driving

It was a successful day all round for Mercedes with 18-year-old rookie Kimi Antonelli finishing third for his first podium in Formula 1.

Antonelli – at 18 years and 294 days old – becomes the third-youngest podium finisher of all time behind Verstappen and Lance Stroll.

Starting fourth, he overtook championship leader Piastri at the start and dealt with pressure from the Australian in the closing stages of the race.

“It was so stressful but super happy,” Antonelli said. “The last stint I pushed a bit too hard behind Max and I killed a bit of the front left and I struggled a bit at the end, but I’m really happy to bring the podium home.”

“This track has been good for us and the car has been incredible all weekend. Hopefully we can carry the same momentum into the next few races.”

Russell said Mercedes performed so strongly at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve because a “smooth” track and “low-speed” corners suited the characteristics of the car.

Next on the calendar is Austria from 27-29 June and the Red Bull Ring will be a very different challenge to Montreal.

“It’s going to be on old tarmac, more high-speed corners and it’s going to be hot as well,” Russell said.

“We’ve got three things working against us. I’m not going to sit here and say Mercedes is back because we were the quickest team here last year but we didn’t win the championship. We know where we need to improve.”

The crowd near Los Angeles City Hall had by Sunday evening reached an uneasy detente with a line of grim-faced police officers.

The LAPD officers gripped “less lethal” riot guns, which fire foam rounds that leave red welts and ugly bruises on anyone they hit. Demonstrators massed in downtown Los Angeles for the third straight day. Some were there to protest federal immigration sweeps across the county — others appeared set on wreaking havoc.

Several young men crept through the crowd, hunched over and hiding something in their hands. They reached the front line and hurled eggs at the officers, who fired into the fleeing crowd with riot guns.

LAPD officers stage on Los Angeles Street.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Jonas March, who was filming the protests as an independent journalist, dropped to the floor and tried to army-crawl away.

“As soon as I stood up, they shot me in the a—,” the 21-year-old said.

Violence and widespread property damage at protests in downtown L.A. have diverted public attention away from the focus of the demonstrations — large-scale immigration sweeps in such predominantly Latino cities as Paramount, Huntington Park and Whittier.

Instead, the unrest has trained attention on a narrow slice of the region — the civic core of Los Angeles — where protests have devolved into clashes with police and made-for-TV scenes of chaos: Waymo taxis on fire. Vandals defacing city buildings with anti-police graffiti. Masked men lobbing chunks of concrete at California Highway Patrol officers keeping protesters off the 101 Freeway.

A person lobs a large rock at CHP officers stationed on the 101 Freeway.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

The escalating unrest led LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell on Sunday night to break with Mayor Karen Bass, who has condemned President Trump’s decision to deploy the National Guard to the city.

“Do we need them? Well, looking at tonight, this thing has gotten out of control,” McDonnell said at a news conference. The chief said he wanted to know more about how the National Guard could help his officers before he decided whether their presence was necessary.

McDonnell drew a distinction between protesters and masked “anarchists” who he said were bent on exploiting the state of unrest to vandalize property and attack police.

CHP officers on the 101 Freeway.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

“When I look at the people who are out there doing the violence, that’s not the people that we see here in the day who are out there legitimately exercising their 1st Amendment rights,” McDonnell said. “These are people who are all hooded up — they’ve got a hoodie on, they’ve got face masks on.”

“They’re people that do this all the time,” he said. “They get away with whatever they can. Go out there from one civil unrest situation to another, using the same or similar tactics frequently. And they are connected.”

McDonnell said some agitators broke up cinder blocks with hammers to create projectiles to hurl at police, and others lobbed “commercial-grade fireworks” at officers.

“That can kill you,” he said.

The LAPD arrested 50 people over the weekend. Capt. Raul Jovel, who oversaw the department’s response to the protests, said those arrested included a man accused of ramming a motorcycle into a line of officers and another suspect who allegedly threw a Molotov cocktail.

California National Guard troops watch as protesters clash with law enforcement in downtown Los Angeles.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

McDonnell said investigators will scour video from police body cameras and footage posted on social media to identify more suspects.

“The number of arrests we made will pale in comparison to the number of arrests that will be made,” McDonnell said.

Representatives of the Los Angeles city attorney and Los Angeles County district attorney’s office could not immediately say whether any cases were being reviewed for prosecution. Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman said those who “hurl cinder blocks, light vehicles on fire, destroy property and assault law enforcement officers” will be charged.

On Sunday, the LAPD responded to a chaotic scene that began when protesters squared off with National Guard troops and Department of Homeland Security officers outside the Metropolitan Detention Center.

Around 1 p.m., a phalanx of National Guard troops charged into the crowd, yelling “push” as they rammed people with riot shields. The troops and federal officers used pepper balls, tear gas canisters, flash-bangs and smoke grenades to break up the crowd.

No one in the crowd had been violent toward the federal deployment up to that point. The purpose of the surge appeared to be to clear space for a convoy of approaching federal vehicles.

Department of Homeland Security police officers had asked protesters to keep vehicle paths clear earlier in the morning, but their commands over a loudspeaker were often drowned out by protesters’ chants. They offered no warning before charging the crowd.

California National Guard troops stand guard at the Metropolitan Detention Center.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Some in the crowd lobbed bottles and fireworks at the LAPD. Two people rode motorcycles to the front of the crowd, revving their engines and drawing cheers from bystanders. Police accused them of ramming the skirmish line, and the motorcycles could be seen fallen over on their sides afterward. The drivers were led away by police, their feet dragging across asphalt lined with shattered glass and spent rubber bullets.

On the other side of the 101, vandals set fire to a row of Waymos. Acrid smoke billowed from the autonomous taxis as people smashed their windows with skateboards. Others posed for photographs standing on the roofs of the burning white SUVs.

After California Highway Patrol officers pushed protesters off the 101 Freeway, people wearing masks flung chunks of concrete — and even a few electric scooters — at the officers, who sheltered under an overpass. A piece of concrete struck a CHP car, drawing cheers from the crowd.

Los Angeles Police Department officers shoot tear gas as they advance on demonstrators who formed a makeshift barricade.

(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Closer to City Hall, the LAPD pushed demonstrators toward Gloria Molina Grand Park, where some in the crowd wrenched pink park benches from their concrete mounts and piled them into a makeshift barricade in the middle of Spring Street.

The crowd, which included a Catholic priest wearing his robes and a woman with a feathered Aztec headdress, milled behind the barricades until LAPD officers on horseback pushed them back, swinging long wooden batons at several people who refused to retreat. Video footage circulating online showed one woman being trampled.

The crowd moved south into the Broadway corridor, where the LAPD said businesses reported being looted around 11 p.m. Footage filmed by an ABC-7 helicopter showed people wearing masks and hooded sweatshirts breaking into a shoe store.

McDonnell said the scenes of lawlessness disgusted him and “every good person in this city.”

Before any chaos erupted on Sunday, Julie Solis walked along Alameda Street holding a California flag, warning protesters not to engage in the kind of behavior that followed later in the day.

Solis, 50, said she believed the National Guard was deployed solely to provoke a response that would justify further aggression from federal law enforcement.

“They want arrests. They want to see us fail,” she said. “We need to be peaceful. We need to be eloquent.”

Amid the relentless clatter of machinery, Ravi Kumar Gupta feeds a roaring steel furnace with scrap, blown metal and molten iron. He carefully adds chemicals tailored to the type of steel being produced, adjusting fuel and airflow with precision to keep the furnace running smoothly.

As his shift ends about 4pm, he stops briefly at a roadside tea shop just outside the gates of the steel factory in Maharashtra state’s Tarapur Industrial Area. His safety helmet is still on, but his feet, instead of being shielded by boots, are in worn-out slippers – scant protection against the molten metal he works with. His eyes are bloodshot with exhaustion, and his green, full-sleeved shirt and faded, torn blue jeans are stained with grease and sweat.

Four years after migrating from Barabanki, a district in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, Ravi earns $175 per month – $25 less than India’s monthly per capita income. And the paycheques are often delayed, arriving only between the 10th and 12th of each month.

Middlemen, who are either locals or longterm migrants posing as locals, supply labour to factories in Maharashtra, India’s industrial heartland. In return, the middlemen skim between $11 and $17 from each worker’s wages. In addition, $7 is deducted monthly from their pay for canteen food, which consists of limited portions of rice, dal and vegetables for lunch, as well as evening tea.

Asked why he continues to work at the steel factory, Ravi responds with resignation in his voice: “What else can I do?”

Giving up his job isn’t an option. His family – two young daughters in school, his wife and mother who work on their small plot of farmland, and his ailing father who is unable to work – depend on the $100 a month that he is able to send home. Climate change, he says, has “ruined farming”, the family’s traditional occupation.

“The rains don’t come when they should. The land no longer feeds us. And where are the jobs in our village? There’s nothing left. So, like the others, I left,” he says, his thick, calloused hands wrapped around a cup of tea.

Ravi is a cog in the wheel of the soaring dreams of the world’s fifth-largest economy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has boldly spoken of making India a $5 trillion economy, up from $3.5 trillion in 2023.

But as Modi’s government woos global investors and assures them that it is easy today to do business in India, Ravi is among millions of workers whose stories of withheld wages, endless toil and coercion – telltale signs of forced labour, according to the United Nations’ International Labour Organization (ILO) – provide a haunting snapshot of the ugly underbelly of the country’s economy.

Farm to furnace

The Factories Act of 1948, which governs working conditions in steel mills like the one where Ravi works, mandates annual paid leave for workers who have been employed for 240 days or more in a year. However, workers like Ravi do not receive paid leave. Any day taken off is unpaid, regardless of the reason.

Like many others, Ravi is required to work all seven days a week, totalling 30 days a month, despite the fact that Sundays were officially declared a weekly holiday for all labourers in India as far back as 1890.

Workers in many Indian factories do not receive a salary slip detailing their earnings and deductions. This lack of transparency leaves them in the dark about how much money has been deducted – or why.

Worse still, if a worker is absent for three or four consecutive days, their entry card is deactivated. Upon returning, they are treated as a new employee. This reclassification affects their eligibility for important benefits such as the provident fund and end-of-service gratuity.

In many cases, workers are forced to rejoin under these unfair terms simply because their pending wages – either direct from the company or via the middlemen – have not been paid. Walking away would mean forfeiting their hard-earned money.

In addition to all this, Ravi confirms that neither he nor his colleagues, both in his company and in nearby factories within the industrial area, have received any written contracts outlining their job roles or employment benefits.

According to a 2025 study (PDF) published in the Indian Journal of Legal Review, many workers face exploitation through unfair contracts, wage theft and forced labour due to the absence of written agreements. These practices particularly affect more vulnerable groups like migrants, women and low-skilled workers, who often have limited access to legal recourse. Al Jazeera contacted the Maharashtra Labour Commissioner on May 20 seeking a response to concerns around forced labour in industries where workers like Ravi are employed, but has not received a reply.

There is also the absence of adequate safety gear: Ravi works near the furnace, where temperatures cross 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit). But workers aren’t provided with protective glass. “Neither the middlemen nor the employer gives us even the most basic safety gear,” he says.

Yet, helplessness wins.

“We know how dangerous it is. We know what we need to stay safe,” he says. “But what choice do we have?

“When you’re desperate, you have no choice but to adapt to these harsh, uncertain conditions,” he said.

‘If I get thrown out, what then?’

In the port town of Kakinada, along India’s Bay of Bengal coast – about 1,400km (870 miles) from where Ravi works – 47-year-old Sumitha Salomi earns even less than him.

A shrimp peeler, Sumitha has no formal job contract with the factory where she works. Like many others, she has been hired through a contractor – a woman from her own village. The factory, a heavily fortified facility that exports peeled vannamei shrimp to the United States, employs migrant workers from the neighbouring state of Odisha and other regions. The premises are tightly guarded, and access is strictly controlled.

But in the villages where the factory’s workers live, a common story emerges: None of them have written contracts. No one has social security or health benefits. The only work gear they have are gloves and caps – not for their safety, but to maintain hygiene standards for the exported shrimp.

India exported shrimp worth $2.7bn to the US in the 2023-24 fiscal year, according to official figures.

Sumitha explains that her pay depends on the weight of the shrimp she peels. “The only break we get is about 30 minutes for lunch. For women, even when we’re in severe menstrual pain, there’s no rest, no relief. We just keep working,” she says.

She earns about $4.50 a day. She knows the precarity of her job. Her wages are handed to her in cash, without any payslip, leaving her with no way to contest what she receives.

As a divorced mother, Sumitha carries the burden of multiple responsibilities. She’s still repaying loans she took for her elder daughter’s marriage, while also trying to keep her younger daughter in school. On top of that, she cares for her elderly widowed mother who needs cancer medication that costs about $10 a month.

But she does not question the factory bosses about her working conditions or the absence of a written contract. “I have a job – contract or no contract. That’s what matters,” she says, her voice stoic.

“There are no other jobs here in this village. If I start asking questions and get thrown out, what then?”

Unlike seasoned veteran Sumitha, 23-year-old Minnu Samay is still grappling with the harsh realities of her job in the seafood industry.

Minnu, a migrant worker from the eastern state of Odisha, is employed at a shrimp processing factory located within the high-security Krishnapatnam Port area in Nellore, about 500km (310 mile) south of Kakinada.

Migrant workers like Minnu are allowed to leave the factory just once a week for about three hours, mainly to buy essentials in Muthukur, a village 10km (6 miles) from the factory. As she hurries through the narrow market lanes, picking up sanitary pads and snacks during this brief window of freedom, she tells her story.

“I was 19 when I left home. Poverty forced me. My parents were deep in debt after marrying off my two sisters. It was hard to survive,” Minnu says. “So when we met an agent in our town, he arranged this job here.”

Slowly, she has learned while on the job, cutting and peeling shrimp. Minnu earns approximately $110 per month.

“We know we’re being exploited, our freedom is restricted, we have no health insurance or proper rights, and we’re constantly under surveillance,” she says. “But like many of my coworkers, we don’t have other options. We just adjust and keep going.”

Most overtime work is not paid, she said. “We’re watched by cameras every moment, trapped in what feels like an open prison,” she says.

On May 20, Al Jazeera sent queries to the Andhra Pradesh Labour Department, and on May 22, to the Indian Ministry of Labour, seeking responses to concerns over widespread forced labour in industries where workers like Sumitha and Minnu are employed. Kakinada and Nellore are in Andhra Pradesh state. Neither the Andhra Pradesh Labour Department nor the federal Indian Ministry of Labour has responded.

Labour rights experts say that these stories lay bare the urgent need for enforceable contracts, the abolition of exploitative hiring practices and initiatives to educate workers about their rights – vital measures to combat forced labour in India’s unorganised and semi-organised sectors.

On March 24, India’s federal Labour Minister Shobha Karandlaje told parliament that approximately 307 million unorganised workers (PDF), including migrant workers, were registered under an Indian government scheme.

But researchers say that the true scale of India’s unorganised workforce is likely even larger.

‘Concealed’ forced labour

Benoy Peter, executive director of the Centre for Migration and Inclusive Development (CMID), a civil society organisation based in the southern Indian state of Kerala, cited a document (PDF) from India’s National Sample Survey Organization, which said that the country’s total workforce is approximately 470 million in strength. Of this, about 80 million workers are in the organised sector, while the remaining 390 million – more than the entire population of the United States – are in the unorganised sector.

The UN International Labour Organization’s India Employment Report 2024 (PDF) supports Benoy’s observation, stating that low-quality jobs in the informal sector and informal employment are the dominant forms of work in India. The ILO report said that 90 percent of India’s workforce is “informally employed”.

And many of these workers are victims of forced or bonded labour. India ratified the ILO’s Forced Labour Convention 29 in 1954 and abolished bonded labour in 1975. Yet, according to the Walk Free Foundation, India has the highest estimated number of people living in modern slavery worldwide, with 11.05 million individuals (eight in every 1,000) affected.

The real numbers, again, are likely worse.

In 2016, the then Indian Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya informed Parliament that the country had an estimated 18.4 million bonded labourers, and that the government was working to release and rehabilitate them by 2030.

But in December 2021, when Indian parliamentarian Mohammad Jawed inquired (PDF) about this target in parliament, the government stated that only approximately 12,000 bonded labourers had been rescued and rehabilitated between 2016 and 2021.

The textile sector is among the worst offenders.

According to a parliamentary document from March this year, the southern Tamil Nadu state led textile and apparel exports, including handicrafts, with a value of $7.1bn. Gujarat, Modi’s home state, followed in second place, exporting $5.7bn worth of these goods.

Thivya Rakini, president of the Tamil Nadu Textile and Common Labour Union (TTCU), says that in a decade of visiting factories to work with garment workers, she has, in almost all instances, seen at least one – and often multiple – indicators of forced labour as defined by the ILO. Those indicators include intimidation, excessive overtime, withheld wages, sexual harassment, and physical violence, such as slapping or beating workers for failing to meet production targets.

India’s textiles industry has around 45 million workers, including 3.5 million handloom workers across the country.

“Forced labour in the textile industry is widespread and often concealed,” Thivya says. “It’s not a random occurrence. It stems directly from the business model of fashion brands. When brands pay suppliers low prices, demand large volumes on tight deadlines, and fail to ensure freedom of association or basic grievance mechanisms for workers, they create an environment ripe for forced labour.”

Women make up 60-80 percent of the garment workforce, she says.  “Many lack formal contracts, earn less than men for the same work, and face frequent violence and harassment,” she said. Many are from marginalised groups – Dalits, migrants or single mothers – making them even more vulnerable in a patriarchal society.

Other sectors are plagued by forced labour too. Transparentem, an independent, nonprofit organisation focused on uncovering and addressing human rights and environmental abuses in global supply chains, investigated 90 cotton farms in the central state of Madhya Pradesh from June 2022 to March 2023 and released its final report (PDF) in January 2025, uncovering child labour, forced labour and unsafe conditions: Children were handling pesticides without protection.

‘No choice but to tolerate exploitation’

Between 2019 and 2020, the Indian government consolidated 29 federal labour laws into four comprehensive codes. The stated aim of these reforms was to improve the ease of doing business while ensuring worker welfare. As part of this effort, the total number of compliance provisions was significantly reduced – from more than 1,200 to 479.

However, while many states have drafted rules needed to implement these codes, there has still not been a nationwide rollout of these laws.

Supporters of the new labour codes argue that they modernise outdated laws and provide greater legal clarity. Critics, however, particularly trade unions, warn that the reforms favour employers and dilute worker protections. One of the codes, for instance, makes it harder to register a workers union.

A union must now have a minimum of 10 percent of the workers or 100 workers, whichever is less, in an establishment to be members of a union, a significant rise from the earlier requirement of just seven workers under the Trade Unions Act, 1926.

Santosh Poonia from India Labour Line – a helpline initiative that supports workers, especially in the unorganised sector, by offering legal aid, mediation and counselling services – tells Al Jazeera that if workers are barred from forming unions, that would weaken their collective bargaining rights.

“Without these rights, they will have no choice but to tolerate exploitative working conditions,” he says.

To Sanjay Ghose, a senior labour law lawyer practising at the Indian Supreme Court, the problem runs deeper than the new consolidated codes.

“The real issue is the failure to implement these laws effectively, which leaves workers vulnerable,” he says.

Ghose warns that India’s stagnating job creation could compound the exploitation and forced labour among workers.

India’s top engineering schools, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), have long prided themselves on how the world’s biggest banks, tech giants and other multinationals queue up at their gates each year to lure their graduates with massive pay packages.

Yet, the percentage of graduates from the IITs who secure jobs as they leave school has dropped sharply, by 10 percentage points, since 2021, when the Indian economy took a major hit from COVID-19 – a hit it hasn’t fully recovered from.

“Even graduates with high ranks from premier institutions like the IITs are struggling to secure job placements,” Ghose says. “With limited options available, job seekers are forced to accept whatever work they can find. This leads to exploitation, unfair working conditions, and, in some cases, forced labour.”

Pramod Kumar, a former United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) senior adviser, adds that weakened private investment and foreign direct investment (FDI) have made national growth largely dependent on government spending. Consequently, job opportunities are primarily limited to the informal sector, where unfair working conditions are prevalent, leading to exploitation and forced labour.

Private sector investment in India dropped to a three-year low of 11.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in fiscal year 2024, down from the pre-COVID average of 11.8 percent (fiscal years 2016-2020), according to ratings firm India Ratings & Research. Additionally, FDI in India declined by 5.6 percent year-on-year to $10.9bn in the October-December quarter of the last fiscal year, driven by global economic uncertainties.

Against that economic backdrop, Poonia, from the India Labour Line, says he can’t see how the government plans to meet its ambitious target of rescuing 18 million bonded labourers in India. He said he expects the opposite.

“The situation is going to worsen when the ease of doing business is prioritised over human rights and workers’ rights.”

India has reported a sudden rise in COVID cases, starting from late May. Authorities said the number of active cases of the disease has surpassed 5,000.

India is the latest of a number of countries to report an uptick in COVID cases this year as, more than five years after the virus was declared a global pandemic, waves of new strains continue to emerge.

Here is what we know about the new variant of COVID and where it has spread:

How many COVID cases are there in India?

As of Thursday this week, there are 5,364 active cases in India, according to India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Since January 1, more than 4,700 people have recovered from COVID in India, while 55 people have died from the virus.

Which variants are causing new cases and where?

The main coronavirus variant causing a new spread of the disease is known as NB.1.8.1. Cases caused by this variant have been reported in the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Thailand, China and Hong Kong, among other countries. It is now the dominant variant in China and Hong Kong.

A second variant, LF.7, is also responsible for some of the cases in India.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said it had recorded 13 cases of the NB.1.8.1 variant in England, with “small numbers” detected across the UK.

By late April, NB.1.8.1 comprised about 10.7 percent of submitted sequences globally, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). This rose from just 2.5 percent one month before.

What do we know about the NB.1.8.1 variant?

The Omicron variant NB.1.8.1 was first detected in January this year.

It is a “recombinant” variant, which means it has arisen from the genetic mixing of two or more existing variants.

On May 23, 2025, the WHO declared the NB.1.8.1 strain a “variant under monitoring” (VUM).

According to a 2023 definition by the WHO, a VUM is a variant which has undergone genetic changes that scientists believe could potentially affect the behaviour of the virus; early data suggests that this variant can grow faster or spread more easily than others, but this has not yet been confirmed.

The evidence of the variant’s impact on health, immunity or transmission is still unclear.

Why are there so many new cases?

While the NB.1.8.1 strain is still being researched, the evidence so far suggests that the strain may spread more easily, virologist Lara Herrero wrote for The Conversation on May 28.

Researchers using lab-based models have found that of several variants tested, the new strain had the strongest ability to bind to human cell receptors. This suggests that the strain may “infect cells more efficiently than earlier strains”, Herrero wrote.

“It is more transmissible,” Subhash Verma, a professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine, told CBS News.

What are the symptoms?

Common symptoms of the NB.1.8.1 strain include a sore throat, cough, muscle aches, fever and nasal congestion.

It can also cause gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea and diarrhoea.

Are COVID vaccines effective against the new strain?

Vaccines remain a powerful defence against COVID infections, severe sickness, hospitalisation and death, clinicians say.

However, virologist Herrero wrote that besides spreading more easily, NB.1.8.1 may “partially sidestep” immunity gained from the vaccines or prior infection.

For now, health authorities say current COVID jabs are expected to be effective against this coronavirus variant and protect people from severe illness.

Should we be concerned?

Health experts worldwide say there is no evidence that the new strain of the coronavirus is more severe or deadly than any previous strain. However, it does appear to spread more easily.

Since COVID spreads through airborne particles and droplets, the spread of the virus can be prevented by getting tested if symptoms show, wearing a mask and social distancing, clinicians have advised.

THE BRITISH cities with the worst availability and speed of electric vehicle charging have been revealed in new research.

More and more people are making the switch to EVs each passing year, but access to charging infrastructure continues to be a key concern for motorists.

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Cost, speed and access to EV chargers can vary vastly from region to region across the country.

But new data from Available Car has shed light on exactly which cities are the best and worst to drive an electric vehicle.

Researchers looked at the number of charging points per 10,000 people within a five mile radius of city centres.

They also noted the average cost and time it takes to charge half an EV battery.

The data examines 53 major cities across the UK, excluding London.

Liverpool was found to be the city with the lowest number of chargers, with just two chargers per 100,000 people within a five mile radius of the city centre.

Newcastle barely did better at 2.4 chargers per 100,000, while Bradford and Leeds followed up with 2.6 each.

Smaller cities boasted far better numbers in the EV charging accessibility ranking.

Ripon was the city with the highest number of chargers per 100,000 at 63.1 – far ahead of second placed Salisbury at 43.7.

But simply finding a charger isn’t the only issue EV owners face.

Available Car’s data also highlighted a major regional disparity in the time it takes to charge half a battery.

Leicester is the city found to have the slowest EV charging times – taking an average of 8.25 hours to get to half charge.

Available Car’s report reads: “The city’s slower charging infrastructure highlights the need for investment in faster chargers to support the growing demand for electric vehicles.

“Without quicker charging options, Leicester may face challenges in encouraging more drivers to switch to electric.”

But Leicester EV drivers have some solace – as the survey also found it to cheapest city to charge your car, where a half full battery would cost an average of £12.60.

Brighton & Hove and Portsmouth followed Leicester as the next slowest for charging, 6.24 and 5.67 hours respectively.

Wakefield recorded the speediest charge of the cities surveyed, taking an average of just 0.8 hours.

The researchers used a Tesla Model Y as the benchmark vehicle when gathering the data.

Their report adds: “Making the switch to an electric vehicle (EV) should be an exciting step towards greener, more sustainable driving.

“However, one of the biggest barriers preventing drivers from switching from petrol or diesel to electric vehicles is having to rely on their local charging infrastructure, particularly the time it takes to charge and the cost involved.

“Unlike petrol and diesel drivers, EV owners must navigate the UK’s charging network, where charging speeds and costs vary significantly based on location and charger type.”

Brits have been urged to brush up on local driving rules, as experts warn wearing two types of holiday footwear while behind the wheel could result in a hefty €344 (£282) fine

Sun-worshipping Brits jetting off to the likes of Spain and Greece this year have been issued a stark driving warning.

If sitting on a coach with a bunch of strangers in stifling heat isn’t how you want your holiday to begin, you may have already considered hiring a rental car. It’s a great way to roam around the lesser-visited parts of the country – means you’re not tied down to the strict agenda of the tour trip – and allows you to live out your fantasy of whizzing through the Amalfi Coast with the sun-roof down.

However, it is always worth brushing up on local driving laws before you get behind the wheel. Many European countries have different rules compared to the UK, and we’re not just talking about which side of the road you should drive on…

READ MORE: Spanish islands’ all-inclusive 6-drink cap and what it really means for tourists

Over in the UK, it is not explicitly illegal to drive in summer footwear like flip-flops or crocs. Under Highway Code Rule 97, drivers must wear clothing and footwear that ‘allow them to use the vehicle controls properly’ – but if you’re found to be driving without proper control, you could be found guilty of ‘careless driving’.

This carries a £100 on-the-spot fine (but issued fines may be as high as £5,000) as well as three-nine points on your licence, or even a driving ban. In a statement sent to the Mirror, Jamie Barke, Managing Director at CarMats4U.com, explains that the rules in holiday hotspots like Spain, France, and Greece, are quite similar. “While they don’t explicitly ban flip-flops, crocs, or barefoot driving, vaguely worded laws can allow local authorities to fine drivers if their footwear is deemed unsafe,” the expert added.

In Italy, minor motoring offences risk a €87 (£72) fine, but can climb up to €344 (£282). This falls under the the Codice della Strada, Article 141) which states the driver must always maintain control of their vehicle. Over in Portugal, fines range from €60 (£50) to €300 (£251) for failing to ‘abstain from practices that may impair safe driving’.

Spain’s Ley sobre Tráfico, Circulación de Vehículos a Motor, Article 13, makes it clear that drivers must always maintain control of their vehicles. Failure to do so can lead to fines of up to €200 (£167). Similarly, French law dictates that ‘drivers must be in a condition to perform all necessary driving manoeuvres’ – or risk a maximum fine of €150 (£125) – while Greece can fine holidaymakers up to €100 (£83) if they do not drive ‘with caution’.

Again, none of these driving rules explicitly ban any kind of footwear. But, if your choice of shoes impacts your driving, or ability to control your vehicle, you may still be fined. The expert also argued that beyond safety concerns, beachwear could cause a hidden risk to your car’s interior. This could be particularly costly if you’re hiring your car from a company and didn’t take out extra protection.

“Flip-flops and crocs often mean tracking in sand, grit, and moisture into the car after beach trips,” Jamie added. “These elements can damage interiors over time. To avoid fines and for additional safety, we always recommend keeping a spare pair of proper driving shoes in your car and using an easy-to-clean car mat to prevent long-term interior damage.”

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Witnesses have described the “horrendous” moment a car “rammed” into a crowd of people who were attending Liverpool FC’s victory parade following their Premier League win.

Merseyside Police said a number of pedestrians were hit by the vehicle in Water Street, Liverpool just after 18:00 BST. Dozens were injured, two of them seriously, with 27 treated in hospital.

A 53-year-old white British man from the Liverpool area was arrested, police said, adding that he is believed to have been the driver.

One eyewitness, BBC reporter Matt Cole, said the car missed him and his family “by literally inches”.

“We had just moments before watched fireworks going off, the celebrations of the Liverpool bus passing us on the Strand,” he said.

He said an ambulance had just made its way through the “dense” crowd he was part of on Water Street, when “there were screams ahead of us and suddenly this dark blue car just came through the crowd”.

“It just wasn’t stopping – I managed to grab my daughter who was with me and jump out of the way.

“It missed myself and my family by literally inches.”

He said the ambulance acted like a “natural barrier… that slowed the car down”, but that it had “no intention – it appeared – of stopping”. He added that the car looked to be travelling at “more than 20 [mph]”, but that he could not be sure it was not 30mph.

“As it passed me, it was being chased by a group of men who were trying to bang on the side of it and throw things at it,” he explained, adding that the rear windshield had been “completely smashed in”.

Having moved to safety down a side street, he saw police “running from all over, ambulances, police vans… more and more ambulances, more and more police vans – at one point then an entire squad of armed police cars stopped and people jumped out with rifles and again big medical packs on and began running towards the scene of the incident.”

He said his initial assumption was that the driver just wanted to “barge through crowds because they didn’t want to wait”.

“But suddenly then, the speed registered and the shouts of the people and the screams of the people registered, and at that point, yeah, adrenaline very much just kicks in”.

Harry Rashid, 48, from Solihull, was at the parade with his wife and two young daughters when he witnessed the car pull up before it “just rammed into all the people at the side of us”.

He told PA news agency: “It was extremely fast. Initially, we just heard the pop, pop, pop of people just being knocked off the bonnet of a car…. I saw people on lying on the ground, people unconscious.

“It was horrendous. So horrendous.”

Off-duty BBC reporter Dan Ogunshakin, who was in the city for the parade, said “suddenly a lot of people started to surround” a car, which was front of an ambulance that was moving through the crowd.

He said he and his friend then noticed “people were hitting the car and shaking the car and we wondered why this was suddenly happening”.

The car then reversed and knocked people away from it, he explained, then “it suddenly accelerated forwards” straight towards the crowd of people. “People scattered like bowling pins.”

“What had once been an atmosphere of celebration and joy and happiness suddenly turned into fear and terror and disbelief,” he said, adding it become “hell on Earth”.

Matthew O’Carroll, 28, from Runcorn said he had approached the top of Water Street when the car “came past a parked police van at a decent speed”.

“People managed to get out of the way as he was beeping as he went through but as he went past, people were obviously very angry and so started running after the car.

“The back window of the car was already smashed.

“I thought that once it went past us, it was just someone that was trying to get away from something and would slow down when he got to more people.”

Another witness, Mike Maddra, was walking with a group of friends, when he saw a car “speeding up” and hitting pedestrians.

He said the “car turned left, mounted pavement, come towards us and runs towards the buildings”.

He added that he thought he saw two people being hit, and that “it looked deliberate”.

“It has just ruined the day really,” he said.

LIVERPOOL fans who lined the streets to celebrate the club’s Premier League triumph have spoken out after a car ploughed into a crowd.

A 53-year-old white British man from Liverpool was arrested at the scene on Water Street just after 6pm and is thought to have been the driver of the car, police said.

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Some 27 injured people were rushed to hospital – two with serious injuries – and 20 were treated at the scene, with more patients self-presenting later on, the North West Ambulance Service said.

A survivor of the Manchester Arena bombing was one of those knocked to the floor by the car.

Frankie, 24, told the Mail: “I was at the Manchester Arena incident. I don’t want to go out again.

They continued: “The side of the car went into me and I fell to the floor. It’s all a blur.

“I’ve got cuts and bruises and I’ll be fine but there’s loads who have got more severe injuries.”

Meanwhile, supporter Harry Rashid, 48, was a stone’s throw away from the swerving vehicle during the terrifying scene.

“It happened about 10 feet away from us,” he said.

“We were just in a crowd and we had no control over where we would be, because it was a very narrow street. 

“The vehicle came to our right. It emerged from just right next to an ambulance, which was parked up.

“This grey people carrier just pulled up from the right and just rammed into all the people at the side of us.

“It was travelling south, down Water Street, straight towards this strand, which is where the docks are.

“It was extremely fast. Initially, we just heard the pop, pop, pop of people just being knocked off the bonnet of a car.”

Merseyside Police are leading the investigation and were initially supported by counter-terrorism police.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: “The scenes in Liverpool are appalling — my thoughts are with all those injured or affected.”

He later praised the “remarkable bravery” shown by the emergency services in Liverpool and added: “Everyone, especially children, should be able to celebrate their heroes without this horror.”

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper described the scenes as “truly shocking” and thanked the emergency services for their “swift response”.

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May 26 (UPI) — A British man was arrested after a vehicle drove into and injured several soccer fans celebrating during the Liverpool Football Club’s victory parade on Monday evening.

The incident occurred shortly after 6 p.m. local time on Water Street in Liverpool’s city center, where soccer fans had gathered for a parade celebrating the local football club’s Premier League title win, the Daily Mail reported.

“We are currently dealing with reports of a road traffic collision in Liverpool city center,” Merseyside Police said in a prepared statement as reported by the BBC.

“The car stopped at the scene, and a male has been detained,” the statement said. “Emergency services are currently on the scene.”

No fatalities have been reported, but an unknown number of people were injured.

Merseyside Police said a 53-year-old White British man from the Liverpool area was arrested, but they don’t know if he drove the vehicle.

Local police have asked that people not speculate on the collision’s cause.

“Extensive enquiries are ongoing to establish the circumstances leading up to the collision,” a Merseyside Police spokesperson said.

“We would ask people not to share distressing content online but to send the footage or information directly to us.”

Liverpool FC officials are in direct contact with local police regarding the event that happened near the end of the trophy parade, a club spokesperson said in a prepared statement.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with those who have been affected by this serious incident,” the spokesperson said.

“We will continue to offer our full support to the emergency services and local authorities who are dealing with this incident.”

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is being updated on developments and asked that people give police the space needed to investigate the matter, he said in a post on X.

“The scenes in Liverpool are appalling,” Starmer said, “My thoughts are with all those injured or affected.

“I want to thank the police and emergency services for their swift and ongoing response to this shocking incident.”

Merseyside Police have scheduled an update on the incident at 10:30 BST.

Before the parade incident that injured several people, another 17 were injured during incidents involving flares ahead of the title celebrations, the BBC reported.

The Liverpool FC secured the Premier League Trophy with a 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace on Sunday.

Local police expected hundreds of thousands to celebrate the title during the official trophy parade on Monday evening.

COPS are desperately searching for a man and his two children – last seen speeding through a major seaside town.

Authorities are concerned over the welfare of the passengers and have sent out a police helicopter to help them in their search.

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AN OAP has died after drowning in a canal as a coroner issues an urgent warning to council officials.

Doreen Turner, 91, tragically lost her life after driving her car into the body of water in Chichester, West Sussex.

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The horror crash happened on November 1 last year and sparked a police investigation.

A coroner has now ruled West Sussex County Council must install more safety measures along the road.

A probe found there was no forensic evidence of any mechanical issues in Doreen’s car.

Officers also concluded the 91-year-old had suffered no impairments that would affect her driving.

However the kerb at the end of the road was found to measure shorter than the standard height requirement.

A council spokesperson said: “We are currently reviewing this site in consultation with Sussex Police and will be responding to the coroner accordingly.”

Coroner Joanne Andrews could not determine the exact reason why Doreen’s car left the road.

But she warned the council “action should be taken”.

“In my opinion, action should be taken to prevent future deaths and I believe your organisation has the power to take such action,” she said.

This incident marks the second fatal crash in the same area within the past five years.

The coroner said the inquest heard there were “no devices present to prevent a vehicle which passes over the kerbstones from entering the canal”.

Beyond the kerb there is a five-foot section of grass before the canal starts.

West Sussex County Council has until June 25 to respond officially to the coroner’s concerns.

Earlier this month we reported the body of an unidentified woman in her 50s was pulled from a canal.

Cops had rushed to the Lee Navigation in Homerton, east London, at around 11.40am, following reports of a body in the canal.

No arrests have yet been made in connection with her death.

Elsewhere, an inquest heard how a two-year-old boy tragically drowned in a canal just as his family were in the process of moving house due to fears of living so close to the water.

Jayce Olutola was found by a police officer after he went missing from his home in Ettingshall, Wolverhampton, on August 11 last year.

And, a teenage boy who tragically died after jumping into a canal was pictured for the first time this month.

Delvin Musakwa, 13, was pulled from the water after jumping into the canal in Exeter, Devon, on May 5.

Police said the death is not being treated as suspicious, and added they will prepare a file for the coroner.

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Ian Dury’s son admitted in an interview that he had lost his driving licence after being reported to the authorities by BBC presenter Jeremy Vine

Cycling champion and BBC star Jeremy Vine caused the son of a British punk rock legend to lose his driving licence after snapping him engaging in a bad habit while behind the wheel, it has emerged.

The son of Ian Dury, Baxter, revealed the embarrassing information while being interviewed on BBC 6 Music by Huw Stephens. He explained that he had been looking at his phone in a traffic jam when Jeremy Vine cycled past and caught him red-handed.

Ian Dury was an innovator in the late 70s and early 80s’ burgeoning punk rock and new wave genres, frequently troubling government censors with countercultural and suggestive imagery, such as in his UK Number One chart topper ‘Hit Me with Your Rhythm Stick.’

Baxter Dury has followed in his father’s footsteps. He was driving to his home in West London from producer Paul Epworth’s studio, where they had been working on his latest album, Albarone, when the BBC star recorded him.

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Dury, 53, told Huw Stephens: “Do you know what? This is a tragic story, but I drove there for the first half (of making the record) and then lost my license.”

However, Baxter did not blame Jeremy Vine for reporting him, telling the BBC that he probably deserved it.

Baxter went on to explain: “I got caught in a traffic jam, and Jeremy Vine took a film of me looking at Instagram, which he deserves to, I’m not arguing about (it). “

Realising that Vine could catch him once again, he added: “Shouldn’t probably say that publicly, he’s probably in the other room, isn’t he?”

When the BBC Radio 2 presenter heard that he’d caught Ian Dury’s son red-handed, he shared his love of his father’s work, but did not apologise. He told the Mail: ‘This is very unfortunate. I would like Baxter to know that I love his dad’s music.

‘I’m afraid mobile phone use in cars in London, particularly the posher parts, is an absolute curse. So I am quite tunnel-visioned about it.

‘We have 1700 road deaths a year. Sorry to be serious about it. Best wishes to Baxter.’

Jeremy Vine has recorded countless numbers of drivers flouting road rules over the years, often posting examples on social media to raise awareness of what cyclists face every day. However, last month, he made the surprising decision to stop posting videos after receiving abuse.

The TV presenter has racked up hundreds of millions of views, without making a penny, across various social media platforms, which has also brought with it huge waves of online hate.

He said on X: “I’m stopping my cycling videos. The trolling just got too bad. They have had well over 100 million views but in the end the anger they generate has genuinely upset me.”

Vine also shared the serious death threats made against him for sharing videos of drivers breaking the rules, with online trolls branding him “England’s biggest ***hole” and calling for the Channel 5 debate host to be crushed by a lorry.

After making the decision to quit, the TV star said he would miss the conversations sparked by the videos, which could be about relatively small infractions.

“Some of the biggest videos were actually about the smallest incidents, like someone turning left in front of me,” he said.

“People are happy to discuss it and I actually think that we’d all be safer if we all understood each other. People are going to drive 4x4s in Kensington and whatnot but they need to have a bit of care for me on a bicycle.

“You might be in total control when you pass close by but the person on a bicycle doesn’t know that. I just hope I was part of a dialogue about it.”