Horsey Island, Hamford Water, Essex: It’s the setting for one of Arthur Ransome’s wonderful books, and today it’s farmed by a single family with innovation and care

You need two permissions to access Horsey Island: one from the farmer, the second from the tide, which offers a four-hour window in every 12 when the causeway can be crossed. It takes me 20 minutes to pick my way over, wading the deeper sections where spindly marker posts show the way. It’s a disconcerting place to loiter. In places the mud either side is a foot higher than the track, and riddled with tiny creeks in which streamers of sea forsaken by the tide rush along invisible gradients. The whole expanse fizzes and trickles as air and water try to escape from the mud and heaps of bladderwrack.

The dreamlike quality is enhanced by a feeling I’ve been here before, which, in a way, I have. The island is the setting for Secret Water, part of Arthur Ransome’s Swallows and Amazons series, which I loved as a child and revisited ad nauseam during a phase when my son read almost nothing else. It is here on the River Wade that two of the adventurous children are trapped by rising water and rescued by a marsh-wise local boy nicknamed the Mastodon, because of the enormous round tracks left by his “splatchers” – like snowshoes for traversing mud.

Continue reading...

As anybody who’s ever encountered Mexican traffic jams will know, there are times when it feels you’ll never get through the impasse. Colombia must have felt the same about the DR Congo goalkeeper Lionel Mpasi, who made an outrageous string of saves that looked like they might earn his side an unlikely point. The Le Havre keeper was finally beaten – but only by a deflection that gave Colombia their second successive win a secured their passage to the last 32.

It was Daniel Muñoz who got the goal, the Crystal Palace right-back’s second in as many games, as he cut in from the right with half the DRC side seemingly distracted by a penalty appeal at the edge of the box. His shot flicked off Steve Kapuadi, wrongfooting Mpasi to beat him at his near post. Thereafter Mpasi passed his duties in thwarting Colombia to the linesman, who twice ruled out extravagant finishes from Luis Díaz. A draw in their final game, against Portugal, would be enough for Colombia to top the group and secure a tie against a best third-place team in Kansas City. Second place will play the runner-up in England’s group in Toronto.

Continue reading...

As a podcast host, I speak daily to people on both sides of the breakup. A decade after the referendum, it’s clear who’s moved on

Let’s imagine you’ve been dumped by someone you were expecting to stay with for the rest of your life. The breakup is bitter. The logistics, exhausting. The two of you spend an eternity negotiating who gets to keep the dog, the flat, the friends; it’s hard to imagine that things will ever feel normal again. But the years have a way of softening these things. Some years later, a photo of your ex flashes up on your social media feed. And suddenly, you realise you feel no grudge. In fact, you barely feel anything at all.

This is how it feels to be an EU citizen a decade after Brexit. As the host of a podcast called The Europeans, I talk to people across Europe on a daily basis. Nobody I speak to bears the United Kingdom – the country I called home until my late 20s – any ill will. They enjoy our films and our pop music (even though it’s harder to actually see British artists live); sometimes they go on weekend trips to London and come back complaining about how expensive it was.

Continue reading...

The man tipped for No 10 could also come under immediate pressure if his chancellor is deemed by bond markets to be too left-wing

Andy Burnham would enter Downing Street already “boxed in” by financial markets if he signals a rise in borrowing to pay for a more expansive policy agenda, bond investors have warned.

The newly elected MP for Makerfield, who is widely expected to be the next prime minister, could also quickly come under pressure if he chooses a chancellor who is seen to be too leftwing by bond markets.

Continue reading...

Report by Commons committee says government has failed to make concrete changes after recent security failures

Britain’s museums and galleries are being left vulnerable to thefts and cyber-attacks that could put priceless collections at risk, MPs have warned.

A report by the public accounts committee (PAC) said big security failures in recent years, including the theft of thousands of artefacts from the British Museum and a devastating cyber-attack on the British Library, had exposed serious weaknesses across the sector, but that the government had failed to take a strategic approach to preventing similar incidents.

Continue reading...

Church marks 300 years with exhibition and online archive telling of UK’s first Black voters, and history of compassion and protest

From a family of chimney sweeps including one of Britain’s two earliest documented Black voters, to the mystery of a 19-year-old youth believed enslaved, St Martin-in-the-Fields church on Trafalgar Square still has secrets to share as it marks its 300th anniversary.

Standing at the heart of London’s political and cultural life for three centuries, its ranks of engraved memorial stones set into the floor and walls of the crypt and cafe are yielding glimpses into long-forgotten lives of ordinary Londoners.

Continue reading...

Matriarchal groups in east and west exhibit distinct click patterns, used to form social structures

From “Howdy” to “G’day”, English – like other languages – is rich in dialects. Now researchers have found sperm whales on different sides of the Mediterranean show similar variations in their vocalisations.

Sperm whales communicate vocally using sequences of short clicks called codas. However, the rhythmic pattern of these clicks, known as the dialect, can differ between different matriarchal groups.

Continue reading...

Glamorous, fashion-forward, fun – wigs are everywhere you look, with celebrities leading the way. But should you go for something flamboyant, or a more natural style? Time to test-drive a few

‘I think it’s the word – ‘wig’!” says Melanie Burrell, scrunching up her nose. “I prefer ‘hairpiece’.” It’s part of the reason why, when she opened her wig business in Glasgow in 2010, she called it Parrucche – the Italian word for “wigs” being a little more discreet, especially when it came to signage.

But the stigma once associated with wig wearing is quickly diminishing. Outside of Black and queer communities, where using hairpieces has long been commonplace, wigs were once associated with attempts to conceal hair-loss, or for fancy dress. But in recent years, their appeal has broadened. According to data insights company Statista, the global wigs and hair extensions market is predicted to reach $13.28bn this year. For men, toupees, now more commonly known as “hair systems”, are part of this resurgence.

Continue reading...

Autobiographical work Free Me aims to encourage victims to speak out in country where violence against women is rising

There are audible gasps in the auditorium in Nairobi as a husband launches a volley of blows and slaps on his wife and pushes her to the floor. “I wish I could spare you this,” the wife tells the audience. “My husband beat me up as if we were in a bar fight. Except, in a bar someone fights back.”

The scene comes from Free Me, an autobiographical play by Gathoni Kimuyu, a Kenyan theatre and TV producer who lived through an abusive marriage.

Continue reading...

She has won acclaim and countless awards for her body-tapping, raspberry-blowing music. Now she has spent 15 years making her boldest work yet – an epic about birth, infancy and adolescence

It took Camille 15 years to make her new album. The Sound of Milk is a triple record, each part documenting a distinct stage of the French musician’s experience raising two kids with composer Clément Ducol: Naissance is from 2015, Enfance 2020 and Adolescence 2025. She could have put each one out when it was complete, she says, but realised she wasn’t ready. Her son and daughter, now teenagers, “were too little, and I would have felt too exposed to talk about it because it’s about beauty, joy, it’s very deep,” says Camille, calling from her home in the French countryside. “I needed to be able to step back and look at the journey. I needed to feel grounded enough to release it in a world that does not respect children and mothers.”

On the surface, much of Camille’s sixth album may sound very sweet. Naissance features no real instruments – it’s essentially a field recording of raising babies, all gurgles and found sound. Known for her vocal experimentation – beatboxing, raspberries – Camille saw it as a manifesto freeing singing from how disembodied it can be in pop. “As a woman, music is about a way of living,” she says. “It’s about breathing, being with my kids, singing along with what’s going on around me in an open world.” She calls Enfance a “pocket musical”: similarly atmospheric, it’s full of the kinds of ditties parents make up when they’re teaching kids about stairs and the washing machine – raising everyday maternal expressions up as art, I suggest. “I like what you’re saying,” she says. “All families are pieces of art. We create our values, our worlds, a way of talking to each other.”

Continue reading...

The UK sure loves speculation about prime ministers. So here’s some more! But who makes the finest – Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson, Jane Horrocks or Alan B’Stard?

As the UK gets ready to have its seventh prime minister in 10 years, how long before a revolving door is installed at 10 Downing Street? As social media wags have pointed out, this is likely the first time in history that the UK has been looking for a new prime minister, James Bond and Time Lord at the same time.

With the tribute film Rik Mayall: Magnificent B’stard airing this week (Thursday at 9pm on Sky Documentaries) and Steven Moffat’s drama Number 10 coming soon to Channel 4, it’s time to conduct a poll on TV’s best fictional British PMs.

Continue reading...

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Het openbaar vervoer ligt deze woensdagochtend plat. Vakbond FNV wil bezuinigingen tegengaan, waardoor alle treinen, bussen, trams en metro's pas om 08:00 uur beginnen met rijden. Voor die tijd rijdt er helemaal niets. In Rotterdam en omgeving moeten reizigers rekening houden met een verstoorde dienstregeling tot 11:00 uur.

Vandaag is het zonovergoten en wordt het snikheet in het Rijnmondgebied. De dag is al begonnen met een zeer hoge temperatuur van ruim 20 graden. Vanmiddag wordt het plaatselijk wel 35 graden. Verder staat er amper wind, maar in de loop van de middag gaat dat veranderen. Langs de kust steekt dan een matige noordenwind op, windkracht 3 à 4, dan daalt de temperatuur daar naar een aangename 25 graden.

Klamme nachten, tropenroosters en de zoektocht naar verkoeling: het is bloedheet in onze regio. Vanaf woensdag 12:00 is het code oranje vanwege de aanhoudende hitte. Volg via dit liveblog de laatste ontwikkelingen over de hitte.

Klamme nachten, tropenroosters en de zoektocht naar verkoeling: het is bloedheet in onze regio. Vanaf woensdag 12:00 is het code oranje vanwege de aanhoudende hitte. Volg via dit liveblog de laatste ontwikkelingen over de hitte.

Klamme nachten, tropenroosters en de zoektocht naar verkoeling: het is bloedheet in onze regio. Vanaf woensdag 12:00 is het code oranje vanwege de aanhoudende hitte. Volg via dit liveblog de laatste ontwikkelingen over de hitte.

Wat heeft een zestigplusser anno 2026 gemiddeld te besteden – en is dat veel of weinig vergeleken met de rest van Nederland? Terwijl de politiek ruziet over koopkrachtplaatjes en pensioenstelsel, schuift een groeiende groep ouderen stilletjes richting een netto-inkomen waar menig jongere alleen maar van kan dromen.

Volgens recente ramingen ligt het gemiddelde bruto inkomen in Nederland in 2026 rond de 4.400 euro per maand, inclusief vakantiegeld. Het modale jaarinkomen – het inkomen dat het vaakst voorkomt – wordt voor 2026 geraamd op ongeveer 48.000 euro bruto, goed voor circa 4.000 euro per maand. Zestigplussers vallen daar vaak net onder, maar beschikken wel vaker over meerdere inkomensbronnen: AOW, aanvullend pensioen en soms nog loon of inkomsten uit vermogen.

Reken je alles bij elkaar op, dan komt een echtpaar met twee AOW-uitkeringen en een gemiddeld aanvullend pensioen in 2026 uit op zo’n 3.300 tot 3.700 euro netto per maand. Alleenstaanden moeten het doorgaans doen met ongeveer 2.070 tot 2.250 euro, afhankelijk van belastingdruk en aanvullende pensioenrechten. Daar staat tegenover dat de woonlasten bij zestigplussers vaak lager zijn, omdat de hypotheek (bijna) is afgelost, terwijl jongere generaties in een oververhitte woningmarkt veel meer kwijt zijn aan huur of rente.

Tegelijk groeit de groep ouderen snel: inmiddels is ruim één op de vijf Nederlanders 65-plus, en die vergrijzing zet de komende jaren door. Economen waarschuwen dat een relatief welvarende grijze generatie de inkomens- en vermogensverschillen tussen jong en oud verder kan uitdiepen, zeker zolang lonen achterblijven en starters moeilijk aan een koopwoning komen. De vraag is dus minder hoeveel een zestigplusser gemiddeld verdient, dan wie zich straks de oude dag nog kan veroorloven.