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People are living with sickness or disability younger than a decade ago. That should shock the country and prompt actionThe two-year decline in healthy life expectancy in Britain, set out in new analysis from the Health Foundation thinktank, is devastating. In a wealthy country like the UK, at a time of rapid advances in the treatment of illnesses including obesity and cancer, people should not be living with sickness or disability earlier than they were a decade ago.The report draws on a survey that relies on self-reporting, so is less objective than statistics based on births and deaths. Worsening mental health among younger adults is the area of sharpest deterioration and in some age groups, physical health was reported as having improved. But healthy life expectancy is a useful measure of quality of life and the findings have serious implications for public services. When, in 2028, the retirement age rises to 67, the average person will be in poor health more than six years before they are due to stop...

Xi Jinping hopes that the president may water down US support for a vibrant democracy. Defending the status quo would be better for America tooChina senses opportunity when Donald Trump visits later this month. A nakedly transactional US president in need of a trade deal, and hoping that Beijing could lean on Iran, might shift on Taiwan in return. China's foreign minister, Wang Yi, linked the issue explicitly to broader bilateral cooperation in his call with Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, on Thursday. Beijing would be delighted to see Mr Trump soften the US position, and perhaps pull back on arms sales after a mammoth $11bn package was announced late last year.Taiwan has been self-governed since the end of China's civil war in 1949, so never ruled by China's Communist party. Xi Jinping has made unification central to his legacy. Three years ago, US intelligence assessed that he had told the People's Liberation Army to be ready for an invasion by 2027. But Beijing would surely prefer to achiev...

People shamed and ordered to leave shops after being misidentified then 'given no help' to investigate verdictsAI facial recognition oversight lagging far behind technology, watchdogs warnHow does live facial recognition work and how many police forces use it? When Ian Clayton, a retired health and safety professional from Chester, popped into Home Bargains one February lunchtime, he was suddenly approached by a stern-looking member of staff.“Excuse me, can you please put everything down and leave the shop now?” she said. Clayton recalled how he was stunned, and it was only as he was briskly walked past the tills towards the exit that he stopped to ask what he had done. Continue reading......

Jon Jackson was scheduled to fly his last flight on Saturday when Spirit ceased operations – Southwest staff stepped inA Spirit Airlines pilot was given an emotional send-off into retirement by another airline after what was supposed to be his final flight was canceled amid Spirit's sudden collapse on Saturday.Jon Jackson had been scheduled to fly his final flight into Baltimore-Washington international airport on Saturday when the low-cost airline ceased operations after running out of cash and rescue talks with the Trump administration failed. Continue reading......

Billionaire's role as honorary chair and main source of funding has led to boycotts and criticism event has lost its cachetThe Met Gala in New York is the grandest and ritziest event in the fashion calendar, and an indicator of the growing ties between designers, celebrity and power. But with tech billionaires now joining the cohort, this year's party may be its most controversial yet.All eyes are on the guest list – and their outfits – to launch the fashion exhibition Costume Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute. Beyoncé, Venus Williams and Nicole Kidman are chairing the event with Vogue's Anna Wintour, and tickets cost about $100,000 (£73,500). But in a plot twist worthy of the new Devil Wears Prada film, Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez Bezos, the Met Gala's new honorary chairs, will be joining the 450 guests on the museum steps on Monday. Continue reading......

PM's attendance at European Political Community meeting in Yerevan signals effort to build new ties after US ruptureCanada is to become the first non-European country to attend a meeting of the European Political Community when the prime minister, Mark Carney, joins Monday's summit of the 48-plus nation grouping in Yerevan, Armenia.Carney has said he is determined to build a new network of trade and diplomatic alliances after the loss of US markets under Donald Trump. His presence will also represent a show of western support for Armenia in its efforts to distance itself from Russia at a time when the US's approach to Moscow's opponents, such as Ukraine, is at best ambiguous. Canadian diplomats have rejected suggestions Ottawa might seek EU membership. Continue reading......

Airport seeks deal with BA owner, Virgin and billionaire local landowner, who has own expansion plan, over cost and service issuesHeathrow's new chair has opened talks with airlines and the billionaire local landowner Surinder Arora to defuse a row that threatens to further delay the £49bn plan to build a third runway at Europe's busiest airport.Philip Jansen, who was appointed at the start of the year, is understood to have held meetings with the airport's carriers and with Arora, who has been promoting his own £25bn expansion scheme, in the hope of finding the middle ground in a row over cost and service issues. Continue reading......

The president's approval rating with those under 30 has plummeted as he has failed to deliver on promise after promiseRepublicans rejoiced when far more young voters than expected backed Donald Trump in 2024, with many of them moved by Trump's grandiose promises, such as his vow to “build the greatest economy in the history of the world”. But Republicans should be alarmed that so many 18- to 29-year-olds have soured on Trump – his approval rating with that group has sunk from 48% in January 2025 to between just 25% and 33% in recent months, according to polls by YouGov/the Economist.It shouldn't be a surprise that millions of young Americans have turned against Trump, considering that he has failed to deliver on so many promises, most notably his vow to reduce prices on day one. For young people, inflation is the No 1 economic issue, far outpacing other issues, and they very much wanted Trump to focus on affordability, but Trump has focused on everything but affordability. He's focused instead o...

Exclusive: Varun Chandra's talks with Google, Meta, Apple and others raise fears of 'lobbying behind closed doors'An influential government adviser close to Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves held 16 undisclosed meetings with top US tech executives, the Guardian can reveal.The No 10 business aide Varun Chandra discussed regulatory changes, AI and Donald Trump's second administration with tech corporations during confidential meetings between October 2024 and October 2025. In one meeting he offered to help a top executive meet the prime minister directly. Continue reading......

Artemis II inspired the public but the Trump administration wants to slash the science underpinning human spaceflightIt should have been a victory lap for Jared Isaacman. The Nasa administrator was in Washington DC for what he surely hoped would be a celebration with lawmakers and the US president, little more than two weeks after the successful conclusion of the first human journey around the moon in more than half a century.Instead, last week began with some difficult questions in Congress about the Trump administration's unpopular plan to slash the space agency's budget. It ended at the White House with the president appearing to poke fun at his prominent ears, watched by four bemused Artemis II astronauts waiting in vain for any question about their historic mission. Continue reading......

Jamie Oliver's head of restaurants is optimistic about new recipe of smaller site, slimmed-down menu and no burgersWhen Jamie's Italian crashed and burned in 2019, with the company in £83m of debt and causing 1,000 job losses, no one imagined the celebrity chef would try again.But seven years later, Jamie Oliver has opened a flagship site under the same name in Leicester Square in central London, and believes he has a new recipe for success: a smaller restaurant with a slimmed-down menu, which features cheaper cuts of meat and no burgers. Continue reading......

In and Out has been fully booked since PM ate there, with patrons able to choose from special menu based on his mealWhatever the ins and outs of Westminster politics, Keir Starmer can take small comfort in the fact that there is one place where he is consistently popular. It just happens to be 5,000 miles away.In and Out, an upmarket restaurant in Beijing, has been fully booked since Starmer and his team dined there in January during the first visit by a British prime minister to China since 2018. Continue reading......

As potentially seismic Senedd elections loom, competing parties have differing visions of how to reinvigorate the economyIt is afternoon rush hour on the M4 and drivers are yet again making slow progress around the city of Newport, often seen as the gateway to south Wales given its location between Cardiff and Bristol.Cars and lorries are stuck in gridlocked traffic in both directions on the approach to the Brynglas tunnels, where the road narrows to two lanes in each direction, while flashing lights warn motorists in Welsh and English of a ciw (queue). Continue reading......

Island's tourism industry been hit hard by severe US pressure – but some say foreigners should still visitLeslie Simon and Marc Bender had arrived in Havana for a 10-day holiday, despite their president's repeated threats of military action against Cuba.The two retired union lawyers from Los Angeles flew in via Miami sporting badges reading “ICE OUT!” and shared a somewhat negative opinion of the US's past. Continue reading......

Greater agricultural collaboration can improve food security and resilience to global crises, says policy paperAgricultural co-operatives could “unleash growth” in the UK and improve national food security in the face of crises such as the Middle East conflict by “improving the resilience of UK farms”, according to a report.The policy paper produced by the Co-operative party, which backs influential Labour MPs including Steve Reed and Jonathan Reynolds, calls for “a shift in perspective, not a doubling down of the status quo”. It says co-ops, which enable farmers to pool resources, share risk and invest collectively, can help “reduce exposure to volatile input markets”, such as fertiliser, fuel and animal feed. Continue reading......

Unintended consequence of US president's actions will be boon for China, the leading renewables manufacturerOperation Epic Fury has thus far achieved none of Donald Trump's war aims, but it may well accelerate the global transition towards the clean energy he loves to hate.Last week brought the latest exchange of verbal blows in the standoff over the strait of Hormuz. Iran is “choking like a stuffed pig” on the oil it is unable to export because of the US blockade, Trump claimed. Continue reading......

Carriers examining which flights can be cancelled with least disruption under plans to avoid summer travel chaosUK airlines will be able to cancel or consolidate flights this summer under new plans to conserve jet fuel as the war in the Middle East continues to disrupt supplies.The measures are being taken to avoid major disruption as Britons jet off on their summer holidays. Airlines are looking carefully at their timetables to see which flights can be cancelled in advance and cause the least delays. Continue reading......

Exclusive: Brainchild of Dominic Cummings, Aria is aimed at funding 'crazy' scientific projects to benefit the UKBritain's “invention agency” has pledged £50m of UK taxpayer money to US tech companies and venture capital projects.Dreamed up by Dominic Cummings to fund “crazy” ideas, the Advanced Research and Invention Agency (Aria) is meant to “restore Britain's place as a scientific superpower”. Continue reading......

Exclusive: Resistance to equity, diversion and inclusion drives affects hiring chances of people with convictions, says charityMore than a third of HR decision-makers in the UK said they have faced pushback against equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) initiatives over the past year, according to new research.The new YouGov poll, carried out for the national employment charity Working Chance, surveyed 565 HR decision-makers and found that resistance towards EDI was on the rise. Continue reading......

After subscribing to the Claude chatbot, mystery payments started to appear on one family's credit card bill. They are not aloneDavid Duggan* was so impressed with the ability of the Claude chatbot to answer medical questions and organise family life, that a $20-a-month (£15) subscription seemed like money well spent.But then his wife spotted two $200 payments on his credit card bill for gift cards to use the artificial intelligence tool. Continue reading......