Everyone – and I mean, everyone – I’ve spoken to this week has remarked on how tired they’ve felt.

I’ve felt it too. That level of bone-deep exhaustion that makes you feel like you could simply drop to the floor and drift off to sleep, even thought it’s 1pm.

And it turns out there’s a relatively simple explanation as to why there’s been this level of collective fatigue, especially in areas impacted by last week’s extreme heatwave.

In Japan – where the summers tend to be hot but also very humid (a bit like last week’s heatwave) – they call it ‘natsubate’, which Tokyo Weekender said translates as ‘summer exhaustion’.

The heatwave has had more of an impact on your body than you might think.

There are a few factors at play here. Dr Ginni Mansberg, a GP and co-founder of ESK, said our bodies work overtime when the weather’s super hot.

“Summer fatigue is a real phenomenon, although it’s not a formal medical diagnosis,” she told HuffPost UK.

“During a heatwave, your body has to work much harder to keep your core temperature in a safe range. That means diverting blood to the skin, increasing sweating and making your heart work a little harder.”

All of that uses energy, which can result in that tired, sluggish feeling. On top of that, you’re also sweating a lot to cool yourself down, which results in water and electrolytes being lost in the process.

“Even mild dehydration can leave you feeling tired, foggy and less able to concentrate,” added the expert.

“Add a few nights of poor sleep because it’s too hot, and it’s no surprise you’re running on empty.”

There’s also another factor that’s often overlooked, but will play a crucial part in tiredness levels.

Dr Asiya Maula, private GP at The Health Suite, highlighted that we tend to change our routines during a heatwave: “We often spend more time outdoors, walk more, travel more, exercise in warmer conditions or drink more alcohol at barbecues and social events.

“All of those place additional demands on the body and can contribute to that lingering feeling of fatigue.”

So, after a full week of disrupted sleep, dehydration, your body working overtime and shifted routines (potentially with a hefty dose of sunshine-fuelled socialising and booze), it’s going to take your body some time to feel refreshed again. And this is where your current ‘heatwave hangover’ comes in.

Dr Maula said: “Many people notice they feel unusually tired after a spell of very hot weather, even once temperatures have started to cool down. It’s sometimes referred to as a ‘heatwave hangover’, and it’s a very real response to the extra strain heat places on the body.”

Even people who have been mildly dehydrated can feel drained for several days afterwards, she added.

Recovery is usually straightforward. “The best approach is to continue drinking fluids regularly over the days that follow, eat balanced meals, replace electrolytes if you’ve been sweating heavily, and prioritise good-quality sleep,” said Dr Maula.

“Gentle movement, rather than intense exercise, can also help people feel more energised as they recover.”

With another bout of hot weather predicted for London this weekend and running into next week, it’s important to stay well hydrated, stick to early morning or later exercise sessions, and keep your home cool by shutting curtains and windows during the day.

And if your extreme tiredness doesn’t improve after a couple of weeks, becomes progressively worse, or is accompanied by symptoms such as chest pain, severe breathlessness, unexplained weight loss or persistent fevers, it’s important to seek medical advice, added Dr Maula, as fatigue can have many different causes beyond hot weather.

The Rochdale grooming gang leader has been released from prison – and, despite previous promises, is currently set to avoid deportation.

Shabir Ahmed’s victims were told in 2012 that he would be deported after serving his sentence for 30 child rape and sexual offences charges.

However, it now appears that he will not be sent to Pakistan, where he was born, despite being stripped of British citizenship.

There’s been a furious response to the revelation, with multiple critics calling for an urgent change to the law.

Here’s what we know so far.

Ahmed was one of nine men in the Rochdale grooming gang convicted of serious offences against five girls – some of whom were as young as 12.

They were given alcohol and drugs before being gang-raped.

He was jailed for 19 years but has now been released on licence, according to the BBC.

He will be forced to live at accommodation with 24-hour staffing and he will be subject to an “exclusion zone” around Rochdale.

Ahmed had dual British-Pakistan citizenship up until his conviction, when his British conviction removed.

However, documents sent to one of his victims this week showed he cannot be deported due to provisions of the Immigration Act 1971.

Having arrived in the UK before 1973, and having lived in the UK for at least five years before his deportation was considered, he is able to stay in the UK.

“There are two problems here,” skills minister Jacqui Smith told LBC. “Number one, there are a very small number of people who came to this country over 50 years ago from Commonwealth countries where the law doesn’t allow them to be deported.

“And, secondly, of course, in order to deport somebody, the country to which you are going to deport them needs to be willing to take them.

“We’ve removed this man’s British citizenship. He’s a Pakistani citizen.

“But there is also work that needs to happen in order to persuade Pakistan to take him back.”

Labour MP for Rochdale Paul Waugh told the Daily Telegraph that ministers should look at changing the law.

He said: “The people of Rochdale want him booted out of the country.”

Labour MP Jim McMahon for Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton said Ahmed is a “very dangerous individual” who poses a “real, present danger”.

“It’s now been confirmed that he will not be allowed to return to either Oldham or Rochdale, but nevertheless that period has really been quite traumatic for many people,” he said.

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp told the Today programme: “He’s a vile rapist who didn’t just organise the rape of young girls as young as 12 years old.

“He actually ran a gang, doing it on a huge scale. He should be kicked out of the country, deported back to Pakistan, and the law needs to be changed.”

The Conservative MP said he will be proposing an amending in the coming months to change the Immigration Act 1971.

Home secretary Shabana Mahmood is understood to be looking into the case and all options are being looked at.

The spokesperson said: “The government will always consider all options in these vile cases.”

A spokeswoman from No.10 said: “Ahmed’s horrific crimes were at the heart of the grooming gangs scandal that represents one of the darkest moments in our country’s history.

“He will rightly be on the sex offenders register for life, ordered to stay away from his victims and banned from contacting any child or young person.

“His every movement will be tracked, forced to wear an electronic tag and, on this specific case, we cannot deport someone who is protected by the 1971 Immigration Act.

“These were the same provisions which have protected many individuals caught up in the Windrush crisis.”

Labour MP Andy Burnham, who is expected to succeed Keir Starmer as prime minister in a matter of weeks, has said his government would explore “all possible options” to close the loopholes.

He wrote on X: “Like everyone, I want this vile criminal out of the country. Victims must come first. I will ask the Home and Foreign Secretaries to review all possible options – and they should consider nothing is off the table.”

In 2022, when he was Greater Manchester mayor, Burnham called on the Tory government to do “everything within [its] power to deport grooming gang members”.

Listen to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.

The three lions on the shirts of England’s football gear have become so strongly associated with the men’s national team that they’re nicknamed The Three Lions.

The women’s team, meanwhile, goes by The Lionesses.

The animals have been England’s official crest since 1863, when the Football Association was formed.

The lion is England’s national animal, and most of us know it’s also associated with royalty.

But why three – and why doesn’t the England team’s emblem match England’s non-football coat of arms exactly?

As we’ve said before, the crest was adopted by the Football Association when it was first founded.

But that’s because of a long, royal history of lions in England’s heraldry.

King Henry I had a lion on a red background on his coat of arms way back in the 12th century.

And when he married Adeliza of Louvain, whose father, Godfrey I, Count of Louvain, had a lion on his coat of arms, too, he added a second. That happened in 1121.

That meant King Henry I’s grandson, Henry II, was born with two lions on his coat of arms. But then he, too, married into a big-cat-coat-of-arms family: Eleanor of Aquitaine’s heraldic badge also contained a lion.

But, per the i Paper, it took Eleanor and Henry’s son, Richard the Lionheart, to combine the three lions into a single emblem.

That flag – three lions on a red background, or Gules, three lions passant guardant in pale or – was used by every Plantagenet king until the ascension of Edward III in 1327.

The Football Association would have had to ask for permission to use the Three Lions emblem due to its royal associations. But it doesn’t exactly match the royal version.

Firstly, the colours are different – England’s football badge is blue and white, while the historic version was red and gold.

And the England football badge has 10 Tudor roses on it. “The reason for the specific amount of roses is unknown,” the BBC said.

England’s football badge also used to have a crown on top. But in 1949, that was removed so as to distinguish it from the England cricket team’s emblem.

The star above the lions is a relatively new addition, representing England’s 1966 World Cup win.

Keir Starmer’s former chief of staff has admitted Labour did not do enough preparation before they were elected into government.

Morgan McSweeney, who was forced to quit over his links to disgraced peer and ex-ambassador to the US Peter Mandelson earlier this year, told the BBC his party was not ready to deliver quickly for voters after their landslide win in 2024.

His remarks come after Starmer announced he was stepping down as Labour leader and prime minister last Monday.

McSweeney told the Political Thinking podcast: “We didn’t prepare enough for what kind of world we were going to. We are now in a very different era than when Labour was last in government.

“I think we didn’t have enough conversations at the top of the party about what that meant, how to prepare for it, what that meant for the state.

“You have to deliver quite quickly for people, for them to see the change quickly. And I think we didn’t come in with enough of a theory about how we would do that.”

McSweeney said Labour should have been “way more optimistic” about the state of the country when it got into office in 2024.

The former aide ran Labour’s general election campaign. He was seen as a key element of Starmer’s rise to the top of the party and into No.10.

He added: “I take my own responsibilities for [not being prepared], rather than blaming one person.”

McSweeney sat as Starmer’s head of political strategy but after three months became his chief of staff once Sue Gray was kicked out of the role.

He added that he was still “processing” Starmer’s fall from grace and said Labour’s 14 years in opposition “went quickly”.

McSweeney also claimed that there was an expectation within the party that Labour would need at least two elections to return to power after its defeat in 2019 – which is why they were unprepared in 2024.

Labour MP for Makerfield Andy Burnham is expected to be crowned the next prime minister by July 20.

He is currently the only Labour MP who has announced his intention to run in the contest to replace Starmer.

But there has been some contestation from his team that Starmer’s departure timetable did not give Burnham long enough to come up with a sound plan for government.

They were allegedly hoping he would stay in post as a caretaker PM until September.

Starmer pushed Labour’s executive body to block Burnham from running to be the party’s candidate in the Gorton and Denton by-election back in February.

After Labour was thrashed in the May elections, Josh Simons stood aside as Makerfield MP so Burnham – then Greater Manchester mayor – could run as a candidate.

Only MPs can contest a Labour leader.

But, Starmer clearly saw the writing on the wall after after Burnham’s comfortable victory in Makerfield and announced he was stepping down days later.

Despite Burnham’s rivalry with Starmer, McSweeney said he feels “optimistic” about the new era for the party.

Listen to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.

Though Ryanair has recently launched a range of new routes and bases, including Trapani, Rabat, and Tirana, they’ve cut some flights too.

That includes reduced capacity at Athens, Chania, and Heraklion Greek airports, as well as cutting their Thessaloniki base altogether.

The Mirror reported that the airline has “slashed” flights in multiple EU and UK airports ahead of their 2026 summer schedule, too.

That includes locations like Malaga, Birmingham, and Dublin.

Per the Mirror, these include:

• London Stansted
• Manchester

• Berlin Brandenburg
• Cologne Bonn
• Hamburg

Passengers flying to or from these destinations are advised to check their bookings before flying to ensure they’re still going ahead.

The Mirror claimed these are part of an attempt to streamline profits as jet fuel prices soar.

Rising costs have led to cancellations and suspensions for airlines like:

• KLM

• Air Canada

• Asiana Airlines

• Delta Airlines

• Lufthansa

• SAS.

However, it’s worth noting that Ryanair is expanding its services in multiple locations and has mentioned in the past that the company isn’t especially worried about jet fuel shortages.

Some of the reasons they’ve given for cutting or reducing flights to airports include “uncompetitive costs” in Greece and the Air Passenger Duty (APD) tax in the UK.

“While Ryanair is growing modestly in London, many UK regional airports are being hammered by Rachel Reeves’ stupid decision to increase APD from today. This APD hike makes UK air travel even less competitive versus countries like Sweden, Hungary, Slovakia and regional Italy, where Govts are abolishing enviro taxes and being rewarded with rapid traffic, tourism and jobs growth,” Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary said.

The CEO previously said Ryanair would move the three aircraft from its recently-ditched Thessaloniki base to those in Albania, regional Italy and Sweden.

Exercise is linked to a longer life. Strength training, for instance, is associated with up to four years greater lifespan, while one paper found that a combination of weight lifting and aerobic exercise resulted in the best longevity gains.

Speaking to HuffPost UK, Dr Harpal Bains, a longevity doctor and medical director at Harpal Clinic, seemed to agree with those findings.

“Exercise is one of the most powerful investments women can make in their future health,” she said.

“The key is consistency: moving regularly, avoiding long periods of inactivity and making sure exercise supports the four pillars of healthy ageing: cardiovascular fitness, strength, flexibility and stability.”

She suggested that, for longevity, women shouldn’t rely on cardio alone.

“Strength training is one of the most important things women can do because muscle supports metabolism, bone density, insulin sensitivity and long-term independence,” added the expert.

We asked Dr Bains to share the best exercise for women to do, by age.

Now is the time to build a strong foundation of muscle, the doctor told us.

She advised: “Build your reserve. Prioritise strength training, brisk cardio, running, cycling, swimming, Pilates or yoga and balance-based movements. This is when you build muscle and bone density that protects you later.”

One study found that people whose cardiovascular health dipped between their 20s and 40s were 10 times as likely to experience heart health issues in their 60s.

“This is where exercise becomes non-negotiable,” Dr Bains advised. “Strength training is key as oestrogen shifts can accelerate muscle and bone loss. Add brisk walking, intervals, cycling or swimming for heart and metabolic health, plus mobility and balance work to maintain joint range and coordination.”

Some experts think that downhill walking could improve menopausal women’s bones, which are more likely than usual to deteriorate during this life stage.

Strength training during the menopause, meanwhile, has been linked to better bone density and improved hormonal and metabolic levels.

“Focus on independence,” advised the doctor. “Walking, swimming, cycling, light weights, resistance bands, Tai Chi, yoga and balance drills are excellent.

“The goal is to preserve muscle, balance and confidence, which lowers frailty and fall risk.”

Balance training – including Tai Chi, walking backwards, dancing, and single-leg training – has been described as a “neglected” way to help your balance and mobility as you age.

The Government has issued a warning on oak processionary moth caterpillars “ahead of peak season”.

They have said it’s important for the public to “stay vigilant” as the “pest” begins to make its hairy way onto oak trees.

Not only can they harm the iconic trees, which The Tree Council has described as being “under threat” in the UK, but they can also cause irritation “and should not be touched under any circumstances”, the Government said.

They’re the caterpillar, or the younger stage, of the oak processionary moth.

The Forestry Commission’s Oak Processionary Moth Programme Manager, Dr Edward Straw, said we might see more of these than usual as “The warm weather in spring has led to oak processionary moth growing quicker than in previous years and we may see higher infestation levels”.

They’re about 2-3cm-long caterpillars with a grey body and a dark head with lengthy, white hairs. They usually form a nose-to-tail formation in groups as they travel down oak trees.

They have nests which the Government has said are usually teardrop-shaped or dome-shaped and can range from the size of a 50p coin to that of a melon. These look white at first, but can turn brown later on.

Forest Research said that while the invasive oak processionary caterpillar looks like harmless native species – including the lackey moth and brown tail moth caterpillars – there are ways to distinguish the “pest” from the rest.

They said, ”(The) oak processionary moth feeds only on oak and produces large nests on oak trunks and large branches from May onwards. Hairy caterpillars which are not on oak or are not associated with a silk nest are almost certainly not (oak processionary moths)”.

They’re usually found in the South-East of the UK.

Professor Nicola Spence, Defra Chief Plant Health Officer, said: “I would advise that members of the public living in the South East, Derbyshire and Dorset, avoid any contact with the caterpillar and its nests, as this can cause irritation”.

Firstly, they feed on the leaves of oak trees, which means they can hamper the trees’ growth. This can leave them more vulnerable to disease.

Secondly, the tiny hairs on the caterpillars’ bodies can “cause itchy rashes, eye and throat irritation and should not be touched under any circumstances,” said the Government.

Firstly, don’t touch them. Don’t even touch the nest, the government warned, as this could contain the irritating hairs.

Secondly, report any sightings so experts can keep track of the caterpillars.

“If you spot the pest, report the sighting via our TreeAlert portal. Alternatively, you can email opm@forestrycommission.gov.uk,” Dr Straw said.

The Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) also said that “Due to the irritant hairs, control of this insect should only be carried out by professional contractors”.

The government previously said, “if you or someone in your care has a serious allergic reaction, get medical help. For less severe reactions, a pharmacist can provide advice on relief from skin or eye irritations.”

They also say that “if an animal in your care is seriously affected, get advice from a vet”, and warn to “Tell the medical person or vet you suspect it is due to OPM [oak processionary moth] contact.“

Did you know that Tesco had an own-brand product before the supermarket had even been named?

Yup ― Tesco was given its moniker long after it first went to Tesco Tea.

The TES came from supplier TE Stockwell’s name, and the Co came from founder Jack Cohen’s surname.

I had a vague idea Tesco, Lidl, and Aldi were all clever portmanteaus or acronyms.

But for some reason, I had no idea the letters in ASDA contained little Easter eggs about the company’s past too ― until today.

According to the company’s site, the Asquith family whose sons created ASDA were originally butchers. Peter and Fred Asquith went on to open some supermarket stores.

Meanwhile (in the 1920s) a group of dairy farmers united to form Hindell’s Dairy Farmers Ltd ― this included the Stockdale family.

By 1949 Arthur Stockdale turned that dairy collective into a single company called Associated Dairies & Farm Stores Ltd.

Noel Stockdale, Arthur’s son, met with the Asquith brothers and liked their work. So, in 1965, they officially joined together to form ASDA.

Per ASDA’s site, the name therefore stands for “ASquith + DAiries.”

The more I think about it, the wilder it seems that I never questioned the brand name…

Most of the company (67.5%) now belongs to private equity giant TDR Capital, City AM reports.

Mohsin Issa has 22.5%, while Walmart still has a 10% stake.

The American superstore had previously owned ASDA, the publication explains.

And according to Reader’s Digest, Walmart’s name has its own history ― it “was likely an abbreviation for Walton’s Market”.

There are two ways to lie about President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, and JD Vance has mastered both of them.

The first: muddy the waters, refuse to acknowledge reality and dismiss facts as inaccurate.

The second: dehumanize people targeted by the US government, and describe them as inherently criminal and un-American to justify a policy of mass detention and deportation.

Now on his third week of promotion for “Communion,” his memoir about converting to Catholicism, Vance is using his faith to sanitize the worst aspects of Trump’s second term — and possibly previewing how he’ll campaign on immigration during a likely presidential run of his own.

Trump’s agenda relies on cruelty. The administration set a new record for people in immigration detention earlier this year, though the vast majority of detained people have no criminal convictions at all. Only a tiny percentage of immigration detainees have convictions for violent crimes. Many people in detention don’t even have a final deportation order, but rather are in the middle of applying for asylum. The administration has asserted the authority to jail millions of people indefinitely, and recently asked the Supreme Court to bless that unprecedented “mandatory detention” policy. Trump officials have admitted to using the misery of detention to pressure people to give up their legal cases and “self-deport.”

Vance can’t run from that record. Instead, he’s doing what he’s done for years — talking his way beyond the pale.

“Communion” lays out the debate over immigration policy in the most general terms possible — presumably because anything else would be damning for Vance.

“Law enforcement is an inherently difficult business,” Vance writes. “If you arrest a person illegally in the United States, that person will sometimes resist arrest. Even if they don’t, and even if everyone agrees their deportation is lawful and moral, there will still be some measure of separation and heartache.”

These lines are all about the art of the straw man: The issue at hand isn’t the “heartache” of a lawful, moral deportation — it is the question of whether the vast majority of this administration’s immigration arrests and deportations are lawful or moral in the first place.

And despite the book being about why he aligned with Catholicism as an adult, Vance is evasive about the fact that two popes in a row have criticized Trump’s immigration agenda at length. He doesn’t engage on the substance of the policies that have been criticized and instead somewhat ironically wishes for “an institutional faith less focused on platitudes and more focused on reality.”

The comment about how “inherently difficult” law enforcement is, for example, comes just after Vance describes how, in late 2025, the U.S. Conference on Catholic Bishops approved a “special pastoral message on immigration” that critiqued the administration. Vance writes that the document was “almost too measured,” then moves on without actually addressing the letter’s contents.

But the conference’s statement was detailed, expressing concern about mass deportation, racial profiling, “the vilification of immigrants,” horrific conditions inside detention centers, “the lack of access to pastoral care” in the facilities, the fact that “some immigrants in the United States have arbitrarily lost their legal status,” and the administration’s efforts to arrest immigrants in sensitive zones including churches. Vance did not address any of the specifics.

Vance has now taken the sleight-of-hand strategy on tour. Rather than defending the worst parts of Trump’s immigration enforcement agenda when faced with legitimate criticisms, he creates a new reality: disputing straightforward facts and cherry-picking hypotheticals.

On “The View” a couple of weeks ago, Vance faced questions about in-custody Immigration and Customs Enforcement deaths, children being held in “sub-human” detention centers, and the administration’s racist language.

“Law enforcement is always inherently not a very pretty process,” he deflected, especially with “violent people” and those who are “resisting arrest.”

He went on to essentially accuse Joe Biden’s administration of running, or at least tolerating, a child trafficking ring, saying there were “tens of thousands of children that were sex-trafficked by the cartels” in the last administration — a number that no one else in the Trump administration has used and for which HuffPost found no evidence. (The administration has repeatedly made broad-brush false claims about the prevalence of child sex trafficking, all while it arrests parents, threatens youth with “prolonged detention,” and targets migrant kids’ legal service providers.)

“You think that our immigration policies are inhumane based on the reporting of one person with a political bias,” Vance said, not indicating which “one person” he was calling out, despite there being millions of words written about the specifics of the administration’s policies. “What I’m telling you is that it’s inhumane to allow cartels to sex-traffic people across our borders.”

Later, Vance dismissed an accurate criticism about the administration’s agenda. “Since October of last year, there’s been something like 6,668 refugees let into the country. All but three were white South Africans,” co-host Ana Navarro said.

Vance suggested the statistic was wrong, though it’s actually a well-known, damning testament to the white supremacist attitudes that pervade the Trump administration.

“I’m very skeptical of that number because we have a lot of different immigration pathways in the United States of America,” he said.

In his book, Vance writes that it’s possible to support “strict migration policy without dehumanizing anyone” — but his career in the Trump administration is predicated on dehumanizing immigrants.

There’s no clearer example of the impact of that strategy than what Vance did to Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio.

In 2024, Vance was the first major elected official to push the lie that Haitian immigrants in Springfield were eating pets in the area. Local officials told Vance’s staff the claims weren’t true, and no evidence ever supported them.

Vance was unapologetic. “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do,” he said at the time. Vance acknowledged that the rumors he was spreading could be lies, and he kept spreading them anyway, saying he was merely amplifying (unverified and politically convenient) reports his office received. He also falsely claimed that, as a result of Haitian migrants, communicable diseases like tuberculosis and HIV had “skyrocketed” in Springfield.

Within days, Trump had pledged to revoke temporary protected status — or TPS, a deportation protection for people whose birth countries are in severe turmoil — for Haitians, saying Springfield had been “overrun.”

The Supreme Court just signed off on that move, meaning that, with the help of Vance’s propaganda, Trump has a list of more than 300,000 people who are now newly deportable and at risk of being sent to their extremely dangerous home country. As the historian Timothy Snyder observed Monday, “If there is a Springfield pogrom, JD Vance will have his first namesake policy.”

Just this week, Vance warned against allowing “low-wage third-world immigrants” and said European countries risked “committing civilizational suicide” through immigration.

He dresses up his casual racism in his book, referring to “the social instability inherent in assimilating one population into another.”

“Too much immigration,” he writes, “actually destroys the social cohesion necessary to form labor unions.”

That’s pretty rich coming from Vance, who as a U.S. senator opposed the Protecting the Right to Organize Act — the U.S. labor movement’s top legislative priority — because, as he told Politico in 2024, “I think it’s dumb to hand over a lot of power to a union leadership that is aggressively anti-Republican.”

Vance also takes pains to suggest that immigrants make America less Christian — even though the facts are more complicated.

“Churchgoing kept declining just as Biden-era immigration policy caused a skyrocketing increase in the foreign-born share of the population,” he writes. “That makes assimilating newcomers even harder.”

Toward the end of the book, in a discussion of racism, Vance again suggests that migration is associated with decreasing religiosity.

“From the intermarriage of the Spanish and native populations in Mexico to the American melting pot of the nineteenth century to the Civil Rights Movement, Christianity has long brought people together,” he writes. “And yet, as our leaders have ushered in an unprecedented increase in demographic diversity through immigration, they have simultaneously discarded the most powerful force for cultural cohesion: Christianity. It is hardly any surprise that the fruits of their labor are rising racial conflict and gender division. Secularism has produced social strife despite its promises of enlightenment.”

The data tell a different story.

Pew Research Center’s 2025 Religious Landscape Study shows that immigrants to the United States said the Bible is extremely or very important to them at rates higher than people born in the United States to U.S.-born parents. The same group also attended religious services more frequently and were more likely to say religion was very or somewhat important to them. While, overall, the study found that immigrants were a few percentage points less Christian than people born in the United States, a separate 2024 Pew report using different data found that 70% of migrants to the United States were Christian, compared with 64% of the U.S. population that was Christian as of 2020.

It’s true that religiosity in America has trended downward in recent years, but that’s regardless of immigration status. It’s also true that most undocumented migrants are from the Americas, and that Trump administration policies — including turning away asylum-seekers at the southern border and ending certain deportation protections — disproportionately affect migrants from Latin America and the Caribbean, which are far more Christian than the United States.

“Catholic immigrants are being differentially impacted by these policies,” Stephanie Kramer, a senior researcher on religion and public life at Pew, told HuffPost.

If Vance has any regrets about backing up Trump’s anti-immigrant crusade, he hasn’t said so. In his book, he walks back a snide remark about “childless cat ladies,” calling it “boneheaded.”

As far as the Haitian community he slandered as disease-spreading pet-eaters — or anyone else he’s allowed Trump to set his sights on — Vance lets the administration’s actions do the talking.