Diana Henry is the Telegraph’s much-loved cookery writer. She shares recipes each week, for everything from speedy family dinners to special menus that friends will remember for months. She is also a regular broadcaster on BBC Radio 4, and her journalism and recipe books, including Simple and How to Eat a Peach, are multi-award-winning. A mother of two sons, Diana can satisfy even the fussiest of eaters.   

Michelle Ferguson , CBI Scotland director, said: “Our message to the new Scottish Government, and to new and returning MSPs, is a simple one: against a backdrop of rising costs and global volatility, growth really is the ‘only game in town’ – so it’s time to roll up our sleeves and get on with it.

Cases of measles in Alcantarilla, Murcia have doubled since an outbreak was declared earlier this month, prompting a warning for families travelling to the Spanish tourist hotspot

Advertisement

Families planning holidays abroad have been issued an urgent warning following a measles outbreak in a popular Spanish tourist destination.

The alert comes as cases in Alcantarilla, Murcia, have doubled since an outbreak was officially declared earlier this month.

The region’s ministry of health has confirmed eight cases of the highly contagious illness.

Four cases, including three adults and a baby, had been identified by last Thursday.

Measles is regarded as one of the most contagious diseases in the world, spreading through coughs and sneezes with a contagion rate of nearly 100 per cent.

According to the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC), it is a “serious disease that can lead to complications and even death”.

The first case was confirmed in the Spanish region on May 5, according to authorities.

Initially, the time between the onset of symptoms and diagnosis took up to two weeks in these cases.

This has since been reduced to just four days after symptoms first appear.

Officials confirmed that four of the patients contracted the illness following contact with another infected individual, though no further details about those affected have been made available.

Authorities have managed to curb the spread of the disease by tracing the chain of infection.

Health minister Juan Jose Pedreño said that control efforts carried out by the Epidemiology Service have ensured the outbreak has not got “out of hand”. It was originally believed the outbreak stemmed from a baptism celebration in Alcantarilla, though this has now been discounted.

More than 6,000 measles cases were recorded across Europe over the past year, with roughly a third occurring in children under the age of five.

During the 12-month period spanning February last year to this January, six people lost their lives to the disease.

The preceding year recorded 7,655 cases, with eight proving fatal.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), children under five face particular risk from measles, which can lead to pneumonia, meningitis, blindness and seizures should it spread to other areas of the body.

The most effective way to safeguard yourself and your children is through vaccination.

Can spending more time engaging with the arts, such as visiting galleries, museums, singing or painting, really lead to a longer and healthier life? It’s certainly an appealing idea. And it’s not implausible.

Stress is bad for your health, and spending your free time doing something engaging, like visiting an art gallery, seems like a good way to reduce stress. But there’s a big difference between a plausible idea and an established scientific fact. And if scientists like me want to advise people on how to spend their time, we need to be confident that our advice is based on solid evidence.

A recent study, published in the journal Innovation in Aging, offers a case in point. The study, led by a team of researchers from UCL, reported that those who engaged in arts and cultural activities more often, and in a wider range of such activities, appeared to be ageing more slowly according to certain biological clocks.

Unfortunately, determining whether arts engagement truly improves your health and slows your ageing is very difficult. There are three main challenges.

First, you need to distinguish whether arts engagement causes slower ageing or whether accelerated ageing (and poorer health) simply makes it harder to engage in the arts (an issue known as “reverse causation”).

Second, you need to account for the fact that the people who spend more time engaging with arts are generally very different to those who don’t; that is, they’re typically wealthier and living healthier lifestyles (an issue known as “confounding”).

And finally, you need to account for the fact that those who spend more time engaging in the arts may simply have more leisure time. This means being very clear about what you are comparing the time spent engaging with the arts against.

It seems plausible that visiting a gallery would be better for reducing stress than caring for a dying relative. But is it better than going for a walk? Or spending more time sleeping? Without a clear comparison, it’s impossible to tell whether spending time engaging with the arts is any better than any other leisure activity.

So how might we clearly study the causal effect of, say, spending time visiting galleries versus spending the same time watching TV on subsequent health and ageing?

The classic approach would be to conduct an experiment. Take a large enough group of people and randomly assign them to one of two groups, with one encouraged to visit galleries and the other to watch TV.

The snag is how exactly you would encourage people – and would it work?

You could pay them. But whatever effect you observed would not then represent the effect of freely visiting a gallery versus freely watching TV.

The more popular option is to study patterns in people taking part in long-running research studies. But to do this well would require repeated and detailed data on how people spend their time and their changing health, ageing indicators and other characteristics. In theory, this would allow you to study how an increase in, say, gallery attendance versus TV watching changed subsequent health or ageing indicators, after carefully accounting for everything mentioned above.

What does the research actually show?

Alas, most studies examining the effect of arts engagement on health and ageing fall well short of these requirements. The recent UCL study offers a textbook example. It examined the effect of arts and cultural engagement on biological ageing without stating a comparison.

So, at best, it studies the effect of having more time to spend on arts and cultural engagement. And it’s probably not that either, because of the other problems of reverse causation and confounding.

Since the study only had single-timepoint measures of arts engagement and ageing, there’s no way to distinguish the effects of arts engagement on slower ageing from the effects of accelerated ageing (and poorer health) on arts engagement.

The study did account for some of the differences in the profile of those engaging in more and less arts activities. But only partially, with several factors ignored – such as wealth, childhood circumstances and disease – and others overly simplified (employment was represented by a simple yes/no variable).

Several of the most important lifestyle factors, like smoking, alcohol use and body mass index (BMI) were also only examined as a secondary concern. When these were accounted for, the apparent effects shrank by 30-80%. And, again, these were all overly simplified. For example, only smoking status, not amount of smoking, was considered.

In the resulting media coverage, the researchers said the effects of more versus less arts engagement were “comparable to the difference between smokers and those who have given up smoking”, and the lead author suggested arts engagement should be promoted “just like we promote 10,000 steps a day or five-a-day of fruits and vegetables”. If you’re a smoker, I’m afraid visiting a few museums is unlikely to offer the same life-changing benefits as giving up smoking.

For everyone else, by all means spend more time visiting museums, galleries, singing, or painting. Your life will probably be richer for it. But if you want to live a longer, healthier life, then there’s probably no substitute for increasing your physical activity, improving your diet and reducing your alcohol intake.

The authors of the study on arts and ageing were offered the right of reply. Here is their response:

Researching arts engagement is indeed challenging as it’s a complex human behaviour. We used the same methods previously used to identify other behaviours related to biological ageing, like exercise, and are currently using the findings to design experiments.

We examined many confounders, selecting those that influence arts engagement most strongly (e.g. household income and neighbourhood deprivation, which are highly correlated with wealth). Lifestyle factors can both influence and result from arts engagement (e.g. festivals can encourage substance use, while dancing can reduce BMI) – that’s why we compared results with and without them. Without lifestyle factors, biological age was 0.8 years lower among arts participants. With lifestyle factors, it was 0.65 years lower.

Experimental studies on other health outcomes suggest benefits arise not just from leisure time, but the emotional, cognitive, physical and social elements of the arts. We don’t advise substituting arts for other health-promoting behaviours, but experiments show that adding arts on top of these behaviours can lead to even greater improvements in health and wellbeing.

With unpaid carers saving Scotland over £13 billion per year according to government ministers, a report on local initiatives was presented to a recent council meeting.

Councillors have endorsed a range of initiatives designed to support unpaid carers in North Lanarkshire.

With unpaid carers saving Scotland over £13 billion per year according to government ministers, a report on local initiatives was presented to a recent council meeting.

Research shows that carers in North Lanarkshire have more positive experiences than those in many other areas, but there is still much that could be done.

In 2024 councillors agreed to invest in voluntary sector groups which support unpaid carers, resulting in established partnerships with five organisations Action For Children Young Carers Project North Lanarkshire, Alzheimer’s Scotland, Getting Better Together, Lanarkshire Carers and North Lanarkshire Carers Together.

They have now also agreed to commit remaining funds allocated to the council under the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 implementation to appoint solicitors to set up power of attorneys for carers.

Powers of attorney can help prevent delays in discharging patients from hospital in cases where otherwise guardianship orders need to be pursued, especially in relation to adults with dementia.

Work is underway to recruit a solicitor or law firm to work under the new scheme, which would see referrals made by psychiatrists, with consent from their patients, to grant power of attorney to their carer. If this referrals procedure is a success and funding is available, this programme may in future be expanded to include referrals from other sources.

Currently the cost of granting a power of attorney can otherwise put people off, especially in situations where a carer has reduced or given up their paid employment. £100,000 in funding has been allocated to this work.

READ MORE: North Lanarkshire councillors approve £100m contract covering demolition works

A further £150,000 (over two years) will be used to expand the Carer Breather programme, which sees various organisations provide opportunities for carers to enjoy other activities ranging from paddle boarding to knit and natter sessions.

Some of these activities are entirely for carers while others also involve the person being cared for.

Initially the Carer Breather network involved 11 organisations and has grown to 15. This next expansion will take that to 19 groups including two new carer sitter options, and also help ensure the council is well prepared for the right of carers to time off being enshrined in law.

A two-year total of £100,000 will also be used to continue working with Strathclyde University on projects helping people with dementia, and this will be matched by a contribution from the university itself.

This money will expand CARE_PAC, which supports those approaching end of life, and CONSOLIDATE which is a rehabilitation programme. These will help unpaid carers continue to provide care and prevent or delay admissions to hospitals, care homes and hospices while also reducing carer stress and the need for paid support.

READ MORE: North Lanarkshire Council asked to approve conversion of gym in Newmains

PAMIS is a family support service currently helping some 80 families in North Lanarkshire who have a member with complex and profound multiple disabilities, and support from paid carers can exceed £400,000 annually, meaning investing in the support from PAMIS for unpaid carers is an example of “spending to save”.

Funding has been allocated at almost £85,000 over two years for assistive technology to support the assistive technology team by creating a new staffing post. The team helps carers get comfortable with using technology in a planned way rather than having to adapt during a time of crisis.

An additional £100,000 over two years will be used to support a range of arts activities for carers, helping them build resilience and socialise, in addition to improving numerous aspects of physical and mental health. It is also intended to increase the funding available by pursuing external grants.

An additional £50,000 will be invested in following up on a pilot scheme focusing on individual budgets for children and young people with additional support needs. A mid-point review of the pilot shows that this has had a significant impact on parent carers and young people.

READ MORE: Council receive application to construct new industrial buildings in Cleland

*Don’t miss the latest headlines from around Lanarkshire. Sign up to our newsletters here.

And did you know Lanarkshire Live had its own app? Download yours for free here.

Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives slammed Republicans for abruptly cancelling a vote to rein in President Donald Trump’s war in Iran before the House left for the Memorial Day weekend.

Lawmakers claimed that Republicans pulled the vote because they did not have enough votes to block the War Powers Act resolution to end the White House’s wildly unpopular war.

The resolution, which comes as members of both parties have attacked Trump over his Middle East policy, would require troops to withdraw within 60 to 90 days of deployment if Congress had not declared war or authorized use of military force.

The American public has also largely not been sold on the war. A New York Times/Siena College poll showed that 65 percent of voters disapproved of Trump’s handling of the conflict.

Republicans on Thursday kept open a vote to create a museum honoring women’s history, which ultimately failed. At that point, Rep. Jim McGovern, the ranking Democrat of the House Rules Committee, asked why the House was not voting as scheduled on the resolution.

“Are we not voting on it because the American people are sick and tired of this illegal war that is costing tens of billions of dollars?” McGovern asked amid heckling.

“Gas prices are through the roof. People can’t afford their groceries,” he said, which led to leadership hitting the gavel. “You guys don’t have the guts or the b**ls.”

The delay came after Trump and his Republican allies defeated the reelection attempt of Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), one of the biggest critics of Trump and of the Iran War. Republicans also had several absences, which likely meant the resolution could have passed. Earlier this week, Senate Democrats had enough Republicans join them on a War Powers Act resolution.

But just off the floor, Democrats were even angrier. Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton, a retired U.S. Marine Corps officer, told reporters that Republicans had “p***ied out.”

His colleague Rep. Pat Ryan of New York, a West Point graduate, was also furious.

“These chicken hawk motherf***ers are gonna send us home for Memorial Day weekend, where I’m gonna honor my fellow veterans that I served 27 months in combat with, and they are gonna not even give an up or down vote on continuing this war almost three months in,” he told The Independent.

The Trump administration launched the Iran war at the end of February. But House Speaker Mike Johnson has insisted Congress should not take action and said that the United States is “not at war right now.” The White House has gone back and forth between calling it a war or a “skirmish.”

Over time, more House Republicans have joined Democrats in War Powers Act resolutions.

“I think the American public wants this vote, but somebody doesn’t want to see the vote,” Rep. Lou Correa (D-Calif.) told The Independent. “ Last time it was tight, right? And I’m hearing that we’re going to have enough votes to pass it, so that’s the issue.”

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) made fun of her fellow Minnesotan, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, for failing to get the votes to stop the resolution.

“When the vote failed on the women’s museum bill, they knew that they didn’t have the votes for the war powers,” she told The Independent.

It capped off a whipsaw day on Capitol Hill.

Earlier, Senate Republicans met with acting Attorney General Todd Blanche after many had questions about the new $1.8 billion “anti-weaponization” fund and whether any money would go to people who assaulted police officers on January 6.

In response, Republicans chose to go home rather than vote on a bill to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as Customs and Border Protection. Shortly thereafter, House Speaker Mike Johnson called off votes for Friday.

We previously reported that the group had set up in the car park outside New Bury Community Learning Centre, but since then they have moved inside the grounds of the centre itself.

(Image: Dan Dougherty)

Though around six caravans have made it inside the community centre gates, there are still a large number in the car park outside.

Farnworth South Cllr Julie Pattison said: “Yes, we’re definitely working towards sorting it out.

“We have been in touch with Be One Homes about it, as they actually own the community centre.

“The council have also been made aware of it, so I should imagine the council liaison officer will go down and talk to them and ask them to move on, as is standard procedure.”

(Image: Dan Dougherty)

The group is very large, totalling around six caravans inside the grounds of the community centre and a further ten or so outside in the car park.

The council have legal powers to deal with encampments if the group do not move when requested to do so, but the process can take up to a week.

The New Bury Community Learning Centre provides learning courses for people moving on to further education and training, according to the Bolton Council website.

Mark Wardrop made “horrifying” threats to beat up and kill the 15- and 16-year-old schoolboys in order to force them to sell cannabis for him in what police call a “county lines’ operation.

A sheriff has praised the “real bravery” of two teenage boys who helped to get a Glasgow drug dealer convicted of human trafficking and extortion.

Mark Wardrop made “horrifying” threats to beat up and kill the 15- and 16-year-old schoolboys in order to force them to sell cannabis for him in what police call a “county lines’ operation.

He threatened to set fire to their parents’ homes in West Lothian by petrol bombing them if they didn’t pay him thousands of pounds in profits from the sale of hash, cannabis oil and ecstasy.

Wardrop was arrested and charged after the quick-thinking 16-year old took a photograph of the number plate on the accused’s white BMW X1 as he drove away.

He was reprimanded for yawning in the dock and continually looking around the courtroom as if bored as the details of his crimes were read at Livingston Sheriff Court.

Wardrop, 22, of Glasgow, appeared for sentence after earlier pleading guilty on indictment to two contraventions of Human Trafficking and Exploitation (Scotland) Act 2015 and one count of extortion.

He committed the offences between 1 August and 3 December 2024.

The court heard he removed the 15-year-old boy’s passport to compel him to co-operate with him.

He also threatened to physically harm the youngster and his parents and to destroy their property in order to extort money from them.

He admitted subjecting the 16-year-old to similar violent threats and exploitation, the court heard, thus making the boys victims of conduct under the trafficking laws which cover forced labour.

Fraser Napier, prosecuting, said the first teenager was compelled to hand over his passport after arranging to meet the accused.

He was supplied with four ounces of cannabis and ordered to sell it and repay Wardrop £700.

As the situation escalated Wardrop threatened to petrol bomb the boy’s home if he didn’t pay more and more money for the drugs he was selling.

A total of £5,000 was eventually handed over to the accused by the youth and his parents before the accused was brought to justice, the fiscal said.

The accused said he would petrol bomb the second boy’s home and threatened to “stab him” and “cut him to bits” if he didn’t pay up.

The youngster paid him £250 at a BMX track in Bathgate West Lothian then a further £130 at a second meeting.

However, after the accused demanded a further payment of £400, the teenager took a picture of his car number plate as he was leaving and contacted the police.

Chloe MacDonald, defending, said her client understood the fear he had caused the young complainers and their parents but claimed he didn’t know his conduct constituted human trafficking.

She said: “He himself suffered repercussions from his drug abuse having been seriously assaulted.

“He was a young and immature man but he’s had the significant benefit of time to reflect on his actions.”

Passing sentence, Sheriff Chloe Miller told the accused: “Your offending throughout this indictment is nothing short of deplorable.

“The numerous threats made to the child complainers and against their families and their homes was horrifying.”

She said a Victim Impact Statement from one of the complainers set out how both the psychological and financial impact of his crimes continued to significantly affect him and she had no doubt the others had been affected similarly by his conduct.

She went on: “The actions of the children in coming forward given the repeated threats against them demonstrates real bravery on their part.

“I hope that they are properly supported to heal from the damage that your crimes have inflicted upon them.”

She described his offending as “truly despicable” and said the charges he had admitted would not be out of place in a High Court case.

She added: “At the core of this offending is the fact that you approached and preyed on children – some of the most vulnerable members of our society.

“This was a prolonged course of conduct, extorting money on a number of occasions. It was planned, sinister and sustained.

“In particular, I draw attention to the fact that the first child had his passport removed from him. The second child was approached in the street and you knew his personal details and used them against him.

“You made significant threats against them both. Influencing, coercing and forcing them into criminal conduct.

“In respect of the adult complainers in charge 3, your conduct resulted in a significant amount of money being extorted from this family in the belief they were helping their child.

“it is my view that there is no other option today but to sentence you to a period of imprisonment.”

She sentenced Wardrop to 656 days imprisonment with a Supervised Release Order keeping him under supervision for six months following his release.

She also imposed non harassment orders banning him from contacting the four complainers for the next 10 years and passed an order to protect their anonymity.

Get more Daily Record exclusives by signing up for free to Google’s preferred sources. Click HERE

California’s housing crisis has gotten so bad that even a burned-out house on a busy corner in metropolitan Los Angeles is now worth $1 million.

The boarded-up, three-bedroom, two-bath home in Torrance sold for the eye-popping amount last week, according to multiple real estate websites. That’s despite it being clearly unlivable, with fire damage that includes a gaping hole in the roof.

“It’s a nice part of Torrance,” said NDA Real Estate chief financial officer Rhett Winchell, who handled an earlier auction of the burned-out house last year. “We had a tremendous amount of interest in the property.”

In the latest sale, the 1,140-square-foot, ranch-style house went for 2 percent above list price, according to Homes.com.

The stunning transaction appears emblematic of what the California Legislative Analyst’s Office calls a “serious housing shortage” that has resulted in costs “rising rapidly for decades.”

As of March, the median price of a “mid-tier” home in California was $775,000, more than twice the comparable national average of $366,000, according to the latest figures compiled by the LAO.

The burned-out house in Torrance has been vacant since a blaze broke out inside around 4 a.m. on Feb. 1, 2024, according to a Tuesday report in the Los Angeles Times.

The place was reportedly “dangerously cluttered” and the fire apparently started when a heating grate in the floor ignited something, forcing an older man who was the only person inside to escape through an open window.

The man survived the incident but later died and his house was sold at a probate auction last year, when the high bid was $980,000, plus a selling price that pushed the total to $1.075 million, Winchell said.

The unidentified auction winner resold the house on May 11.

The seller’s agent didn’t respond to an inquiry from The Independent and the buyer’s agent declined to identify his client or say what they planned to do with the property,

But Winchell said that the house “sold for the land value” last year and that the price wasn’t unusual for the area, where comparable homes in “move-in condition” regularly fetch $1.5 million.

Outgoing Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat and potential 2028 presidential candidate, has signed a series of bills aimed at increasing California’s housing stock, including several that led to a surge in construction of so-called accessory dwelling units on residential properties that already have a single or multifamily house.

Estimates of California’s housing shortage vary wildly but their midpoint suggests the Golden State needs an additional 2.2 million housing units — 14.9 percent of the current supply — to meet demand, according to research by the American Enterprise Institute.

Eric McGhee, policy director and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, said that the laws covering accessory dwelling units were “probably the best of the reforms” and that work on them now accounted for about 20 percent of residential construction in the state.

But it’s unclear if they’re “really helping the housing supply,” McGhee said.

“We don’t know what those are actually being used for,” he said, adding that possibilities included home offices, man caves and short-term vacation rentals.

McGhee blamed California’s housing shortage on backlash to its post-World War II housing boom, with local governments imposing restrictions on new development “in the name of environmentalism or preserving a livable community.”

“It enabled equilibrium for particular communities, but not the state as a whole,” he said.

McGhee said the ideal solution involved making housing construction easier, faster and cheaper, both by easing the permitting process and encouraging the use of “modular, factory-based” methods of building homes.

“This is a long-term problem we’ve created and it’s going take a lot of time to dig our way out of it,” he said.