Paddington Bear statue will return to town that ‘loves him so dearly’
A statue of Paddington bear that was destroyed by vandals is set to be fully repaired.
Officials in Newbury, Berkshire, said the move will bring the bear: “Back to the town that loves him so dearly.”
The statue, a tribute to Paddington author Michael Bond who was born in the town, was damaged on 2 March.
Two Royal Air Force engineers, Daniel Heath and William Lawrence, both 22 and stationed at RAF Odiham, were responsible for the damage.
The pair appeared at Reading Magistrates’ Court following the incident, where they admitted to breaking the statue after a night out, even making off with a piece of it.
The court, acknowledging the cultural significance of the statue to Newbury, ordered Heath and Lawrence to pay £2,725 each towards the repair costs.
They also received 12-month community orders. The restoration will see the beloved bear returned to his rightful place in the town.
Ben Beardmore-Gray, marketing manager at Newbury Business Improvement District (BID), said: “When the damage was caused, it was a bit of a shock to all of us.
“Newbury is quite a quiet town. Crime here is not particularly extreme.
“For something so visible to happen – it caught us all off guard.”
“We’ve been working very hard behind the scenes for five weeks, basically, to bring Paddington back to the town that loves him so dearly, and we’re delighted that we can announce he’s back on Wednesday.”
CCTV footage played to the court showed the men approaching the Paddington Bear statue late at night before ripping the bear off its bench and walking away with it.
District judge Sam Goozee condemned Heath and Lawrence’s actions, calling them “the antithesis of everything Paddington stands for”.
As part of the unveiling, children are being encouraged to write a letter welcoming Paddington back to the town.
The repaired and repainted statue will be unveiled in a ceremony on Wednesday at 11.30am on Northbrook Street, Newbury.
Health workers to be sent door-to-door in bid to tackle sickness rates
Health workers will be sent door-to-door under drastic new NHS plans to tackle sickness rates across England, according to reports.
A community health worker will be allocated 120 homes to visit every month to see if help is needed under plans set to be rolled out in June, The Daily Telegraph reports.
Health secretary Wes Streeting said trials of the scheme showed “encouraging signs” in slashing the number of heavy NHS users which he called “frequent flyers” of A&E departments.
A pilot scheme in Westminster, London, showed a dramatic 10 per cent drop in hospital admissions over a year, The Daily Telegraph reports.
“We’re seeing some really encouraging signs about what can happen if you’ve got the right care in the right place at the right time,” Mr Streeting said.
The scheme, set to be rolled out in 25 parts of England, is part of Mr Streeting’s 10-year plan for the NHS, which could also see younger people directed to pharmacy care using the NHS app, leaving GPs to devote their time to sicker and older patients.
The health secretary said a modernised version of the health service’s phone app could mean the NHS could “do a much better and faster job of making sure patients get the right care at the right time in the right place”.
He told the i newspaper: “If you are someone who tends to be younger, fitter, healthier, you probably won’t need to see the same GP every time you are going in for something.”
In March, it was announced that NHS England would be abolished and the service would be brought into the control of ministers.
The changes marked a reversal of a 2012 shake-up of the NHS under the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition, which the Government said created “burdensome” layers of bureaucracy without any clear lines of accountability.
The plan will focus on the “three shifts” the Government say are needed, including moving NHS services towards more community-based care, preventing people getting ill in the first place and better use of digital technology.
Mr Streeting also repeated his belief that the NHS is “ not all about money”.
He said that “you can’t just keep on pouring ever increasing amounts of taxpayers’ money into a system that is not set up to deliver best use of that money and best care for patients and that’s why the system needs to change”.
Watch former MI6 boss discuss Russia, Trump and the future of the West
Join us as world affairs editor Sam Kiley sits down with former MI6 chief Sir Alex Younger and Dr Rachel Ellehuus, director-general of The Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) and former Pentagon official, to explore the shifting global security landscape.
In this debut episode of The Conversation, The Independent’s new expert-led discussion series, our panel unpacks the fast-changing global security landscape in a discussion entitled Shifting Alliances.
They delve into the strategic importance of Russia’s actions in Ukraine, Nato’s future, and whether Europe has the strength and resolve to face the Russian challenge.
During the panel, former MI6 chief Sir Alex warned Britain must rearm and rebuild its reserves – potentially through national service – to face the growing threat from Russia and the destabilising influence of leaders like Putin and Trump.
Alongside Dr Ellehuus, he highlighted how Trump’s shift in US strategic priorities has shaken European security, emboldened Putin, and increased unconventional Russian attacks across Europe.
Watch the full panel below.
Sam Kiley is The Independent’s world affairs editor, bringing over three decades of experience covering global conflicts and major crises. He has reported on the Somali famine, the Rwandan genocide, and wars across the Balkans, Africa, Palestine, Ukraine, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
Before joining The Independent, he spent six years as senior international correspondent for CNN in Abu Dhabi and seven years at Sky News, covering conflict and security. His career began in 1990 with The Sunday Times, followed by roles at The Times, Evening Standard, and Channel 4’s Dispatches, before moving to Sky News in 2010 as foreign affairs editor.
Sir Alex Younger was for 30 years a career intelligence officer in Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, MI6. He served in Europe, the Middle East and Afghanistan. He was appointed as director of counter terrorism in 2009, and as chief from 2014 to 2020.
Prior to MI6, Alex served in the British Army as an infantry officer.
Rachel Ellehuus is the director-general of Rusi. She joined after nearly three years at Nato as the US Secretary of Defense Representative in Europe and Defence Adviser to the US Mission to Nato.
Previously, she was deputy director of the Europe and Eurasia Programme at Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a senior adviser at WestExec Advisors, and held multiple roles at the US Department of Defense, including acting deputy assistant secretary for European and Nato policy. She also worked on the UK’s 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review during an exchange at the Ministry of Defence.
First they faced civil war. Then came Myanmar’s devastating earthquake
More than a week after the devastating earthquake in Myanmar, the stench of death still poisons the air in the northern Mingun town, a few miles from the epicentre.
A Buddhist monk who goes by the name of Monk Owen and who was until recently the principal of Mingun’s school, tells The Independent: “The situation is very bad… Many in the community have been killed, many injured, and we have had no help from outside.”
Many of the town’s religious buildings have been reduced to rubble and matchwood. Photos show monks and others injured during the quake lying in the open, wearing bandages and being cared for by monks. More than 3,500 people have been killed across the country by the 7.7 magnitude tremor.
Foreign aid teams cannot penetrate here. The only organised rescue work has been undertaken by fighters of the People’s Defence Force (PDF), one of the many militias that have sprung up since Myanmar’s military coup of February 2021, contesting the army’s right to rule.
“They are young men, many of them came from the cities,” Owen says ‘Many of them were my students in secret classes where I taught them about democracy and human rights. They don’t have the tools to cut through concrete.’ In the 40C heat, the smell of decay is inescapable.
Elsewhere in Myanmar the heavy-duty machines of international aid teams have hacked through the rubble to bring out the bodies after . But in Mingun as in much of the rest of Sagaing region, west of the city of Mandalay, the quake struck at the heart of a warzone.
The army is present in Mingun and elsewhere in the locality but confined to camps which they rarely leave because the hearts and minds of the community are with the PDF. But there are army road blocks on the roads out of town, so residents are bottled up in their own villages. “People injured in the earthquake cannot travel to the hospitals in the cities because they fear getting arrested or killed at the road blocks,” Owen said.
Mingun is famous for its vast “unfinished pagoda”, the huge stump of an 18th century stupa intended to be the biggest in the world. Its construction was halted when King Bodawpaya, who had commissioned it, was told by an astrologer that he would die when it was completed. It has long been a draw to foreign visitors who flocked across the Irrawaddy river from Mandalay by boat to admire it, Today soldiers are camped beside the mighty monument, barring access.
Mingun has been embroiled in the civil war for years now. “The houses of the people have been destroyed in air raids,” says Owen. ‘They have been living in the temples and monasteries – but those were knocked down in the earthquake, so now they are living in the forests. They forage for food but can’t risk cooking it lest the smoke of their fires is spotted by the military and they bomb again.’
After coming out in opposition to the military coup, Owen became a wanted man and in 2022 Mingun was targeted in air strikes that levelled the area.
In October 2024, he grew his hair long, bribed police to provide him with false documents and fled the country. He is now seeking asylum in France. Subsequently, Owen says three of his close relatives were shot dead by soldiers.
“Aung San Suu Kyi [the leader deposed and imprisoned by the military junta] is our idol, we trust her one hundred per cent, she has been working for the good of all Burmese people whatever their religion,” Owen says. “But she is under the military’s control now.”
“The generals claim to be Buddhists but they are killers,” he adds. “They are just using Buddhism to get influence over people. But now they’ve lost the support of everyone. I believe they will soon flee to Russia – either that or they will end up dead like [Libya’s Muammar] Gaddafi.”
Ryan Adams’ Belfast concert described as ‘most uncomfortable ever’
Ryan Adams reportedly stormed off stage during what fans described as a “chaotic” show in Belfast on Saturday.
The American singer-songwriter, 50, was playing at the Waterfront Hall to mark the 25th anniversary of his debut solo album, Heartbreaker.
However, the gig is said to have ended abruptly after the controversial musician “threw a tantrum”, audience members claimed, while a local reporter described it as “the most uncomfortable, shambolic live music experience I’ve ever had”.
“Went to the worst ‘concert’ I’ve ever been to tonight in the Waterfront Hall,” one fan posted on X/Twitter. “Ryan Adams forgot the bit about giving the audience a good performance in return for their hard-earned cash! By performance I don’t mean throwing a tantrum dressed up as Oscar Wilde!”
When another fan attempted to defend Adams by accusing them of “ignoring” his pleas for no flash photography, the original poster responded: “The flash was off! He was annoyed about everything.
“He didn’t like how people had to leave their seats to go to the loo. He was annoyed by latecomers, drunks calling for requests and the torchlights used by the ushers. Proper diva stuff.”
“Struggling to describe the chaos of Ryan Adams [in] Belfast,” another audience member said.
However, some fans defended Adams’ behaviour and said he was upset by fans using the flash function on their phones, as he is epileptic.
The Independent has contacted Adams’ representative for comment.
The Belfast Telegraph reported that Adams abandoned the set halfway through, telling the audience: “Stop f***ing flashing. I warned you. You could kill me. I have epilepsy and Meniere’s disease. F*** you, I’m not coming back until you stop flashing.”
Signs had been placed around the venue warning fans against the use of flash photography due to Adams’ condition.
The musician later returned to the stage after around half an hour, the publication reported, and said he had suffered an epileptic seizure backstage.
Another fan alleged that, towards the end of the show, a group near them had “actively tried to use flash photography to cause another seizure”.
Other fans said further incidents added to the “uncomfortable” tone of the evening, such as Adams apparently hand-delivering a copy of his forthcoming novel, The Greatest Movie Ever Made, to one fan.
“If you haven’t been to see Ryan Adams yet… don’t,” one disgruntled audience member said. “Won tickets to see him and still feel like I’m due a refund. Left after three songs. Avoid.”
Adams has been attempting to revive his career since 2019, when he was accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women, including singer Phoebe Bridgers and his ex-wife, Mandy Moore.
A year later, he shared a lengthy apology for his past behaviour, writing: “There are no words to express how bad I feel about the ways I’ve mistreated people through my life and career. All I can say is that I’m sorry.”
The global event bringing fresh energy to planet-positive solutions
As we navigate significant environmental and social challenges, the return of ChangeNOW, the world’s biggest expo of solutions for the planet, is much needed to reinvigorate climate action. The 2025 edition, which will take place from April 24th to 26th, will host 140 countries, 40,000 attendees, 10,000 companies and 1,200 investors.
Visionary leaders, established businesses and start-ups alike will gather to showcase over 1,000 sustainable solutions and groundbreaking innovations in key sectors such as clean energy, biodiversity, sustainable cities and the circular economy.
The ChangeNOW 2025 summit will be held at the iconic Grand Palais in Paris, a nod to the 10th anniversary of the Paris Agreement. Reuniting for the occasion will be guest speakers Mary Robinson, the former (and first female) president of Ireland, Laurent Fabius, former French prime minister, Patricia Espinosa, former UN climate chief and diplomat and Diána Ürge-Vorsatz, leading climate scientist and professor – all of whom were in the French capital a decade earlier to help shape the Paris Agreement at COP21.
There may have been obvious setbacks to environmental policy around the world of late, the United States’ recent withdrawal from the Paris Agreement being a notable one. However ChangeNOW 2025 intends to reaffirm the spirit of Paris, while serving as a catalyst for progress ahead of COP30 and the United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC). “Ten years after COP21, ChangeNOW is where leaders and changemakers converge to accelerate the ecological and social transition,” states Santiago Lefebvre, founder and president of ChangeNOW. “Thousands of solutions will be showcased demonstrating that meaningful progress is within reach.”
His message of positive climate action will be supported by a multitude of world famous faces who will be in attendance at the auspicious event. Natalie Portman, Academy award-winning actress, director, author, activist, and producer; Captain Paul Watson, Founder of Sea Shepherd and Ocean Conservationist; Hannah Jones, CEO of The Earthshot Prize and Olympic champion boxer and gender equality advocate Imane Khelif are just a few of the names set to appear at ChangeNOW 2025.
With over 500 speakers and 250 conference sessions exploring climate action, biodiversity protection, resource management, and social inclusion, ChangeNOW 2025 will also hear the insights of acclaimed corporate leaders from Accor, Bouygues, Henkel, Lidl, Nexans, and Saint-Gobain, who will explain how businesses can be the ones to drive real change.
And the event will not only be an opportunity for global policymakers to discuss next steps in climate action, it will also be a platform for nations to showcase local innovations through their country pavilions. Expect impactful solutions from countries including South Africa, The Netherlands, and Ukraine – demonstrating international collaboration on the topic of climate.
In addition to the packed program of speakers, workshops, exhibits and networking opportunities, ChangeNOW 2025 will host the Impact Job Fair on Saturday, 26 April, with over 150 recruiters and training organisations offering in excess of 600 roles. Dedicated to the public and young professionals, the interactive workshops, educational activities, and career opportunities in sustainable sectors on offer aim to inspire the next generation of changemakers.
The summit will also present the annual Women for Change conference and the accompanying portrait exhibition, which showcases 25 women who are set to have a significant positive impact on their communities, countries or on a global scale over the next 10 years. Created in 2021, the Women for Change initiative aims to platform and provide opportunities for women who are leading change around the world but require further recognition or investment to continue their work. The annual flagship event, which takes place on the afternoon of April 24th, offers women the chance to discuss new ideas, network with likeminded people, and also acquire funding to help solidify their leadership, and amplify their impact.
Step outside the Grand Palais and take a few steps to the Port des Champs Elysées, on the bank of the Seine, where the The Water Odyssey village awaits. One of the event’s standout features, the immersive 1,000 m² exhibition is open to the public and highlights solutions to maritime and river sustainability challenges – offering a mix of conferences, interactive displays, and sensory experiences to engage all ages.
For three days, ChangeNOW will transform Paris into the global capital of impact, bringing together policymakers, entrepreneurs, investors, and the public in the pursuit of sustainable progress.
Book your ChangeNOW 2025 ticket here
Trump has made China appear a beacon of free trade
The Chinese Communist Party, apostle of free trade. In a strange new world, that was the strangest thing, as shares crashed in reaction to President Donald Trump’s opening salvo of tariffs in a global trade war.
“The market has spoken,” said the foreign ministry spokesperson, Guo Jiakun, writing in English on Facebook – which is, by the way, banned in China. No double standards there, then. Beijing can always keep a straight face when it matters.
Politically, the Chinese government can scarcely believe its luck. It has stepped forward as a voice of reason and stability in a chorus of discord to promote the false narrative that it has been a model of good behaviour since it joined the World Trade Organisation (WTO) on 11 December 2001, a date that seems destined to live in the textbooks as the peak of globalisation.
The Trump tariffs “are a typical act of unilateral bullying”, complained a spokesperson for China’s Commerce Ministry.
“This approach disregards the balance of interests achieved through years of multilateral trade negotiations and ignores the fact that the US has long gained substantial profits from international trade,” the spokesperson added.
The official news agency, Xinhua, said the tariffs were “a weapon to suppress China’s economy and trade” and told the United States to stop undermining “the legitimate development rights of the Chinese people”.
It would be a mistake to write off Chinese rhetoric. The regime of Xi Jinping is serious and its actions speak louder than words.
Clue: China has listed “legitimate development rights” as one of its “red lines” in dealing with the US. The term is code for the export-led economic model which has propelled the country to the rank of second largest economy on earth since it joined the WTO.
Understand that and you understand that for China this is existential. There could be no greater contrast to the whirlwind in Washington than the disciplined, efficiently executed responses announced by Beijing in nine statements outlining reprisals that went beyond mere numbers.
Xi himself did not deign to speak publicly, let alone do anything as vulgar as posting on social media in capital letters. The Chinese public would have thought it beneath his dignity.
Untroubled by such niceties, Trump swiftly posted to his followers online that “CHINA PLAYED IT WRONG, THEY PANICKED.”
With all due respect to the American president, that is exactly what they did not do. The Xi hit list is ominous because it is well-planned and researched. The “Red Emperor” rules a mandarin class of sophisticated operators who do nothing else but study China’s opponents using every intelligence tool at their disposal.
The easy part for China was to impose reciprocal 34 per cent tariffs on all American imports from 10 April. It also suspended six American firms from exporting to China, launched anti-dumping actions in the medical sector and targeted the US giant DuPont with a probe into potential monopoly practices.
The hard part showed just how thoroughly the Chinese had done their work. No penguin islands or weird mathematics here. They banned the export of “dual use” items, which could have military or civilian applications, to 16 US firms, all in the technology sector.
Their key move was to put export controls on seven rare earth elements “to safeguard national security”. It’s on the public record that some of these are vital to US weapons systems.
The list of rare earths included terbium, which is used to enhance the properties of specialised magnets used in guidance systems, satellites and radar. The magnets are integral to the state-of-the-art F-35 fighter, Predator drones, cruise missiles and nuclear submarines.
Then there’s dysprosium, a rare-earth element of which China controls nearly all the world’s supply. It is used to make high-grade magnets that work in super-heated conditions and is found in the newest semiconductors. Other rare earths on the list are vital to jet engine turbine blades. All will now require special export licences.
China and America are thus in a new kind of war over technology and artificial intelligence. Both Joe Biden and Trump tried to choke the supply of advanced semiconductors to Chinese manufacturers, while China is seeking to choke the supply of raw materials to America’s tech champions.
It’s not hard to see how dangerous this could get. The founder of free-trading modern Singapore, the late Lee Kuan Yew, once told me in an interview that “World War Two was caused because of empires and protectionism”.
He recalled that in the 1940s an oil embargo on Imperial Japan pushed its military leaders into war and he warned that if the West tried to isolate China economically “that is bound to lead to conflict”.
Lee was talking in the 1990s, when China stood on the threshold of globalisation. It joined the WTO only after hard-fought talks. But Charlene Barshevsky, who sealed the deal for the United States, later lamented that the Americans failed to use the WTO to punish Beijing when it broke the rules.
That created the belief that appeasement and elite inertia condemned the American working class to decline, the foundation story of Trump’s movement to Make America Great Again. So it is some irony that the Chinese have just filed a formal complaint about Trump’s tariffs – with the World Trade Organisation.
Michael Sheridan, longtime foreign correspondent and diplomatic editor of The Independent, is the author of The Red Emperor published by Headline Press at £25
Starmer is right to maintain dignity – and avoid upsetting Trump
The prime minister’s insistence that, in framing the UK’s response to the Trump tariffs, “We will always act in the national interest” was wise and reassuring. The mood at the moment is to “keep calm and carry on negotiating”, and if there is to be a response, it needs to be weighed, and to represent a fully informed choice. Hence the meeting of business leaders convened in Downing Street in the immediate aftermath of the US president’s announcements.
In the coming days, the full scale and nature of international retaliation will become clearer; so too will Donald Trump’s thinking. From his rambling presentation of the new tariff schedules in the White House Rose Garden, it is not obvious whether these punitive import taxes are designed to kickstart a more benign process involving a global relaxation of trade restrictions, or if they are part of a permanent policy shift aimed at restoring American manufacturing and providing trillions of dollars for the US Treasury. There is, in other words, no need for a rush to action.
Sir Keir Starmer is right to try to maintain the dignity of the nation, as well as to avoid upsetting the combustible Mr Trump, by limiting himself to vague remarks about having “levers at his disposal”. Businesses are being consulted on possible retaliatory actions, but that is all – at least for the time being.
However, with the US economy approximately seven times as large as that of the UK – and Britain still heavily reliant on America for its defence – those levers are not especially powerful ones. Unlike, say, China (in concert with Japan and South Korea), the European Union, Mexico or Canada, the UK lacks the necessary heft to inflict much material damage on American producers and exporters. Any effort to join in with an international assault on Mr Trump’s policy would risk attracting the imposition of even higher tariffs on UK exports, with the corresponding harm to British jobs and economic growth – and to European security and the Ukraine peace talks.
Far better, then, for the British government to keep a “cool head”, as Sir Keir suggests: not only does it suit the prime minister’s general demeanour, but it will help to preserve his unusually warm relationship with a man almost precisely his ideological opposite. Britain is set to watch how things develop, and will continue to engage with American officials on trade, investment, and wider economic relations. If an old and valued friend unexpectedly decides to have a spat, the most rational response is not to hit them back and escalate an argument into a violent rift.
Fanciful as it may seem, this crisis can be turned into an opportunity. As the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, told the Commons, a trade deal of some sort could be mutually beneficial, even if that isn’t immediately apparent to President Trump, who is more “zero sum” in his approach to life (as might be expected from his time in real estate).
Sir Keir says that talks are continuing. He should be encouraged by the fact that the UK is to be subjected only to the lower “baseline” tariff of 10 per cent, albeit with the higher charges on cars, steel and aluminium bringing the trade-weighted average up to 13 per cent. When the two leaders met in the White House, Mr Trump expressed the hope that a deal could be done. Despite intense activity, such an agreement couldn’t be reached in time to avoid the new tariffs, but the process – which has been in train since Theresa May launched post-Brexit talks with the US – has begun.
The outlines of such a deal can already be discerned. Negotiables could include a radical cut in the tariffs on US goods, such as cars and agricultural produce, and easier access for qualified, skilled workers through mutual recognition. The UK might have to compromise on its high standards of animal welfare, hygiene, and environmental protection, but that is a tough choice that could be made, in the expectation that consumers would exercise their right to choose.
More difficult, if not impossible, would be meeting the usual demands for improved – inflated – prices to be paid by the NHS to the US pharmaceutical giants. The American negotiators would also have to be properly briefed on the reality of free speech in the UK, which is protected as a human right by law, save for incitement to hatred against specified vulnerable groups.
The real question is whether the achievement of some sort of economic agreement with America – an outcome that would certainly yield benefits – is worth the sacrifices and concessions that are likely to be demanded by Mr Trump. That includes the effect that any such pact would have on our relationship with the EU, in light of the “reset” promised by Labour at the general election.
Even the possibility of such an agreement with the United States is being touted as a “Brexit bonus”, as is the “favourable” 10 per cent tariff. Needless to say, this is highly debatable. Were it still part of the EU, the UK would probably have been treated more harshly, but it would have had the full weight of the largest single market in the world behind it, along with better access to the EU markets that it has lost since Brexit.
As a member state, the UK would also have been able, ironically, to control its own laws on free speech, as well as to protect the NHS and farmers. In other words, a trade deal with America would have to be radically better than currently envisaged in order to make Brexit remotely worthwhile, even in purely financial terms.
And there remains the terrible truth that the US has downgraded its commitment to Nato, and “switched sides” to align with Russia on the matters of Ukraine and European security.
On balance, Sir Keir can best serve the British national interest by pursuing closer relations with Europe, while declining to enact futile retaliatory measures against America and salvaging as much as possible of the US-UK special relationship. The hope is that the Trump era might ultimately pass more smoothly. In any case, balancing and nurturing Britain’s most crucial relationships won’t be easy.