How King Charles helped criminals to ‘feel’ again through bee-keeping

King Charles has inspired a bee-keeping project in prison that is teaching criminals about relationships and the importance of living in “harmony” within a community.

The King’s new documentary about environmentalism, Finding Harmony: A King’s Vision, follows the monarch as he reflects on the importance of harmony between humanity, nature and the environment.

The 77-year-old said he “wasn’t going to be diverted” from his environmental campaigning, despite the criticism he has faced over the decades, which he said had led to his activism being derided as “completely bonkers”.

The 90-minute Prime Video film focuses on Charles’ Harmony theory, which encourages audiences to see ourselves as part of nature rather than apart from nature.

The project, which began decades ago at the monarch’s private country residence, Highgrove House, in Gloucestershire, in the early 1980s, has now spread as far as HMP Bristol, where prisoners run a bee-keeping academy.

Muhammed Foulds, head of chaplaincy at the category B high-security prison, explains to viewers: “We are seeing these individuals coming here because society’s broken, the family’s broken, so of course you’re going to get broken individuals.

“All these bees work in harmony, hence the harmony project here.

“99.99 per cent of prisoners are here because they have no understanding of a relationship – husband, wife, boyfriend, girlfriend, family breakdown. The natural world is going to teach them about relationships, how to think as an ecosystem.”

The audience see prisoners in protective bee suits, tending to their hives, which have produced honey.

Inmate Andrew says: “When you see them all working as one, it is quite a fascinating thing. I feel quite relaxed, even though they could attack you. They just go along with their daily thing.”

Mr Foulds adds: “The whole life of a hive is a system, is a city within a city. And they make that connection – you’re not just an individual, but you live within a community. Then we make that link with wider society, and we keep emphasising the umbrella of every step is harmony.”

The documentary, made in collaboration with the monarch’s charity, The King’s Foundation, for Amazon MGM Studios, became the first film to premiere in a royal residence when a cast of stars joined the King for a screening at Windsor Castle last week.

Actors including Benedict Cumberbatch, Sir Kenneth Branagh, Dame Judi Dench and Stanley Tucci were among 222 guests, alongside musicians Sir Rod Stewart and Jools Holland, plus Oscar-winner Kate Winslet, who narrates the documentary.

The film, believed to be the King’s first documentary with a streaming platform, describes how Charles, as Prince of Wales, emerged as a key figure on the environment, making regular keynote speeches. In new footage, he says: “I just felt this was the approach that I was going to stick to – a course I set, and I wasn’t going to be diverted from.”

This commitment to the cause came despite “cries from some that he should take a back seat”, Winslet says.

Archive footage shows Charles describing how he talks to plants, is included in the film, which Winsley describes as having “haunted him ever since”.

Reflecting on previous depictions and perceptions of him, the King says: “All these things were considered completely bonkers to say the least.”

But now, the King’s warnings about the planet are accepted facts among the mainstream.

When asked if he is concerned about the state of the world, Charles replies: “Of course – that has been my main motivation for a long time. And you can see what’s happened. The principles underlying what I call l harmony, I think we need to follow if we’re to ensure that this poor old planet can support so many.”

After an academic comments that the world is not on the “trajectory” needed to limit the worst effects of climate change, Charles issues a call to action. He exclaims: “It’s rapidly going backwards, I’ve said that for the last 40 years, but anyway, there we are… I can only do what I can do, which is not very much – anyway.

“People don’t seem to understand it’s not just climate that’s the problem, it’s also biodiversity loss, so we’re actually destroying our means of survival, all the time.

“To put that back together again is possible, but we should have been doing it long ago. We’ve got to do it as fast as we can now.”

Afghanistan is among the other places the Harmony project has impacted. Charity Turquoise Mountain was established in 2006 in the capital, Kabul. After the Taliban takeover in 2021, women and girls’ fundamental rights have been systematically stripped, but due to the charity’s contribution to healthcare and Afghan heritage, it has enabled tens of thousands of Afghan women to access jobs and healthcare, according to the documentary.

The audience also gets a glimpse into the monarch’s more private world, with shots of Charles collecting eggs from his chickens, who are housed in a coop called “Cluckingham Palace” on his Highgrove estate. He goes on to reveal his love of a crispy baked potato, declaring that “red Duke of Yorks” are the best variety for this.

The King ends his documentary with an expression of hope that “by the time I shuffle off this mortal coil” there might be more awareness of the “need to bring things back together again”.

Finding Harmony: A King’s Vision is released on Friday on Prime Video in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide.

Head of Reform council’s cost-cutting programme resigns after suggesting authority has made ‘no cuts’

The head of Reform UK’s ‘flagship’ council’s cost-cutting programme has resigned after suggesting the authority had “not made any cuts”.

Matthew Fraser Moat has stood down from Kent County Council’s (KCC) cabinet after an interview with the Financial Times in which he and another cabinet minister appeared to suggest the authority had not saved money.

The Reform UK councillor had been the head of the council’s Department of Local Government Efficiency (Dolge), which was inspired by Elon Musk’s cost-cutting Doge in the US.

According to the newspaper article, Mr Moat said he was proud the council “had not actually made any cuts”, adding “we haven’t cut frontline services other than what the Conservatives had already planned to do”.

His colleague, deputy cabinet minister Paul Chamberlain, also told the Financial Times that they had not found the vast amount of waste they had expected to when they came into power last year.

“We made some assumptions that we would come in here and find some of the craziness that [Elon Musk’s cost-cutting vehicle] Doge found in America . . . and that was wrong, we didn’t find any of that,” he said.

Mr Chamberlain added that members in the former Conservative council “weren’t crazy, they were business people”.

Mr Moat stepped down from his role on Tuesday, but claimed the pressures of his role at County Hall and running the family business had led to “a lapse of judgement” which meant his words had been “twisted” by the Financial Times to “fit into an anti-KCC narrative”.

Kent County Council said the article “does not accurately reflect the position” at the authority and that it “presents a selective account of the council’s work on efficiency and value for money”.

Reform UK took control of KCC after the local elections in May where it overturned a 30-year Tory majority, winning 57 out of 81 seats.

During the election campaign, and when they came to power, Reform promised to “reduce waste” which manifested as the Musk-style Department of Local Government Efficiency.

Questions have been raised about what progress the department has made, after the local authority raised council tax by almost 4 per cent despite pledges to cut taxes before last year’s local elections.

“It was a great honour to be asked to serve as a cabinet member and since then I have tried to balance my Council responsibilities with the responsibilities of my family business,” Mr Moat said.

“The pressure of giving my best to both roles led to a lapse of judgement in a recent conversation with a journalist in which I was very disappointed to see my words twisted to fit what I believe to be an anti-KCC narrative by the newspaper in question.

“It has become clear to me that continuing as Head of Dolge is not sustainable, and now that KCC has delivered a balanced budget and stabilised the council’s finances, I have decided to step down from my role as a cabinet member.”

A Reform UK spokesperson said the “unfair and selective reporting from the Financial Times does not accurately represent the position at Kent County Council”.

“In just eight months, the Reform UK administration have found £100m of efficiencies through their Dolge efforts, finding £14m of savings just to ensure that council tax increases for residents are kept to a minimum,” they added.

“These efforts continue, with hundreds of millions of pounds of future savings already identified. Across the country, Reform councillors continue to prove their commitment to keeping taxes low and delivering value for money in every decision they make.”

Melinda Gates: Epstein files bring back ‘very painful’ memories of marriage

Melinda French Gates has spoken out about being mentioned in the latest batch of Epstein files and addressed claims about her ex-husband, Bill Gates.

The 61-year-old, who shares three children with the billionaire, appeared on NPR’s Wild Card podcast this week and was quizzed by host Rachel Martin about the Jeffrey Epstein case after she was mentioned in documents released Friday by the Department of Justice.

Melinda Gates said society was “having a reckoning” and that it “brings back memories of some very, very painful times” in her marriage to the Microsoft founder.

“But I have moved on from that. I purposely pushed it away and I moved on,” she said. “I’m in a really unexpected, beautiful place in my life, so whatever questions remain there of what… I can’t even begin to know all of it. Those questions are for those people and for even my ex-husband,” she continued. “They need to answer to those things, not me.”

The couple announced their divorce in May 2021 after 27 years of marriage.

Martin asked the philanthropist specifically about the contents of one draft email Epstein allegedly wrote on July 18 2013, regarding her ex-husband in which she is mentioned by name.

“The emails in the files suggest that Bill Gates had additional affairs, and that he tried to get medication to treat a sexually transmitted infection, and that he was going to give you the medicine without you knowing,” Martin summarized, and asked what “dominant emotion” Melinda Gates felt after reading news articles about the email.

“Just unbelievable sadness,” Melinda Gates responded. “I’m able to take my own sadness and look at those young girls and say, ‘My God, how did they… How did that happen to those girls, right?”

“At least for me, I’ve been able to move on in life, and I hope there’s some justice for those now women,” she added.

A spokesperson for Bill Gates vehemently denied the allegations made in the note.

“These claims are absolutely absurd and completely false,” the spokesperson previously told The Independent. “The only thing these documents demonstrate is Epstein’s frustration that he did not have an ongoing relationship with Gates and the lengths he would go to entrap and defame.”

The same year as the couple announced their divorce, Gates told PBS News that he had dinners with Epstein in the hopes of raising funds for global health. He described the meetings as “a mistake.”

Melinda Gates stepped down from the Gates Foundation in May 2024.

The newly released email was one of more than three million documents released Friday to comply with the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which was signed into law in November.

Among the newly released files are thousands of emails, court documents and photos, many of which reference high-profile individuals, such as President Donald Trump, former President Bill Clinton and Elon Musk. Being named in the files does not, in and of itself, constitute evidence of wrongdoing.

Brendan Rascius contributed to this report

Musk calls Spanish PM ‘fascist’ as X hits out over French office raid

Elon Musk has slammed Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez as a “true fascist totalitarian” after he proposed a ban on social media use by teenagers, as Europe toughens its stance against tech giants.

In a furious response on his social media site X, the tech billionaire described the Spanish prime minister – who had earlier promised to protect children from the “digital Wild West” – as a “tyrant and traitor to the people of Spain”.

Sanchez had described social media on Tuesday as a “failed state where laws are ignored and crimes are tolerated”, challenging Mr Musk for using X to “amplify disinformation” regarding the decision by Madrid to regularise 500,000 undocumented immigrants.

Mr Musk’s tirade came just hours after authorities raided X’s Paris headquarters, prompting the company to hit back at French prosecutors for what it called an “abusive and illegitimate” move.

The Paris Public Prosecutor’s office carried out the raid as part of a cyber crime investigation into alleged manipulation of algorithms, fraudulent data extraction, and the use of the site’s AI chatbot, Grok, to produce child abuse images and sexually explicit deepfakes.

Mr Musk and the former CEO of X Corp, Linda Yaccarino, have also been summoned to a “voluntary” hearing on 20 April.

In a statement to The Independent, X accused French authorities of an “abusive act of law enforcement theatre designed to achieve illegitimate political objectives”. The company did not specify the nature of the political objectives.

The raid marks the first time the tech billionaire has been summoned by prosecutors over the use of Grok, after thousands of sexually explicit images were created of real women without their consent using the AI tool. In mid-January, the company finally implemented “technological measures” to prevent the practice.

Several investigations have since been opened into Grok’s parent company, xAI. The latest such investigation was announced by the UK Information Commissioner’s Office on Tuesday afternoon, just hours after the raid by French police.

Previous investigations had been opened by the European Commission and by the UK’s media and communications regulator, Ofcom.

The full statement, posted from X’s Global Government Affairs team account, read: “French judicial authorities raided X’s Paris office today in connection with a politicized criminal investigation into alleged manipulation of algorithms and purported fraudulent data extraction. We are disappointed by this development, but we are not surprised.

“The Paris Public Prosecutor’s office widely publicized the raid—making clear that today’s action was an abusive act of law enforcement theater designed to achieve illegitimate political objectives rather than advance legitimate law enforcement goals rooted in the fair and impartial administration of justice.”

It continued: “The Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office is plainly attempting to exert pressure on X’s senior management in the United States by targeting our French entity and employees, who are not the focus of this investigation.

“The Prosecutor’s Office has ignored the established procedural mechanisms to obtain evidence in compliance with international treaties and X’s rights to defend itself. These procedural mechanisms are well known and used on a daily basis by judicial authorities around the world.

“The allegations underlying today’s raid are baseless and X categorically denies any wrongdoing. Today’s staged raid reinforces our conviction that this investigation distorts French law, circumvents due process, and endangers free speech. X is committed to defending its fundamental rights and the rights of its users. We will not be intimidated by the actions of French judicial authorities today.”

Guardiola stands on the edge of greatness and only Arteta can stop him

Pep Guardiola’s claim to greatness stems from much more than just the Carabao Cup but a man who has won much else is now one victory away from being out on his own as the most successful manager in its history. Only the ally turned enemy, Mikel Arteta, who was by his side for the first two of his four Wembley triumphs in this competition, can deny him a fifth, which would take him clear of Brian Clough, Jose Mourinho and Sir Alex Ferguson.

“Ten years, five times in Carabao Cup final, it is really good,” said Guardiola. “It’s a pleasure to play against Arsenal, the best team right now in Europe and maybe the world.” Newcastle certainly could not halt him. Their defence of their first major trophy since 1969 ended with a whimper. Their chances of a comeback were all but ended inside seven minutes, gone completely after 32 minutes and snuffed out in part by the goalkeeper they forever try to buy. “I am really annoyed with the first-half display,” said Eddie Howe. His side were dispatched from the competition by a much-weakened Manchester City side.

Even as Guardiola gave Erling Haaland 70 minutes of rest, he had the ideal alternative. Some 42 percent of Omar Marmoush’s City goals have been against Newcastle, even if his double came in distinctly fortunate fashion. Newcastle had no such luck, no potency when it mattered. Wembley glory last year came courtesy of Alexander Isak but the Swede is gone and so, now, is their trophy. Anthony Gordon, their outstanding individual over 180 minutes in the 2025 semi-final against Arsenal, went off, hamstrung. It was another indication of how times have changed.

The sad reality for Newcastle is that City progressed while prioritising Sunday’s trip to Liverpool. Rodri, Rayan Cherki, the fit-again Ruben Dias and Gianluigi Donnarumma joined Haaland on the bench, though Guardiola ended up summoning three of them for the last 20 minutes. Bernardo Silva was absent altogether and is, Guardiola said, “an incredible doubt” to face Liverpool. Marc Guehi was also missing, with Guardiola annoyed he remains ineligible. “I don’t understand how can’t play the final, we bought a player for a lot of money,” said the City manager. He plans to ask for Guehi to be able to play at Wembley, though that may require a rule change.

Not that he needed his £20m buy in either leg of the semi-final. Much of the hard work was done on Tyneside. In the rematch, City’s task was to avoid a repeat of Sunday. City had squandered a 2-0 lead over Tottenham. They entered this game with the same advantage, and produced a very different outcome.

They were soon ahead. Minus Haaland, Marmoush and Antoine Semenyo were the spearheads of a 4-2-2-2 formation. Each was prominent from the off. “The first goal was very lucky,” admitted Marmoush. As Dan Burn tackled him, the ball ricocheted in off the Egyptian. There may have been something symbolic in that: Burn scored the towering header in last season’s final and now, in his defensive duties, he inadvertently contributed to City leading.

Marmoush’s second came courtesy of Kieran Trippier, in attempting to clear Semenyo’s low cross, only succeeded in spooning the ball up in the air. Marmoush headed it over the line from a yard. Guardiola was delighted with him. “He gives us his special qualities,” he said. “His movements are really top.”

Semenyo, scorer of the first in the first leg, played a part in two goals in the second. When Burn tackled him, the ball fell for Tijjani Reijnders to finish. “The goals were strange,” said Howe. “They were not necessarily coming from pressure, but from individual mistakes and errors. Following on from Liverpool, it is a worrying trend.”

Meanwhile, Newcastle were frustrated by a man invariably on their wishlist. Howe targets James Trafford every summer. The goalkeeper demonstrated why. Fine saves from Joe Willock, Gordon and Kieran Trippier, all at 1-0, denied United an equaliser on the night. He later stopped Sven Botman from scoring in what was probably the finest display of his City career. “James was unbelievable,” said Guardiola. “He is going to play in the first Carabao Cup final for him.”

If Guardiola’s selection choices worked, Howe’s did not. He had used a back three to considerable success in last season’s semi-final against Arsenal. Repeating that strategy backfired. Despite Newcastle’s many defenders, they were caught on the break for City’s second and third goals.

When Howe made a triple attacking change, the opportunities Newcastle fashioned should leave them with regrets they were not more positive from the off. Yoane Wissa missed a terrific chance with his first touch.

But, some 32 games into his Newcastle career, Anthony Elanga finally scored his first goal, after a terrific solo run. The former Manchester United winger’s name was chorused by the travelling Tynesiders and he ought to have had a second. Harvey Barnes also looked a threat.

When Newcastle threatened to cut City apart, Guardiola was concerned. “We have to fix it,” he said. His answer was to send for Rodri, Cherki and Haaland and, from the Frenchman’s pass, the Norwegian had a shot tipped on to the post by Aaron Ramsdale. It spared Newcastle further punishment but this was a familiar outcome. They have lost their last 12 games at the Etihad Stadium, conceding 40 goals.

Some of the City faithful still stayed away. The empty seats were referenced in taunts by the Newcastle fans. Perhaps their City counterparts were saving their money for Wembley. They will go there, to face Arsenal and Arteta.

The smart moment to get ahead of your business budget

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Replace ‘doomed’ student loans with graduate tax, says ex-watchdog

A graduate tax could replace student loans, according to the former director at the student regulator, who called the current system “doomed”.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves faces growing calls for change after she defended student loans despite the amounts owed by graduates becoming harder to pay off.

Former director of the Office for Students, John Blake, who stood down last month, has now claimed reform is inevitable and the government must listen to graduates with mounting debts as interest rates soar.

“The English student loan system is doomed,” he told The Times. “Not because it’s a bad deal – on paper, it’s remarkably generous. But those who built it did not factor in what it would feel like once the repayments started ramping up.

“To a generation of graduates now entering their early thirties, watching nine per cent of every paycheque disappear while their debt total somehow keeps growing, it feels oppressive. It feels like an incomprehensibly unfair deal they did not understand and now cannot escape. And a system that feels so suffocating to so many is fundamentally broken, no matter how many graphs about average graduate salaries we make.”

Those on “Plan 2” loans, who started university between 2012 and 2023, are charged interest of RPI plus up to three per cent from the beginning of their studies. Student loan borrowers on Plan 2 in England and Wales repay nine per cent of their income once they earn at least £28,470 annually. The loan is written off after 30 years.

Whether or not the loan was financially beneficial to university hopefuls wasn’t considered, according to Mr Blake, because: “if it isn’t, you’ll never pay back what you borrowed, and you’ll never have to pay your student loan back ahead of, say, buying food”.

But he added: “It isn’t playing out like that: the frozen repayment threshold means that even those at an entry level of their profession can earn enough to have them paying back, but their debt is such that, unless they reach the very, very top earning brackets, they aren’t going to be clear of it before that retirement write-off.

“Every year the Student Loans Company sends them an update, and for many, that shows that they’re further in debt now than they were when they left university. It feels overwhelming, to lose nearly a tenth of your earnings to not even make a dent in your borrowing, especially as the cost of living gallops up around you. That you won’t be paying your student loans out of your pension isn’t, it turns out, much comfort.”

Martin Lewis, founder of MoneySavingExpert, has urging Ms Reeves to rethink freezing the student loan repayment threshold. He told BBC Newsnight last week: “People on Plan 2 loans have above-inflation loans that are linked to inflation.

“So when we’ve had high inflation, their interest rates have gone up and that has been particularly painful. And even though those rates have come down a little, well, you’ve still got a lot more now added on top of your loan, which makes it more difficult.”

Health secretary Wes Streeting has now said the debate surrounding student loans is “worth having” as it feels “quite tough” for young graduates.

As a former president of the National Union of Students, he said that while he thought it was fair to ask graduates to make a financial contribution: “In all of the systems that we’ve seen to charge students, or indeed graduates, I don’t think any of them have got it right.”

“The long and short of it is, I do think we need to look in the round at all of this. I think there’s a debate for us to have as a country about what our priorities are. And there are all sorts of things you could do with student finance. For example, you could say the interest rate is too high or you could say the repayment threshold is too low, or you could say that the amount that’s taken each month is too high.”

Alex Stanley, vice president for higher education at the National Union of Students, said: “We are having a national debate; the call is loud and clear. The system is broken beyond sticking plaster repairs. It isn’t working for students. It isn’t working for graduates. It isn’t working for universities. The Chancellor needs to reverse her decision to freeze the repayment thresholds.”

The BBC has axed its most life-affirming show when we need it more than ever

The BBC has sadly confirmed there are no plans for a fourth season of Freddie Flintoff’s Field of Dreams, one of the best, most uplifting documentary series to hit our screens in recent years. In an age where reality commissioning either leans towards perma-tanned castmates having rows fuelled by producers, or PR-managed, glossy docuseries (David and Victoria Beckham, I’m looking at you), Field of Dreams was a shining light.

Its premise was simple: former all-rounder Flintoff – one of the few England cricketers to reach household name status – would return to his home city of Preston, and inspire teenagers in the former mill town to give the notoriously posh sport a go. But, as the Ashes winner soon found out, convincing a lively crew of working-class kids to don their cricket whites would not be easy.

The first season, which arrived like a breath of fresh air in 2022, began with Flintoff organising tryouts in his home city, where the poverty rate is above the national average and more than 21 per cent of children are in low-income families. While the ex-England player was too modest to say it on camera, he had clearly quietly – and understandably – assumed his celebrity status would result in a decent turnout. He was left dismayed then, when his desperate appeals resulted in just a handful of nonchalant teenagers turning up at trials.

Nevertheless, with the help of his former Lancashire teammate Kyle Hogg, Flintoff scraped (and I mean scraped) a team together. Hope thankfully arrived midway through series one in the form of Adnan, a softly spoken Afghan refugee with dreams of playing professionally (he has since made his debut for Lancashire’s second team).

As is often the case with the best shows inspired by sport, Field of Dreams wasn’t really about what was happening on the pitch. Instead, it was a tale of fighting against the odds, and the power of friendship and camaraderie, with more than a few hilarious one-liners, courtesy of the rambunctious teenage players.

The second series took a turn nobody saw coming. Early episodes saw Flintoff and Hogg lay out their ambitious plan to take the team on a life-changing trip to India. But it was Flintoff’s life that was suddenly altered immeasurably when a horrific accident while filming Top Gear left the presenter with severe injuries and in need of extensive facial surgery.

Assistant coach Hogg broke the news to the boys, and filming was put on pause. While enduring a recovery that involved multiple operations, and led to bouts of severe anxiety and flashbacks, Flintoff essentially went into hiding and later admitted he didn’t leave the house for eight months.

After an extended break, the show went on. Cameras were rolling as Flintoff, visibly changed and still shaken, reunited with the team. With their once seemingly fearless leader on the ropes, the teenagers stepped up. Field of Dreams morphed into something new and even more special, as the boys – with pot noodles and Pringles in their suitcases – supported Flintoff through his nervous return to the spotlight. Standout moments saw Flintoff and several of the teens join Adnan in fasting during Ramadan, before youngster Ben, who was homeless and unemployed, began considering a career in education after a visit to a Kolkata orphanage.

The ever-ambitious Flintoff took things up a notch in the third series and started three more teams, two for boys in Bootle and Manchester, and his first girls’ side in Blackpool. To put it bluntly, the Bootle lads made the Preston OGs look positively angelic. The embattled Kyle Hogg bore the brunt of their behaviour, along with a new recruit, ex-England bowler Kate Cross, who surely had no idea what she was getting herself into.

The star of the show this time around was Presley, a Manchester newbie with a heart of gold, who had suffered at the hands of bullies and struggled to make friends at school. He finally seemed to find his place in the world thanks to the ragtag team, which left his mum in floods of relieved, happy tears.

Why then, has the BBC called time on one of its most heartwarming offerings? With the news agenda dominated by ICE raids, the Epstein files and Iran-US tensions, we’re more in need than ever of a reminder that people can be kind. The season three finale delivered a fairytale ending of sorts, as Flintoff’s four teams faced each other in a tournament. Whether each side would survive beyond filming still felt uncertain, which surely left plenty of room for a fourth outing.

Perhaps Flintoff himself is behind the decision, or maybe execs at the BBC thought the story had run its course. Whatever happened behind the scenes, hopefully Field of Dreams gives commissioners food for thought. Leave over-produced efforts and fame-hungry casts behind; life-affirming shows like this are what we’re crying out for. And more Presleys. TV could definitely do with those, especially in these troubling times.