Untreated eating disorders can have serious consequences on physical and emotional well-being.
Eating disorders affect all people from different ages and backgrounds and have serious physical and emotional consequences
Untreated eating disorders can lead to severe health complications, and treatment requires a multidisciplinary approach involving medical, nutritional, and psychological interventions
Eating disorders are complex mental health conditions that can have serious consequences on both physical and emotional well-being.
They affect people of all ages, genders, and backgrounds, and it’s essential to recognise the signs, understand the potential health risks, and know the available treatment options.
Types of eating disorders
1. Anorexia nervosa
Anorexia nervosa is characterised by an intense fear of gaining weight and a distorted body image.
Individuals with anorexia often restrict their food intake severely, leading to significant weight loss and malnutrition.
Common behaviours include obsessive calorie counting, excessive exercise, and avoiding social situations involving food.
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2. Bulimia nervosa
Bulimia nervosa involves cycles of binge eating followed by compensatory behaviours such as self-induced vomiting, misuse of laxatives or diuretics, or excessive exercise.
Unlike anorexia, individuals with bulimia may maintain a relatively normal weight, but they often experience feelings of guilt, shame, and loss of control surrounding their eating habits.
3. Binge-eating disorder
Binge-eating disorder is characterised by recurrent episodes of consuming large amounts of food in a short period, accompanied by a sense of loss of control.
Unlike bulimia, individuals with binge-eating disorders do not engage in compensatory behaviours.
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They may eat rapidly, even when not physically hungry, and feel distressed or guilt afterwards.
Warning signs of eating disorders
Extreme weight loss or fluctuations in weight
Obsession with food, calories, and body weight
Isolation from social activities involving food
Evidence of purging behaviours such as frequent bathroom visits
Physical signs such as fatigue, dizziness, or fainting
Dental issues from vomiting (e.g., erosion of tooth enamel)
Health consequences of eating disorders
Untreated eating disorders can lead to a range of severe health complications, including:
Treating eating disorders often requires a multidisciplinary approach involving medical, nutritional, and psychological interventions. Some common treatment options include:
Nutritional counselling: Working with a registered dietitian to establish balanced eating patterns and address nutritional deficiencies.
Therapy: Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT), and interpersonal therapy (IPT) can help individuals address underlying emotional issues and develop healthier coping mechanisms.
Medication: In some cases, antidepressants or other psychiatric medications may be prescribed to manage symptoms such as depression or anxiety.
Support groups: Joining support groups or participating in group therapy can provide individuals with a sense of community and understanding.
Hospitalisation: In severe cases where medical stabilisation is necessary, hospitalisation may be required to address immediate health concerns.
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Eating disorders are serious mental health conditions that require professional intervention and support.
If you or someone you know is struggling with disordered eating habits, it’s essential to seek help from a qualified healthcare provider.
was always a little hesitant about hypnosis, ever since my stepsister went out with a professional hypnotist. He was hardly Paul McKenna in terms of fame, but I had once seen him take to the stage in a church hall and make a group of people fall in love with him using just his mind. Truth be told, I’ve always found hypnosis a little creepy, and the thought of somebody else taking control of my senses leaves me terrified.
That said, 20 years ago I underwent hypnosis to curb my craving for cigarettes, and it worked – it stopped me smoking 40 a day. Could it also banish my stress and negative thoughts? They typically come to me in the morning, usually around 6am. There’s no particular thread to them. I just have the general feeling that I’m not good enough, and that everything is going to go wrong. I waste so many hours catastrophising. Once I’m up and out of bed it generally dissipates, but still there is that gentle whisper of negativity niggling away at my happiness.
As much as I tell myself to keep things together in the daytime, I struggle to stop myself spiralling into “stinking thinking”, as it’s dubbed in therapy. But perhaps hypnosis is the answer I’ve been looking for. David Beckham, Reese Witherspoon and Mel B are among the stars who’ve reportedly banished negative thinking this way. Could it really be as simple as “look into my eyes…”? Abracadabra and my mind is fixed?
Hypnosis occurs when someone enters a state of relaxed awareness, in which the subconscious is open and receptive to suggestion. The aim is to rewire a person’s mind, providing them with new ways of thinking and feeling. It is an unregulated industry – anybody can set themselves up as a hypnotherapist – but there is growing evidence that suggests hypnosis is effective for many people experiencing problems including pain, anxiety, PTSD, and phobias.
“It is the oldest western form of psychotherapy,” says the US-based Dr David Spiegel, a Stanford University psychiatrist and leading researcher of hypnosis, who has co-founded Reveri, an interactive hypnosis app that helps people manage stress, pain, insomnia, fears, and to stop smoking. “But it’s still tainted by fears about mind control, or [ideas] of stage hypnotists making people do silly things. It’s sometimes considered unscientific because it is not ‘biological science’ – eg: is not a drug. That can be a good thing. I am a physician – I prescribe drugs. But not all the time.” Despite hypnotherapy’s record of success, he says that it is “used rarely and by a small number of healthcare professionals – it’s been derided as a stage show trick, considered useless or even dangerous, none of which is true. Hypnosis is an underappreciated means of controlling consciousness with enormous therapeutic potential.”
The UK hypnotist Aaron Surtees, who runs City Hypnosis and has been featured on Channel 4’s Embarrassing Bodies and How to Lose Weight Well, says that “practically any mental issue can be helped through hypnotherapy,” as long as a person is “open and wants to change”. Surtees also has a hypnosis app called Subconsciously and his clients include Ant McPartlin and Charlie Brooker. “A lot of my clients are Hollywood stars – with anxiety and addictions to smoking,” he says. He also helps bankers to regulate their stress and anxiety, and treats footballers and top athletes to “enhance performance, focus and confidence”.
Hypnosis is increasingly popular in our fast-paced society – it’s the lure of the quick fix
Zoe Clews, hypnotist
Hypnotism sounds like a magic wand to me. Could the dark skies of my mind turn technicolour after just one session? I set off to see hypnotist Zoe Clews in London’s Marylebone. She has a long list of celebrity clients and specialises in anxiety, depression and complex PTSD (an initial two-hour session is £295, while 90-minute follow-up sessions are £245). A team of 12 work with her, who specialise in other issues including fear of public speaking. She tells me that being hypnotised is “increasingly popular in our fast-paced society – it’s the lure of the quick fix”. She claims hypnotherapy has much faster results than traditional therapy “as it works to override the subconscious – which is the true powerhouse when it comes to change”.
Clews is bright and breezy company, dressed in a peachy pink satin trouser suit. Her voice is incredibly relaxing – it’s almost as if she is the living incarnation of a clinking ice cube melting into a cool drink. That also happens to be one of the images she uses to help me. I’m told to imagine my stress dissolving much like that ice cube, as Chews guides me into a “trance state”.
When Clews started in the profession 22 years ago, she says her choice of career was looked upon as “bizarre” – but not anymore. Psychotherapists will send to her clients with complex trauma when they’ve got phobias they are unable to shift. “Hypnosis is really targeted on the issue, and forensic in shifting something specific,” she says. While there are some things hypnosis can shift easily, she says, like smoking and phobias, others take longer because “there is more damage”. These include complex PTSD, for example. “It might be between five and 20 sessions.” But she’s confident a single two-hour session will do the trick for me.
Guru: Paul McKenna is one of the biggest names in hypnotism (Getty)
Only 30 per cent of her clients “go out like a light”, Clews tells me. The idea panics me. But it doesn’t impact the benefits if you remain alert – as I do. Like many people trying out hypnotism, I have fears about ending up on all fours barking like a dog, talking to fairies or dancing with a broom thinking it’s a really attractive man. But it’s nothing like this, she assures me.
“When a stage hypnotist is working with somebody for entertainment, they’ll have done suggestibility tests to check that somebody is good for hypnosis,” she says. “It might be subtle so you don’t see it, because what a stage hypnotist will want is someone who is going to go into hypnosis as quickly as possible.” Hypnotherapy is about “healing damage” and “setting people free” from all sorts of conditions, she continues. In my case, I have to let go of negative thought patterns, fears, subconscious blocks, limiting beliefs, and unhelpful behavioural patterns.
She sets to work clearing layers of my negative thinking, first by talking about my childhood. Then she works with my subconscious to let those feelings go, so I’m ready for a more abundant life. “Health, wealth, happiness, joy,” she says. Most interestingly, she is going to do some “cord cutting” of toxic people in my life – “to lessen the impact on the nervous system”. As she explains, “if a friend behaves badly, you say ‘bye’, but when it’s family or work colleagues you often have to deal with it.”
She warns me I might feel “icky” when I’m “cord cutting” – but “it’s only temporary and I will feel a lot freer afterwards”. Not only this, but she wants to help me let go of historical stress and find a “window of tolerance”, she says, to reconnect me to “a state of calm” and ask the subconscious to keep me “grounded and connected to a sense of safety and stability within”.
‘Hypnosis is really targeted on the issue, and forensic in shifting something specific’ (iStock)
I’m told my nervous system is “in shatters” and “I’m stuck in flight or fight response”. “My job is to take you out of it,” she says. “Turn the volume down on acute stress.” As she counts me down from 10 to zero, I keep panicking about losing control – I had no idea I was such a control freak. By the time I’m told to imagine the letters of the alphabet dropping in front of me, my mind is distracted enough to move into a highly relaxed state.
It’s almost as if I’m in a room filled with rose coloured air. I feel “as light as a feather” … “as light as a feather” …. ”as light as a feather”. I can hear Clews licking her lips as I go deeper into a calm space. Never once do I feel like I have lost my awareness – even as I visualise cutting cords with half my family and seeing them skuttle off like tiny mice while I stand in my light.
That night, I enter a deep sleep. And when I wake up, I feel more joyous. I still get niggles of fear and negativity, but I throw them off more easily. I have an MP3 of the session to listen to at home – to help my subconscious accept my new reality. I don’t know if it’s connected to being hypnotised, but by day three I’m having the most mind-blowing coincidences that I think could impact the course of my destiny.
Luck feels on my side; people offer to do incredibly nice things for me and difficult people in my life are reacting better. Has my subconscious activated a new reality? Am I seeing it play out in front of me? I’m certainly going to believe in it. After all, there is nothing stronger than the power of the mind.
A supermarket chain in China will allow its staff to take up to 10 ‘unhappy days’. With many employees still uncomfortable telling bosses they need a mental health day, could this new concept save the wellbeing of burnout workers, asks Katie Rosseinsky
hen you’re feeling overwhelmed by unhappiness, the last thing you feel like doing is gritting your teeth and gearing up for a day of work. Whether you’re experiencing a mental health issue or whether you’re simply dealing with a passing mood slump, coping with the demands of the working day when you’re out of sorts can feel like wading through concrete. Basic tasks turn into unfathomable chores; simple requests from colleagues become veiled pass-agg jibes; criticism that you’d normally brush off feels unbearable.
On a day like this, the temptation is to cut your losses and call in sick: when you’re labouring under the cloud of low mood, there’s little chance that you’re going to be able to even pretend to look productive. But instead of citing mental health as the reason behind our absence, many of us will feign physical sickness instead. We’ll temporarily develop a croaky voice in order to sound more flu-stricken over the phone, or tell a dramatic story about a bout of food poisoning in order to skirt around the truth – because despite all the campaigns and pastel-coloured Instagram infographics telling us that it’s “good to talk”, the stark fact is that opening up about mental health is still incredibly difficult. Wouldn’t it be so much easier if you could just call in “unhappy” instead, with no questions asked?
For employers at Pang Dong Lai supermarket chain in China’s Henan province, this is becoming a reality. Speaking at a business conference last month, the company’s founder Yu Donglai revealed that his staff can take up to 10 “unhappy days” annually, on top of their usual sick leave and holiday entitlement “I want every staff member to have freedom,” he said. “Everyone has times when they’re not happy, so if you’re not happy, do not come into work.” Yu also made it very clear that managers aren’t allowed to turn down their employees’ requests for this leave either. “Denial is a violation,” he added.
Gregg Wallace shares touching moment with autistic son
China is known for its relentless working culture: the controversial “966” system, whereby many employees are expected to work from 9am to 9pm, six days per week, is seen as a badge of honour for some tech industry workers (despite the fact that this practice is actually illegal). Only last week, the head of PR at the country’s biggest search engine Baidu came under fire for sharing videos glorifying over-work and suggesting that employees shouldn’t complain about 50-day work trips. But even though the expectations don’t tend to be quite so extreme in the UK (unless you’re working for a magic circle law firm or an investment bank, perhaps), the introduction of “unhappiness leave” would still be a game-changer for workers here.
In 2018, a study from the occupational health service BHSF found that two-fifths of UK employees had called in sick with a physical illness when they were actually experiencing poor mental health. Although there are some statistics to suggest that younger generations are gradually getting more comfortable with telling bosses that they need a mental health day – last year a survey by workplace wellbeing platform Unmind found that 66 per cent of workers between 16 and 25 had taken time off due to poor mental health – many of us still struggle to express this, to such an extent that even sharing a white lie feels less daunting. An umbrella term like “unhappiness leave” might make it easier for employees to honestly ask for the day off, without having to go into too many difficult details with their boss. It’s also worlds away from “duvet day”, the cutesified term that some companies have adopted as an alternative to “mental health day”.
Of course, there is an argument that employees taking time off for unhappiness addresses the symptom rather than the cause: it might act as a sticking plaster, covering up the issues that might be making workers feel low in the first place. A measure like this would certainly need to be paired with other measures to redress the work-life balance in the long run: flexible working, strict rules about overtime, no emails out of hours, to name a few. But in the shorter term, I’d gladly swap two working weeks of unhappiness leave for the gimmicky policies foisted on workers in the name of “mental health awareness” (a concept that, naturally, often only seems to exist in most workplaces during Mental Health Awareness Week, before conveniently dematerialising).
Warning sign: taking a day off for ‘unhappiness’ could act as a red flag to your bosses (Getty)
Plus, a bout of “unhappiness leave” in a team would act like a warning sign. If everyone’s off under the guise of various imaginary ailments, then it’s hard to see a pattern emerge: your boss could tell themselves that flu season is to blame for the fact that half their team is wiped out, for example, rather than overwork and exhaustion.
Wellbeing measures in the workplace are too often overly sanitised and mistake random, one-off freebies for useful action. I don’t want someone coming into the office and offering head massages in a boardroom suffused with eau de Pret sandwiches. I don’t want a lunchtime yoga class that no one actually has time to attend, or to be pointed to an internal website that tells me to download the Headspace app for the millionth time. I’d much rather be able to benefit from a scheme that recognises that, yes, “unhappiness” can sometimes have a major impact on whether you can do your job effectively or not. A policy that doesn’t shy away from calling sadness what it is. Wouldn’t you?
When it comes to being whisked away into a whole other world, nothing quite beats a book. Unlike a TV drama or a big new cinema release, words on a page encourage you to conjure whole universes inside your mind – textures, smells, landscapes, emotions, adventures.
Whether fiction or non-fiction, books can make us feel seen. They can help us escape. They can serve as a guide. A lot of the time, they can even shape our lives.
EM Forster put it beautifully when he said, “What is wonderful about great literature is that it transforms the man who reads it towards the condition of the man who wrote.”
Anne Enright – Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There, by Lewis Carroll
“When I was a child, the book I adored, the one that intrigued, delighted and held me was not Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland but the lesser classic, Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There. The first volume may be theatrical but, at the age of six, the second felt more philosophically satisfying (jam tomorrow) and properly interested in ambition (‘Well, this is grand!’ said Alice. ‘I never expected I should be a queen so soon’). I found the watery transitions wonderful in both (tears, rowing boats), but I think the knitting sheep mattered more to me than the Dormouse and I found the Red Queen was more alarming than the Mad Hatter. Also, the epic Jabberwocky soars above the best verse that Wonderland can provide – I am speaking, of course, of the minimalist, failed haiku, Twinkle Twinkle Little Bat.”
Enright’s novel ‘The Wren, The Wren’ is out now
Anne Enright (Ruth Connolly)
Rory Stewart – Tristram Shandy, by Laurence Sterne
“Tristram Shandy is my most comforting, wise, and provocative companion. It is an essay on ignorance decorated with the most splendid erudition. A story of a country enjoying dignified absurdity. A backward portrait of the good life. And in the modesty, simplicity and goodness of Uncle Toby – his childish play, childish intense seriousness, his utter lack of intellectualism and his courage – a vision of a saint. All packaged in the most enticing, impossible, infuriating, excessive and hilarious prose. In Tristram Shandy the most irresponsible, uncensored, reckless art carries aesthetic and moral insights of intense profundity.”
Stewart’s book ‘Politics on the Edge’ is out now
Rory Stewart (Hay Festival)
Judy Murray – Tennis Handbook, by Nick Bollettieri
“When I started out in coaching in the late 1980s, there was nobody to learn from in Scotland. Tennis was a minority sport, played only in the summer months, so nobody aspired to be a world-class player or a world-class coach. There was no track record of any success, no infrastructure, very few coaches and no indoor courts. And the internet didn’t exist in those days. So I bought Nick Bollettieri’s Tennis Handbook. Nick was the first person to build a tennis academy. He bought a tomato patch in Florida and converted it to a tennis facility for emerging players to train together. It opened in 1978 and he produced a conveyor belt of champions over many years. His handbook was gold dust to me.”
Murray’s novel ‘The Wild Card’ is out on 8 June
Judy Murray (Getty Images for LTA)
Caitlin Moran – Anne of Green Gables, by Lucy Maud Montgomery
“I can remember wanting to be a writer from a very young age – perhaps six – but fretting that books had to be about saving the world, or aliens, or wars, or… diseased rabbits hallucinating some kind of rabbit god. Watership Down was very big at the time. But when I read Anne of Green Gables, along with Little Women, it showed me that longing for a puffed-sleeve dress, or being obsessed with a friend, or getting very excited about the cherry blossom – ‘The White Way of Delight’ – were just as interesting to a reader as some robot getting its head blown off. If you love a character, their peril and stakes can be as small as ‘dyeing your hair green’, and you’ll feel it just as much as you feel Scarlett O’Hara despairing over the burning of Atlanta, or Katniss being terrified into saving the world. In fact, if I’m being honest, I think writers cheat when they make their stakes so huge, and dramatic. It’s kind of cheating. Do the harder thing! String your story together out of tiny things! Being ginger in 1890 is a true peril. It still is now. Ask my sisters.”
Moran’s book ‘What About Men?’ is out now
Caitlin Moran (Alex Lake)
Hollie McNish – Sky in the Pie, by Roger McGough
“Like most people, there are probably a few or hundreds that ‘made me’, but the first book that burst open my brain and imagination was a tiny book, literally a miniature book, which is also why I loved it, with the poem Sky in the Pie, by Roger McGough, written inside. I read this poem over and over again and realised that the world of words and poetry and stories could make absolutely anything possible, including eating the entire universe on a plate; my eight-year-old mind was blown. And it made me laugh a lot, which is still my favourite hobby.”
McNish’s collection ‘Lobster: And Other Things I’m Learning to Love’ is out now
Hollie McNish (Maxime Hugeux)
Adam Kay – The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster
“What if I told you the funniest, cleverest children’s book ever written was also an ode to education? A pun-crammed journey through a world built on wordplay, dedicated to the joy and adventure of maths and reading. And only about one in 10 people I mention it to have heard of it. Well, now you have too. The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster follows Milo and Tock the Watchdog as they trek through the kingdoms of Dictionopolis and Digitopolis, meeting a wonderland of characters including a spelling bee, the world’s shortest giant and the 0.58 of a child from the average American family of 2.58 children. Mixing education and humour is everything I aim for as a kids’ author, and The Phantom Tollbooth is the gold standard, unmatched since 1961.”
‘Kay’s Incredible Inventions’ by Kay, illustrated by Henry Paker, is published on 23 May
Adam Kay (Charlie Clift)
Kaliane Bradley – Frost in May, by Antonia White
“I first read Frost in May by Antonia White as a teenager, and have reread it over and again as an adult. Set in a Catholic convent school in Edwardian Britain, it follows recent convert Nanda, who enters the Convent of the Five Wounds school at the age of nine and is brutally expelled aged 15. It’s a vivid depiction of a youthful experience of passion – for religion, or at least a child’s understanding of religion; for friends (and what I’d now call a romantic relationship between two girls, Nanda and her best friend Léonie); and for the creative process. Nanda obsesses over her experience of art, of engaging with it (how do you engage with art in the right way?) and nervously, newly trying to make it (how do you make art in the right way?). Her questions result in a painful exploration of the horror that restriction, authority and propriety can wreak on a curious soul. This is not, admittedly, a cheerful subject, but the novel is semi-autobiographical – so White did succeed in finding her voice despite everything.”
Bradley’s ‘The Ministry of Time’ is out on 16 May
Kaliane Bradley (Robin Christian)
John Vaillaint – Tree in the Trail, by Holling Clancy Holling
“Holling was an American writer and illustrator active in the mid-20th century who wrote a number of children’s books, most famously Paddle-To-The-Sea (1941). All of Holling’s stories centre on a non-human character (a tree, a turtle, a wooden carving of a man in a canoe), around which biology, history and human activities swirl, across geography and time. I was captivated by these books – as a young child by the vivid colour illustrations; as a young reader by the sweeping stories and, when I was a bit older – 10 or 12, by the marginalia he would include, illustrating more technical aspects of what was going on on that particular page. This three-tiered approach is, more or less, my model for non-fiction writing.”
‘Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World’ by Vaillaint is out now
John Vaillant (John Sinal)
Anthony Horowitz – Adventures in the Screen Trade, by William Goldman
“Goldman was one of Hollywood’s greatest screenwriters: his films include Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Marathon Man and The Princess Bride. Although it came out 40 years ago, this very personal, sometimes sceptical but always informed account of his three decades in show business is still the bible for anyone who wants to write for film and TV. It was Goldman who came up with the three words that have always hung above my desk: NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING. It’s so true. Nobody can tell you if your script is an Oscar winner or a turkey until it’s been made and released. You can only live in hope.”
‘Close to Death’, by Horowitz, is out now
Anthony Horowitz (AFP via Getty Images)
Lisa Jewell – High Fidelity, by Nick Hornby
“In 1995, when High Fidelity by Nick Hornby was first published, I had just left a marriage to a very serious man who had guided me towards some pretty heavyweight reading for five years. After years of battling my way through my ex’s bookshelves, it was giddying to pick up High Fidelity and find myself in a world that was so fresh, recognisable and relatable. I immediately wanted to write a book just like it, and a few weeks later I started writing my first novel, Ralph’s Party, which was published in 1999 and which changed the course of my life for ever.”
‘None of This is True’ by Jewell is out now
Lisa Jewell (Charlotte Graham/Shutterstock)
Blindboy – The Third Policeman, by Flann O’Brien
“I read The Third Policeman as a teenager and it made writing seem like something I could at least try. The book revealed to me how Hiberno English and a very specific strain of surreal Irish humour could exist as literature. Novels were scary, serious things when I was a teenager who hated school, but The Third Policeman changed all that for me. It gave me permission to find my own voice.”
Blindboy’s ‘Topographia Hibernica’ is available now
“On Sunday 12 February 2023, I set off from home to Manchester airport for the holiday of a lifetime,” says Valerie Coleshaw.
“By Monday 13 April I was home by breakfast, without luggage and in total despair.”
Ms Coleshaw, from Bolton, lost her £11,000 Antarctic cruise with Hurtigruten (now HX) after cabin crew on a KLM flight from Manchester to Amsterdam asked her to check in her cabin baggage “as the plane was extremely full”.
She says she was told it would be returned to her at Amsterdam, where she was due to transfer to Buenos Aires and onwards to the southern Argentinian port of Ushuaia.
Birmingham house cordoned off after man arrested on suspicion of murdering three week old baby
“I have heard of this happening before. So after checking several times that I would pick it up in Amsterdam, I agreed,” she says.
“Arriving at Amsterdam, my case was not on the carousel. I was advised to go straight to the boarding gate for Buenos Aires and it would be waiting for me there. It wasn’t.
“After hours of badgering the staff, my hand luggage could not be found. In it was my asthma spray.”
She explained to ground staff that her medication was missing. They told the KLM captain, who decided she would not be able to make the 7,100-mile journey without the asthma spray.
“I was left with a member of staff who said she would try to put me on another flight the next day. I realised that without my hand luggage I would have the same problem.
“I could not contact Hurtigruten as all the paperwork was in my hand luggage.
“Having never experiencing anything like this before, I felt humiliated and confused. I was given vouchers for a hotel and flight back to Manchester the following morning.”
KLM says when passengers are asked to put cabin baggage in the hold, they are asked to remove valuables and items needed during their flights as the hand luggage will be forwarded to the final destination.
Ms Coleshaw disputes that this happened and says that she was told the cabin baggage would be waiting for her at Amsterdam airport.
“I have never before been parted from my hand luggage but went along with the request – even checking four times before I boarded the flight to Amsterdam that it would be waiting for me,” she says.
KLM has given Ms Coleshaw a full refund for the value of the flights plus a £500 voucher for future travel.
“It suggests quite strongly to me that they understood the implications of my cases travelling on the plane without me,” she says.
However, this is just a small proportion of the total cost of the holiday. Ms Coleshaw paid Hurtigruten £10,660 for the package, and spent hundred of pounds more on preparations for the trip including travel insurance, guidebooks and Antarctic clothing that she never got to wear.
Under the Package Travel Regulations, the organiser of a holiday – in this case Hurtigruten (now HX) – is responsible for providing the trip as booked, including services contracted out such as flights.
Normally, if an airline does not fly a passenger in time to begin their holiday, the customer would expect a full refund.
But the cruise company does not accept that KLM was at fault, and therefore is refusing to hand the money back.
Instead, HX (formerly Hurtigruten) is offering £8,500 for an alternative cruise as a goodwill gesture.
Ms Coleshaw describes the offer as “honourable but not usable”. She tried to use some of the credit on a West African cruise, but the voyage was cancelled by the company ahead of departure.
She says her circumstances have changed significantly since losing the cruise, leaving her unable to plan any similar expedition. She has suffered a serious shoulder injury, and the health of her 95-year-old mother has deteriorated.
A spokesperson for HX said: “We are disappointed that we have been unable to resolve this current issue to date. Our guest experience team have been in direct contact with Ms Coleshaw for several months now and we have worked hard to try and find a resolution to this situation.
“Following a thorough review of this booking, we offered a ‘Future Cruise Credit’, equivalent to the value of the sailing and available for use on all our itineraries around the world. This amount far exceeds our standard cancellation policy and was provided by our team as a sincere goodwill gesture.
“Furthermore, we have also offered the opportunity to extend the rebooking period to the end of 2024, for any expedition voyage departing through to the end of 2025.
“We remain fully committed to making this option available to Ms Coleshaw. Our dedicated guest experience team will continue to look for a suitable resolution to this matter, in line with what has already been offered, and hope this can be achieved soon.”
Ms Coleshaw says: “I chose Hurtigruten for two reasons: one, I had travelled with them before and it was top class; and two, the flights were included so I felt that I had peace of mind if a connecting flight were delayed.
“I did not cancel my ‘Holiday of a Lifetime’ – but realised that without medication and everything in my hand luggage I would be unable to travel further. Tickets, holiday reservation, emergency contact details and so on. I asked repeatedly at the boarding gate about the collection of my hand luggage, and was told it would be waiting for me.”
She says the pursuit of the refund “is having a considerable impact on my health and well-being”.
“I am beginning to give up the challenge and quit, but it is so much money as well as the shattered dream.”
The Garuda Indonesia plane was travelling from an airport in the Indonesian city of Makassar to Madinah in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday with 468 passengers onboard when the incident happened.
Plane recovered after making emergency landing on Blackpool beach
All the 450 passengers, including those going on Hajj pilgrimage, and 18 crew members were safely evacuated and no one was hurt in the incident, it said.
Videos shared on social media by JACDEC, a plane crash data evaluation firm, showed a blaze emanating from the engine just as the plane took off.
Garuda president-director Irfan Setiaputra said: “The decision was made by the pilot in command immediately after take-off, considering engine problems that required further examination after sparks of fire were observed in one of the engines.”
He said the plane was grounded as an investigation was being carried out into the incident.
The passengers of the flight were given accommodation before boarding a replacement flight later the same day, he said.
It was the latest incident to hit Indonesian carriers which were infamously banned by the US and the EU from flying into countries from 2007. The ban by the US was lifted in 2016 and by the EU in 2018.
According to the Aviation Safety Network, since 1945, the archipelago nation has recorded 106 civilian airline accidents, killing 2,305 people.
Three popular seaside resorts in southern England are set to the be first destinations in the UK to introduce a ‘tourist tax’ for visitors.
As part of the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole’s Accommodation Business Improvement District (ABID), those staying overnight in the Dorset holiday hotspotswill be charged £2 per room or unit, per night from 1 July – just ahead of the school summer holidays.
The model for this levy mirrors those being rolled out across Europe and the US, and it follows a successful consultation period in which 16 out of 31 local businesses voted in favour of the scheme.
The tourist tax is being introduced to help enhance tourism and officials estimate it will generate £12m in the next five years.
ABID said it would “safeguard the local economy” by generating money to attract more visitors to the county.
Andy Lennox, destination management board chair, called the move a “historic moment for the towns,” while councillor Vikki Slade, leader of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council said: “We are excited at the prospect of working alongside them to deliver a more productive and resilient visitor economy and destination management.”
Key calendar events expected to be supported by the tourist tax include Bournemouth Air Festival, Arts by the Sea, Poole Christmas Maritime and Christmas Tree Wonderland.
Thecouncil has previously revealed cost-cutting measures, including an end to subsidies for the resort’s annual air festival after 2024, as well as stopping financial support for entries to the Blue Flag beach award scheme.
Rosie Radwell, Marsham Court Hotel managing director and chair of the shadow ABID board, believes that the tourist tax is “good news for the destination”, and said “we are thrilled that the accommodation providers have voted in favour of the ABID”.
She added: “The additional funds raised will have a huge impact on the future of tourism in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole. On behalf of the volunteer shadow ABID board, I would like to thank our fellow accommodation providers for recognising the power of partnership working and the necessity to act now.
“We are excited about the future and have already started to plan projects and events to enhance tourism in the area”.
The boss of Britain’s biggest budget airline, easyJet, will leave in less than a year.
Chief executive Johan Lundgren will have served seven years at the helm of easyJet as it endured its most turbulent times since its launch in 1995: the consequences of the UK leaving the European Union, followed by the Covid pandemic.
Mr Lundgren, who joined in December 2017 will be replaced at the start of 2025 by the current chief financial officer, Kenton Jarvis.
The announcement to the Stock Exchange said: “Johan is expected to step down from the board and as chief executive on 1 January 2025. He will remain with the business until the conclusion of his notice period on 16 May 2025.”
The carrier’s share price fell by almost 6 per cent as the markets opened.
The outgoing CEO said: “I congratulate Kenton on being nominated my successor, it is fully deserved, and I will work closely with him and the whole executive team to achieve this year’s goals and hand over responsibilities smoothly at the end of the year.
“There are important things still to accomplish over the balance of the year, but when the time comes I will leave easyJet with a great sense of loyalty and of pride at the progress made and the potential the company has for the future.”
The chair of easyJet, Sir Stephen Hester, praised Mr Lundgren for “steering the company through the immense challenges of the Covid period”, as well as “setting up a clear strategy and strong execution plan towards its ambition of ‘being Europe’s most loved airline’”.
Mr Jarvis said: “I am a huge believer in the future for our airline, which is powered by the talents and enthusiasm of our front-line staff.”
Ryanair, easyJet’s biggest rival, has been led by chief executive Michael O’Leary for 30 years.
News of Mr Lundgren’s departure accompanied easyJet’s half-year results for 2024. The airline lost £350m in the six months between October 2023 and March 2024 – about £9.50 for each of the 36.7 million passengers flown.
Winter losses are normal for budget airlines, and the figure represents a £61m improvement on a year earlier, with 12 per cent more capacity.
For the key three months of summer 2024 – July, August and September – sales and fares are ahead of 2023 levels.
Mr Lundgren said: “We are now absolutely focused on another record summer which is expected to deliver strong [full-year] earnings growth and are on track to achieve our medium term targets.”
The airline will re-open its base at Southend airport at the start of the aviation summer season in March 2025.
The Essex base was closed, along with Stansted and Newcastle, in August 2020. John Upton, chief executive of London Southend Airport, said: “This move is indicative of the demand from people in the east of London, Essex and the wider East Anglia region.
“Our dedicated on-site rail station is less than one hour from central London; only 43 minutes from Stratford, London with connections to the Elizabeth Line; and only 100 paces from the terminal door.”
Aviation analyst Sean Moulton said: “The return of an easyJet base to London Southend, five years since its closure, will boost the viability of the airport.
Barely hours following the release of the embattled singer Portable, he releases a song detailing his car debt and why he refused to pay in due time.
It would be recalled that the singer was forcefully arrested after trying to make a run for it when approached by the car dealer and police.
Barely hours following his release on bail, Portable entered the studio, wrote and released a song titled ‘Spiderman’ about his arrest and debt.
According to the singer, the secret to living long is to owe debt while emphasizing his reason for running as a personality when faced with danger.
The lyrics say in part, “Call me Spiderman, I saw danger, I jumped the fence. They say I owe money; if you want to live long, owe them debt, let them owe you. It’s a rich man who owes a car debt.”
Reactions as Portable drops song about his arrest following release
BusayoOtebata said: “You can’t even hate on this guy fr😂😂😂 One minute you’re disgusted by what he does and the next minute you’re laughing 😂.”
Real_ijbconcept penned: “If you want to live long you must owe debts and they must owe you too. Na rich man dey owe debts. Baba werey ni bobo yii.”
Wizebaba quizzed: “Or maybe it was all staged??”
iamkelechiO wrote: “I’d have been surprised if he didn’t drop a song about his arrest saga. 😂”
However, Brazil’s Ferreira won the second frame on every card, before dominating Rebecki in the final round.
With nine seconds left in the fight, 39-year-old Ferreria dropped Rebecki and secured a TKO of the grounded 31-year-old.
Rebecki’s face was left a mess, with blood dripping from his eyes – both of which were swollen, almost to the point of closure.
After the fight, Rebecki shared a photo of the damage on Instagram, seemingly posting from his hospital bed. The Pole wrote the caption, “Zycie”, meaning “life”.
You can see the photo below. Discretion is advised.
Conor McGregor’s comeback has already broken the UFC’s live-gate record, according to Dana White – two months before fight night.
McGregor will face Michael Chandler in the main event of UFC 303 on 29 June, marking the Irishman’s first fight in three years. In July 2021, McGregor suffered a broken leg in his second straight loss to Dustin Poirier.
Yet fears over McGregor’s abilities and fitness have seemingly done little to dampen hype for his comeback. According to UFC president White, McGregor vs Chandler has set a new live-gate record for the promotion, at “way over $20m”.
Fans have criticised the steep ticket prices for UFC 303, which takes place at Las Vegas’s T-Mobile Arena, but many tickets have already been sold – seemingly including VIP packages, which have been priced at over $12,000 in some cases.
The UFC’s current live-gate record is $17.7m, set by McGregor’s knockout win against Eddie Alvarez in 2016. The pair headlined UFC 205, which took place at Madison Square Garden when the UFC staged an event in New York City for the first time.
In second place is McGregor’s defeat by Khabib Nurmagomedov in 2018. The Russian submitted McGregor at the T-Mobile Arena, with the live gate at just under $17.2m.
McGregor, 35, is seeking his first win since January 2020, as the former dual-weight champion prepares to take on Chandler.
Chandler, 38, last fought in November 2022, losing to fellow American Poirier by submission.
China has rolled out the red carpet to welcome Russian president Vladimir Putin for a potentially consequential and heavily symbolic state visit that will be closely watched in the West.
Mr Putin’s second visit in less than a year comes as Western nations, led by the US, are putting pressure on China to stop throwing its economic and industrial weight behind Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The two-day trip is Mr Putin’s first abroad since starting his new term as president earlier this month.
Mr Putin arrived in Beijing on Thursday morning to a grand fanfare, with a red carpet reception outside the Great Hall of the People where a marching band played the Red Army Choir classic Moscow Nights. There he was greeted by Chinese president Xi Jinping, and the two shook hands for the cameras before doing laps of the grounds.
Mr Putin is meeting Mr Xi for the fourth time since the start of the Ukraine war in February 2022, and has been billed as marking the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between their countries.
Mr Xi told Mr Putin he was prepared “to consolidate the friendship between the two peoples for generations to come”.
“In the new journey ahead, China is willing to always be Russia’s trustworthy good neighbour, good friend and good partner, strengthening generation-after-generation friendship between the two peoples and jointly achieving rejuvenation of their respective countries as well as upholding justice in the world,” he said.
He also congratulated his “old friend” Mr Putin for winning a fifth term as president that will keep him in power until at least 2030.
Mr Putin and Mr Xi are set to discuss ways to strengthen their “no limits” partnership which was announced at a previous meeting between them nearly two years ago.
The West has been testing this partnership by pressuring China to end economic and industrial support that has enabled Russia to blunt the impact of American and European sanctions cutting it off from global markets and supply chains.
China’s bilateral trade with Russia soared by 26 per cent to a record $240bn last year.
Analysts told The Independent that Beijing and Moscow will try to find ways to expand bilateral trade and sidestep Western sanctions.
“The Putin-Xi meeting is both consequential and symbolic as they will definitely seek to strengthen their partnership in the face of enormous fatigue and reluctance to support the war in Ukraine among Western leaders,” said Swaran Singh, an international relations expert and professor of diplomacy at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Vladimir Putin meets Xi Jinping at the Kremlin in Moscow in 2013 (Getty)
For Mr Putin, the visit is a chance to show off his alliance with the world’s second largest economy and signal that he still has powerful friends, despite being otherwise largely isolated on the global stage.
“Putin’s visit to Beijing, which is usually full of pomp and show, will be a good opportunity of portraying himself as an acceptable leader while seeking endorsement from Xi for his actions in Ukraine,” Mr Singh said.
On the eve of his visit, Mr Putin hailed the Chinese leadership’s understanding of the “root causes and global geopolitical significance” of the Ukraine war and welcomed Beijing’s peace plan to end the conflict.
“We are seeking a comprehensive, sustainable and just settlement of this conflict through peaceful means,” he told the Chinese news agency Xinhua. “We are open to a dialogue on Ukraine, but such negotiations must take into account the interests of all countries involved in the conflict, including ours.”
Mr Putin added that they plan to have “closer cooperation in industry and high-tech, outer space and peaceful atom, artificial intelligence, renewable energy and other innovative sectors”.
Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping are meeting for the fourth time since the start of the Ukraine war (Getty)
“Putin’s visit to Beijing, which includes a delegation of Russian cabinet members and the heads of state-owned banks and energy corporations, shows the Russia-China ‘comprehensive partnership of strategic coordination for a new era’ continues to move forward with full force,” said Dr Jonathan Ward, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington DC and author of The Decisive Decade.
Dr Ward noted that with Chinese support for Russia in Europe and Russian support for China on Taiwan, “there may be much more dangerous activity to come in the years ahead as these two authoritarian states continue to deepen their relationship”.
Trade between China and Russia soared to a record $240bn last year (Getty)
Washington has claimed that Beijing is aiding Russia’s war in Ukraine by providing satellite intelligence, parts for fighter jets, microchips and other equipment while filling Moscow’s war chest with record oil imports. For this, the US has sanctioned several Chinese companies and threatened to blacklist Chinese banking institutions unless they suspend business with Russian companies.
China has not directly sold arms to Russia since the Ukraine war began, but has exported so-called “dual-use” components that can be used in weapons manufacturing as well as to non-military ends. Beijing claims it is neutral in the Ukraine conflict and insists it hasn’t broken US sanctions over the war.
But Beijing’s tactical backing of Moscow has also angered the European Union, with questions over Ukraine overshadowing a recent trip to France by Mr Xi that was supposed to serve as a charm offensive. Mr Xi, during his first visit to Europe in five years, insisted that “China is neither the creator of the crisis, nor a party to it or a participant”.
“I don’t think China will significantly increase its support to Russia that may lead to Russia having a much stronger war-fighting capability. Very likely, China will continue to argue its commercial transactions with Russia are normal international trade and attempt to maintain roughly the same level of trade relations with Russia,” Li Mingjiang, an associate professor at Singapore’s Rajaratnam School of International Studies, told The Independent.
“Now that the US and European countries are exerting quite strong pressures on China’s export of dual-use technologies and equipment to Russia, Putin may seek commitment from the Chinese leader that China will not waver under Western pressures.”
While Mr Putin is likely to seek further support from Beijing as it gains ground in Ukraine, Mr Xi needs Moscow to counterbalance the US.
America’s support for Taiwan – which it formally acknowledges is a part of China but says it will support against any attempt at forceful occupation by mainland forces – its naval presence in the South China Sea, repeated threats of sanctions and escalating trade war have greatly damaged relations with the Asian superpower.
In this context, Mr Singh said, the Chinese president will not fundamentally change his approach to showing support for Russia.
The actress asserted that most celebrities engage in online feuds solely for the sole purpose of chasing clout.
She recently spoke with Hip TV, where she stated that some musicians utilize online beef as a publicity ploy for new music or projects they intend to release.
According to Nkechi Blessing, when she sees celebrities arguing online, she ignores it and does not get involved because she recognizes that they sometimes plan the ‘fight’.
Nkechi Blessing, Nigerian actress
In her words;
“My thoughts on celebrities bashing each other on the Internet, I feel it’s some form of publicity stunt. By the time they come out on social media to exchange words, is either they have a new single coming up or they’re about to drop a song.
“So most times when I see celebrities fighting online, I just walk away because most times we sit down and plan these things.
“Sometimes, it’s not actually bad blood. As I said they might want to release a single so they will need all the clout and engagements to get their songs out there in your faces. So that’s it literally.”
Mohbad’s widow, Wunmi Aloba has broken her silence following the pathologist’s statement that the cause of deathof her husband was unknown.
On September 12, 2023, Ilerioluwa Aloba popularly known as Mohbad passed away in suspicious circumstances.
After Nigerians demanded justice, his body was exhumed on September 21 so that an autopsy could be performed to ascertain the cause of his death.
The pathologist testified that the 27-year-old singer’s body had already deteriorated when the test was conducted, making it impossible to determine the cause of death during a coroner’s inquest on Wednesday, May 15.
Late Mohbad and wife, Wunmi
A witness at the hearing also told the judge about the singer’s problems with Sam Larry and Wunmi.
Wunmi, the mother of Mohbad’s son, then posted a blank, dark page on her Instagram Stories to express her sorrow.
She also shared a photo of Mohbad and wrote: “Ilerioluwa masun (do not sleep)”
The share of coal in India’s power sector dropped to less than half for the first time in decades, indicating a major milestone in the South Asian country’s shift towards renewables.
In the first quarter of 2024, India added a record-breaking 13,669MW of power generation capacity, with renewable energy accounting for a substantial 71.5 per cent share.
This marks a pivotal moment as coal’s share of the total power capacity dropped below 50 per cent for the first time since the 1960s.
The figures, published in a quarterly report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) on Wednesday, showed that India is on path to reach its target of 50 per cent cumulative power generation capacity from non-fossil fuel-based sources by 2030 way ahead of its time.
Even though the country continued to generate more electricity from coal, the additional renewable capacity point to a more sustainable future for India’s electricity sector, the report said.
Experts said this spike in more renewable projects comes as the world recovers from recent pandemic and war related shocks, and India is paving its way ahead as a renewable powerhouse.
“After a slump from 2019 to 2022 due to supply-chain issues and global price spikes brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the market has rebounded and gone from strength to strength,” said the report’s contributing author, Vibhuti Garg.
“There is strong investor interest in the Indian utility-scale renewable energy market,” he added. “The primary reasons are the large-scale potential for market growth, central government support in terms of targets and regulatory frameworks, and higher operating margins.”
India issued a record-breaking 69GW in utility-scale renewable energy projects, according to the report released by IEEFA and JMK Research.
India has also rocketed to third in the world’s solar power generation rankings, behind only China and the US, according to Ember’s fifth annual Global Electricity Review of 80 countries, released last week.
Ranked ninth in 2015, India has now surpassed Japan, which, along with fellow G7 member Germany, has a stubbornly high demand for coal.
“A renewables-powered future is now becoming a reality,” said Aditya Lolla, Ember’s Asia programme director. “Solar power, in particular, is growing at an unprecedented pace.
“Our report concludes that the rapid growth in solar and wind has brought the world to a crucial turning point – likely this year – where fossil generation starts to decline at a global level.”
However, India continues to grapple with coal dependence, especially during adverse weather conditions and surges in power demand.
While the report says this dependence isn’t likely to end this year, the record growth in renewable capacity shows that despite this challenge, India’s renewable energy sector shows no signs of slowing down.
This article was amended on 16 May 2024. It originally stated that coal no longer accounts for the majority of India’s power supply, but that was incorrect. Coal no longer accounts for the majority of the capacity of India’s power stations.
Stand-up comedian Shyam Rangeela, who is known for his viral impressions of the prime minister, said he had submitted all the documents needed for his nomination from northern Uttar Pradesh state’s Varanasi, a holy city by the River Ganges and Mr Modi’s high-stakes constituency.
However, Mr Rangeela said late on Tuesday his application was rejected on the ground that he did not take an oath or affirmation as required for all candidates in a format prescribed by India’s Election Commission as part of a nomination checklist.
He said this was a step he was not informed about by the authorities.
“I have seen how democracy was murdered today,” Mr Rangeela told reporters after his nomination papers were rejected.
“They don’t want me to contest from here. They took my nomination papers after 3pm on Tuesday while I was alone. I am a first-timer and I did not know the process. No one told me that I was required to take an oath,” he said, adding that his lawyers were also not allowed inside the premises or informed.
The district magistrate of Varanasi said Mr Rangeela’s nomination paper was rejected as the affidavit submitted by him was found to be “incomplete”, according to The Wire.
Indian comedian Shyam Rangeela running against Modi (The Independent)
Mr Rangeela, 29, had earlier said his efforts to file nomination papers in Varanasi, a seat Mr Modi, 73, has not lost since 2014, had been rejected by local officials for the past three days running.
He had called the initial acceptance of his candidature documents by the officials a “win for us in a democracy”.
In a video shared on his social media on Tuesday, he said officials were denying him entry inside the district magistrate’s office, just hours before Mr Modi was scheduled to file his nomination papers.
Flanked by his cabinet ministers and a heavy posse of security personnel, Mr Modi filed his papers in the city on Tuesday around 11.40am, after offering prayers at Ganges, a spectacle which dominated all major Indian news channels for much of the day.
India’s prime minister Narendra Modi waves on the day he votes during the third phase of the general election, in Ahmedabad (REUTERS)
The comedian said: “Mr Modi filed his nomination… surrounded by his security staff and cabinet minister. No one could have come close to him, while we sweated for days outside the office to successfully file our nomination.”
Mr Rangeela had vowed to be the face of all independent candidates looking to compete against Mr Modi, stating that voters should be allowed to choose who they want as their leader in a democracy. He said he wanted to give voters options other than Mr Modi, even if he did not have the political acumen to actually pose a threat to the prime minister.
“You don’t need to fear anything at all, I am an independent face and I will remain in the race without any other political party’s support. We, independent candidates, are all one,” Mr Rangeela had said as words of encouragement to other aspirants.
He added that his decision stemmed from what he claimed was “unfairness and discrimination against political competition” in some of the big seats such as Surat in Mr Modi’s home state of Gujarat.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) candidate Mukesh Dalal was declared the uncontested winner from Surat after other eight candidates in the fray withdrew following the rejection of the Congress opposition party candidate Nilesh Kumbhani’s nomination.
Local officials claimed Mr Kumbhani’s nomination was rejected due to discrepancies in signatures of his proposers, but several local opposition politicians have alleged serious cases of obstruction and police intimidation.
Varanasi will be voting on 1 June and will see Mr Modi running in the race for the third time with his major competition in the city being Ajay Rai from the opposition Congress party.
Results this time around will be announced alongside the rest of the country’s on 4 June.
A massive manhunt was underway in France on Wednesday for armed assailants who ambushed a prison convoy, killing two prison officers, seriously injuring three others and springing the inmate they were escorting. The prime minister vowed the gang would be caught, saying, “They will pay.”
“We are tracking you, we will find you and we will punish you,” Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said in parliament, to applause from lawmakers. “They will pay for what they have done.”
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said “unprecedented” efforts were being deployed. Hundreds of officers were mobilized in the search for the escaped convict, Mohamed Amra, and the assailants who laid in wait for the prison van transporting him, ramming a car into it before opening fire on Tuesday.
The violence of the attack shocked France. Prison workers held moments of silence Wednesday outside prisons in Paris and elsewhere to commemorate the officers who were killed.
Darmanin, speaking Wednesday on RTL radio, expressed hope that Amra could be caught “in the coming days.” Without giving full details about the extent of the manhunt, he said 450 officers had been deployed in the region of the attack in Normandy in northern France to search for the assailants and clues about their whereabouts.
“The means employed are considerable,” he said. “We are progressing a lot.”
The attack appeared to have been carefully prepared. The convoy was transporting Amra back to jail in the Normandy town of Évreux after a hearing with an investigator in Rouen when it was ambushed on the A154 freeway.
The prison van and another prison escort vehicle had just gone through a toll booth on the freeway when the van was rammed head-on by a car. The Paris prosecutor’s office said the car had been stolen and had gone through the toll booth a few minutes ahead of the prison convoy and then waited there.
Another car followed behind the convoy, seemingly boxing it in. Assailants sprang from the cars and opened fire, spraying the prison vehicles, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said.
The assailants and Amra then fled. Two burned cars were subsequently found which investigators are examining, Beccuau said.
One of the officers killed was a 52-year-old captain in the prison service, where he had worked for nearly 30 years, and a father of two, Beccuau said. The other officer killed, aged 34, was a married father-to-be, she said.
Amra, 30, has a long criminal record, with at least 13 convictions for robbery and other crimes, the first when he was just 15, she said.
It comes as US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken announced a new $2 billion (£1.6bn) weapons deal during a visit to the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, before suggesting Washington could sign a bilateral agreement with Ukraine in the coming weeks.
Mr Blinken did not go into detail about what would be included in the latest pledge, which will be drawn from the $61bn package passed by Congress last month.
But during a press conference with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba, he said the US was focused on sending Patriot missile systems and other forms of critical air defence.
Mr Blinken said that the support for Ukraine comes at a “critical time” as the country faces a renewed Russian onslaught.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Ukrainian president met with senior military personnel, including commander-in-chief Oleksandry Syrskyi, to discuss the difficult situation in the Kharkiv region.
His press secretary Sergii Nykyforov announced on Facebook after the meeting that Mr Zelensky had “instructed that all international events scheduled for the coming days be postponed and new dates coordinated” so that he could focus on Kharkiv.
Ukrainian servicemen of the 92nd Assault Brigade fire BM-21 ‘Grad’ multiple rocket launcher toward Russian positions, in the Kharkiv region (AFP via Getty Images)
Russian President Vladimir Putin held his own meeting with his top war generals in the Kremlin on Wednesday (AP)
King Felipe of Spain had been due to hold a reception for Mr Zelensky on 17 May and host a meal in his honour. The Ukrainian President had also been expected to sign a bilateral security cooperation agreement with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez following a joint declaration by Nato last year. He was later scheduled to visit neighbouring Portugal.
But the situation in Kharkiv has deteriorated quickly as Russian forces appear to have moved within artillery range of the city centre of the region’s namesake capital, where more than 1.3 million civilians are currently living.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, during his own meeting with top military generals, as well his new defence minister Andrei Belousov and his predecessor Sergei Shoigu, now the secretary of the security council, said the work of the military was “proceeding according to the plan”.
Russia’s defence ministry claimed to have captured two more villages in the northernmost of their two attacks across the border into the Kharkiv region.
Russia attacks across Ukraine border
Kremlin forces have seized 12 towns since Friday and are contesting Vovchansk
Kremlin troops have advanced nearly five miles towards the region’s capital since last Friday, when the first units of infantry rushed into the “grey zone”, a portion of land that was previously outside the control of both the Russian and Ukrainian forces.
The recent captures of the towns of Hlyboke and Lukyantsi mean that Putin’s forces have taken eight towns in that sector of fighting and an additional four in the neighbouring attack towards the small city of Vovchansk. According to DeepState, a Ukrainian war tracker, Russia’s forces have occupied a total of more than 50 square miles of land in the Kharkiv region in just six days.
Ukraine’s military, in its latest update, claimed that they had repelled multiple attacks along both sectors of fighting.
After a local Vovchansk police chief said Russian forces had “taken positions in the streets” of the town, Ukraine’s military said they had “expelled [Russian] forces … in the northern and northwestern suburbs”.
Ukrainian tracker DeepState said Russian forces were using artillery to “level everything to the ground” in the two areas of fighting.
Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant has publicly hit out at prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans for a post-war Gaza – vowing to oppose any long-term military rule by Israel.
Pressure has been growing on Mr Netanyahu for weeks over Israel’s conduct in Gaza, with the international community calling for a ceasefire and even staunch ally the US baulking at a full-scale assault on the border city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians are sheltering. The Israeli prime minister claims the offensive is crucial to eliminating Hamas. Mr Netanyahu’s attempts to keep his hardline government coalition partners onside in promising an attack on Rafah is said to have caused splits in the country’s war cabinet, with these bursting into the open with Mr Gallant’s remarks.
Israel launched its heaviest-ever bombardment of Gaza, plus a ground assault and a blockade, in retaliation for a bloody attack by Hamas on 7 October during which around 1,200 people were killed and another 250 were taken hostage, including toddlers. Since then, Palestinian health workers in the Hamas-run territory say Israel’s bombardment has killed at least 35,000 Palestinians, the majority of whom were women and children.
In a televised news conference, Mr Gallant said that, since soon after the conflict erupted with a shock Hamas attack on 7 October, he had tried to promote a blueprint for an alternative Gaza administration made up of Palestinians. Those efforts “got no response” from various decision-making cabinet forums under Mr Netanyahu, said Mr Gallant, who comes from the prime minister’s Likud Party.
“I call on the prime minister to announce that Israel will not rule over Gaza militarily,” Mr Gallant said. “An alternative to Hamas governance should be established … Indecision will erode the military gains [of the war].” Fellow war cabinet member Benny Gantz voiced support for Mr Gallant, saying he “spoke the truth”.
The incident took place in Handlova, a small mining town about 120 miles northeast of the capital Bratislava, after a government meeting on Wednesday.
The 59-year-old premier was hit in the stomach during the broad daylight attack, and underwent major surgery.
Robert Fico’s security team bundled him into a car after he was shot (Reuters)
A man was detained after the shooting and is in custody (Reuters)
Speaking late on Wednesday, deputy prime minister Tomas Taraba said the operation “went well” and added: “I guess in the end he will survive … he’s not in a life-threatening situation at this moment.”
After the incident, Fico was bundled into a car by his security team before being taken to hospital for treatment.
A suspect, understood to be a 71-year-old former security guard, has been detained after dramatic images showed a man handcuffed on the ground.
The shooting occurred in front of the local House of Culture, where Mr Fico came to meet with supporters.
“I was just going to shake his hand,” said a man who witnessed the shooting. His wife said she “almost became deaf” after hearing three or four shots ring out.
A post on Mr Fico’s Facebook page following the shooting described his condition as life-threatening. A spokesperson for Handlova Hospital, where Mr Fico was first treated, said he was conscious when he arrived and that medics there were able to stabilise his “life functions”. He was later transferred to a higher-level hospital by helicopter.
The prime minister is undergoing treatment in hospital (AFP/Getty)
Pictures later showed Mr Fico – covered by a blanket and surrounded by medics – being wheeled into a hospital in Banska Bystrica, a city about a 45-minute drive from Handlova. Deputy speaker Lubos Blaha adjourned the day’s session of parliament until further notice.
Slovakian president Zuzana Caputova condemned “a brutal and ruthless” attack on the premier.
“I’m shocked,” Ms Caputova said. “I wish Robert Fico a lot of strength in this critical moment and a quick recovery from this attack.”
In a later statement, Ms Caputova said that “a physical attack on the prime minister is primarily an attack on a person, but also on democracy”.
Peter Pellegrini, Slovakia’s president-elect and an ally of Mr Fico, described the attack as “a threat to everything that has adorned Slovak democracy so far”.
“I am horrified by where the hatred towards another political opinion can lead,” he added.
“We don’t have to agree on everything but there are plenty of ways to express our disagreement democratically and legally.”
The prime minister was taken to hospital in Handlova before being transferred to Banska Bystrica by helicopter (Google Maps)
Leaders across Europe began to condemn the shooting and send their best wishes to Mr Fico and his family.
“I strongly condemn the vile attack on prime minister Robert Fico,” EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said on X.
“Such acts of violence have no place in our society and undermine democracy, our most precious common good.
“My thoughts are with PM Fico and his family.”
Donald Tusk, the prime minister of Poland and former president of the EU Council, said: “Shocking news from Slovakia. Robert, my thoughts are with you in this very difficult moment.”
Rishi Sunak said: “Shocked to hear this awful news. All our thoughts are with prime minister Fico and his family.
Jens Stoltenberg, Nato secretary general, said he was shocked and appalled by the shooting.
“The news about the shooting of Slovak prime minister Robert Fico is shocking,” said Czech prime minister Petr Fiala. “I wish the prime minister to get well as soon as possible. We must not tolerate violence, it must have no place in society.”
Fico is wheeled into hospital in Banska Bystrica after being wounded in a shooting in Handlova (AP)
Following the shooting, Slovakia’s biggest opposition party called off a planned protest against government public broadcaster reforms set for Wednesday evening.
The Slovak government meeting in Handlova was part of a tour of the country’s regions by Mr Fico after he returned to power last year.
He is in his fourth stint as prime minister after his scandal-tainted leftist Smer, or Direction, party won Slovakia’s parliamentary election at the end of September 2023 on a pro-Russian and anti-American platform. He formed a parliamentary majority by signing a coalition government deal with the leftist Hlas, or Voice, party and the ultranationalist Slovak National Party.
Slovakia, a country of 5.5 million people that shares a border with Ukraine, had been – up to that point – a staunch supporter of Kyiv since Russia invaded in February 2022, donating arms and opening its borders for refugees fleeing the war.
Mr Fico stopped that military aid and opposed EU sanctions on Russia while wanting to block Ukraine from joining Nato. During the election, Mr Fico vowed to pursue a “sovereign” foreign policy, promised a tough stance against migration and non-governmental organisations and campaigned against LGBT+ rights.
Known for his tirades against journalists, Mr Fico has previously labelled a major television network, two nationwide newspapers and an online news site his enemies and said he won’t communicate with them.
The prime minister is an ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin (AFP/Getty)
Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orban said he was shocked by the attack (AP)
In April, Slovakia’s government approved controversial plans for an overhaul of the country’s public radio and TV broadcasting – a move critics said would result in the government taking full control of the media.
During a three-decade career, Mr Fico has moved between the pro-European mainstream and nationalistic positions opposed to European Union and US policies, his latest election win being based around the latter. He has also shown a willingness to change course depending on public opinion or changed political realities.
Mr Fico, the son of a forklift truck driver and shop worker, grew up in Topolcany, a small town in Slovakia’s west, in what was then Czechoslovakia – a satellite state of the Soviet Union.
He attended local primary and secondary schools, then signed up to study law at the respected Comenius University, 100km away in the capital, Bratislava.
In 1986, a 23-year-old Fico joined the Communist Party and in 1988 he married a fellow lawyer.
World leaders have offered their support to Fico following the attack (AP)
The shooting comes three weeks ahead of crucial European parliamentary elections, in which populist and hard-right parties in the 27-nation bloc appear poised to make gains.
Slovakia’s major opposition parties, Progressive Slovakia and Freedom and Solidarity, cancelled a planned protest against a controversial government plan to overhaul public broadcasting that they say would give the government full control of public radio and television.
“We absolutely and strongly condemn violence and today’s shooting of premier Robert Fico,” said Progressive Slovakia leader Michal Simecka.
“At the same time, we call on all politicians to refrain from any expressions and steps which could contribute to further increasing the tension.”
Milan Nic, a former adviser to the deputy foreign minister of Slovakia, said that the attack was unfortunately not an “isolated incident”.
He said he was “sorry” to say that he believed the shooting had been “coming” due to the country’s increasingly polarised politics – and threats made against politicians on social media – as he called for calm on all sides.
Fico speaking with supporters on Wednesday before the shooting (AP)
“I would expect all leaders of the parties in parliament to step up in front of the cameras and call on their supporters to calm down,” he said.
He urged them “to unite in condemnation of this act and to stop with the threats against the lives of politicians, to set back from the brink”.
He added: “We are at the edge of an abyss. This terrible incident – an assassination attempt – should be a wake-up call to step back from that abyss.
“And not only in my country, but I think throughout Europe and the Western world.”
Mr Fico and his Smer party won Slovakia’s 30 September parliamentary elections.
Critics worried Slovakia under Fico would abandon the country’s pro-Western course and follow the direction of Hungary under Mr Orban, who congratulated Mr Putin on his re-election in Russia’s sham presidential election in March.
Thousands have repeatedly rallied in the capital and across Slovakia to protest against his policies.
