Le Journal

The views of the former Tory vaccines minister clash with those of high-profile members and the party faithfulThere was no shortage of ammunition for reporters seeking to pepper Nadhim Zahawi with questions when the former Conservative chancellor was unveiled as Reform’s newest recruit on Monday.But one persistent line of questioning seemed to draw a flash of real anger from the defector: did he reject the views of a doctor who was permitted by Reform to use the main stage at its annual conference to claim that the Covid vaccines, which Zahawi had himself rolled out as vaccines minister during the pandemic, were responsible for King Charles and the Princess of Wales’ cancers? Continue reading...

The former Tory MP and The Rest Is Politics host on a dinosaur he’d bring back to life, being thin-skinned and hating his bandy legsBorn in Hong Kong, Rory Stewart, 53, served as Conservative MP for Penrith and The Border from 2010. He was secretary of state for international development when he launched an unsuccessful bid to become Tory leader in 2019. Later that year, he resigned from the party to stand as an independent in the London mayoral elections. He co-hosts the podcast The Rest Is Politics and is the author of prize-winning and ­bestselling books including The Places in Between and Politics on the Edge. His latest is Middleland. He is married with two children and lives in London.What is your greatest fear? I become very anxious if I think I’ve hurt someone. Continue reading...

Chocolate treats reduced in size or weight as higher price of cocoa drives new wave of ‘shrinkflation’Chocolate eggs are looking smaller than ever this year and it is not just because Easter is still so far away.Many of the Easter eggs already out on supermarket shelves this month not only cost more, but have been reduced in size or weight as the price of cocoa has driven a new wave of shrinkflation. Continue reading...

Sinner is the Spaniard’s clear rival but Swiatek, Rybakina, Bencic, Gauff and others are in Sabalenka’s wayEveryone wants to know exactly why Carlos Alcaraz split up with Juan Carlos Ferrero. It was, by some margin, one of the most surprising coaching separations in the history of tennis, a decision that came with no clear warning immediately after the greatest season of Alcaraz’s career. The discourse has since ranged from his alleged determination to reside exclusively at home in El Palmar, Murcia and train in his home academy, to potential discontent at Ferrero’s absences from numerous tournaments last year.The coach has offered his own perspective in interviews, repeatedly expressing his sadness at a split he did not want. Alcaraz, however, has opted for silence. His mandatory pre-tournament press conference at the Australian Open on Friday marked his first time publicly speaking about the split, and the 22-year-old offered as little information as possible on the reasons behind it. Continue reading...

Yes, ‘corridor care’ horrors persist, yet statistics show my timely, efficient treatment wasn’t a matter of fortune but quite ordinaryIt was a bad start to the new year. Slipping on ice, I fell and broke my right wrist, so now I can’t hold a pen with my writing hand. But my experience of the NHS was a good reminder of a few facts.Heading to the nearest A&E, I expected one of those 12-hour waits and corridors lined with trolleys of the near-dead, rowdy with drunken and psychotic mayhem. The Guardian recently found that violent incidents recorded by 212 NHS trusts in England rose from 91,175 in 2022-23 to 104,079 in 2024-25, the equivalent of about 285 cases reported every day. So I was ready for whatever. Notices warned that there would be zero tolerance of abuse of staff.Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...