White House says Trump ‘believes Putin is winning’

The White House has said president Donald Trump “believes” Vladimir Putin is winning the war with Ukraine.

The statement follows a Wall Street Journal that Mr Trump told European leaders after a phone call with Mr Putin that the Russian president is not ready to end the war. If correct, this marks the first time Mr Trump has suggested Mr Putin isn’t interested in peace.

The White House, however, denied this account. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said Trump “did say he believes Putin is winning the war but he never said ‘Putin isn’t ready to end the war’.”

Meanwhile, finance ministers and central bank governors from the Group of Seven countries threatened to increase sanctions on Russia if it failed to reach a ceasefire with Ukraine.

The communique condemned “Russia’s continued brutal war against Ukraine” in language that was milder than in their statement last year.

As fighting continued, Russia shut down at least three airports in Moscow after they were targeted by overnight Ukrainian drone strikes.

Authorities suspended flight operations at Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky airports after mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Russian air defence had shot down six drones that were “flying towards Moscow”.

Trump blocks foreign student enrolment at Harvard in major escalation

Donald Trump’s administration is blocking Harvard University from enrolling international students and is forcing currently enrolled foreign students to leave the university or risk losing their legal status in the country.

Thursday’s announcement accelerates the administration’s pressure campaign against the nation’s oldest school in an escalating effort to bend institutions to the president’s ideologically driven demands.

The Trump administration previously warned that the university’s federal funding was at risk if it did not comply with the president’s efforts to eliminate diversity programs, cooperate with immigration enforcement, dissolve pro-Palestine demonstrations and submit to a “viewpoint diversity” audit.

The Department of Homeland Security claims Harvard “has created an unsafe campus environment by permitting anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators to harass and physically assault individuals, including many Jewish students, and otherwise obstruct its once-venerable learning environment.”

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accused the university of “fostering violence, antisemitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party.”

“Harvard had plenty of opportunity to do the right thing. It refused,” she said in a statement. “They have lost their Student and Exchange Visitor Program certification as a result of their failure to adhere to the law. Let this serve as a warning to all universities and academic institutions across the country.”

Roughly 6,800 international students attended Harvard this year, making up more than a quarter of the university’s student body.

A spokesman for the university called the move “unlawful.”

“We are fully committed to maintaining Harvard’s ability to host our international students and scholars, who hail from more than 140 countries and enrich the university — and this nation — immeasurably,” according to a statement from media relations director Jason Newton. “We are working quickly to provide guidance and support to members of our community. This retaliatory action threatens serious harm to the Harvard community and our country, and undermines Harvard’s academic and research mission.”

Thursday’s announcement arrived as a federal judge blocked the Trump administration from revoking legal status for international students nationwide while a legal challenge is ongoing.

The order from California District Judge Jeffrey White blocks the government from arresting or jailing students over their legal status after the administration “wreaked havoc” on the lives of hundreds of foreign students studying in the United States.

White, who was nominated by George W. Bush, issued a nationwide injunction following a lawsuit from a group of students whose legal statuses were abruptly terminated by immigration officials earlier this year. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said he has “proudly” terminated hundreds of student visas.

In March, Columbia University in New York agreed to an unprecedented set of demands from the Trump administration — largely in an effort to combat pro-Palestine demonstrations against Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza — in an attempt to claw back roughly $400 million in federal funding that the Trump administration pulled from the school.

Dozens of other universities were warned they could similarly lose hundreds of millions federal funding if they didn’t fall in line with the president’s vision of campus civil rights, which has categorized all participants in pro-Palestine protests, which included scores of Jewish student leaders, as antisemitic Hamas sympathizers.

The administration then threatened to pull $9 billion from Harvard, the nation’s oldest and wealthiest university.

Harvard then filed a lawsuit alleging that Trump was simultaneously “exploiting” and ignoring federal law and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which forbids discrimination at federally funded institutions.

“Threats like these are an existential ‘gun to the head’ for a university,” according to the complaint. “They overtly seek to impose on Harvard University political views and policy preferences advanced by the Trump administration and commit the University to punishing disfavored speech.”

Harvard president Alan Garber and university lawyers also said the school would not agree to the demands.

“No government — regardless of which party is in power — should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue,” Garber wrote.

Inside the obsessive, compulsive making of a Wes Anderson set

In The Phoenician Scheme, industrialist Zsa-zsa Korda (Benicio del Toro), one of the richest men in Europe, invites his only daughter, nun Liesl (Mia Threapleton), to become his heir on a trial basis. She arranges quarters for herself as humble as can be acquired within the walls of an Italian palazzo-style manor, with its trompe l’oeil marble walls and stacks of paintings by old masters left to gather dust in the hallways.

She sleeps in a cot bed, below an oil work of a young girl sat curled up in the grass. It’s by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. We’re shown the bed two or three times, and only in passing. But, as the film’s set decorator Anna Pinnock assures me, it was supplied with a “thick mattress with real horsehair”, custom-made using traditional techniques, and then fitted with “old linen from French markets that we cut up and remade”.

Welcome to a Wes Anderson set. Here, no detail is insignificant, no corner cut. His worlds are jewellery box-fantasies, with his most recent escapades – The French Dispatch, Asteroid City, and Roald Dahl anthology film The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Three More – leaning only further into the idea of artifice, of revealing to the audience the artist’s touch. In The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, we see stagehands scuttling about, dragging props and scenery in and out of view. Asteroid City is presented to us as a television show about the staging of a play about an alien visitation. At one point, Bryan Cranston’s narrator turns up in the extraterrestrial story only to stop, ask, “Am I not in this?” and then politely retreat.

The Phoenician Scheme is no different. As Pinnock notes, in the main hall where Korda holds court with both family and business associates alike (no difference between the two, in his mind), there’s a single wooden table on a dais, a raised platform, dressed with “the key elements essential for his business work”.

There’s the odd notepad and pen, a skull to serve as a memento mori, and plans for his most ambitious project yet – an infrastructure scheme in the conflict-blighted, Middle Eastern nation of Modern Greater Independent Phoenicia – organised and divided into a set of small shoeboxes. “But you’ve also got the entry points,” Pinnock adds. “The various doors around the set, which is very much like a stage set, you know? You think of a farce, with people running in and out of doors.”

There’s a wonderful irony to all this. Anderson is famously meticulous, replicating the zebra-adorned, red wallpaper of a now-closed New York Italian eatery for Margot Tenenbaum’s bedroom, or commissioning Marc Jacobs to custom-build a set of monogrammed luggage for the Whitman brothers in The Darjeeling Limited, with the caveat that they must include a dedicated appendage to store a tennis racket. These worlds of his are strange and spirited, several leagues of aesthetic perfection and emotional repression removed from ours. And yet they’re crafted with such comprehensive detail that they feel complete, and utterly convincing in their own way.

This proves especially key to The Phoenician Scheme, where you can sense Anderson – and his frequent collaborator Roman Coppola, co-credited with its story – are trying to work through their rising despair at the state of our own reality. It’s his darkest and most violent film yet, peppered with multiple exploding bodies, gunshot wounds, and poisonings.

And Korda, one of Anderson’s archetypal “bad dads” (think Gene Hackman’s Royal Tenenbaum, Bill Murray’s Steve Zissou, and so forth), is his least sympathetic yet. He’s capitalism if it had somehow acquired and learned to puppeteer a human body. He thinks nothing of using slave labour and inducing famines, nothing of the western opportunists carving up the Middle East for their own gain in the turbulent post-war years. “I don’t live anywhere,” he proudly declares. “I’m not a citizen at all. I don’t need my human rights.”

Everyone’s curious about his childhood, convinced there’s some traumatic incident that might unlock his monstrosity. But the explanation seems simpler than that: he’s defined by the sense of lacking within him, and so spreads out his identity across all the material goods he can acquire. His wealth seems infinite. He has nine sons, several adopted on the off-chance one grows up to be a genius. He’s a voracious reader, always with some book about the history of forgery or pavement engineering in hand. And then there’s all the art. The mountains and mountains of art.

“At the beginning, you know, I was asking, ‘What’s the background of this man?’” Pinnock says. “And we went through all sorts of industrialist collectors, Getty and Hearst and people like that. And then we alighted on [British-Armenian businessman] Calouste Gulbenkian, who was a collector. His collection is in Lisbon now. It’s housed in a museum in Lisbon, but he was a 19th-century collector.” In the minds of these capitalist culture hounds, there’s an idea that hoarding talent means gaining a share in it. “Never buy good pictures. Buy masterpieces,” Korda’s mantra goes.

These pictures, in The Phoenician Scheme, never amount to more than a background detail. Yet, they’re crucial to the understanding of who Korda is and how he operates, and so Anderson did what only Wes Anderson could ever do – acquire genuine masterpieces to cameo in his film. The Renoir above Liesl’s bed is from the private collection of brothers David and Ezra Nahmad. A Magritte is from a collection amassed by Ulla and Heiner Pietzsch. The rest are from Hamburger Kunsthalle, an art museum in Hamburg.

“That came about through someone called Jasper Sharp, who’s a curator and a friend of Wes’s,” says Pinnock. “He was very helpful in the sourcing and procuring of the real items, which obviously involved its own thread of, you know, the curators, the guards, the conditions to store the paintings in – they had to be stored in another museum local to Babelsburg [Studios, outside of Berlin] overnight. So it was a big operation. But he helped with that, and he also helped me in validating what would stand up and be acceptable as background rented paintings, that were good enough to not be competing with the real thing.”

Pinnock’s first collaboration with Anderson, and with his go-to production designer, Adam Stockhausen, was 2014’s The Grand Budapest Hotel (she and Stockhausen have also worked together on several other non-Andersons, including last year’s Blitz). The Grand Budapest Hotel was what she calls “a strange movie, in a way”. There was an early plan to film it entirely at Babelsberg, with the odd trip out to location – which is, in fact, how The Phoenician Scheme was shot. But Anderson found himself drawn to the small town of Görlitz, on the German-Polish border, a popular filming location already featured in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds and George Clooney’s The Monuments Men. It even housed an ideal space for the hotel itself, an old department store known as the Görlitzer Warenhaus, with five floors built around a large, central atrium.

“So [Anderson] decided to take the whole production on the road,” Pinnock says. “We weren’t any longer in our flats in Berlin. We were suddenly three hours away, down in this little town Görlitz. It changed the strategy, and it changed the daily contact that I would have with Adam, because I had to be in Berlin half the week, sourcing stuff. We did source stuff locally, but it really was coming in from all over, and very often via Berlin. So it was quite the scramble. It sort of serendipitously came together.”

Thankfully, Pinnock and Stockhausen had an unusual guide in Anderson’s assemblage of animatics, storyboards stitched together with sound, here used to pre-visualise nearly 90 per cent of the film. “That’s enormously helpful because the way Wes draws the cartoons, you know the bucket that he has drawn,” she says. “Sometimes he doesn’t want you to merely follow the cartoon. He wants you to bring your ideas, but you certainly have a great anchor. You know from the details in the cartoon that certain specific items are going to be very, very important to him.”

“Sometimes I might show Adam Stockhausen a board of stuff I’ve done, and then we maybe show some elements of that to Wes,” she continues. “Or if it’s something we know he’s fixating on or very keen to be a part of – which is a lot of it – we send him images and communicate that way. And he’s very responsive. He loves to be involved, and it is a real pleasure to work for a director who’s so interested in every detail of everything you do. It’s very gratifying when we get it right. It feels like a proper collaboration.”

The Phoenician Scheme saw Anderson host nightly, communal cast and crew dinners, a now-famous tradition on his sets. “It does make you feel like you’re a part of a repertory company,” Pinnock notes. “It’s very nice.” Indeed, Anderson’s films may be filled with dysfunction, but the ethos behind making them is nothing but harmony.

‘The Phoenician Scheme’ is in cinemas

Arsenal’s inspiration is their own past: ‘It can start the cycle over’

When Kim Little leads Arsenal out onto the pitch at the Estadio Jose Alvalade in Lisbon, the first step they will have to face is believing they belong there. On the other side, Barcelona by now expect to be appearing in Women’s Champions League finals, as the all-conquering Spanish team target a third European title in a row and a fourth in five seasons.

Arsenal can’t afford to think too much about their opposition. Barcelona are the best team in the world and progressed to the Lisbon final by demolishing Chelsea, the best in England, 8-2 in the semi-finals. That Chelsea finished 12 points ahead of the Gunners in this season’s Women’s Super League, but were so comfortably dismissed by Barcelona in Europe, underlines the scale of Arsenal’s task on Saturday evening.

The Arsenal fans travelling out to Lisbon for the club’s first Women’s Champions League final in 18 years have something else to remember, though. They are the last, and remain the only, English club to win the competition. In 2007, an Arsenal team that included Alex Scott, Karen Carney, Rachel Yankey, Anita Asante and Julie Fleeting defeated Swedish side Umea over two legs to win the Uefa Women’s Cup.

Although the landscape of women’s football has developed significantly, the significance of the 2007 triumph still runs through Arsenal now. Leah Williamson, part of the club’s academy since the age of nine, was a mascot and walked out alongside the team before they became European champions. Little first joined Arsenal in 2008, so has spent her entire career chasing the goal of appearing in another European final. Kelly Smith, the legendary Arsenal and England striker, is part of the current coaching staff.

Jayne Ludlow captained Arsenal in 2007 and explains how they were “programmed to win”. Success was not just demanded but expected. “I’m proud to say that the club has always supported the women’s team extremely well,” Ludlow says. “The success in 2007 was recognition of this investment and support but in all honesty was another trophy for us. The win reinforced what we believed: that we were the best in the world.”

Arsenal are at the point where they are trying to build again, though, in a new age. The club continues to be a pioneer in the women’s game, but success has come off the pitch with Arsenal creating a culture that has seen the fan experience flourish. Arsenal still expect to win trophies, but Chelsea’s scale of dominance over the English game has left them competing for the odd League Cup. Arsenal’s last Women’s Super League title was six years ago.

Instead, Arsenal’s energy and momentum has come from their decision to play the majority of home games at the Emirates. In turn, Arsenal have recognised their support in a different way and through big nights, such as the Champions League quarter-final comeback against Real Madrid that led to this historic final. Now Arsenal are here again, the culture they built prior to 2007 resonates even more. Lisbon is vindication for homegrown players like Williamson, and for sticking with the club for so long.

The final step remains the hardest, however, particularly when the opposition is as accustomed to winning as Barcelona are. The Spanish side have been through this themselves, particularly when Lyon were winning the Champions League eight times between 2011 and 2022. Barcelona had to learn to get closer through tough defeats. Barcelona had yet to beat Lyon when they met last year in the Champions League final, but they overcame them to become the dominant force.

Barcelona did it in their own way, too, and took the only path they knew. “It’s not just winning,” Vicky Losada, the former Barcelona captain who led the Catalan side to their first Women’s Champions League title in 2021, told The Independent last year. “For us it’s how you win, the way you play. We knew our objectives, we knew how we wanted to win. If we lost, it was our way.” When Barcelona faced Chelsea in the 2021 final, there was no doubt: they tore through the English champions in a 4-0 win that reinforced their principles.

The Barcelona DNA is now written throughout the best team in the world, forged by the group that have been through it all, from the Ballon d’Or winners Aitana Bonmati and Alexia Putella to Mapi Leon and Patri Guijarro. The production line from La Masia, forging a route for homegrown players who know the Barcelona way, has this season enjoyed the breakthrough year of Claudia Pina, the top scorer in this season’s Champions League with 10 goals, including three across both legs against Chelsea.

Technically, Barcelona are on a different level to everyone else. “It’s just facts,” the Chelsea head coach Sonia Bompastor said after the first of her team’s 4-1 defeats to Barcelona last month. “Barcelona and the Spanish team, they are so good at holding the ball under pressure, individually and collectively.” Barcelona, with 112 goals scored in 30 games on their way to another Liga F title in Spain, also carry a ruthless streak, and the signing of Ewa Pajor last summer brought the arrival of one of Europe’s deadliest strikers.

The success of Barcelona and Spain in recent years was why the arrival of Mariona Caldentey felt like such a marquee signing for Arsenal. The World Cup winner has proved a huge hit, winning the club’s player of the year, while bringing a bit of Barcelona to north London. ‘“I just love to be around the ball and in contact with the ball, to try and bring what I can bring and make everything easier for my team-mates,” she has said. ”It’s easy to play for this team.”

But as well as looking to benefit from Caldentey’s wonderful technique, passing ability and approach to the game, it was almost as if Arsenal signed the midfielder because they wanted to tap into a winning culture they had yet forgotten themselves, given the dominance of others. Barcelona are the clear favourites in Lisbon, but Arsenal have the chance to bring their journey full circle – while raising what it means to another level.

“We didn’t have the media attention,” Ludlow says. “We had an impact on a smaller number of young girls back then, in comparison to now,” Ludlow says. “But some of those young girls are now top level players because they saw role models back in 2007, and that makes me smile. If the club wins this weekend, then it potentially starts the cycle over again.”

Aftershocks continue after 6.1 magnitude Crete earthquake

Aftershocks have continued through the day after a powerful magnitude 6.1 earthquake occurred north-east of Crete on Thursday morning.

The powerful earthquake struck off the coast of Crete at 6.19am local time (3.19am GMT), according to the German Research Centre for Geosciences.

No injuries or major damage have been reported, but popular tourist spots the Samaria and Imbros gorges remained closed throughout Thursday as a precaution.

Seismologist Gerasimos Papadopoulos said on social media there would be some additional aftershocks through the day, “but they are all harmless”.

“Fortunately, the depth and distance from the island became a shield of protection again,” he said in a translation of his post.

The quake was felt across the Aegean Sea, reaching parts of Turkey and north Africa.

Shortly after the quake tourists were urged to “move away from the coast” after the tremors led to warnings of a possible tsunami in Greece and beyond – though the head of Greece’s Earthquake Planning and Protection Organisation said this was unlikely.

Crete is a seismological hotspot and while most quakes are mild, stronger ones – such as the deadly 2021 earthquake also centred near Crete – have caused damage in the past.

Family holiday guide: why the Costa Dorada ticks every travel box

If there’s one thing every parent knows, it’s that children can sometimes (as much as we love them) be hard to please. So the key to any family holiday destination is variety: somewhere you can spend a sunny day by the sea, but where you can also enjoy breathtaking nature, as well as fascinating culture and history.

The brilliant news? The Costa Dorada (known locally as Costa Daurada) delivers all of this in spades, offering everything from theme parks and waterparks to stunning beaches, picturesque hiking and cycling trails, and incredible historical sites. What’s more, with Jet2holidays flying to the Costa Dorada from 12 UK airports and a range of two to five-star accommodation, it’s easy to get your family getaway in the bag. Jet2holidays is always giving you more, to help make planning and booking as smooth as possible. That goes for the PayPal Pay in 3 interest-free payments** option, 22kg baggage and 10kg hand luggage for all the kids’ stuff, and return transfers† that are included. Look out for Free Child Places***, while infants under two go free‡.

Here’s what to look forward to on your family getaway…

With 50 miles of coastline and 26 Blue Flag beaches, families are spoilt for choice when it comes to somewhere to pitch up at with a unicorn-shaped inflatable and a bucket and spade. The stretches of soft sand are long and golden, with safe, calm and shallow waters perfect for little ones. And in many places, water sports and beach activities to suit older children.

Some of the most popular seaside resorts include Salou, which houses the charming Platja Llarga, surrounded by a small pine forest. And there’s Cambrils, where you’ll find Platja del Cavet, which boasts a water sports school and open water swimming channel. Vila-seca, la Pineda Platja, is known for its nearly two miles of fine, champagne-sand beach, fronted by a long promenade, while Tarragona has a range of fantastic options, including Platja del Miracle in the heart of the city. There, you’ll find a great range of bars and restaurants and Platja de la Savinosa, a quieter beach enveloped by imposing cliffs. Many of these can be reached by easy coastal paths.

Another advantage of the Costa Dorada is its many theme parks and waterparks. For a real all-rounder, head to PortAventura World in Vila-seca, la Pineda Platja, a three-in-one park that’s one of Europe’s largest. Here you can enjoy everything from thrilling rollercoasters, rides (don’t miss Dragon Khan, which reaches over 68 miles per hour) and live entertainment. Then pop your swimmers on to enjoy waterfalls, pools and beaches at Caribe Aquatic Park. After you’ve had fun splashing around, head to Ferrari Land, which has a range of spectacular attractions that will make you feel like a real F1 driver.

Get even more thrills at nearby Aquopolis Costa Dorada. It has a range of attractions for all ages, from toddler-friendly and gentle – like the Mini-Park playground and Treasure Island – to more high-octane rides, such as the Boomerang, a speedy waterslide. Or there’s the Kamikaze that older kids will love. Alternatively, Náutic Park offers a range of fun activities and experiences spanning a coastal area of nearly 60 miles including those in Salou, Cambrils, Vandellós – l’Hospitalet de l’Infant and Mont-roig – Miami Platja. Whether you want to rent a sailing boat for the day, try a water bike or even take part in an escape room on the beach, Nàutic Park has it all.

Finally, Aqualeon, near Tarragona, has plenty of enjoyable rides and slides too. The Rapid River is fun for all the family, where you’ll feel like you’re gently ‘flying’ over the water. All the while, the Crazy Race pits you against grown-ups and siblings to see who can get down the slide first. Do you dare to ride the Anaconda? Featuring two intertwined tubes, it’s suitable only for the bravest…

Getting the kids out into the fresh air can sometimes feel like a struggle, but when the scenery in the Costa Dorada is this beautiful, nobody will feel it’s a hardship. Head inland to the striking Prades Mountains, which has a wealth of hiking and cycling trails in the area. These are filled with quaint villages and jaw-dropping viewpoints, where you can get active, immerse yourself in nature, and explore the distinctive, rocky landscape. Don’t miss the Gorgs route, near La Febro, known for its scenic natural pools and waterfalls.

For fascinating grottoes and gorges, head to Serra de Montsant Natural Park, which has dozens of walking trails which offer spectacular views. Back at ground level, in Cambrils, Parc Samà is a lovely botanical garden where kids will enjoy visiting the aviary, filled with exotic birds, as well as looking out for the deer, pheasants and peacocks which also call this place home.

With its rich history, there are stacks of captivating sights in the Costa Dorada that will grab your kids’ imaginations. Take them back to Roman times at archaeological sites, such as the amphitheatre of Tarragona; it was used for fights between wild beasts, races and gladiatorial combat. All these are brought excitingly to life by guided tours and interactive exhibits. Children will also love walking the Roman walls, and exploring the Circus and Forum, with the open-air setting making for the ultimate mix of education and adventure.

In a quiet spot at the end of a valley, nestled under the Montsant hills, you’ll find Cartoixa d’Escaladei (see main image), a 12th-century monastery founded by French monks at a site where a shepherd had dreamt of angels coming down from the sky. Here you can enjoy guided tours around its three cloisters, church and refectory, while learning the history and purpose of each building.

Finally, stoke their creativity with a visit to the Gaudí Centre in Reus, where the architect Antoni Gaudí was born. It offers an interactive and engaging experience that brings his genius to life in a way that appeals to all ages. You’ll find real objects related to him, detailed mock-ups of his iconic works, and a special effects room that immerses visitors in his groundbreakingly imaginative world.

With Jet2holidays, it’s a doddle to book your family getaway to the Costa Dorada. From a low £60 per person deposit* to PayPal Pay in 3 interest-free payments**, 22kg baggage for all the kids’ stuff to return transfers†, it’s all included. Families can make the most of Free Child Places*** and infants under two going free‡. And with flights included and the choice of two to five-star hotels, Jet2holidays is always giving you more. For more Costa Dorada travel inspiration, and to find and book your ultimate family holiday, visit Jet2holidays. Plus, right now, myJet2 members can save £100 per person§ in The Big Jet2 Price Drop (correct at original publish date).

*On bookings made ten weeks or more before departure. Full payment required by balance due date. **Spread the cost over three interest-free payments. Available when booked online, for holidays under £2,000, departing within ten weeks. ***One free child place per two paying passengers. Subject to availability. T&Cs apply, please see www.jet2holidays.com/promotions#FCP2025 for further details. †Unless otherwise stated. ‡Applicable for all infants under the age of two years on the date of return. Infants are not entitled to a flight seat (they must be seated with a parent or guardian) or a 22kg baggage allowance. §£100 per person off holidays for myJet2 members departing until 15 November 2026. myJet2 members will need to be logged into their account at the time of booking for the discount to automatically apply. Book online, via our app, through our call centre or with your travel agent. Please note the discount is not applied to children travelling on a free child place. Terms and conditions apply, please see www.jet2holidays.com/promotions#100APRIL2025 for details.

The people trying to help cocaine users give up in a new way

We live in a world where cocaine is both everywhere and nowhere. Cocaine trafficking is surging globally, according to the UN, with cultivation up 35 per cent from 2020 to 2021. According to an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report, the UK has the second-highest rate of cocaine users in the world. It’s culturally visible from the high art of Scorsese to knockabout nonsense like Cocaine Bear. It’s the subject of a million laddy memes about “the sesh” (a cheeky metaphor for taking drugs) and hinted at in lyrics on Charli XCX’s all-conquering Brat album (“Shall we do a little key? Shall we have a little line?”). In pubs, clubs and football matches, it’s simply not a novelty to see anyone in the UK using cocaine any more.

Politicians and the media gave up having an opinion on it a long time ago, in case someone in their midst was discovered to be a user and charges of hypocrisy clouded the issue. It means cocaine sits in a unique, morally ambiguous, judgment-free vacuum. Which, it turns out, is fine, except if someone wants to quit. Given its sharp rise in usage, cocaine is dangerously absent from any national discourse.

I used to think that this eerie culture of silence came from the simple fact of its illegal, class-A status. But as more of us struggle with addiction, or know people who do, this silence starts to feel quite cruel and contributory. Because there’s a deeper reason people don’t discuss their problems with cocaine: a sense of shame. To fill this void, a brave new wave of voices is starting to speak out. In the absence of any meaningful national discussion, these individuals have taken it upon themselves to honestly tell their own stories – as a way to help others.

Before the pandemic, Ryan Phillips was a major presence in London nightlife. He was the head of music for a group that owned nine venues and a handful of festivals. “On weekends, I would be hosting DJs, partying as part of work,” he tells me. “I was always the last one up on a night out, the one who couldn’t say no to a line. But I was successful, so on paper everything was fine.” Yet when Covid hit, he found himself “Getting on it at the same rate. I was made redundant and I just spiralled – I went on an absolutely mad one and blew it all.” He means financially. Ryan reached rock bottom after being discovered by his sister, having been up for three days straight. She had to climb in the window. “Look, I’ve got this problem,” he told her.

With the same raw honesty as that admission to his sister, Ryan now tells a much wider audience – around three million views a week – about his addiction journey as Ryan in Recovery on TikTok. His videos are simple, one-take testimonials that share his triggers, struggles and crucially his advice for others. He relapsed in the middle of 2024. He shared that with his followers, too. “I just want to be as brutally honest as possible,” he says. “Even when it can feel uncomfortable, I know it’s resonating because these are things that aren’t being spoken about enough.”

His videos all begin: “My name is Ryan, and I’m in recovery”. That word “recovery” is significant in the new wave of voices online that are breaking the silence on drug use. Narcotics Anonymous (NA), the best-known treatment programme in the world, strictly mandates that you refer to yourself as an “addict”. This element of the 12-step programme presents you as this helpless person, a victim of a disease, Ryan believes. “But I can’t live in that shame. For a majority of people, especially young people, it doesn’t work for them any more. I think it’s fine to feel guilty, but calling yourself an addict is like labelling yourself as a bad person. You can say, ‘Yeah, I’ve done s*** stuff.’ But it doesn’t mean I’m a s*** person.”

Someone else critical of NA’s traditional approach – which requires recovering users to turn their life over to “God” or a power “greater than themselves”, and follow a series of steps such as contacting anyone they’ve ever wronged – is Will Armstrong, who posts under the name Will – Teetotal Mentor. His profile states “No Labels, No Shame and No Higher Power”, as an immediate counterpoint to NA’s god-fearing maxim. “If you go down to the pub once a week and get on the bag a little bit [take cocaine], you would never consider yourself an addict. So if I use that word, I’m eliminating the people I need to relate to the most.”

For Armstrong, shattering the idea that cocaine users are alone is paramount. “We get hundreds of messages from people wanting help every day, and they each think they’re alone in this. Because drug use can lead to so much shame, people want to try and solve it by themselves. In fact, the one thing that helps you break out of it is other people.”

Alongside three other coaches, Armstrong runs an online programme called The Teetotal Trail that helps remove alcohol and cocaine from people’s lives. It’s somewhere between coaching and rehabilitation, but crucially with a community aspect too. “If you surround yourself with people who have the same goal, it holds you accountable and keeps you motivated and inspired”. Ryan in Recovery has also launched a community called The Deep End, which emphasises support and wellness. “It’s not so much about removing a substance, more about getting yourself to a point where you maybe don’t need to use that substance as a crutch any more,” he explains.

Armstrong is open about his past addiction to alcohol and drugs. He admits in an introductory video, pinned to his Insta grid, that he himself “hit a breaking point” seven years ago. But though he’s open about his time using, he feels the weight of the past is given too much priority in the traditional treatment mindset. “When people want to break a habit, there’s an obsession with finding out why they do it. The reality is: even if you find out why, it doesn’t stop you. Bringing those emotions up is like reopening a wound you’re not letting heal.” His solution? “Let’s forget about the wounds for now, and let’s actually focus on what we can do today to make a change. We don’t facilitate any victim mentality. If you just want sympathy, then you can go to those other programmes. We’re not necessarily here to make you feel nice. We’re here to get you out of this, and that’s the difference. To do that, we’ve got to put some work in.”

Hannah Viney is another fresh voice combating the debilitating silence around cocaine use with radical honesty and incisive content. Her podcast Class A People, is a trove of discussions with ordinary people who have overcome often extremely severe addictions. “People listen to it who don’t have addiction issues,” she tells me. “It’s a self-discovery journey that resonates – if you’re in a toxic relationship, want to leave your job or have issues with family, it’s all relatable.”

For her, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) was a key reason for developing what she calls an “insatiable appetite” for cocaine: “For a neurodivergent person, cocaine can sometimes make your brain finally feel like you’re a normal person. You just presume that everyone’s got the same brain as you and they don’t.” By the end of her time using, she was “So bored of the life I was living. I was sleep deprived and in psychosis. It stripped me of all my character.” She began posting to Instagram and over the first eight months of videos, “you can literally watch my personality coming back”.

Her perspectives on the current absence of any dialogues about cocaine – one she’s hoping to fill with a new set of pamphlets entitled “A Class A Guide” – are gleaned from thousands of chats with her followers. A common issue she identifies is one between male friends. “Coke gets you talking. When it’s introduced to a male friendship group that might struggle to open up to each other, it’s profound – but then it quickly becomes a state where they won’t talk about their anxieties and worries unless they’re on the sesh. Cocaine is conniving like that.” If one guy feels they need to take a step back from the drug, they’re likely to be met with “Oh don’t be such a pussy”. This trap also exists for those who might seem like the life and soul of the party, but only when they’re using. “They’re probably the ones suffering the most, due to that fear of not knowing if they’ll still be the same buzzy, popular person afterwards.”

It’s a fragile mercy that Viney and others are able to use social media to host these urgently needed discussions on modern drug use. Fragile because platforms like Instagram are mysteriously censorious when it comes to sex and drugs. “I’ve been shadow banned on Instagram after using certain words, I’ve lost my account several times too,” claims Armstrong. “Whole videos have been removed because they think I’m selling drugs. Every time I’ve tried to contact Instagram, there’s just no help or resolution.” It’s ironic, given how much drug-positive meme content floods the platform daily, either evangelising “the sesh” or “the afters” – both bywords for drug-taking. “They can be really validating if you take cocaine, if you’re scrolling on your phone on a comedown,” thinks Viney. “You’ll see something relatable and funny, scroll through the comments and think: Oh good, it’s not just me”.

In a world with very few discussions about the downsides of cocaine, being open about addiction and recovery isn’t a walk in the park. For his troubles, Phillips still gets messages saying: “Why are you talking about this? It doesn’t need to be spoken about,” while Viney will get comments telling her “Urgh, it’s Friday – get a gram in and shut up.” Given what a lonely world it is for those in recovery, it’s a blessing that neither has.

If you or someone you know is suffering from drug addiction, you can seek confidential help and support 24/7 from Frank, by calling 0300 123 6600, texting 82111, sending an email or visiting their website here.

If you’re experiencing issues to do with addiction and cocaine use, consider visiting Turning Point for support.

‘Declining’ is most common word associated with UK, damning poll shows

The most common word the public associates with Britain is “declining”, a damning new poll has revealed.

A study by a group of Labour backers reveals seven in 10 people feel ignored by politicians amid the erosion of public services and the hollowing out of local communities.

And, in the landmark report, the influential groups are calling on Sir Keir Starmer to take the fight to Reform UK with a radical programme to rebuild local communities – not by seeking to ape Nigel Farage on immigration.

Labour’s sister Co-op Party and campaign group Hope not Hate, backed by union Unison, have co-published a report laying bare the despair among voters after more than a decade of communities being eroded and public services being underfunded.

Amid growing disillusionment among voters, the report warned Britain faces a choice between “a path of division and extremity, or a path of community power, hope and solidarity”.

When asked by pollsters Focaldata to describe the UK today, four in 10 voters said “declining”, while a quarter said “weak” and another quarter said “directionless”. And among those who say they feel ignored by politicians, the majority are planning to vote for Mr Farage’s insurgent right-wing party.

As well as a sense of national decline, almost half of voters said their local area has been declining, with the report warning that a fall in the number of community organisations is eroding the country’s sense of shared identity and trust.

The report calls on the PM to immediately develop and publish a strategy to support communities, including through further devolution and greater support for community ownership.

The general secretary of the Co-op Party, which has 43 MPs in Westminster and is represented by cabinet ministers including business secretary Jonathan Reynolds, said it is “clear that the path to rebuilding trust in politics runs through our communities”.

Joe Fortune, a quietly influential figure in Labour circles, told The Independent: “People want the power to improve the place they call home, but politics needs to deliver that power in a serious way.”

Mr Fortune said rebuilding communities would act as “an antidote to the trust crisis” in politics.

Nick Lowles, founder and chief executive of the Hope not Hate campaign group, said investing in communities is “the only way we can fight the rise of Reform UK”.

“After over a decade of austerity, communities in Britain feel isolated. In times of economic hardship, it is harder to come together, forge friendships and tackle local issues. People feel ignored by the politicians who are meant to represent them,” he added.

And Christina McAnea, general secretary of Unison, Britain’s biggest trade union, said: “Public services are the beating heart of communities and if they’re suffering, people are clearly going to feel abandoned and ignored.

“Residents need to feel connected again. That means proper investment in public services to rebuild neighbourhoods and, in turn, restore trust in politicians at both national and local levels.”

Mr Farage and Reform swept to victory in hundreds of council seats and a series of mayoral contests in this month’s local elections. The party has surged in the polls as disillusioned voters turn their backs on Labour and the Conservatives.

Hilary Armstrong, chair of the Independent Commission on Neighbourhoods, said the only way to quell the “pull of political extremism” is to reverse the decline of local neighbourhoods.

“Up and down the country, neighbourhoods have been battered by decades of deindustrialisation and a decade of austerity. From illegal drugs to vandalism, litter to anti-social behaviour, the everyday experience in communities has markedly declined,” Baroness Armstrong added.