inflated price for a ticket to the final will receive a “hot dog and a Coke” from him personally, amid fan backlash.
Caption: MEXICO CITY, MEXICO – MARCH 28: FIFA President Gianni Infantino during an international friendly between Mexico and Portugal at Banorte Stadium on March 28, 2026 in Mexico City, Mexico. (Photo by Antonio Torres – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images) Photographer: Antonio Torres – FIFA Provider: FIFA via Getty Images Source: FIFA Copyright: IG. @TONOTORRESTELLEZ
Ticket prices go sky-high
Fifa boss Gianni Infantino made the extraordinary promise after tickets for behind-the-goal seats for the 2026 World Cup final were listed for almost $2.3m (£1.7m) on Fifa’s official resale platform.
Speaking at a conference on Tuesday, he also pointed out that the listing “doesn’t mean that somebody will buy these tickets”.
FOOTBALL
3 min read
FOOTBALL
4 min read
A closer look at the figures
It would cost…
£6,500
to get tickets for all of England’s group stage matches. Factoring in travel from the UK, food and accommodation, the total cost would be well over £8000.
Ticket prices for later games are even higher.
£8,333
is the cost of a ticket to the final, as sold by Fifa.
Resale tickets could cost up to 10 times as much, with prices reported to have reached £8.5m as of today.
The Government is being urged to focus on providing practical steps and clear communication to the public to avoid panic-buying of fuel (Photo: Michael Garner/Getty)
NEWS
How cutting speed limits could reduce Iran war price impact
Lowering speed limits on motorways and urban roads could lower drivers’ costs, according to a think-tank.
This is part of a package of measures which it says would soften the impact of price hikes resulting from war in the Middle East.
What the Institute for Public Policy Research calls for
Cut fuel duty by 10p
This would be a temporary measure.
Energy price cap £2,000
The cap would be per customer per year.
Lower speed limits by 10mph
Across 30mph and 70mph zones.
Explained
8 min read
How would this help?
Reducing the speed limit on motorways to 60 mph and 20mph in towns and cities could stretch fuel further in a shortage, as well as capping demand and helping drivers save money.
International bodies for fuel monitoring have recommended that countries impose speed caps to curb fuel usage.
CONSUMER
3 min read
NEWS
5 min read
‘A dual win’ – thinktank
[Benefits include] lowering fuel demand, while safer streets support swapping short trips to walking and cycling. This should be packaged with advice on how to drive more efficiently alongside recommendations for increased home working and carpooling.
INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY RESEARCH
Photographer: Justin Paget Provider: Getty Images Source: Digital Vision
The incidents have highlighted how Beijing now has the ability to watch and catalogue military and security movements – from the Cotswolds to Carolina – with the depth and intensity that was once the sole preserve of America and its allies – and is willing to share its findings with Russia and Iran.
A former White House aide and senior CIA expert on China told The i Paper that Beijing’s burgeoning fleet of military and commercial satellites was capable of spying on Western assets such as defence manufacturing sites and there could be “no doubt” that it was sharing imagery of the UK and other European countries with its allies.
China’s growing space army
China has rapidly accelerated its space programme in recent years after President Xi Jinping announced he wanted his country to be a leading global space power by 2030.
The number of Chinese satellites in orbit has grown at a blistering pace, from about 900 in 2024 to a current estimate of more than 1,300 commercial and state-owned spacecraft. China is now second only to America in the number of satellites it controls.
Britain is among Nato countries which have already expressed concern that China and Russia are developing capabilities to attack Western satellites in space. But the ability to look down on Earth and catalogue the activities of adversaries remains a core activity.
According to intelligence estimates, more than 510 of China’s satellites are surveillance devices with global coverage. Beijing is also quickly catching up with Washington when it comes to highly classified military satellites, deploying 157 compared to America’s 257. Britain has just six.
A Chinese SQX-1 Y10 commercial rocket (Photo: VCG/Getty)
Professor Dennis Wilder, a former White House intelligence official under Barack Obama and a CIA Asia specialist, said: “China has the capability today to target all kinds of areas of interest, including defence manufacturers.
“The imagery is incredibly useful in espionage activities. I have no doubt China shares this kind of imagery on the UK and other European countries.”
The UK assets likely to be of interest to Beijing are understood to range from defence manufacturing sites and military testing facilities such as Salisbury Plain, through to data cable-laying activities off the British coast and military exercises involving British troops abroad.
Defence sources told The i Paper that Chinese commercial satellites now match or exceed the technical specifications of Western equivalents by being able to produce images of any location on Earth within 8-10 minutes at a resolution of about 25cm – accurate enough to identify a moving vehicle. Such is the number of satellites under Beijing’s control that images of the same location can be captured every 90 to 120 minutes.
According to space industry forecasts, China sent 127 commercial satellites into orbit in January alone and is expected to launch more than 1,000 over the coming year.
A British Army military exercise on Salisbury Plains, Warminster (Photo: Leon Neal/Getty)
Bill Greer, a satellite expert and co-founder of Commonspace, a non-profit looking to build a satellite constellation for disaster relief, said: “They can likely view any area in the UK multiple times a day, and likely with different sensors. They would [also] definitely be targeting US military, Iran, Ukraine, and all other global areas of interest and conflict.”
A Western intelligence source added: “China is increasingly making its presence felt in the space arena. Its reach is now considerable and it will be looking at the UK and anywhere else where it thinks gathering or sharing data will bear fruit.”
China ‘helped Iran with satellite targeting’
Indeed, the extent to which China is playing a role in the Iran and Ukraine conflicts has come under close scrutiny in recent weeks.
While American commercial satellite companies have been banned from selling detailed images of US military assets in the Middle East since the start of the Iran war, Beijing is widely believed by Western intelligence agencies to have provided Tehran with satellite imagery used for targeting or assessing damage.
China is also thought to have sold an advanced surveillance satellite to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the military force charged with maintaining the Iranian regime, in 2024. The satellite, known as TEE-01B, is believed to have been sold to the IRGC as part of an “in orbit” package including launch into space offered by Chinese firms. Beijing has strongly denied any such sale.
However, there is growing evidence that China is willing to use its technical prowess in space as leverage in its relationship with allies. As Kari Bingen, an expert at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, puts it: “China is using space as a tool of diplomacy and influence.”
One of China’s largest commercial operators, Chang Guang Satellite Technology (CGST), is already under sanctions from Washington and the European Union for providing images to Houthi rebels and Russian mercenaries in Ukraine – allegations which the company denies.
Precision warfare
Dr Bleddyn Bowen, a space politics specialist at the Royal United Services Institute think-tank and an academic at Durham University, said China’s enhanced capabilities – albeit untested in wartime -opened the door to its use of satellite data to carry out highly-precise strikes – including in aid of other states – in the event of conflict.
He said: “We’ve been used in the West to doing precision warfare, long-range airstrikes where we can hit not only certain buildings, but specific floors of certain buildings with munitions from a distance. We now have to get used to the other side doing similar things.”
A US Air Force E-3 Sentry aircraft destroyed in an Iranian strike in Saudi Arabia (Photo: AFP/Getty)
Experts emphasised that when it comes to space technology, there is routinely a blurred line between private satellite operators in one country and its government, who are more often than not also the biggest customers of the data provided.
In the case of China, the result is a burgeoning ecosystem of private companies, some run by individuals with links to state defence research institutions, competing to provide Beijing and other customers with space-based data.
MizarVision, which does not operate its own satellites and sources imagery from providers thought to include China’s Jilin-1 surveillance constellation as well as Western operators, did not respond to questions from The i Paper. Chinese commentators have insisted its activities are not dissimilar to Western commercial satellite companies, although the firm is reportedly 5.5 per cent owned by the Chinese state.
Among the locations highlighted for its “geo-spatial intelligence” service is Ramstein airbase in Germany, a major US Air Force hub used as a logistics hub for transporting weaponry to Ukraine.
The Western intelligence source added: “The key point here is that these are capabilities which can be harnessed by the Chinese state whenever it wants. The ability to watch everything and supply that information to anyone to gain an advantage is now firmly a Chinese capability. We should not forget that.”
Donald Trump is not much of a reader. But there’s a book in the White House that – if he cracked it open — could change the course of his presidency and of America itself.
Three years ago, in the pages of Vanity Fair, I wrote about a manual that almost no one in America has ever seen. Inside the White House complex, in a secure location known to only a handful of people, sits an instruction book informally called the “Doomsday Book”. Its contents are formally known by an anodyne acronym — PEADs, or Presidential Emergency Action Documents.
They are draft executive orders, prepared in advance, that reportedly allow a president to do extraordinary things with the stroke of a pen during wartime-level emergencies, such as detaining civilians, suspending communications, censoring the press, freezing property and even imposing what amounts to martial law.
The PEADs were created in the Eisenhower era to keep the country running if Washington was destroyed in a nuclear strike. They were designed for the unimaginable – a decapitated government, an invading army or a moment when the survival of the American republic itself was in doubt. They were never meant to be a tool for ordinary politics. They were, in the words of one White House official I spoke with from the first Trump administration, who was familiar with such sensitive emergency protocols, “the Mad Libs for the most extreme measures of government” – a reference to the fill-in-the-blanks word game.
Shorts – Quick stories
HEALTH
The diet that can slash high blood pressure risk by 30%
Various kinds of vegan protein sources on beige background. Set of food supplements. Gluten free cereals as ground hemp seeds, quinoa. Nuts and legumes (green mung beans, chick-pea, red lentil, kidney bean, almonds, hazelnuts). Flat lay, top view – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
Eating beans, lentils and soy products dramatically reduces your risk of high blood pressure, a study has found.
The high levels of minerals, fibre and bioactive compounds in the plants also reduce the risk of other heart problems, especially when consumed daily.
How to be full of beans
Colorful Array of Mixed Beans – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
Eat 170g per day of legumes like beans, lentils or chickpeas.
Pair with 60-80g daily of soy such as tofu, edamame or soy milk.
Include regular exercise in your routine to further protect the heart.
LIFESTYLE
6 min read
What did the study find?
Eating a portion of legumes and soy each day led to a 28-30 per cent reduction in risk of high blood pressure. Those on this diet had up to 19 per cent less risk than those eating the least of these products.
Experts writing in the British Medical Journal looked at the results of 12 previous studies for this research and concluded that the high levels of potassium, magnesium and dietary fibre contributed to the lowering of risk.
Charity urges us to eat more beans
Simple swaps, like choosing beans, lentils, chickpeas or tofu in place of processed meats, can make a meaningful difference and help support healthier blood pressure as part of an overall balanced diet.
TRACY PARKER, SENIOR DIETITIAN AT BRITISH HEART FOUNDATION
Adult and child hands holding red heart, health care, donate and family insurance concept,world heart day, world health day,,health care, concept – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
TRAVEL
The next airports which could suspend EES checks
Joe Duggan
Senior Reporter
Greece has suspended EES checks for UK holidaymakers until at least September after queues of three hours or more at the border.
As the summer holiday season approaches, other popular destinations for British tourists could follow suit.
Why are the queues so long?
The new European border system, launched last month, requires non-EU citizens to have a facial scan and fingerprints taken to enter the Schengen Area.
Passengers have reported having to queue for the checks several times. A body representing 600 airports says the queues are causing “major concerns” with some passengers missing flights.
TRAVEL
4 min read
TRAVEL
4 min read
Which countries could pause checks mext?
While only Greece has fully suspended checks for British tourists so far, airports in Portugal, France and Italy have all initiated temporary pauses to help ease long queues. Belgium has postponed introducing EES.
Syros is a quieter alternative to Mykonos (Photo: Getty)Caption: City of Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain. Europe. Photographer: Jose A. Bernat Bacete Provider: Getty Images Source: Moment RF Copyright: @
The Spanish and Dutch governments have said there are no problems with the new system despite the delays. Opposition parties in Spain are calling for checks to be lifted, with one leader saying the queues are “typical of a Third World country”.
Health
How eggs could lower your risk of Alzheimer’s
Eggs were once the original superfood, but then concerns over their cholesterol and fat content led to them being seen as bad for the heart (Photo: Getty)
Clare Wilson
Science Writer
Eggs were once the original superfood, but then concerns over their cholesterol and fat content led to them being seen as bad for the heart. So, what do and don’t we know about the effects of eggs on our health? And does the way that we cook them make a difference?
How has health advice about eggs changed?
Up until the 1970s, eggs were considered a nutritious breakfast, as the famous marketing slogan “go to work on an egg” suggests. People were later advised to limit their egg intake because of the cholesterol in the yolk, which was considered to be bad for the heart. As understanding of how cholesterol works has improved, eggs have been restored to their “superfood” status. The NHS now recommends eggs as part of your diet, with no upper limit.
LIFESTYLE
5 min read
LIFESTYLE
7 min read
What does the study show?
Having eggs at least five times a week suggests a…
27%
lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s, compared with those who rarely or never eat them.
The research followed nearly 40,000 adults aged 65 and over for an average of 15 years.
980,000
people are estimated to be living with dementia in the UK, with Alzheimer’s the most common cause.
This is forecast to rise to 1.4m by 2040 as the population ages.
What’s so special about eggs?
Photographer: Andrew Brookes Provider: Getty Images/Image Source Source: Image Source Copyright: Copyright Andrew Brookes
A no-brainer
Eggs contain choline, which the body uses to make acetylcholine, a chemical involved in memory and learning.
Nutritious and delicious
Eggs contain lutein and zeaxanthin, the yellow-orange pigments in food which could slow down eyesight loss.
(Photo: Laurie Ambrose/Getty).
Caption: Eggs are seen in a carton on Monday, April 13, 2026, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane) Photographer: Jenny Kane Provider: AP Source: AP
Egg-ceptional
They also provide some omega-3 fatty acids, which have been linked with cognitive function.
Caption: A detail of cracked egg falling into the pan as woman holds egg shells in both hands. Photographer: SimpleImages Provider: Getty Images Source: Moment RF
You must be yolking
By just having the whites, you could be forgoing all of these beneficial nutrients.
Nutrition researcher Dr Emma Derbyshire advises against the cartons of egg whites favoured by bodybuilders for their low-fat, high-protein content.
All the nutrients associated with health effects are found in the yolk, so you must eat the whole egg to benefit from the boost.
Starmer’s plan revealed as Labour loses seats in local elections
Sir Keir Starmer will pivot his political message to deliver a more left-wing pitch to voters in a bid to fend off a leadership challenge.
We’ve built a political class allergic to spontaneity and terrified of taking risks (Photo: Toby Melville/AFP)
Starmer’s four-point plan to fight off Labour coup
The Prime Minister is understood to have abandoned the election strategy that helped secure a landslide in 2024 to one that will aim to unite progressive voters in both working-class and urban areas. It marks a shift away from trying to court Reform voters with strong immigration rhetoric.
Analysis
3 min read
Big Read
10 min read
Focus shifts to progressive block
Insiders say the view is that whoever can unite the left or the right will win the next general election, with Starmer hoping to appeal to progressive voters by focusing on issues they care about.
Closer relations with the EU including greater alignment with the single market.
Increased defence spending including a long-delayed investment plan.
Commitment to the environment and energy security through green sources.
Focus on values and making the case for a diverse and tolerant Britain.
Local election results as they come in
Labour loses nine councils so far – as Reform gains hundreds of seats
Of the 136 local authorities in England holding elections, 40 have so far declared their results.
Labour suffered significant blows, losing more than 240 seats across England overnight.
Reform has taken Newcastle-under-Lyme and Havering, London, gaining over 350 seats
Counting began in Scotland, Wales and the remaining English councils this morning.
Labour MPs react to losses
The Defence Secretary has supported Starmer as the man who can “turn it around” for Labour, saying that he “won the mandate for five years from the public” and he thinks “he can still deliver”.
Caption: Defence Secretary John Healey delivers a statement on recent UK operational activity at 9 Downing Street in Westminster, central London. Mr Healey said the UK and allies monitored a Russian attack submarine and two spy submarines in the North Atlantic for a month before they retreated. Picture date: Thursday April 9, 2026. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Yui Mok/PA Wire Photographer: Yui Mok Provider: Yui Mok/PA Wire Source: PA Copyright: PA Wire Sir Keir Starmer is faced with finding a replacement for Shadow Education Secretary after he sacked Rebecca Long-Bailey (Photo: AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Not everyone in the party is so confident in their leader, though, with Labour MP Johnathon Brash calling for Starmer to resign and Rebecca Long-Bailey labelling it a “soul-destroying night”.
Starmer takes the blame
We have lost brilliant Labour representatives across the country; these are people who put so much into their communities, so much into our party. And that hurts, and I take responsibility…Tough days like these don’t weaken my resolve to deliver the change that I promised. They strengthen my resolve.
PRIME MINISTER SIR KEIR STARMER
Caption: LONDON, ENGLAND – MAY 08: British Prime Minister and Labour leader Keir Starmer speaks to supporters and councillors following local elections at Kingsdown Methodist Church on May 08, 2026 in London, England. Voters went to the polls yesterday in the local elections across England. Results counted overnight show widespread losses for the Labour Party. Several key Labour councils have surrendered their majority as Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats make significant gains. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images) Photographer: Leon Neal Provider: Getty Images Source: Getty Images Europe Copyright: 2026 Getty Images
Caption: HARTLEPOOL, ENGLAND – MAY 07: A general view outside a polling station during the local elections on May 07, 2026 in Hartlepool, England. The 2026 UK local elections involve approximately 5,000 seats across 136 local councils in England, taking place alongside major devolved elections for the Scottish Parliament and the Senedd (Welsh Parliament). (Photo by Ian Forsyth/Getty Images) Photographer: Ian Forsyth Provider: Getty Images Source: Getty Images Europe Copyright: 2026 Getty Images
Politics
Election results at a glance – and key battlegrounds to come
Some English councils have already declared their results, with counting now underway across England, Scotland and Wales.
We take a look at what the results mean so far, as well as some to watch out for later today.
The results so far
Early results paint bleak picture for Labour
Of the 136 local authorities in England holding elections, 41 have so far declared their results.
Heavy losses for Labour, including eight councils, have translated to wins for the smaller parties across the board.
Reform has taken control of Newcastle-under-Lyme and Havering, London, as well as almost 400 seats.
Many councils remain in no overall control as all the parties struggled to command majorities.
When will we get results in Scotland and Wales?
Counting began this morning and will likely take most of the day
Scotland: 12pm-6.30pm
SNP projected to lose their majority but retain control as the biggest party.
Wales: 2pm-5:30pm
Labour expected to lose control for the first time since devolution in 1999.
Interview
7 min read
Key seats to watch
Caption: PENARTH, WALES – MAY 7: Zack Polanski, Leader of the Green Party, talking outside of a polling station at St Augustine’s Parish Hall on May 7, 2026 in Penarth, Wales. The 2026 Senedd election marks a major overhaul of the Welsh Parliament as the number of Members increases from 60 to 96. Under a new proportional system, voters cast a single vote for a party list across 16 new constituencies, each electing six representatives. (Photo by Jon Rowley/Getty Images) Photographer: Jon Rowley Provider: Getty Images Source: Getty Images Europe
All eyes are on the Greens as their target London councils declare.
Five London boroughs and Watford await new mayors.
Six county councils in southern England will declare later today.
Big Read
5 min read
The Government is being urged to focus on providing practical steps and clear communication to the public to avoid panic-buying of fuel (Photo: Michael Garner/Getty)
NEWS
How cutting speed limits could reduce Iran war price impact
Lowering speed limits on motorways and urban roads could lower drivers’ costs, according to a think-tank.
This is part of a package of measures which it says would soften the impact of price hikes resulting from war in the Middle East.
What the Institute for Public Policy Research calls for
Cut fuel duty by 10p
This would be a temporary measure.
Energy price cap £2,000
The cap would be per customer per year.
Lower speed limits by 10mph
Across 30mph and 70mph zones.
Explained
8 min read
How would this help?
Reducing the speed limit on motorways to 60 mph and 20mph in towns and cities could stretch fuel further in a shortage, as well as capping demand and helping drivers save money.
International bodies for fuel monitoring have recommended that countries impose speed caps to curb fuel usage.
CONSUMER
3 min read
NEWS
5 min read
‘A dual win’ – thinktank
[Benefits include] lowering fuel demand, while safer streets support swapping short trips to walking and cycling. This should be packaged with advice on how to drive more efficiently alongside recommendations for increased home working and carpooling.
INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC POLICY RESEARCH
Photographer: Justin Paget Provider: Getty Images Source: Digital Vision
Caption: Undated handout composite photo issued by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) of Chung Biu Yuen (left), 65, a former Hong Kong police officer currently working at the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in London, and Chi Leung Wai, 40, a former UK Border Force officer and special constable with the City of London Police. Both individuals were convicted under the National Security Act 2023 following a trial at the Old Bailey. Issue date: Thursday May 7, 2026. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: CPS/PA Wire
NOTE TO EDITORS: This handout photo may only be used in for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned in the caption. Reuse of the picture may require further permission from the copyright holder. Photographer: CPS Provider: CPS/PA Wire Source: PA
CRIME
UK immigration officer among two guilty of working for Chinese intelligence
A Border Force official and a retired Hong Kong police officer have been found guilty of conducting “shadow policing” operations for China on British soil.
What you need to know
Dual Chinese-British nationals Peter Wai, 38, and Bill Yuen, 65, were convicted of assisting a foreign intelligence service under the National Security Act. Wai was also convicted of misconduct in a public office by searching the Home Office computer system for people of interest to Hong Kong authorities.
Caption: Chung Biu Yuen arrives at the Old Bailey court, during a trial where he and co-defendant Chi Leung Wai are accused of assisting a foreign intelligence service, in London, Britain, May 6, 2026. REUTERS/Toby Melville Photographer: Toby Melville Provider: REUTERS Source: REUTERS
Exclusive
4 min read
A closer look at the detail
The jury, which deliberated for 23 hours and 38 minutes, was discharged after failing to reach a verdict against the defendants in respect of a charge of foreign interference by forcing entry into the Pontefract home of alleged fraud suspect Monica Kwong on 1 May 2024.
Caption: Chung Biu Yuen arrives at the Old Bailey court, during a trial where he and co-defendant Chi Leung Wai are accused of assisting a foreign intelligence service, in London, Britain, May 6, 2026. REUTERS/Toby Melville Photographer: Toby Melville Provider: REUTERS Source: REUTERS Caption: LONDON, ENGLAND – MARCH 02: Chi Leung Wai arrives at the Old Bailey on March 02, 2026 in London, England. Chi Leung (Peter) Wai and Chung Biu Yuen have been charged under the National Security Act with assisting the Hong Kong intelligence service and foreign interference, for allegedly agreeing to undertake information gathering, surveillance, and acts of deception. A third man, a Home Office immigration officer and former Royal Marine, Matthew Trickett, had also been charged, but was found dead in Maidenhead in May 2024. (Photo by Jack Taylor/Getty Images) Photographer: Jack Taylor Provider: Getty Images Source: Getty Images Europe Copyright: 2026 Getty Images
The prosecution announced the Crown would not seek a retrial and the defendants were remanded into custody to be sentenced on a date to be fixed on 15 May.
Who were their targets?
Wai worked for Border Force at Heathrow Airport having formerly been in the Royal Navy.
He had gathered intelligence on the orders of ex-Hong Kong superintendent Yuen, who was a senior manager at the Hong Kong Economic Trade Office (HKETO) in London.
Targets included Hong Kong dissidents and protesters living in the UK – with “special attention” paid to politicians including Sir Iain Duncan Smith.
Analysis
8 min read
After I served in Donald Trump’s administration, ultimately as chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security, one of the possibilities that worried me most was that the wrong person would gain access to that book. We came perilously close. In Trump’s final year, the White House apparently attempted to install a die-hard loyalist onto the National Security Council in a job that would have given her proximity to the nation’s most sensitive emergency authorities.
Career officials worked frantically to prevent it. “We were a hair’s width away,” one of them told me at the time. That individual would later surface as a foot soldier in Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election, which made national security officials all the more relieved that she’d never been given access to the government’s most sensitive “break glass” emergency powers.
The President himself – although I once heard him refer to his “magical authorities” to bypass legal constraints – did not fully understand the powers he possessed, I was told. Some of those who did understand were terrified he might use those authorities. One such official, who once held the keys to the Doomsday Book, warned me back then that if Trump returned to office, he feared those powers being turned not outward at America’s enemies but inward at citizens. He imagined federal forces ringing polling places in opposition states, intimidation dressed up as election security, and the architecture of homeland defence aimed at the homeland itself.
Taylor, left, says he has seen Trump repeatedly drawn to emergency powers and the militarisation of policymaking (Photo: Miles Taylor)
“It would be the inverse of election security,” he said. “It would militarise the elections process.”
That feels to me far from fantasy. He’s been drawn, again and again, to his emergency powers and the militarisation of policymaking. I watched Trump demand the military use lethal force at the border with Mexico where unarmed civilians were pouring across. I heard him insist we designate innocent people as “unlawful enemy combatants” to be imprisoned at the terrorist prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In 2019, I remember him threatening that a “civil war” was afoot and a “coup” was in the works because of investigations into his administration – hyperbolic language that led, eventually, to the January 6 riot at the Capitol. And earlier this year, he openly declared that he “should have” ordered the National Guard to seize ballot boxes during that election.
It was 2022 when that official told me of his fears. I wrote about it further in a book called Blowback, which was meant to be a warning. I hoped it would age badly.
It has not.
This week, New York Times columnist Thomas B Edsall assembled, in one place, the words the President has said on the record about the limits of his power. They are worth reading, as they hint that he’s unafraid, if not eager, to flex his powers, including against the democratic process.
On elections: “When you think of it, we shouldn’t even have an election.”
On the limits of his power: “There is one thing. My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me, and that’s very good.”
On the scope of his authority: “I have the right to do anything I want to do. I’m the President of the United States of America.”
The states that administer American elections are, he has decided, “agents of the federal government to count the votes. If they can’t count the votes legally and honestly, then somebody else should take over.”
To me, each and every one of those statements is anti-constitutional. Three years ago my concern was that Trump did not fully appreciate the powers he might – in a nightmare scenario – be able to abuse. Today, my concern is that he’s decided to do so.
Taylor fears Trump’s latest counterterrorism strategy is pointed directly at Americans, raising the spectre of mass arrests, seizure of communications systems, and freezing of bank accounts (Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/AP)
Edsall’s column draws heavily on the work of Joel McCleary and Elizabeth Goitein, two of the most rigorous students of presidential emergency authority in the country. Goitein, who runs the liberty and national security programme at the Brennan Center for Justice, has spent years trying to drag the PEADs into the light.
McCleary, a co-founder of the bipartisan group Keep Our Republic, has been mapping what the Trump White House has been doing with classified emergency tools, particularly in relation to elections.
The picture they paint is of a layered system. At the bottom sits National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, signed last September. NSPM-7 cites no statute. It invents, by presidential fiat, a category of “domestic terrorist organisation” that does not exist in federal law, and directs the Department of Justice, the Treasury, the Internal Revenue Service and other agencies to investigate and prosecute groups whose politics the administration deems “anti-American, anti-capitalist, and anti-Christian”.
It is, as McCleary puts it, “running now, not waiting for a crisis”. On top of that sits the familiar machinery of national emergency declarations, which unlock more than 130 statutory authorities at the stroke of a pen. And at the apex sits the Doomsday Book itself – the PEADs, classified, never reviewed by Congress, never tested in court, and theoretically ready for a presidential signature at any moment.
Each layer normalises the next.
This week, the architecture took another step. On Tuesday, the White House released its new National Counterterrorism Strategy. For the first time in American history, an official counterterrorism document places domestic political movements on the same ledger as al Qaeda and Isis. It promises to “map them at home, identify their membership, map their ties to international organisations”, language lifted directly from the post-9/11 playbook against foreign jihadi networks. It’s now pointed at Americans.
Look no further than the fact that administration officials now deride peaceful protesters as “domestic terrorists” or that ICE agents threaten to add American citizens to terrorist watchlists, simply for filming their activities.
A federal agent throws a tear gas canister towards protesters during clashes in Minnesota in January. Taylor fears ICE agents could be misused to undermine democracy (Photo: Kerem Yucel/AFP)
The document announces a “pre-crime” enforcement model in which federal agents would investigate, disrupt and prosecute people not for what they have done but for what their politics suggest they might do. It expands the targeting categories to include, among other things, “radically pro-transgender ideologies”.
If you read the strategy alongside the President’s own words, you see that it’s much more than a counterterrorism document. It’s a permission slip.
Jonathan Winer, the former Clinton-era diplomat, has sketched out, in the The Washington Spectator, how the pieces would fit together if Trump chooses to use them around the 2026 midterms. The President declares the results rigged. Federal authorities open “investigations” into the count. Protests are reframed as organised political violence under NSPM-7.
Mass arrests follow, using the only paramilitary domestic detention infrastructure of sufficient scale: ICE – Immigration and Customs Enforcement – whose budget Congress has just inflated to $45bn, with $38.3bn of that for new facility construction. Communications systems are seized. Bank accounts are frozen.
“These actions could be taken broadly at the outset,” Winer writes, “before courts rule on their legality, preceding any form of judicial review.” By the time the courts catch up, the election is over.
I want to be careful about what I am saying. I am not predicting any of this will happen. I am saying that three years ago this scenario lived in the realm of cheap thrillers, and today it is the subject of academic papers, New York Times columns and formal policy memoranda issued on White House letterheads.
All the instruments required to execute it are now in place. The detention capacity is being built. The legal framework exists. The targeting doctrine exists. The classified emergency orders still allegedly exist. The man who would sign them has told us, on the record, that nothing but his own morality stands in the way.
The near-term remedy to this is not exotic. America’s elected leaders in Congress and election officials in all 50 states must be made aware of what could happen. These are scenarios almost none of them have imagined, let alone planned for. Yet I consider them to be more plausible than ever. And they must be proactive in preparing to challenge – in court – abuses of power that might be designed to keep the President’s party in power and to keep him, in his mind, away from the threat of impeachment.
This is why a civic organisation I run has decided to team up with other groups to begin briefing members of Congress and state leaders on the scope of this architecture – namely, what emergency powers are known to exist based on declassified materials, what powers could be unlawfully abused and what guardrails can be put in place before the midterms. We’re doing it on a bipartisan basis because, in the long term, the question is not which party holds these powers today. The question is whether any human should hold them at all.
When I wrote Blowback, the people I quoted – including career officials, former cabinet secretaries, the man who once carried the Doomsday Book – sounded even to me at times like they were borrowing from a paperback. I worried readers would find their words lurid. I don’t worry about that any more.
This is no longer the stuff of cheap fiction. But if we let it happen, American democracy would read like one.
Miles Taylor is a former chief of staff at the US Department of Homeland Security and has served on Capitol Hill, in the White House and at the Pentagon. He is a No 1 New York Times bestselling author, regular national security commentator and democracy reform leader.
In 2013, it became legal for a woman to marry another woman in the UK. And the following year I married my long-time partner, novelist Hilary Bonner.
Old fears die slowly. After so many years of hiding my real self, even as the ceremony proceeded a little part of me did wonder if we might be arrested on the way out.
After all, for fifteen years I had shared my life with a woman who would not publicly acknowledge our relationship. To her family and the majority of those close to her, I was just a friend. I was accustomed to living in the shadows.
I still half expect people to disapprove of me having a wife rather than a husband. And I doubt I will ever stop being surprised that, nowadays, at last, nobody seems to care!
Even as an actress, within an industry known for its liberal attitudes, tolerance, and acceptance of people who are different, I have found in the past that it was not always possible to be open.
For example, I firmly believed during my time in Coronation Street in the 1980s that I would be sacked if my sexuality became public knowledge. Actors and their characters often become as one in soap operas. And it would almost certainly have been felt that our viewers would not accept a gay Alma. But I did feel like saying: “It’s not catching, you know!’
Now Coronation Street abounds with gay characters, to the extent that I have wondered if it should be renamed Canal Street, after Manchester’s famous gay area. So it has occurred to me that maybe I was wrong. Maybe it is catching…
As a small child, I vividly remember being read fairy stories by my mother to send me to sleep. The happy endings more often than not involved a prince marrying his princess. Afterwards, I would lie awake thinking to myself: “I don’t like this, I think the story should be set in a time when women can marry women.”
So perhaps the seed of something I had absolutely no understanding was already within me. If so, I was soon to learn it must not be admitted. Homosexuality wasn’t a word you even heard mentioned. I, like so many, lived a life of denial. That was what you did back then.
There is little doubt that my schoolgirl crushes were rather more intense than those of most others. But at school, I even invented boyfriends so that I would fit in. Even though I was actually deeply in love with the head girl!
Later, I had a number of real boyfriends, and in 1967 actually married a man, the actor Robin Hunter. It was not a smokescreen. I loved him. In my life I have loved both men and women. And I have always hated labels.
I’d had my first glimpse of how life could be, when I accidentally ended up on holiday in the South of France in the early 60s, and entered this world where all kinds of people, queer and trans, appeared to be totally accepted. I met a woman there who captivated me. But I walked away from her. I was, quite simply, still afraid of my own feelings.
I was into my mid-thirties before I had a real relationship with a woman. I continued to keep that side of me hidden. And anyone living inside my head through that time would probably be in trouble. As I was myself. I had a nervous breakdown, and ended up having treatment at the Middlesex hospital.
I thought it was due to the pressures of being a West End leading lady. The doctors had other ideas. This was the 1970s, and they thought my struggles with my sexuality were largely responsible, and they regarded me as something of a curiosity, to the extent that they wrote about me in the medical magazine, The Lancet. I’d filmed Carry on Cleo not long before, and it seemed, that the medical profession found my appearance confusing. Apparently, I did not look like a lesbian – or, more accurately, how back then the world thought a lesbian looked.
At the time, there was immense prejudice against gay women. I still remember overhearing whispers, mouthed behind cupped hands, that the choreographer of a show I was in was “a lesbian”.
Young girls were warned off, as if a lesbian, shock horror, was a predator to be feared who might jump on you with neither encouragement nor warning. In my future experience nothing could have been further from the truth.
Perhaps it was not surprising that I developed a terrible tendency to blush. I felt as if I had this guilty secret.
I had a particular problem with taxi drivers, whom I always talk to and assume would not be accepting of my sexuality. I felt as if the Cleo in me had let them down. And I must confess that I was, until quite recently, ridiculously vague should the subject of my personal life be raised.
Then came the day when five or six years ago I inadvertently mentioned “my wife”.
“I didn’t know you were married, Amanda”, remarked the cabbie with casual conviviality. “Is your wife anybody I know?”
Well, I’d been casually accepted by a London cabby for being myself. And he even asked me for a selfie. As he drove off, I stood there and thought: Wow! Times have certainly changed.
This week I have been…
Working… Met up again with my “Costa Con” pal Stephanie Beacham at a Bad Girls convention in Birmingham. Claire King, who played the prison governor, was also there.
And the following day I breezed off to meet up with another old pal Sherrie Hewson, at a Film Fair event. The queues of fans stretched right down the street.
And if I say so myself, I seemed to be on rather good form. Indeed, I could have been accused of being a tad hyper, largely down to getting a lot of a laughs. However, such behaviour is inclined to have consequences at my age. Once the burst of adrenaline which had overtaken me departed – just as swiftly as it had arrived – I collapsed in a bit of a heap.
Antique-ing… Spent a morning at Covent Garden market checking up on all my antique dealer chums, whose stalls I have visited over many years. I bought a small metal box containing an original match with a phosphorous tip made in around 1880 by the factory workers known as the match girls. Those poor women and girls suffered from a terrible disease, known as Phossy, which caused facial disfigurement and death. They made history with a ground-breaking strike against their awful working conditions, leading to the eventual banning of white phosphorous in the UK.
Eating… I’ve never taken food that seriously. However, if married to Hilary Bonner you learn that eating is like a science where each flavour is discussed in detail. She also cooks. Which means I now eat proper meals.
This week began with pasta bolognaise – her bolognaise sauce is the best – with enough left over for stuffed peppers the following day. Last night it was seared salmon fillets and fresh English asparagus. I don’t know what we will eat tonight, but doubtless she does.
I’m known to be not too fond of chefs, having taken a swipe at Gordon Ramsay on national TV, but I am quite pleased to now have my own.
The only thing she can’t cook is any sort of ready meal, as she is convinced she knows better than the several hundred experts who have probably been involved in compiling the instructions that come with the packet.
Amanda Barrie’s autobiography I’m Still Here is out now in hardback, and in paperback on June 18th.
I still remember the moment I opened my Klarna and saw how much I owed. I felt suddenly sick. I sat there still and spiralling: how had this happened?
It was July 2024, and after emerging from the stressful mist of exams during my medicine degree, I decided to check my account to see how much I had to pay, expecting a reasonable number. This isn’t out of the ordinary, but a monthly habit. As a 24-year-old, I’ve used buy-now-pay-later over several years and to some extent, had been sensible with it.
However, to my horror, it wasn’t the £250 I was hoping for, but £1,000, accumulated over just a month without me ever consciously deciding to borrow that money.
My experience with buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) started in my second year of university. I was 22 and spotted a promotion at the self-service checkout in my local H&M. It looked good – Klarna would pay the total, and I’d repay it in installments, interest-free. I was sold on the idea that with just a few taps on my phone, I’d walk out with a bag full of (essential) clothes — with £100 I had originally budgeted for the clothes still in my pocket. At the time, it didn’t feel like debt. Over the next two years, as a student, it was a useful way to buy train tickets, clothes, shoes and skincare without feeling overwhelmed. I also used it to pay for larger purchases, such as a new laptop and a new air fryer.
At first, I never missed a payment and managed to stay within my means. But then I started to use Klarna out of sheer convenience. I didn’t have a new card saved on my phone, and instead of going across the room to fetch my purse, I was able to check out with just three taps, leaving the problem to future me.
I’ve always been a bit of a spender. If you’ve ever wondered who might buy a product after seeing an influencer promote it on social media, it’s me. So, at the end of my fourth year of university, with exam season anxiety at an all-time high, my Klarna usage slowly started to spiral out of control. I was buying skincare, candles and loungewear I didn’t need.
Researchers have a name for this: doom-spending. It’s a way for people to use retail to regulate anxiety and cope with stress. Research on impulse buying has found that women are disproportionately targeted by emotionally resonant advertising, particularly around self-care, and are more likely to engage in doom-spending behaviour to regulate mood and ease anxiety.
In the month leading up to my exams, shopping felt less like spending money, and more of a coping mechanism, catalysed by the ease of BNPL. The more stressed I felt, the more things I bought. Klarna just made it easier. New trainers for £100, a set of skincare products for £150, a wardrobe refresh for the summer. The purchases were entirely frivolous — that of a typical 23-year-old at university — but the ease with which they accumulated was startling. Each transaction felt purely frictionless: a few taps, the money still visible in my account, a vague due date 30 days away.
It was a cycle I didn’t fully recognise I was stuck in until I was already in deep. Eventually, once my exams were over, I built up the courage to open my Klarna. I couldn’t even recall all the purchases I made, what I did with the things I bought or how it came about. Paying off that £1,000 over a month meant working more over the summer and living frugally. Every payment felt like a dagger to the heart. By September, I had paid off the debt and then quickly deleted the app. Now I refuse to keep the app on my phone to remove the seamless experience I was addicted to, and no longer use it day-to-day.
The experience was life-changing. But I’m one of the lucky ones — a separate study found that 33 per cent of women are likely to use BNPL for essentials, and 19 per cent already use it to make ends meet. With bills and food prices on the rise, that figure is set to increase, and with that, a dangerous reliance on BNPL to survive.
Emma* first turned to BNPL services when she was 29, downloading Clearpay and other BNPL platforms to make ends meet — and is one of the growing number of young women who’ve had to rely on it to manage the rising cost of living but end up trapped.
At first, it felt like a way for the mother-of-five from Manchester to “get by” on universal credit and child benefits. “I have a disabled child, and went through a difficult time when my son was being diagnosed with ADHD and autism. It’s always been up and down when it comes to money, so I used to use Clearpay to buy clothes for the children,” she says.
“I’ve got a big family, so using BNPL in Asda made it easier to pay off the food shop. My son was still in nappies at the time, and I didn’t have enough money to pay for the big shop all in one go, or to pay for nappies,” she says. “I was able to use BNPL to split the payments into £25 installments, and it was useful for that.”
But over time, this habit became something harder to manage. Emma recalls when she started to feel “tempted” to use BNPL for things she didn’t need, despite not having the money in her purse.
A series of haphazard purchases, which included iPads and a TV, alongside essentials for her children, pushed her into debt. Emma ended up owing £1,500 to Clearpay. At one point, £200 was leaving her bank account every month to Clearpay alone. The experience left her stuck in a vicious cycle: she receives nearly £900 a month in universal credit and around £85 in child benefit, and after essential bills such as gas and electricity, she was left with only £200–£300 a month — most of which went towards payments that were often overdue and topped with fines.
A spokesperson at Clearpay said a minority of customers miss their payments.“Buy now, pay later is an everyday payment method used by millions of Brits. With 96 per cent of transactions being paid on time globally, our customers use Clearpay as a practical tool to manage their spending.”
They added: “Like any form of credit, BNPL needs to be used responsibly, which is why Clearpay is designed with clear repayment schedules and built-in safeguards, including pausing an account if a single repayment is missed to prevent further spending.”
Eventually, Emma sought advice from a financial charity who helped her obtain a debt relief order, which paused her debts for 12 months to give her time to seek financial advice and ultimately pay it off. But this was on her credit record for the next six years.
Simon Trevethick, head of communications at StepChange, has seen this pattern time and time again. “We’re increasingly seeing it used not just for one-off spending, but to help cover everyday living costs,” he says. “Before using it, people should consider whether they can afford the repayments alongside their other financial commitments and, where possible, avoid using it to cover essential bills. It’s positive that BNPL products will come under FCA regulation from July, bringing it in line with the consumer credit sector, but it’s important in the meantime that people are using it carefully.”
BNPL can cause a maelstrom of problems for young women living in a time of financial anxiety. We must see Klarna for what it is: debt. The sort that should not be glamourised.
A spokesperson from Klarna says: “Klarna’s BNPL products are interest-free, short-term, and a genuinely fairer alternative to credit cards, which charge sky-high interest rates and trap consumers in revolving debt. We run affordability checks on every transaction and these checks did their job in Zesha’s case, preventing her from getting into further debt on numerous occasions. Any customer can switch off our credit products on their own using our credit opt-out feature in the app.”
Midway through last night’s show at Liverpool’s M&S Bank Arena, Paul Simon paused to reflect. “I wrote this one at the station in Widnes, or Warrington,” he said of “Homeward Bound”, one of the most moving songs ever written about the trials and tribulations of life on the road. “Whichever one keeps getting the plaque stolen.”
He was right the first time: Widnes railway station is widely accepted to be the place he penned the song in 1966, before he was recognised as Paul Simon the multi-platinum megastar, or even the Simon in Simon & Garfunkel; the duo’s debut album, Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M., had just flopped, and he was on his way back to his adopted hometown of London as he continued to try to forge a career as a singer-songwriter.
Six decades later, at 84, he is still on tour, eight years after claiming to have retired from live performance. After what was ostensibly his farewell tour in 2018, he began to lose his hearing – and, upon arresting the decline with the help of his doctors, decided to head out on one more tour, one billed as “A Quiet Celebration”, where pop and rock numbers would be eschewed in favour of a subtler, softer run through his catalogue.
Simon in 2022. His vocals are palpably diminished and he cannot hold a note the same way anymore (Photo: Kevin Mazur/Getty)
So far, so reasonable, except that when Simon arrived on stage 15 minutes after his scheduled stage time, there was an audible waver in his speaking voice. Said wobble translated to his singing voice; put simply, Simon is an old man, and he sounds like it. His vocals are palpably diminished, not just from the days when he was commanding audiences of hundreds of thousands at free concerts in Central Park, but also from that so-called farewell tour eight years ago. He cannot hold a note the same way anymore.
This means that anybody hoping to hear faithful renditions of his biggest and most buoyant pop songs, like “You Can Call Me Al”, were disappointed. But it also imbued the show with real resonance. It was a two-set affair with an interval, and in the first part, Simon and his ten-piece band played his last album, 2023’s SevenPsalms, in its entirety. Recorded as he wondered whether his hearing was in terminal decline, it is a quietly beautiful reflection on faith and mortality comparable to David Bowie’sBlackstar or Leonard Cohen’s You Want It Darker – a swan song that looks the reaper straight in the eye.
It was relayed live in one fell swoop, as one 35-minute suite without breaks, in a manner that was thoughtful and affecting, especially when Simon’s wife, Edie Brickell, lent her vocals to the last couple of songs.
In the second half, Simon answered the audience who came expecting hits, whose general consensus on the concourse during the interval was that Simon might be past it. His second set opened with “Graceland”, the title track from his 1986 exploration of African sounds. As if to underline tonight’s themes of transience, he later identified fretless bassist Bakithi Kumalo as the only surviving member of the band he put together for that record.
Simon and Art Garfunkel, whom he met in elementary school (Photo: CBS/Getty)
The musicianship was crisp, even when Simon’s vocals faltered. A languid take on “Train in the Distance” was suffused with bluesy melancholy, while the opportunity to hear original drummer Steve Gadd play his iconic drum riff on “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” – a shuffling beat that has had an indelible impact on modern hip hop and R&B – was a genuine treat. Amid the better-loved tracks were indulgences on Simon’s part – take your pick from “The Late Great Johnny Ace” or “René and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog After the War” for the evening’s most meandering storytelling diversion.
But there were moments of profundity, too – points where Simon’s tired vocals lent the songs a little extra poetry: “The Boxer” and its tale of a browbeaten fighter still standing against the odds was a case in point. After encouraging an ovation for his band, he closed the show with a powerful solo take on “The Sound of Silence”, a reminder that isolation and a lack of community spirit are issues that predate smartphones and social media by decades.
Simon cannot go on forever. Time waits for no man, and there are subtle signs that apparently immortal contemporaries of his are also reaching the end of the road; Bob Dylan, also 84, closes his shows these days with “Every Grain of Sand”, a devotional piece about faith and redemption, while The Rolling Stones have just announced a new album without any reference to live concerts, amid rumours that Keith Richards, of all people, no longer wants to tour. Perhaps these old timers are no longer raging against the dying of the light. Instead, “A Quiet Celebration” felt like Simon seizing the opportunity to say goodbye on his own terms.
It was predicted that Labour would lose seats and councils in Thursday’s local elections, but the results have delivered a verdict even more damning than expected.
This will only add to the pressure on Sir Keir Starmer – who has said today that the results “hurt” and that he will take responsibility. But should he resign? Our experts give their perspective.
Adam Boulton: The leadership alternatives would all be worse
When threatened by a grizzly bear, the experts say do not run away: stay stock still in the hope that it lumbers past. Labour has undergone a terrible mauling in this year’s local and national elections, but my advice to the Prime Minister is to stay where he is and do nothing dramatic – in the interests of the country.
For the simple reason that the eager alternatives – Ange, Andy, Wes and Ed would all be worse. To please the “soft left” they would be sucked into the party-pleasing vortex of more unaffordable spending mainly on welfare and even less firm government.
I doubt Sir Keir will take my advice. On past form he’ll look for scapegoats, and soon chuck competent New Labour ministers out of his cabinet, weakening his government further or fall into Ed Miliband’s trap of announcing a distant date for departure in the fond belief that he’ll last that long.
Adam Boulton presents Sunday Morning on Times Radio; he was formerly editor-at-large of Sky News
Zoë Grünewald: Starmer must plan his orderly exit, and let his party regroup
When Jeremy Corbyn clung to the Labour leadership despite a parliamentary no-confidence vote, a generation of Labour MPs, among them Keir Starmer, were appalled. Fast forward to 2026, and the Prime Minister’s declaration that he will “not walk away” as the party bleeds councillors feels uncomfortably familiar.
The local election results were unambiguous: Reform has swallowed Labour’s heartlands, swathes of councillors have been wiped out, and the historic majority of 2024 has turned into national contempt. Even his own loyalists privately concede he was a liability on the doorstep.
Starmer pledged to be different, from Corbyn, from Johnson, from Truss, from the whole catalogue of leaders who put ego before party and country. And while he says he takes full responsibility, a leader with a -45 approval rating does not get to define what responsibility looks like. Saying the words is not the same as acting on them.
The consensus inside the party is already hardening that this man cannot lead Labour into the next election. Starmer must plan his orderly exit, and let his party regroup – once again – without him.
Zoë Grünewald is a journalist, broadcaster and political commentator
Hugo Gye: Britain is in crisis and needs stability
In case you had any doubt, Labour is very unpopular and Reform UK is on the rise – the Greens, too. The results of the local elections confirm these basic facts. Sir Keir Starmer bears a great deal of the responsibility for his party’s dire position.
But for the Prime Minister to step down at this point and hand over to a novice, with Labour in crisis and Britain in turmoil, would be the wrong course of action.
It would be out of character as well: Starmer is stubborn to a fault, and his political career shows him to be a man who likes a fight more than his buttoned-down image might suggest. He will surely seek to stay in No 10 as long as he can.
Can Labour recover under his leadership? The evidence suggests quite possibly not. But if he is to leave before the next general election, the party should engineer a smooth transition after a long period of serious reflection – not echo the chaotic panic of the Conservatives’ leadership merry-go-round.
Hugo Gye is The i Paper’s political editor
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown: Starmer is our Joe Biden
Even when humiliated, Keir Starmer sounds haughty, his words tinny, unconvincing. “They are very tough and there’s no sugar coating it… that hurts and should hurt and I take full responsibility.” To him I say, it hurts us far more than it does you.
He chased Reform voters and disdained Labour’s loyal voters. His advisers pushed that strategy. Look what happened. These results will, I believe, convince him that his destiny is to be PM. That he is being tested by fate.
Since he took office, our country has become more fragmented. That won’t change. He is our Joe Biden. Overweening, hopeless, convinced of his own greatness, morally unsound and so blindingly arrogant, he cannot see the harm he has done. He’s got to go.
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown is a columnist at The i Paper
