For decades, the west African island nation of Cape Verde was perhaps best known for the music of late singer Cesária Évora. This summer, however, the Atlantic archipelago has gained fame for a different reason: football. As one of the surprise stories of the 2026 Fifa World Cup, Cape Verde has captured the imagination of fans worldwide.

The team has qualified for the knockout stages after a run that included a 0-0 draw with the reigning European champions, Spain. The Cape Verde goalkeeper, Vozinha, has also become one of the most recognisable faces of the tournament. His follower count on Instagram increased from around 50,000 before the Spain match to over 17.4 million by the end of June.

With a population of just over 500,000 people spread across ten islands (nine inhabited), Cape Verde is used to defying the odds. The arrival of the Portuguese in the 1460s made the archipelago a strategic hub in the making of the Atlantic world. On Santiago Island, they founded the oldest European settlement south of the Sahara Desert, Ribeira Grande.

This city, which is now called Cidade Velha, became a hub linking continents through maritime trade, migration and, tragically, the transatlantic slave trade.

Resource deprived and plagued by frequent droughts, the end of the slave trade in the mid-19th century marked a period of decline. This period continued until the archipelago gained independence in 1975 through a joint liberation struggle with Guinea-Bissau.

A key figure in this movement was Amilcar Cabral, who was born in Guinea-Bissau to Cape Verdean parents and was educated in Cape Verde. He emerged as one of Africa’s most influential leaders in the anti-colonial struggle and gained widespread support across European countries thanks to his diplomatic skills.

After attaining independence, Cape Verde was declared an “unviable” state by the then US secretary of state, Henry Kissinger, and thereafter by some international financial institutions. They saw it as too small and resource-poor to survive on its own.

Yet 50 years later, the nation has transformed itself from one of the poorest countries in the world to an upper-middle-income state.

Transition to democracy

Political stability enabled Cape Verde to introduce pioneering democratic reforms in the 1990s. After 15 years of single-party rule, the country’s first election in 1991 saw the incumbent African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde peacefully transfer power to the newly founded opposition Movement for Democracy.

This formed the foundation for what has become one of Africa’s strongest democracies. Cape Verde is routinely praised for its pragmatic politics and overall good governance, ranking third out of 54 countries on the Ibrahim Index of African Governance behind the Seychelles and Mauritius. It has the second-highest life expectancy in Africa, at between 75 and 77 years, as well as high rates of literacy and human development. Its child mortality rates are also among the lowest in Africa.

In a country where football is deeply woven into everyday life, a broad commitment to human development has been complemented by sustained investment in youth football and talent development by Fifa that has boosted sporting infrastructure.

With one of the highest migration rates in the world, the Cape Verdean diaspora is another key aspect of the archipelago’s success story. Often called Cape Verde’s “11th island”, the emigrant population is estimated to be larger than the resident population.

Migrant remittances constitute much bigger financial flows to the country than foreign aid or foreign direct investment. This was particularly relevant during the COVID pandemic. The World Bank and Cape Verde’s central bank reported a record increase in remittances of over 30% for 2021 as emigrants responded to the socioeconomic shocks caused by pandemic restrictions.

The Cape Verdean football federation has tapped into this diaspora for the national team. From 2002, players developed abroad have been recruited to represent the archipelago. These include players based in Portugal, France, the Netherlands and even Ireland.

In 2019, Ireland-born defender Roberto Lopes (known as Pico) recalled being contacted by the then-coach of Cape Verde, Rui Águas, on LinkedIn and first ignoring the message because it was in Portuguese and he thought it could be spam.

Cape Verde’s story is not one of perfection. The vast majority of the population is aged under 35 and many young people there face unemployment, precarious work and limited opportunities. This is prompting many to seek better futures abroad.

Despite the progress achieved through the passing of the Parity Law in 2019, which requires that neither women or men hold less than 40% or more than 60% of positions in electoral lists, women’s political representation and gender equality also remain a significant challenge for the nation.

As the archipelago’s independence day approaches on July 5, Cape Verdeans all over the world have every reason to celebrate. And if Cape Verde pulls off another upset in their match against Argentina on July 3, it would be a fitting tribute to a nation that has spent the last 50 years proving that size need never define ambition.

The detective thriller series One Dollar is coming to ITVX, with all episodes available from 23 August

ITVX has announced that the compelling thriller series One Dollar will be joining its streaming platform, with all episodes launching on 23 August.

Starring Craig Zobel, whose portfolio includes Westworld, Mare of Easttown and The Penguin, the drama was conceived, penned and executive produced by Jason Mosberg.

Ideal viewing for Happy Valley enthusiasts, the series is set in the declining Pennsylvania town of Braden, where One Dollar traces the path of a solitary one-dollar note as it circulates amongst locals. Throughout its journey, it weaves together multiple lives that eventually intersect with a savage multiple homicide at the town’s steel mill.

Each instalment centres on a different individual, progressively exposing the community’s concealed truths, profound social rifts and inter-community friction as the murder inquiry progresses.

The ensemble features John Carroll Lynch as steel mill proprietor Bud Carl, Philip Ettinger as Garrett, a lone father struggling financially, and Nathaniel Martello-White as private detective Jake, who is resolute in exposing the reality behind the murders. Additionally, Hamilton star Leslie Odom Jr. portrays Randall Abatsy.

One Dollar is a CBS Studios production in collaboration with Anonymous Content, with worldwide distribution managed by Paramount Global Content Distribution, reports the Express.

Executive producers for the series include Rafael Yglesias, Jason Mosberg, Graham Gordy, Alexandre Dauman, Matt DeRoss and Craig Zobel. Viewers who have already seen the series have heaped praise upon the programme.

Over on IMDB, audiences have been sharing their thoughts.

One viewer commented: “Excellent drama. Low key, but gripping. Good human interest stories around a murder mystery. Nice to have fresh faces, and down-to-earth characters instead of the usual Hollywood starlet/beautiful botoxed/face-lifted people. Loved it.”

Another wrote: “Despite its low review, I went with my better judgment and decided to watch One Dollar as the storyline intrigued me. I’m so glad I did, as it’s one of the better shows I’ve watched this year.

“From the start, the viewer knows a crime has occurred, but wonderful writing allows multi-character storylines to develop in a way that the crime itself becomes the backdrop, and it’s the personal stories of individuals that are the focus of the show. This can only be accomplished by great acting and original storytelling. Thoroughly deserves a better score than it currently has.”

One Dollar is available to stream on ITVX

As Lowri Denman holidayed in India, she was thankful she hadn’t contracted ‘Delhi belly’… but in reality, she had picked up something much worse, a metre-long tapeworm that would later nearly kill her. 

In 2007, Ms Denman, now 42, spent two months travelling through the South Asian country but it wasn’t until four years after getting home she discovered she’d brought home a writhing souvenir. 

Up until she passed the huge tapeworm as she went to the toilet at her home in Cardiff, she had had no clue that anything was wrong, and after seeing her GP she was assured that there was nothing else to worry about. 

It was around this time she started experiencing crippling headaches and in 2011 she suffered a tonic-clonic (grand mal) seizure – which is characterised by stiffness, loss of consciousness, and jerking movements.

She immediately sought medical advice and, after waiting three months for a brain scan, Ms Denman learned she had neurocysticercosis, a parasitic infection of the brain caused by the larvae of the pork tapeworm.

There were 38 parasites in her brain, the offspring of the tapeworm she had carried inside her for four years. 

She said: ‘It was just so disgusting to think that these things were in my head.’ 

Neurocysticercosis is developed when a tapeworm infection is left untreated, as larvae build up in the central nervous system, causing cysts to form deep in bodily tissue. It is the most severe form of the disease, and a common cause of seizures.

Neurocysticercosis strikes about 4,000 people a year in the US, making it the most common way that parasites infect the central nervous system. 

The tapeworm Taenia Solium often infects pigs, laying larvae in them. If pork isn’t properly cooked, humans can wind up eating these larvae, which hatch in the intestines. 

If people don’t pass the worms, their life cycle will continue: Taenia Solium will lay its eggs in the person’s body. 

These larvae develop in sacs or cysts, that can travel around the body, in rare cases, reaching the brain.

The irony is that Ms Denman had made a conscious decision to stick to a vegetarian diet to reduce the risk of picking up foodborne illnesses. However, tapeworms and neurocysticercosis can be caused by water contaminated with tapeworm eggs or poor hygiene practices – you don’t have to eat meat to be affected. 

But it wasn’t only seizures that would define this period of Ms Denman’s life; the stress led to her developing psychosis. 

After receiving her diagnosis, Ms Denman was treated for epilepsy while doctors consulted tropical disease experts across the globe to decide on a course of action for eliminating the parasites.

Ms Denman lost her driving licence due to the risks of having a seizure behind the wheel, and her independence took a hit: she was advised not to do certain things, like having a bath while at home alone in case she had a seizure, and since she lived alone she found it particularly difficult.

Ms Denman’s seizures continued as the correct dosage of epilepsy medication was ascertained, and she began to experience anxiety about leaving the house.

She passed a metre-long tapeworm while on the toilet (file photo)

Advertisement

 A brain scan revealed that there were 38 tapeworm larvae in her brain, causing headaches and seizures 

‘There was one, it was lunchtime, and I was just walking around Cardiff on my own,’ she said.

‘Luckily I was on the phone to my mate, and I said, “I don’t feel well”, then I passed my phone to a stranger on the street. Then the next thing, I come around and my mate who I was on the phone to was there, and she was like, “You’ve had a fit again”.

‘Obviously, I was really cautious then, just scared of being anywhere, and that happening.’

Meanwhile, Ms Denman was given steroids and albendazole, which is used to treat a wide variety of parasitic worm infections. For a time, things calmed down and her seizures reduced, but in 2015 the parasites caused a serious flare up as they ‘weren’t dying off as they’d expected’.

Doctors then tried her on another anti-worm medication, praziquantel, as well as the albendazole and steroids, and while she said the medication would initially start killing the parasites and taking the swelling down in her brain, when she weaned off the medication the swelling would return in a different part of her brain.

‘This went on for at least a year, where I was getting more and more ill, more anxious,’ Ms Denman said.

‘I had to give up work, had to move home to be taken care of, and then it got to a point where I went on Personal Independence Payments (PIP), and I wasn’t capable of filling out the forms on my own.

‘For someone that’s extremely independent and capable and lived on my own most of my life, I was like, what the hell is going on here?’

Ms Denman then started experiencing more severe paranoia, worrying about getting enough sleep, struggling with how the medication made her look and feel – the steroids made her face swell, and she didn’t feel like herself.

‘It was just getting worse and worse and worse,’ she said.

‘I just wanted to go back to work. I just wanted a normal life, and I didn’t feel comfortable being in social settings. I didn’t want to leave the house, really.’

Ms Denman at the peak of her illnesses in 2016 (left); and today

‘The swelling was coming back and forth all the time, so they were trying to figure out what medication to put me on,’ she added.

‘They put me on methotrexate, then, which is a chemotherapy drug, so I was worried my hair was going to fall out. It made me really tired, but then steroids would make me really energetic, so there was loads going on, on top of the worries of not getting better.’

In September 2016, Lowri was admitted to a neuropsychiatric ward for three months due to her declining mental health, and was prescribed mood stabilisers and anti-psychotics on top of her other medication.

‘I was having panic attacks, I thought I was going to die, I think, and then that turned into paranoia, and then the psychosis came out,’ she said.

‘I wasn’t stable at all, all these thoughts and crazy things were going on in my head.’

Ms Denman explained that it is difficult to ascertain whether the symptoms were because of the parasites directly, or due to the stress and trauma of her prolonged treatment.

‘It just built into this huge thing at that point, nobody could tell me when I was going to get better,’ she said.

Eventually, in January 2017 Lowri was able to leave hospital and move back in with her dad. By then, she was 34, and desperately wanted her life back.

‘I didn’t look myself, and I was also really paranoid,’ she said.

‘I kept asking my friends, anyone that could come and visit me in hospital, to ask, what did I do?

‘Because I thought I was going to be on the news for doing something terrible.

‘I thought I’d done this mad stuff, and I didn’t know what I’d done.’

Now, Ms Denman is fit and healthy, and her seizures are managed by her medication so she has not experienced a fit for 10 years.

During her recovery, Lowri was desperate to find more information about her illness and to connect with others who had been through the same, but found there was very little information available to her beyond what she learned from her doctors.

Now that she’s feeling stronger, she wants to share her story with the world. She plans to do so with a 12-part podcast, called 38 Parasites, which will delve into her personal journey along with interviews with consultants and experts in tropical diseases, insights on neurology, and more.

‘I spent my whole thirties being ill and anxious and worried, and now I’ve moved into my 40s, I want to do something positive with that negative thing – help other people, and not just feel like I’ve lost all of this time.’

Through Crowdfunder, Lowri and her friend of 20 years, producer Nicola Brown, are raising £25,000 to fund the project, which was shortlisted for 2025’s The Whickers Podcast Pitch Award.

The new strategy was announced by bosses at NHS Forth Valley at the health board’s meeting this week – with the department struggling with the mismatch between patient demand and available workforce.

A major new plan has been launched to help ease the pressure on the Emergency Department at Forth Valley Royal Hospital.

The new strategy was announced by Garry Fraser, Director of Acute Service at the NHS Forth Valley meeting on Tuesday.

It comes as it was revealed the department is operating under increasing pressure due to higher attendances and a mismatch between patient demand and available workforce.

It was heard that peak activity is concentrated between late afternoon and midnight with persistent periods of high demand extending into overnight periods.

There is also regular exceedance of normal operational capacity resulting in a very busy and crowded environment.

The data shows that current staffing levels are insufficient to provide consistent senior clinical decision-making across the full 24-hour period, which can result in delays to assessment and treatment, compromised flow and efficiency in the Emergency Department (ED), adversely impact on patient care and experience, workforce fatigue and retention challenges.

A detailed review of demand, CFSD benchmarking against national standards, acuity of patients attending at over 2025/26 period and workforce modelling has identified a clear requirement to expand staffing in the ED.

The consultant levels are also lower than other NHS boards and the board is aiming to resolve within this planned recruitment of additional staff.

The board agreed to endorse the recommendations of increasing the workforce in ED and support phase one implementation of the increased staff model costing £900,000 over the year.

A decision is required to be made by the board after phase 1 is evaluated in relation to continued funding, as this may cause a cost pressure within the financial plans.

The recommendations and workforce plan will continue to be reviewed. The board says implementation will deliver improved patient safety and experience, reduced overcrowding and waiting times and enhanced staff wellbeing and retention.

It is also set to reduce reliance on agency and locum spend, improve operational efficiency, improve patient safety and experience and reduce waiting times.

The council has said an investigation into the cause of the sinkhole has been ‘complex’

A major Cambridge road remains closed after a sinkhole appeared last week. The sinkhole appeared along Milton Road in Cambridge on the evening of June 22.

Since then, the road has been closed while highways have dealt with the issue. A Cambridgeshire County Council spokesperson said: “Milton Road, Cambridge currently remains closed between Hurst Park Avenue and the Elizabeth Way roundabout in both directions due to a large sinkhole.”

The council said an investigation into the cause of the sinkhole has been “complex” as it extends beneath the road surface, and there are a number of utility services in the area.

The spokesperson added: “It has been important to ensure that any highway repairs we make would not adversely affect the other services in the area. We’ve been working with partners to make sure the right solution is delivered.

“Appropriate repairs, including foam concrete infill, will be scheduled as soon as possible. We appreciate your continued patience and apologise for the disruption. Please continue to plan your journeys and allow extra time for travel.”

Do you want more of the latest Cambridgeshire news as it comes in from across the county? Sign up to our dedicated newsletter to make sure you never miss a big story from Cambridge or anywhere else in the county. You can also sign up to our dedicated Traffic and Crime newsletters for the latest updates on the topics you are most interested in .