Jay Slater, 19, from Lancashire, last made contact on Monday morning from a mountainous area
The mother of a British teenager who has gone missing during a holiday in Tenerife has said she has “not slept at all” as the search continues.
Jay Slater, 19, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, was last heard from on Monday morning when he told a friend he planned to walk back to his accommodation after missing a bus, a journey that would take about 11 hours on foot.
Continue reading...The contaminants have also recently been found in testes and semen amid concerns about falling male fertility
Microplastics have been discovered in penises for the first time, raising questions about a potential role in erectile dysfunction.
The revelation comes after the pollutants were recently detected in testes and semen. Male fertility has fallen in recent decades and more research on potential harm of microplastics to reproduction is imperative, say experts.
Continue reading...Food Foundation says height of five-year-olds falling, child obesity up by a third and type 2 diabetes by a fifth
Children across the UK are getting shorter, fatter and sicker amid an epidemic of poor diets, food insecurity and poverty, according to a report warning that millions are facing a “timebomb” of avoidable health conditions.
The average height of five-year-olds is falling, obesity levels have increased by almost a third and the number of young people being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes has risen by more than a fifth, the report by the Food Foundation said.
Continue reading...Institute for Fiscal Studies praised Conservatives’ ambition but said by some measures gap had widened
Progress towards a series of levelling up goals set by the UK government has been “glacial”, and achieving them by the target date of 2030 will require a big increase in resources for struggling areas, a leading thinktank has said.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said that, on many measures, regional inequality had widened and the UK had gone into reverse.
The share of pupils in England meeting expected standards at the end of primary school dropped from 65% in 2018–19 to 60% in June 2023, against a target of 90% by 2030. In only 10 English local authorities – all in London – did at least 70% of 11-year-olds meet this target.
The total number of further education and skills courses completed in England fell by 14% between 2018–19 and 2022–23. In the lowest skilled areas, the decline was almost 20%. The goal for 2030 is to have 200,000 more people successfully completing high-quality skills training annually, driven by 80,000 more people completing courses in the lowest skilled areas.
A 21-percentage-point gap in the average employment rate between the best and worst-performing local authority areas in the UK – the widest it has been since at least 2005. The aim is to have rising pay, employment and productivity in every area of the UK, and a smaller gap between the top performing areas and others.
The Conservatives’ aim is for local transport connectivity across England to be significantly closer to the standards of London, but the gap between the use of public transport in London (39% of journeys) and in the rest of the country (7%) during 2022-23 was at its second-widest level since 2002–03, as passenger numbers failed to recover to pre-pandemic levels.
Continue reading...Year of heavy weights resistance training around retirement age has long-lasting benefits, research suggests
Lifting heavy weights three times a week around the age of retirement could dramatically preserve your leg strength long into the later stages of life, research suggests.
People naturally lose muscle function as they get older, and experts say faltering leg strength is a strong predictor of death in elderly people.
Continue reading...John Caudwell, the Phones4U founder, says he is ‘rather despairing’ about Conservatives after 51 years of support
A Conservative party donor who donated £500,000 to Boris Johnson’s compaign in 2019 has announced he will vote for Labour in next month’s general election.
John Caudwell, who founded the mobile phone retailer Phones4U, made the announcement on Tuesday evening, in comments first reported by the Times and the BBC.
Continue reading...Player Kings to reopen on Thursday and producers say they look forward to actor ‘returning as soon as he is ready’
Ian McKellen has said he is “looking forward to returning to work” after falling from the stage during a performance of Player Kings, adding that he was “hugely indebted” to NHS staff who treated him.
The actor, 85, was portraying the Shakespearean character John Falstaff at the Noël Coward theatre in London on Monday when he lost his footing during a fight scene involving the Prince of Wales and Henry Percy.
Continue reading...Labour leader asked if he would have served in a Corbyn cabinet and declines to say council tax won’t rise if his party wins
Q: [From Emma in Greenwich] How will you protect single-sex spaces for girls, while making it easier to get a gender recognition certificate?
Starmer says he is passionate about protecting single-sex spaces. As director of public prosecutions, he dealt with a lot of cases involving violence against women and girls.
Continue reading...Tens of thousands of letters signed by former prime minister expected to be delivered this week
The Conservatives will turn to Boris Johnson in an attempt to boost their faltering election campaign, according to reports.
Tens of thousands of letters signed by the former prime minister are expected to be delivered later this week in the closest campaign engagement yet by Johnson, whose involvement so far has been limited to endorsing individual Tory MPs.
Continue reading...David Omand says pledges on nuclear deterrent shows party can be trusted ‘to stick to serious defence policy’
Labour’s position on national security has been endorsed by a former head of the UK intelligence agency, GCHQ, who said the party can be trusted to “stick to serious defence policy.”
The backing by Sir David Omand is a boost in a key area for Keir Starmer, who has sought to promote Labour’s security as a way of emphasising how the party has changed since Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Leaked recordings reveal chancellor ‘trying to achieve some of the same things’ as former prime minister
Jeremy Hunt said Liz Truss’s economic ambitions were a “good thing to aim for” and her disastrous mini-budget hadn’t left an impact on the economy, according to two leaked recordings obtained by the Guardian.
The chancellor was recorded at a meeting of students when he said he was “trying to basically achieve some of the same things” as the former prime minister, but that he was doing it “more gradually”.
Continue reading...Actor ‘in good spirits’ after fall during Player Kings performance, Noël Coward theatre spokesperson said
Ian McKellen was “in good spirits” and expected to make “a speedy and full recovery” after a fall during Monday evening’s performance of Player Kings, a spokesperson for the Noël Coward theatre in London has said.
McKellen was taken to hospital after the fall. The audience was evacuated from the West End theatre and informed that the evening show was cancelled.
Continue reading...Singer due to headline Glastonbury embraces risk of backlash over ‘Israeli genocide’ post on Instagram
The pop star and soon-to-be Glastonbury headliner Dua Lipa has said she is willing to risk a backlash over political statements after she recently described military operations in Gaza as “Israeli genocide”.
In an interview with the Radio Times, the 28-year-old said she repeatedly checked herself before making a statement, but did so if she felt it was for the “greater good” and worth the risk.
Continue reading...Institute for Public Policy Research urges Labour and Conservatives to reverse planned cuts
Investment in the UK has trailed other G7 countries including the US and Germany since the mid-1990s, according to a report that urges Labour and the Conservatives to reverse planned cuts to investment or risk long-term damage to economic growth.
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) thinktank found the UK was bottom of the G7 league for investment in 24 out of the last 30 years, using figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
Continue reading...Farage launches party manifesto in traditional Labour stronghold of Merthyr Tydfil
Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have been campaigning in Hampshire this morning. Stefan Rousseau from PA Media took this picture of them on the train.
The SNP has called for a social tariff that would guarantee cheap energy bills for people who are poor, disabled or elderly.
We believe that there are certain things that every citizen should have access to as a right. Healthcare free at the point of need, a social security safety net, pensions for older people, and free education including free university tuition.
But it is time that we recognised that these rights need to go further, to reflect the realities of the modern world.
Connectivity – fast broadband and good mobile phone connections – are critical to modern life. In fact, in rural Scotland and the Isles, it is critical to the whole future of the economy.
As more and more people work from home at least part of the week, often you literally cannot do your job without a decent internet connection. That’s why, to help people get jobs, keep jobs and keep more of their hard-earned cash, there should be a social tariff for broadband and mobile charges too.
Band say carbon emissions for vinyl production will be reduced by 85% thanks to new method, as they announce 10th studio album
Coldplay are aiming to make the most ecologically sustainable vinyl record yet, for their newly announced album Moon Music.
Each 140g vinyl copy of Moon Music, released 4 October, will be manufactured from nine plastic bottles recovered from consumer waste. For a special “notebook edition”, 70% of the plastic has been intercepted by the environmental nonprofit The Ocean Cleanup from Rio Las Vacas, Guatemala, preventing it from entering the Gulf of Honduras and the Atlantic Ocean.
Continue reading...Rishi Sunak’s team helped fast-track deal with firm founded by Charles Huang, who says contracts generated $2bn profit
In California, state of sunshine and palm trees, a small group of men are locked in a big legal fight over the money made by a US company selling Covid tests to the British government. The founder of Innova Medical Group says his business collected $2bn (£1.6bn) in profits, one of the largest fortunes banked by any medical supplier during the scramble for lifesaving equipment in the early months of the pandemic.
In a storm of claims and counter-claims, Innova’s boss, Charles Huang, is accused by former associates of “squandering” or moving $1bn of those profits, spending lavishly on luxury aircraft, an $18m house in Los Angeles and “homes for his mistresses”.
Continue reading...The campaign group Best for Britain has launched its guide on how to vote to have the best chance of ousting the Tories. We look at what tactical voting involves and what the group is recommending
Continue reading...Senior Tories such as Liz Truss and Jeremy Hunt could be for chop as well as once safe seats such as Maidenhead
The Conservatives could lose once safe constituencies such as Theresa May’s former seat in the coming general election, with nearly 40% of people willing to vote tactically to oust the Tories, a campaign group has said.
Setting out its recommendations for how people could maximise their chances of not electing a Conservative, Best for Britain said particularly efficient tactical voting could even unseat Liz Truss and Suella Braverman.
Continue reading...Paul McNaughton must serve 22 years in jail after admitting to murdering Peter Coshan in Leith flat in 2022
A 29-year-old man who admitted murdering a retired Fettes College teacher in a catfishing plot has been sentenced to life in prison with a recommendation that he serve at least 22 years.
Paul McNaughton killed 75-year-old Peter Coshan in a flat in Leith on either 11 or 12 August 2022, after using a fake profile on a gay dating site to lure him to the address.
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