British military instructor held in Ukraine for ‘spying for Russia’

A British national accused of spying for Russia in Ukraine and preparing to carry out terrorist attacks has been arrested, Ukrainian prosecutors said on Wednesday.

Ukrainian officials alleged that the man, who they did not name, collaborated with Russia’s special services and agreed to sell military information in exchange for money.

The man, who has been detained in Kyiv at his “temporary residence”, was accused of “unauthorised dissemination of information about the defence forces in conditions of martial law”.

The UK Foreign Office has confirmed that it was aware of the reports and is “in close contact with the Ukrainian authorities”. Ukraine’s security service said the man was also “preparing to carry out terrorist attacks”.

The Briton appeared in a Ukrainian court this week and was detained without bail.

This is the first such case of a British national being accused of spying charges on Ukrainian soil.

Ukrainian officials said he initially travelled to Ukraine in 2024 to work as a military instructor, but then posted on pro-Russia forums online saying he was willing to sell information. He was then allegedly contacted by Russia’s secret police, the FSB.

“The occupiers provided him with instructions for making an improvised explosive device. They also sent him the coordinates of a weapons cache, from which he retrieved a pistol with two loaded magazines,” the Security Service of Ukraine said in a statement, referring to Russia.

He has “professional skills in fire and tactical training” and had advertised his willingness to spy on “various pro-Kremlin internet groups”, the prosecutors said.

The Ukrainian prosecutor’s office said the British national stopped working as an instructor in September 2024 and moved to Ukraine’s port city of Odesa. He “established contact with a representative of the Russian special service and agreed to provide military information for money”, the statement added.

They said they have evidence showing that the British man transmitted sensitive military information to Russia in May 2025, including the location of Ukrainian units, photographs of training areas and information about military personnel that could lead to their identification.

He received $6,000 (£4,541) for one “task”, the prosecutors said in a statement. A pre-trial investigation “is being conducted by the investigators of the Security Service of Ukraine with operational support from counter-intelligence units”.

Reeves should not resign over family home rental rule break, says minister

Rachel Reeves has admitted she did not get the right paperwork to rent out her family home.

A ministerial colleague has said the chancellor should not resign, after Ms Reeves apologised for her “inadvertent error” in failing to obtain a licence when renting out her Dulwich house.

Policing minister Sarah Jones said that as soon as the chancellor “became aware, she rectified the situation”.

The Daily Mail first reported on Wednesday night that the chancellor did not obtain a selective rental licence when she put her south London home up for rent after she moved into No 11 Downing Street following Labour’s election win.

Tories have said that the situation needs “proper investigation” after Sir Keir Starmer said that a full look into the matter is “not necessary”.

Conservative chairman Kevin Hollinrake has reshared a tweet from the chancellor from earlier this month in which she backed the expansion of landlord licensing policy in Leeds, where her constituency is.

Ms Reeves raised the error with the prime minister’s independent ethics adviser and wrote a letter to Sir Keir Starmer, in which she apologised.

After consulting his adviser Sir Laurie Magnus, the PM said the chancellor’s apology was “sufficient resolution” to the matter.

Asked on Times Radio on Thursday whether Ms Reeves should resign, Ms Jones said: “no, she shouldn’t”.

“She after the election, of course, moved into 11 Downing Street, as chancellors do. She has a family home in Southwark that she rented out through a letting agency. Now, Southwark Council has what’s called a selective licensing scheme.

“Some boroughs have them, some don’t … The Chancellor wasn’t aware that she had to apply for this selective licence. As soon as she became aware, she rectified the situation.”

Ms Reeves opposite number, shadow chancellor Sir Mel Stride, believes Sir Keir should conclude “her position is untenable”.

“This was a prime minister who, when he came into office on the steps of Downing Street, talked about restoring the dignity and integrity of government … and if he’s to stand by his word, then I think he should be concluding her position is untenable,” Sir Mel told Sky News.

He added: “It seems to me, not at all unreasonable to simply ask that there’s a proper investigation to have a look at all the aspects of this matter.”

Southwark Council requires people renting out their properties in certain areas, including where Ms Reeves’s home is, to get one of the licences in advance.

The chancellor is understood to accept she should have obtained the licence, but relied on the advice of a letting agent and was not told it was necessary.

A spokesperson for Ms Reeves said: “Since becoming chancellor Rachel Reeves has rented out her family home through a lettings agency.

“She had not been made aware of the licensing requirement, but as soon as it was brought to her attention she took immediate action and has applied for the licence.

“This was an inadvertent mistake and in the spirit of transparency she has made the prime minister, the independent adviser on ministerial standards and the parliamentary commissioner for standards aware.”

In a letter to the prime minister, the chancellor wrote: “I wanted to make you aware of a matter which has been brought to my attention regarding my family home which we are letting out to tenants via an external lettings agency.

“There are selective licensing requirements in this ward for renting out a property. Regrettably, we were not aware that a licence was necessary, and so we did not obtain the licence before letting the property out.

“This was an inadvertent mistake. As soon as it was brought to my attention, we took immediate action and have applied for the licence.”

In a written response, Sir Keir thanked Ms Reeves for meeting him on Wednesday evening, adding: “I am satisfied that this matter can be drawn to a close following your apology.

“It is regrettable that the appropriate licence was not sought sooner and it is right that you have taken the appropriate steps today to address this. It is clear to me that you are treating this matter with the urgency and seriousness it deserves.”

The news that Ms Reeves failed to obtain the licence comes after several high-profile government figures have had to step down as a result of scandals.

Among these were Angela Rayner, the former deputy prime minister and housing secretary, who resigned following a row about her tax affairs.

Lord Mandelson was also sacked as ambassador to Washington after details of his relationship with the late paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein came to light.

Ms Reeves is faced with questions about the arrangements for renting out her home less than a month before she is due to deliver what is expected to be a difficult Budget.

Netherlands could have its youngest leader ever as centrist party wins big in election

The centrist D66 party has made substantial inroads in the Dutch elections, positioning it to lead the next government’s formation and make its leader, 38-year-old Rob Jetten, the country’s youngest prime minister.

With 98 per cent of ballots tallied early on Thursday, both D66 and Geert Wilders’ far-right Freedom Party (PVV) were projected to secure 26 seats each in the 150-member lower house.

D66 held a slender lead of 2,300 votes from approximately 10 million cast, with counting resuming on Thursday morning.

D66 notably almost tripled its seat count, marking the election’s largest gains, contrasting sharply with Mr Wilders’ party, which declined significantly from its 2023 record.

While initial exit polls suggested a narrow D66 victory, later counting showed a marginally stronger outcome for the anti-Islam populist faction.

This shift, however, is not expected to alter the next government coalition’s composition.

All major mainstream parties have ruled out governing with Wilders after he brought down the last coalition led by his PVV, leaving him no viable path to a majority.

The result instead seems to open a path for D66 leader Rob Jetten to form a government as the youngest ever prime minister of the Netherlands.

But on Thursday, Wilders insisted he would take the lead if the PVV ultimately came out on top.

“As long as it’s not 100 per cent clear, D66 can’t take the lead. We will do everything we can to prevent that,” he said in a post on X.

Wilders on Wednesday evening had said he was disappointed that his party had lost seats and was unlikely to be in the next government.

Cheers and chants of “Yes, we can” broke out at the D66 election night celebration as the crowd waved Dutch flags.

“We’ve shown not only to the Netherlands, but also to the world that it is possible to beat populist and extreme-right movements,” Jetten told the crowd.

“Millions of Dutch people today turned a page and said farewell to the politics of negativity, of hate, of endless ‘no we can’t’.”

The popularity of 38-year-old Jetten surged in the past month, as he campaigned on a promise to resolve a housing shortage, invest in education, and tackle immigration concerns.

Wilders, one of Europe’s longest-serving populist leaders, is known for his anti-Islam stance and lives under constant protection due to death threats.

He had proposed denying all asylum requests – which would violate EU treaties – sending male Ukrainian refugees back to Ukraine, and halting development aid in order to finance energy and healthcare.

Wilders led his party to a stunning first-place finish in the 2023 election and formed an all-conservative coalition, although his partners refused to endorse him as prime minister.

He brought the government down in June over its refusal to adopt his hardline measures.

The Dutch election was seen as a test of whether the far-right can expand its reach or whether it has peaked in parts of Europe. The outcome may suggest there are limits to its enduring appeal.

With 76 seats needed to form a governing coalition in the Netherlands’ parliament, at least four parties will be required. One scenario is a pact including D66, the conservative Christian Democrats, the centre-right VVD, and the Greens-Labour party.

However, building stable coalitions is tough and talks are expected to take months.

Virgin to challenge Eurostar on Channel Tunnel route – what’s in it for travellers?

Virgin Trains will soon be able to run passenger services through the Channel Tunnel, challenging Eurostar’s decades-long monopoly.

According to regulator the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), Sir Richard Branson’s company will be able to operate from London to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam.

Eurostar has exclusively run passenger trains in the Channel Tunnel since its inception in 1994. But the government ruling means that Virgin can use Temple Mills, an east London train depot, to maintain and store its trains. Access is crucial for the operation of cross-Channel routes.

The move is set to bring better services and lower fares on trains to the Continent – but not until 2030.

Sir Richard said: “It’s time to end this 30-year monopoly. We’re going to shake-up the cross-Channel route for good and give consumers the choice they deserve.”

But other contenders for the right to run trains through the tunnel are bitterly disappointed.

The news comes just days after Eurostar announced a €2bn (£1.7bn) investment in new double-decker trains.

Here is everything you need to know about the Virgin Trains Channel Tunnel route.

Eurostar has had a monopoly on passenger trains for the entirety of the Channel Tunnel’s 32-year history. While fares as low as £39 each way are available on Eurostar, prices soar closer to departure time.

Anyone wanting to travel to Paris tomorrow from London St Pancras will pay a minimum of £219 on Eurostar, compared with £87 on easyJet. The 150 per cent premium demonstrates the dominant market position held by Eurostar – as well as the appeal of a city centre-to-city centre link with a large free baggage allowance.

Jason Geall of American Express Business Travel says: “Eurostar currently makes up almost three-quarters of business travel trips between the UK and France.“

Competition on high-speed rail networks in Spain and Italy has proved extremely effective in improving services and reducing fares.

Both the High Speed One line from London through Kent, and the Channel Tunnel, have plenty of spare capacity. The infrastructure owners are very keen to get new entrants.

Rail firms have been clamouring to take on Eurostar. But a crucial limiting factor: room for the trains to be stabled and serviced. The Temple Mills International depot (TMI) in east London is the only suitable UK location, and it has limited space given Eurostar’s existing operation.

The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) says only one contender can use TMI at the same time as Eurostar.

The beauty contest comprised:

In her decision letter, Stephanie Tobyn – the ORR’s director – says: “We have placed particular weight on our duties to promote competition and the use of the railway network.”

She says Virgin Trains “has the highest confidence level of being operationally viable. Its plans are more detailed, and it has provided clear evidence of an exclusive agreement to deliver the necessary rolling stock by 2030.”

Rail minister Lord Peter Hendy says: “Allowing Virgin Trains to share this vital facility will give passengers greater choice, better value and improve connectivity for millions, as well as drive innovation, lower fares and promote greener connections with Europe.”

New trains need to be built, certified and tested. Virgin has ordered 12 Avelia Stream trains from manufacturer Alstom. Funding is coming from Equitix, an infrastructure investor, and Azzurra Capital, a private equity firm.

Josh Bayliss, chief executive of the Virgin Group, said: “Together, this consortium will build a new business that does what Virgin does best – disrupt and challenge the status quo.”

Yes. Initially, London-Paris will be served, followed reasonably swiftly by links to Brussels and Amsterdam. Virgin Trains also says it may expand to Germany and Switzerland. Eurostar already plans services to Cologne, Frankfurt and Geneva.

In the past few years, Eurostar has ceased running trains from London to Calais, Disneyland Paris, Bourg-St-Maurice, Lyon, Avignon and Marseille. Virgin Trains may resume services to one or more of these stations (particularly Calais, which is one the main line), but to begin with it will be strictly inter-capital.

Ebbsfleet International, handy for the M25, and Ashford International – with good rail connections from Kent, Surrey and Sussex – were both served by Eurostar before the Covid pandemic.

While the cross-Channel passenger rail operator has been thriving for the past couple of years, the Kent stations remain mothballed. The decision to leave the EU and become subject to the entry-exit system has sharply increased the complexity and cost of operating the necessary French border for passengers departing for the Continent.

Virgin Trains says: “If either Ebbsfleet International or Ashford International station are reopened in Kent, then Virgin will stop there, and it is working with Kent County Council and other local stakeholders to explore how to make this happen.”

Lord Hendy says: “We will also continue to champion the reopening Ashford and Ebbsfleet International stations as a priority to restore full connectivity, support tourism and boost growth across the region.”

It plans newer, better, double-decker trains. Chief executive Gwendolene Cazenave, says: “Customers can expect a very special new train with Eurostar Celestia which will offer exceptional comfort, a unique Eurostar experience and new surprises to be revealed.

“This is a golden age for international sustainable travel – and Eurostar is leading the race.”

That is the hope of the rail minister, who says: “While this decision is an important first step, we recognise there is significant interest in this and depot capacity should not be a barrier to greater competition and growth.

“We are therefore exploring plans to establish new depot capacity in the UK, supported by private investment, to meet the needs of the market and will set out further plans in due course.”

Read more: From railcards to reservations – how to fix Britain’s broken trains

The three words behind Eddie Jordan’s fearless approach to F1 and life

It was less a motto, more a way of life. So much so that the acronym ‘FTB’ was tattooed on Eddie Jordan’s right wrist and that of his four children; a reminder to continually embody the phrase which, so states the website Irish Hidden Treasures, epitomises “defiance, resilience, and a refusal to let negativity hinder success and joy.”

It feels an appropriately inappropriate way to begin talking about Jordan, the late, great rock-and-roll Formula 1 team owner and pundit, who passed away in March at the age of 76. “Excuse my language so early on,” I say. “But it was obviously the key phrase of his life: F*** the Begrudgers.”

Marie Jordan, his wife, whom he married in 1979, is quick to chime in: “You can believe I’m well used to that,” she chuckles. “Don’t even hesitate the next time you want to say it!” Ice well and truly broken.

Undoubtedly, ‘FTB’ was a core ethos of the man known to his friends and colleagues as “EJ”, the much-loved Irishman who touched every corner of the Formula One paddock over 30 years. The outpouring of emotion and tributes at his sad passing earlier this year, after a year-long battle with bladder and prostate cancer, highlighted not just his accolades but the wider impact of his omnipresent style of uproarious shrewdness in a mishmash of business and sport.

“You don’t change your spots,” Marie says of the man she met, via an ex-boyfriend, at a disco in Dublin. Even back in the mid-1970s, ‘FTB’ was instilled deep inside. “You also know from seeing him on television that he didn’t hold back.

“He was never afraid of anything or anyone. When he was a pundit, he didn’t need that job. So whether he got attacked and spoke out, positive or negative, he didn’t care. It made him quite a dangerous man to have in that position.”

To those of a younger generation, Jordan is best known for those half a dozen years as an integral cog in the three-pronged presenter formation alongside Jake Humphrey and David Coulthard at the BBC.

Yet his main achievements in the sport are not just those that are listed for all to bear witness – handing Michael Schumacher his F1 debut at Spa in 1991, for instance – but also Jordan’s unshakeable principles of life, signed and sealed with an indomitable Irish quick wit and vibrancy.

These principles, twenty-five of them in total, are the basis for a new book based on Jordan’s high-octane lifestyle. Full Throttle, Lessons from a Life of Motorsport, Money and Mischief, is written by close friend, manager and Irish compatriot Keith O’Loughlin.

“It wasn’t just the Begrudgers,” O’Loughlin expands. “It was anyone who said something was impossible. A no to Eddie just meant you needed to ask the question and challenge. He’d rally against people saying no to him and just say, ‘I’m doing it, f*** you.’ He was incredibly determined.”

It was the basis for Jordan’s mantra of never sitting still. Having realised a career in accountancy at the Bank of Ireland was a little too mundane, he quickly took up karting before launching his own team, Jordan Grand Prix, in 1991. Not always the quickest, by any means, the team adorned in yellow, and their ebullient team boss, could never be ignored.

F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone knew that better than most. Quickly spotting Jordan’s acute and relatable business style, he sent his protégé off on errands to China and Bahrain at the start of the century as negotiations concluded to stage a grand prix in those countries. Ecclestone came to rely on Jordan as a man who could get the job done.

Not that such trust necessarily extended to his better half. “I tried to stay away from Bernie, I found him calculating,” Marie says. “At the very beginning, I needed a full-time [paddock] pass. And Bernie said to me: ‘But what about the other girl that comes in?!’ I said you effing b******.

“But Eddie just rubbed people up the right way. Whenever I deal with a corporate person, I’m always surprised at how straight they are. But Eddie was the opposite, completely irreverent. A sponsor would walk in and Eddie would immediately say ‘I’m going to pull your pants down’. And that’s it: he’s got control already.”

Even beyond the sale of his team in 2005, Jordan immersed himself fully in the globe-trotting F1 circus. His outspokenness lent itself perfectly to punditry, even in his final years, as he presented a podcast called ‘Formula For Success’ – leaning perfectly on another well-used acronym – alongside Coulthard. And perhaps his most notable final deal was acting as Adrian Newey’s manager for the F1 design guru’s move from Red Bull to Aston Martin earlier this year.

Newey and Jordan formed a friendship in Cape Town, a city that became Jordan’s spiritual home, with a house overlooking the sea in Clifton. Not that it slowed him down, as such.

“Six weeks before he passed, he was on stage with [rock band] Mike and the Mechanics, playing the drums,” O’Loughlin recalls. Jordan was famous in his heyday for concluding F1 weekends performing with his band, Eddie & The Robbers. “He was still doing the podcast as well. He’d always say ‘don’t tell the mammy’ [referring to Marie]. He would have a Red Bull, go on the podcast and be amazing.”

Poignantly, Marie and O’Loughlin are keen to expand Jordan’s long-lasting legacy. The Eddie Jordan Foundation is not a “charity focused on giving out money”, as O’Loughlin says, but “helping anybody of any age who has a business idea… we got his principles by osmosis and all we want to do is share them.” And most ubiquitous among them all is a restlessness and drive that was present right to the very end.

“The day after he had his prostate removed, he was out in Monaco speaking to Adrian [Newey] about the move and the deal,” Marie says of his final weeks. “He stayed strong through most of it, until about February. But he didn’t want to stay like that – it was all or nothing.”

The Independent EV Price Index October 2025

Welcome to The Independent EV Price Index, your new monthly guide to the real-world costs of buying and running electric vehicles in the UK.

Launched in partnership with E.ON Next, this innovative resource – the first of its kind in the UK – will help you understand how EV prices are shifting, what’s driving those movements, and crucially help you if shopping, trading in, or simply tracking where the market is headed.

Combined with the expert reviews on The Independent’s EV channel, we’ll help you decide what to buy and when is best to buy it.

Built on data from Insider Car Deals, the data reflects actual discounts, finance deals and incentives available at retailers right now, giving you a valuable insight into the evolving electric vehicle market every month, all curated by our electric vehicles editor, Steve Fowler.

With September one of the biggest months for new car registrations, and electric car registrations up nearly 30 per cent year-on-year, it’s no surprise that dealers aren’t working quite so hard for buyers’ business than they were last month. The EV Price Index has shown a typical increase of £207 (0.5 per cent) month-on-month at transaction level across all EVs.

That doesn’t mean that the incentives have dried up – far from it. The standout deal of the month is on the Vauxhall Corsa electric with total incentives – including discounts and finance offers – worth up to 36 per cent of the list price. In the case of the Corsa Ultimate we saw a total of £11,570 worth of incentives. GWM and Cupra joined Vauxhall in the top three brands for overall incentives on their EVs in September.

Takeaways

We might have seen a slight month-on-month increase in transaction prices, but prices are still way down year-on-year. The EV Price Index shows that buyers are typically paying £3,259 less than they were this time last year – a 7.7 per cent drop.

Takeaways

The EV Price Index is also monitoring the prices of used cars. We’ve seen an average increase of £491 (or three per cent) across our basket of ten of the most popular used electric cars from August to September. We look for like-for-like used car prices each month, with the biggest price increases showing for the Audi Q4 e-Tron and Nissan Leaf. Both saw increases month-on-month of well over £1,000.

There are lots of things that can affect used prices, particularly supply and demand, so it could be that supply of those two EVs dropped or the number of people wanting to buy them increased, which is why advertised prices appear to have risen. However, with September a busy new car buying month, it’s also a busy used car month. It will be interesting to see how those prices change over the coming months when showrooms and forecourts won’t be quite so crowded.

Takeaways

There were more EVs on sale in September than there were in August, further boosting choice for consumers. Seven new models were registered on the EV Price Index in September, while year-on-year we’ve seen an incredible 35 per cent rise in total derivatives across 118 EV models compared with just 89 last year.

That’s set to increase again with a host of new brands like Changan coming to market in the coming months, while some recent arrivals such as BYD, Jaecoo and Omoda are set to expand their ranges rapidly.

Takeaways

Buyers love SUVs, so they’re not necessarily the place to look for the biggest bargains. Over the past month we’ve seen our Median target prices for small SUVs and Medium SUVs edge up by £140 and £1,426 – which have both contributed to the overall month-on-month increase of £207. However, every other category is showing a month-on-month drop, with small cars, family cars, large SUVs and prestige cars all showing drops from August to September – the biggest being prestige cars at an extra £712, a drop of 1.1 per cent.

Takeaways

As our overall figures show, incentives have dropped overall across the EV market in September as the new registration plate drives more people into dealers. That means most of the monthly PCP costs have gone up – but not by much. Across the whole market, the rise is just £9 per month, with the only drop being small cars which would typically cost you £10 per month less during September than during August. It’s medium SUVs again that have gone up most – typically £26 a month more than last month – surprisingly followed by prestige cars and the expected small SUVs at £16 a month more in September than August. Car finance can be a bit confusing, so our guide to car finance will help you navigate the options you’ll be faced with.

Takeaways

View last month’s EV Price Index Report here.

The big mistake people make when walking 10,000 steps per day

Walking 10,000 steps a day is no bad thing, but it isn’t the health and fitness panacea it’s often made out to be either.

The body doesn’t have an in-built pedometer which releases untold benefits when you hit five figures for the day. Instead, this daily target is simply a way to encourage you to move more – that’s where the true magic lies.

Walking’s appeal lies largely in its accessibility; it’s low impact, most people can do it and you don’t need any specialist equipment. Researchers from University of Sydney (Australia) and Universidad Europea (Spain) analysed data from 33,560 adults aged 40–79 who generally walked less than 8,000 steps a day. They found those who walked in uninterrupted stretches of 10–15 minutes or more had significantly lower risks of cardiovascular events (heart attack or stroke) and death compared with those whose walks were mostly under 5 minutes.

The study suggests it’s not just how many steps you take, but how you take them (duration of each walk) that matters. In a world where time is a hot commodity, being able to squeeze some more movement into your day this way is an appealing prospect. But having walking as your only source of exercise can leave holes in your health and fitness.

For this reason, walking 5,000 steps while doing a few weekly strength training sessions or Pilates classes will likely deliver a more robust body than trekking 10K steps per day. Likewise, a keen cyclist might walk a relatively small amount, but still have a healthier heart and lungs than someone who is a slave to their step count.

Below is expert advice to help you design a more well-rounded, yet still time-efficient, weekly exercise plan to benefit as many areas of your health as possible.

Read more: A personal trainer set out to learn everything he could about fat loss – this was his most important finding

Walking is the most accessible movement option, and something most of us have to do in our day-to-day life anyway. As such, it should represent most of your weekly movement – the base of the pyramid, if you will.

Accumulating a decent volume of daily walking can offer impressive benefits, from improved heart health and mobility to weight management and a more robust body. Larger volumes of walking have also been linked to reduced incidences of lower back pain – leading spine expert Dr Stuart McGill previously described walking as “a non-negotiable activity for spine health”.

But how much should you be walking?

As you probably know by now, the 10,000 steps per day goal comes from a marketing pain for a pedometer in Japan called the Manpo Kei – roughly translated as the “10,000 steps metre”. This is a nice, round number, but lacks scientific rationale.

Walking 10,000 steps per day also represents a 90-minute commitment – time many people struggle to spare. The good news is that, “if we focus on the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, most of the benefits are seen at around 7,000 steps per day”, according to 2023 research from the University of Granada. Separate studies have also associated much lower walking totals with significant health benefits.

Case in point: Recent research published by the European Society of Cardiology found that, compared to a daily step count of 2,300 steps, every extra 1,000 steps was linked to “a 22 per cent reduction in heart failure, 9 per cent reduction in risk of heart attack and 24 per cent reduction in risk of stroke”.

The University of Granada study goes on to add that “the more steps you take, the better, and there is no excessive number of steps that has been proven to be harmful to health”. But many people are pressed for time, and after a point there will be diminishing returns. For these reasons, a goal of 7,000, rising to 9,000, “is a sensible health goal for most people”.

Alternatively, if you struggle to hit this figure, just check your current average daily step count on your phone and aim to increase it by 10 per cent each week until you reach 7,000. Or you could try using the methods below for a more efficient health boost through walking.

Read more: What you are getting wrong about high protein products – and the ones which are better than you think

If you don’t have time to walk several thousand steps each day, you can enjoy bonus health perks by improving the quality, not quantity, of your activity levels, according to research from the University of Sydney.

“We focussed on vigorous-intensity physical activity in our research programme because it is by far the most time-efficient form [of activity for achieving various health benefits],” says lead researcher Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis says.

“It is the ‘physiological language’ the body best understands – the extra effort acts as a signal for the body to make adaptations and improvements in, say, how the heart functions or how the body absorbs and transports oxygen to the muscles. For these beneficial health adaptations to happen, the body needs to be pushed regularly, even if it is for a short period of time under one minute.”

The study concluded that significant health benefits can be seen from five to 10 daily 60-second bouts of vigorous-intensity activity – recognisable by a faster breathing rate and an inability to say more than a few words without pausing for breath. This intensity was achieved through incidental daily activities such as climbing the stairs, carrying shopping, playing with your children and even vigorous gardening.

“This seems to be associated with between 30 and 50 per cent lower risk of cardiovascular conditions, cancer and mortality,” Professor Stamatakis adds.

There are several variables you can tweak to increase the intensity of walking; load, conditions and pace. You could add load to your walk by carrying a weighted backpack or rucking, climbing stairs or a steep hill, or increasing your pace to a fast walk or run. Vigorous-intensity activity will also look very different for different people depending on individual factors such as their fitness level, so it pays to play around and find what works for you.

Beyond this, if you can consciously up the pace during incidental daily walks, such as a pop to the shops or journey from your car to the office, you may also see increased health benefits, particularly if you currently lead a sedentary lifestyle.

“The research in this area suggests that most of the benefits [from walking] accumulate at a moderate or higher intensity,” explains Dr Elroy Aguiar, an associate professor of exercise science at The University of Alabama.

During moderate-intensity exercise, your breathing rate is raised, but you can still hold a conversation – this usually equates to a cadence of roughly 110 steps per minute.

Read more: From back pain to heart health – Experts reveal how to counter the negative effects of too much sitting down

Some people squeeze all of their daily movement into an hour of their day, then sit at a desk and lead a sedentary lifestyle for the remainder. Exercise in any form is to be encouraged – something is always better than nothing – but there are drawbacks to this approach.

“Interestingly, data supports the importance of low-intensity activity throughout the day,” says Emily Capodilupo, senior vice president of research, algorithms and data at wearable giant WHOOP. “A lot of that is believed to be mediated by the lymphatic pathway.”

The lymphatic system transports lymph fluid – a liquid that carries nutrients to, and clears harmful substances from, your cells and tissues – through the body. However, unlike blood, it doesn’t have an active pumping system like the heart, and instead relies on the contracting of nearby muscles to funnel it onward. This is triggered by our movements.

“It’s like the sewer system of your body,” Capodilupo explains. “If you don’t contract all of your muscles by moving, you don’t circulate this stuff and it stagnates. You quite literally get stagnating wastewater in the body.”

For this reason, she prescribes regular movement throughout the day – not just during dedicated exercise sessions.

This could mean using a standing desk or walking treadmill at work, performing a few bodyweight exercises like squats, lunges and press-ups every now and then to break up longer sedentary periods, doing a couple of stretches or keeping a kettlebell under your desk – ”At WHOOP HQ, swinging a kettlebell is totally normal, but in some office settings that might be considered eccentric”.

Alternatively, on the Andrew Huberman podcast, spine expert Dr Stuart McGill suggests office workers use an adjustable height desk and employ a formula of 20 minutes of sitting, 30 minutes of standing and 10 minutes of walking each hour.

The common denominator here is the importance of moving your entire body regularly, and avoiding staying in any one posture for a prolonged period of time. Aim to change posture and move at least once every hour, taking inspiration from the routines below.

Read more: Do these five things daily for 90 days to see a ‘profound difference’ in your health, fitness and energy levels

Exercising isn’t normal. Or rather, it didn’t used to be – it was unlikely your ancestors pencilled in a 10K or gym session around their physically-demanding livelihoods.

“There is no doubt that structured exercise is extremely powerful for preventing, managing and in some conditions reversing diseases, but it is an artificial behaviour,” Professor Stamatakis tells me. “It is an adaptation. Our civilisation, for the sake of convenience, speed and other associated reasons, has removed the need to be physically active in day to day life, and our bodies pay a price for that.”

Exercise is the remedy to this. Moving more, through walking, is a great place to start; walking faster on occasion is an excellent next step; but at some point our bodies need a more direct stimulus to trigger positive physiological changes.

This is because the body adheres to the SAID principle, which stands for specific adaptations to imposed demands. Simply: if fuelled and rested adequately, it adapts to become more efficient at the things we consistently ask it to do.

If you lift progressively heavier weights, you will become stronger; if you run further or faster each week, your heart and lungs will become more efficient at delivering fuel to the working muscles.

“Walking 10,000 steps a day is a good starting point, but ideally we want people to progress [from here] and start to engage in exercise beyond just walking, such as moving on to other forms of moderate-vigorous exercise that elevate your heart rate and oxygen consumption,” says Dr Aguiar.

Personal trainer and longevity specialist Ollie Thompson recommends trying to accumulate 150 minutes of cardiovascular exercise – any cyclical activity that raises the heart rate – per week, as per World Health Organisation and NHS guidance.

Of this, 80 per cent can be performed at lower intensities – think walking and similar moderate-intensity activities. The remaining 20 per cent should challenge you with higher intensities.

“This combination builds both a wide aerobic base and a high aerobic peak – known as VO2 max – which is strongly associated with better health, longevity and reduced all-cause mortality,” Thompson says.

He recommends using interval training to achieve this – there are three sample sessions below which all take 30 minutes or less. They can be performed with walking, running, skipping, full-body exercises like burpees or on an exercise machine of your choice (such as an exercise bike or rowing machine) for a lower impact alternative.

Read more: Doctor of strength training shares a 40-minute weekly dumbbell workout plan for building strength and mobility

Walking will build strength in your legs and core if you are new to exercise. However, there will soon come a time where dedicated strength training is needed to see further fitness improvements – and there are plenty of them on the table.

Not only does strength training build strength and muscle, countering age-related losses in these areas, but it also increases tissue tolerance in your tendons, ligaments and bones, leaving you with healthier joints that are less susceptible to injury. Done correctly, it can have a significant positive impact on your physical capacity, mobility, coordination, stability, body composition and metabolic health too. In short, it can help you live life better.

“Muscle tissue is metabolically important in so many ways that I think are under appreciated,” says Capodilupo. “It’s one of the greatest predictors of your ability to live independently in older age. After the age of about 30, you lose one per cent of muscle mass every year unless you intervene to prevent that.

“Your muscle tissue can also absorb sugar, so every pound of muscle mass that you gain can buffer against more sugar,” she adds.

“[…] If we don’t have a lot of muscle mass, we’re forced to only use insulin [to regulate blood sugar] – that’s when you can get an over reliance on that part of the system. That fatigues over time, leading to insulin insensitivity and eventually metabolic dysfunction and type 2 diabetes.”

Strength training does not necessarily mean lifting weights. The phrase encompasses any activity where you are repeatedly contracting your muscles to overcome resistance, whether that’s using dumbbells, barbells, kettlebells, resistance bands or bodyweight exercises – your body doesn’t know the difference, it just understands the need to generate force.

For beginners in particular, two full-body workouts per week will deliver the benefits listed above, so long as you use appropriate weights. A full-body workout means working the muscles in your chest, back, shoulders, arms, legs and core – something you can do in 20 minutes with just four moves if you choose your exercises smartly.

“When you’re a novice, you can go into the gym and do a pushing exercise for your upper body, a pulling exercise for your upper body, something like a squat or lunge for the front of your legs, something like a deadlift for the back of your legs, and then you can walk out after four exercises having worked every major muscle group,” says seasoned strength and conditioning coach Danny Matranga.

“[…] If time is of the utmost importance and you want the most gains from the least number of trips to the gym, total body programmes are very effective.”

The other important fixture to factor into your strength training sessions is progression. The body follows the SAID principle, so to see continued results you need to ask it to do gradually more demanding tasks, in line with your increasing strength and fitness levels.

This might mean performing one more set of an exercise than you did the week before, one more repetition per set, or very gradually increasing the weight you are lifting from session to session. As long as your form is good and the set feels challenging, it will be effective.

If you want to introduce strength training into your routine, you can use the dumbbell workout and exercise demonstrations in the video above, or make your own dumbbell workout using the formula below.

Read more: From exercising for fat loss to building muscle in a calorie deficit – doctor of sport science corrects three fitness myths

“The body is always trying to help us and be more efficient in what we ask it to do,” says Ash Grossmann, a human movement expert and founder of The Training Stimulus.

“If we are sitting behind a computer for eight, 10, 12 or 14 hours per day in a flexed hip position, it thinks that holding that hip flexed is saving us energy and therefore doing us a favour. Tight hip flexors are actually an adaptive change to the way the muscles sit.”

In other words, the body operates on a rough “use it or lose it” basis. If we do an activity regularly, the body will adapt to make it easier for us; if we rarely do a movement, we might lose access to it.

“Varied movement is important,” Grossmann continues. “We want to maintain as many movement options as possible, so that means moving as many joints as possible in as many directions as possible. Doing things like side bends and rotations; they all contribute to a body that feels limber and loose.”

New positions, or those you might not have accessed for a while such as twisting and bending, should be reintroduced gradually – you would not squat 200kg on your first day in the gym, so don’t go straight into a demanding yoga or Pilates routine. However, including varied movements in your week where possible, whether through sport, strength training, yoga, Pilates or other practices, is a good way to maintain freedom of movement.

Read more: Everyone is talking about calisthenics – here’s a 4-week strength training plan (no gym membership required)

If you can stick to the recommendations above each week, chances are you will be fitter than most people. Even if you fall short of the daily step goal and simply move as and when the opportunity arises, the other activities will stand you in good stead while taking up roughly an hour of your week. As far as bang for your buck is concerned, I’d say that’s pretty good.

Read more: How to start weight training – with this simple formula for strength and longevity

Services restoring after hours-long IT failures at Azure hit 365, Xbox and more

The Azure outage that touched applications across the web and the global economy on Wednesday appears to be over.

A Microsoft dashboard on Azure’s status showed no active events as of Wednesday evening.

The Independent has contacted the company for further information.

The apparent end comes after the outage caused issues on the website for London’s Heathrow Airport, while Alaska Airlines wrote on X that the outage caused “disruption to key systems, including our websites,” and customers reported lines at the terminal.

Microsoft confirmed the original outage, blaming an “inadvertent configuration change” for the problems.

Customers also reported issues with the Starbucks app and the Costco website, while others claimed difficulties using Microsoft-affiliated products like Office 365, Minecraft and Xbox Live.

Some users on downdetector.com also reported outages with Amazon Web Services, though the tech giant denied any issues with its cloud service.

The Azure outage comes a week after issues on Amazon’s cloud platform impacted numerous companies and apps.