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OVER a family dinner at home, I had a proposal for my teenage son. 

If I organised a road trip round north-west Norway, would he leave that ruddy mobile phone behind? 

A few months later and I’m driving our family of five on the Atlantic Ocean Road, ticking off Storseisundet Bridge from my bucket list. 

The name might not be familiar but you’ve probably seen the bizarre, twisty structure in photos — or perhaps in James Bond film No Time To Die. 

It is the longest of eight bridges on the five-mile highway, which connects a chain of tiny islands. 

Search for it on Google Maps and it looks like the road simply runs over water. 

SPLASH OUT

Costa del Sol’s biggest waterpark hotel with eight pools is 23C in half term

TURKISH DELIGHT

The perfect place for families – with waterslides, fairground rides and fun

To soak it in, almost literally, we stopped to hike along a coastal path and then over a pedestrian bridge, with the fierce ocean lapping just a short distance below. 

“Ooh, this is a bit Top Gear!” said my wife as we then continued our drive, through a succession of dramatic bends. She wasn’t wrong. 

Norway’s north-west coast is a seriously fun place to drive. 

We’d borrowed an electric Polestar 4 car, which was very much at home in a country where electric vehicles now outnumber petrol motors. 

It’s much sportier and roomier than our own family car, and packed with 007-style features. 

At one point the display flashed “Front radar blocked”, prompting my ten-year-old to speculate that the weapons system had been disabled.

Less excitingly, it was just dirt on an external camera. Audible speeding alerts were welcome, given most roads had a modest 50mph limit. 

The drive from Alesund to mountaineering capital Andalsnes includes a long coastal stretch, some epic bridges, sweeping bends and extra-long tunnels.

But with late-afternoon darkness and driving rain, it was a relief to arrive at our accommodation — a snug and cosy wooden cabin at Andalsnes Hytteutleie. 

Deer stew 

Next morning, my wife and kids enthusiastically tackled indoor climbing walls at the Norwegian Mountaineering Centre. 

We’d borrowed an electric Polestar 4 car, which was very much at home in a country where electric vehicles now outnumber petrol motors

Just next door was the entrance for the Romsdalen Gondola, a cable car which took us up through the clouds to the Nesaksla Mountain, some 2322ft above sea level. 

Relaxing in the Eggen Restaurant at the top, we were treated to views of the valleys way, way below. 

We feasted on local produce including fish soup, deer stew, Angus meat burgers and delicious apple juice. 

From Andalsnes runs the Golden Train on the Rauma Line, described as “Europe’s most scenic train journey”.

Instead, we used our glossy white Polestar to follow the route. 

Parking at the base of Trollveggen (Troll Wall) we marvelled at the tallest vertical rock face in Europe, a mighty 3,600ft. 

Soon after, we passed by the Kylling Bridge — the majestic railway crossing featured in Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince. 

As we approached the village of Bjorli, we explored the banks of a fir tree-lined river, with a mountain backdrop and the ground beneath us covered by a sprinkling of snow. 

It was a scene so magical, I half expected an appearance from Father Christmas himself. Our onward journey to the city Molde, on the banks of a fjord, included a hassle-free ferry trip. 

When there, we based ourselves for a few days at the Kviltorp Camping site, staying in four-bedroom “sea house” overhanging the water’s edge. 

Over breakfast, fog peeled away to reveal spectacular mountains across the fjord. Just beautiful. 

At the Molde Salmon Centre we learned about the science behind large-scale fish-farming and then cooked a salmon dish in the large kitchen. For our MasterChef-loving kids, this was an unexpected highlight of our week.

Over breakfast, fog peeled away to reveal spectacular mountains across the fjord. Just beautiful

A trip to the Aker Stadium to watch local football side Molde FK — former home to Man City star Erling Haaland and once managed by Man United legend Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, didn’t disappoint either. 

SHOP TO IT

Shoppers race to grab kitchen set scanning for just £6 with huge £50 off

MURDER PROBE

‘Murdered’ businessman found dead inside his own home just weeks after wife

We rounded off our trip back in Alesund, where an exhausting walk up 416 steps to Viewpoint Aksla is almost mandatory — and great for photos. 

I never did convince my son to leave his phone at home — but at least it’s now filled with hundreds of pictures of beautiful Norway. 

If you’re thinking about investing in the stock market today, you may be wondering whether it’s a better idea to go with the big names in the “Magnificent Seven” or to simply hold a position in the entire S&P 500.

The Magnificent Seven refers to some of the most prominent growth stocks in the world: Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Tesla. Investing in these companies has yielded strong returns for investors over the years. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 makes for a more balanced investment overall, as it gives investors broader exposure to the market while still growing over the long term. By having a position in the 500 best stocks rather than just the top seven, there’s much more diversification.

Which option should you go with today, if your focus is on long-term growth?

Image source: Getty Images.

The Magnificent Seven are magnificent, but they could be overdue for a decline

One way you can gain exposure to the Magnificent Seven is by investing in the Roundhill Magnificent Seven ETF (MAGS -3.81%). The fund invests in just the Magnificent Seven and, thus, can be an easier option than investing in each stock individually. Since its launch in April 2023, the fund has soundly outperformed the S&P 500, rising by more than 165% while the broader index has achieved gains of around 64%.

Many of the Magnificent Seven have benefited from an uptick in demand due to artificial intelligence (AI) and have been investing heavily in next-gen technologies. However, many investors worry that a bubble has already formed around AI stocks and that spending could slow down, especially if there’s a recession on the horizon. If that happens, then these stocks could be susceptible to significant declines.

While these stocks have been flying high of late, back in 2022, when the market was in turmoil due to rising inflation and as investor sentiment was souring on growth stocks, each of the Magnificent Seven stocks fell by more than 26%. The worst-performing stocks were Meta and Tesla, which lost around 65% of their value. That year, the S&P 500 also fell, but at 19%, it was a more modest decline.

The S&P 500 is more diverse, but that doesn’t mean it’s risk-free

If you want to have exposure to the S&P 500, you can accomplish that by investing in an S&P 500 index fund, such as the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY -2.67%). Its low expense ratio of 0.09% makes it a low-cost, no-nonsense way of tracking the S&P 500. Its focus is to simply mirror the index, and it does a great job of that.

The problem, however, is that while the S&P 500 will give you exposure to more stocks than just the seven best stocks in the world, how those leading stocks do will still have a significant impact on the overall stock market. And the Magnificent Seven, because they are so valuable, are also among the SPDR ETF’s largest holdings.

But even if you were to go with a more balanced exchange-traded fund, such as the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF, which has an equal position in all S&P 500 stocks, that may only offer modest protection from a wide-scale sell-off. In 2022, the ETF declined by 13%.

You’re always going to face some risk when investing in the stock market, especially if your focus is on growth stocks, which can be particularly volatile.

What’s the better strategy for growth investors?

If your priority is growth, then going with the Magnificent Seven can still be the best option moving forward. These stocks will undoubtedly have bad years, but that’s the risk that comes with growth stocks. However, given their dominance in tech and AI, the Magnificent Seven still have the potential to vastly outperform the S&P 500 in the long run, and their gains are likely to far outweigh their losses.

A SINGLE UK ticket-holder has won the £25million EuroMillions jackpot, The National Lottery has announced.

The winning numbers for the Friday night draw were 06, 07, 17, 20 and 21 with the Lucky Star numbers 01 and 10.

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It marks the second Friday in a row that a UK ticket-holder has won the top prize, and the fourth time this year.

Andy Carter, senior winners’ adviser at Allwyn, operator of The National Lottery, said: “Wow, it’s been an exciting night for EuroMillions players, as a single UK ticket-holder has landed the amazing £25m jackpot.

“That’s two UK EuroMillions jackpot wins in the space of a week, after another lucky player scooped the incredible £26M jackpot in last Friday’s draw (3 October).

“Players are now urged to check their tickets and to give us a call if they think they are tonight’s lucky winner.”

Every EuroMillions ticket also bags you an automatic entry into the UK Millionaire Maker, which guarantees at least one player will pocket £1million in every draw.

The UK Millionaire Maker Selection winner is: TGXG94724.

The first EuroMillions draw took place on February 7, 2004, by three organisations: France’s Française des Jeux, Loterías y Apuestas del Estado in Spain and the Camelot in the UK.

One of the UK’s biggest prizes was up for grabs on December, 4, 2020 with a whopping £175million EuroMillions jackpot, which would make a winner richer than Adele.

Another previous UK winner who’s whole life was altered with their jackpot was a player who wanted to remain anonymous on October 8, 2019. They walked off with a cool £170,221,000.

Colin and Chris Weir, from Largs in Scotland, netted a huge £161,653,000 in the July 12, 2011.

Adrian and Gillian Bayford, from Haverhill, Suffolk, picked up £148,656,000 after they played the draw on August, 10, 2012, while Jane Park became Britain’s youngest lottery winner when she scooped up £1 million in 2013.

The odds of winning any EuroMillions prize are 1 in 13.

Everything you need to know about Lottery and EuroMillions

Over 35 years ago, Warren Buffett told investors, “When we own portions of outstanding businesses with outstanding managements, our favorite holding period is forever.” Since then, he’s bought and sold dozens of stocks for Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A 0.55%) (BRK.B 1.06%), proving that even the Oracle of Omaha doesn’t have a perfectly clear crystal ball.

Even when Buffett has made extremely successful equity investments, he’s often had reason to sell at least some of Berkshire’s stake — either to maintain a more balanced portfolio, or sell a stock that’s become overvalued, or for any number of other reasons. Those are factors that have come to the fore recently for Buffett and his team of investment managers. Berkshire Hathaway has sold more marketable equities than it bought in each of the last 11 quarters.

Those sales include one stock that Berkshire first bought in 2008 and will go down as one of Buffett’s (and Munger’s) most successful investments of all time.

Image source: The Motley Fool.

Powering massive returns for investors

In late September 2008, as the global stock market was reeling amid the Great Recession, Buffett and Munger took the opportunity to buy a 10% stake in a Chinese auto company called BYD (BYDDY -0.94%) (BYDD.F -1.20%). They gradually increased Berkshire’s stake in the business, reaching about 20% at one point. Today, the company is the largest EV manufacturer in the world, surpassing Tesla.

It was Vice Chairman Charlie Munger who brought the company to Buffett’s attention. He found CEO Wang Chuanfu’s engineering and managerial skills extremely impressive. He had developed one of the largest battery manufacturers in the world before transitioning to the automotive business in the early 2000s. With its battery expertise and other vertically integrated components made through acquisitions, BYD looked poised to do well in the nascent electric vehicle market.

Sure enough, BYD has developed a broad lineup of vehicles sold around the world. Its global sales of fully electric vehicles surpassed Tesla’s in the fourth quarter of 2023 and for the full year of 2024. It’s not just success in its home country, either. BYD’s European sales surpassed Tesla’s in April this year. Management aims to sell half of its cars outside of China by 2030. It’s worth noting BYD has yet to enter the U.S. market due to tariffs and the political environment.

It’s no surprise, then, that BYD’s stock price has soared amid its success. With the acceleration in sales over the last few years, BYD’s stock is up more than eightfold since the start of 2020.

Buffett started decreasing Berkshire’s stake in BYD starting in August 2022, after Berkshire’s initial investment had already climbed about 20-fold. At one point, Berkshire’s shares were worth $9 billion. Based on financial reports from Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, the company gradually sold off shares until completely divesting its stake in the first quarter of this year.

Is the competition too much?

Buffett may have missed the absolute peak of BYD’s stock price, but shares have certainly struggled in the latter half of the year, as Chinese competitors take market share from its domestic business. BYD’s August deliveries were flat year over year, as were July’s. Not only has the intense domestic competition hurt unit sales, but it’s also hurt BYD’s margins.

But the company stands at a distinct advantage over the competition thanks to its significant vertical integration. As mentioned, BYD is one of the leading battery manufacturers in the world. That, in and of itself, is a significant advantage over other EV makers who need to source batteries from third parties. But BYD also makes many other components in its vehicles, including the motors, semiconductors, and practically everything else except the tires and glass.

That allows the business to adapt quickly and maintain better margins than its competitors. With plans for an aggressive international expansion, it’ll have to replicate its manufacturing capabilities all around the world. But management has proven quite adept at building systems and scaling them.

After the pullback in price, investors can buy shares for just 1 times sales and less than 16 times forward earnings expectations. That’s an attractive price for the leader in a growing industry, even if it’s seeing some pressure from the competition weighing on revenue growth and margins. It’s certainly a better valuation than investors could get with Tesla. While Buffett may have sold out of the stock, it might still deserve a spot in your portfolio.

It’s time to revisit the age-old question that’s been debated for years: Are you Team Edward or Team Jacob?

Lionsgate will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the “Twilight” novels by bringing the entire film saga back to the big screen from Oct. 29 through Nov. 2, The Times confirmed.

The love triangle tale starring Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner — a human, a vampire and a werewolf, respectively — grossed more than $3.3 billion worldwide during its first run, according to Box Office Mojo.

The films, based on the four-part book series written by Stephenie Meyer, follow the story of Bella Swan (Stewart) and vampire Edward Cullen (Pattinson). Their relationship is tested by Edward’s instinct to harm her and by Bella’s friend Jacob Black (Lautner), who belongs to a rival werewolf clan.

There are five films in the series: “Twilight” (2008); “New Moon” (2009); “Eclipse” (2010); “Breaking Dawn — Part 1” (2011); and “Breaking Dawn — Part 2” (2012). Round-table chats with Meyer, producer Wyck Godfrey, former co-president of Lionsgate Gillian Bohrer and others will accompany each film.

As part of the festivities, Meyers is scheduled to be the honored guest at this year’s Forever Twilight in Forks Festival, an annual celebration in Forks, Wash., the setting of the book series. The fest will take place Sept. 11-14.

The films have remained in pop culture through TikTok trends where fans announce their “gay awakening” using scenes of Bella. Stewart, who came out as queer and married screenwriter Dylan Meyer in April, said the films are “gay” during an interview with Variety in January.

“It’s all about oppression, about wanting what’s going to destroy you. That’s a very Gothic, gay inclination that I love,” the actor said.

Stewart starred in last year’s romantic thriller “Love Lies Bleeding” (2024) and will next appear in her wife’s directorial debut, “The Wrong Girls,” which is written by the couple.

Pattinson played the titular character in 2022’s “The Batman.” He last appeared in Bong Joon Ho’s sci-fi comedy “Mickey 17” (2025) and will appear later this year in Lynne Ramsay’s psychological dramedy “Die, My Love.”

Lautner took a few acting jobs after the end of the saga, in films such as “Grown Ups 2” (2013) and “The Ridiculous 6” (2015), but his most recent credit was in Netflix’s “Home Team” (2022).

BALTIMORE — A federal judge on Tuesday threw out the Trump administration’s lawsuit against Maryland’s entire federal bench over an order by the chief judge that stopped the immediate deportation of migrants challenging their removals.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Cullen granted a request by the judges to toss the case, saying to do otherwise “would run counter to overwhelming precedent, depart from longstanding constitutional tradition, and offend the rule of law.”

“In their wisdom, the Constitution’s framers joined three coordinate branches to establish a single sovereign,” Cullen wrote. “That structure may occasionally engender clashes between two branches and encroachment by one branch on another’s authority. But mediating those disputes must occur in a manner that respects the Judiciary’s constitutional role.”

The White House had no immediate comment.

Cullen was nominated to the federal bench by Trump in 2020. He serves in the Western District of Virginia, but he was tapped to oversee the case because all 15 of Maryland’s federal judges are named as defendants, a highly unusual circumstance that reflects the Republican administration’s harsh response to judges who slow or stop its policies.

Cullen expressed skepticism of the lawsuit during a hearing in August. He questioned why it was necessary for the Trump administration to sue all the judges as a means of challenging the order.

Signed by Chief Maryland District Judge George L. Russell III, the order prevents the Trump administration from immediately deporting any immigrants seeking review of their detention in Maryland district court. It blocks their removal until 4 p.m. on the second business day after their habeas corpus petition is filed.

The order says it aims to maintain existing conditions and the potential jurisdiction of the court, ensure immigrant petitioners are able to participate in court proceedings and access attorneys and give the government “fulsome opportunity to brief and present arguments in its defense.”

The Justice Department, which filed the suit in June, says the automatic pause violates a Supreme Court ruling and impedes the president’s authority to enforce immigration laws. The department has grown increasingly frustrated by rulings blocking Trump’s agenda, repeatedly accusing federal judges of improperly impeding his powers.

The lawsuit was an extraordinary legal maneuver, ratcheting up the administration’s fight with the federal judiciary.

Attorneys for the Maryland judges argued the lawsuit was intended to limit the power of the judiciary to review certain immigration proceedings while the Trump administration pursues a mass deportation agenda.

“The executive branch seeks to bring suit in the name of the United States against a co-equal branch of government,” attorney Paul Clement said during the hearing. “There really is no precursor for this suit”

Clement is a prominent conservative lawyer who served as solicitor general under Republican President George W. Bush. He listed several other avenues the administration could have taken to challenge the order, such as filing an appeal in an individual habeas case.

Justice Department attorney Elizabeth Themins Hedges said the government was simply seeking relief from a legal roadblock preventing effective immigration enforcement.

“The United States is a plaintiff here because the United States is being harmed,” she said.

In an amended order pausing deportations, Russell said the court had received an influx of habeas petitions after hours that “resulted in hurried and frustrating hearings in that obtaining clear and concrete information about the location and status of the petitioners is elusive.” Habeas petitions allow people to challenge their detention by the government.

Attorneys for the Trump administration accused the Maryland judges of prioritizing a regular schedule, writing in court documents that “a sense of frustration and a desire for greater convenience do not give Defendants license to flout the law.”

Among the judges named in the lawsuit is Paula Xinis, who found the Trump administration in March illegally deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador — a case that quickly became a flashpoint in Trump’s immigration crackdown. Abrego Garcia was held in a notorious Salvadoran megaprison, where he claims to have been beaten and tortured.

Trump has railed against unfavorable judicial rulings, and in one case called for the impeachment of a federal judge in Washington who ordered planeloads of deported immigrants to be turned around. In July, the Justice Department filed a misconduct complaint against the judge.

Skene writes for the Associated Press.

TWO more ferocious forest fires have erupted in Portugal – and this time cops suspect the work of arsonists.

Entire villages were forced to evacuate and hundreds of firefighters rushed to the scene of the latest blazes in a disastrous summer across the Iberian Peninsula.

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The two fires sparked nearby within an hour in Pedrógão Grande, central Portugal.

Locals here are already scarred by the memory of a terrible wildfire which killed 66 people just eight years ago.

The first erupted in the village of Pedrógão Grande, terrifyingly close to people’s homes, at around 2:30pm.

A second then burst through trees near the village of Graça at roughly 3:20pm, rousing the suspicion of police who are investigating possible foul play.

Flaming material was reported shooting out of this blaze, endangering the crews tackling it.

Five entire villages in the area were forced to evacuate as smoke cascaded into the sky.

Hundreds of firefighters battled the two blazes with from planes and from the ground.

A firefighter elsewhere in Portugal became the fourth person to be killed by the fires this summer.

Four have also lost their lives in Spain – where the blazes are finally being brought under control.

Daniel Esteves, 45, worked for the forest protection company Afocelca.

He was seriously injured on Tuesday night alongside four colleagues, and tragically died on Saturday.

Daniel suffered burns to 75 percent of his body and was the worst injured of the group – the rest of whom are still in hospital in Coimbra.

Portugal’s president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, sent his condolences to Daniel’s family who “tragically lost his life after directly combating the forest fires in Sabugal municipality”.

The amount of land burnt across the Iberian peninsula has hit a total area about the size of the US state of Delaware, based on EU statistics.

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Spain had lost a record 403,000 hectares, while Portugal lost 278,000 hectares this year, according to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS).

Spanish authorities said the tide seemed to have turned in the fight against the fires, which are mainly raging in the country’s west and northwest.

But the head of Spain’s civil protection and emergencies service, Virginia Barcones, warned there were still 18 “treacherous” blazes alight.

The record-breaking year has been fuelled by dry conditions, heatwaves and strong winds.

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Sweden’s landmark Kiruna Church begins a two-day journey to a new home, inching down an Arctic road to save its wooden walls from ground subsidence and the expansion of the world’s largest underground iron ore mine.

Workers have jacked up the 600-tonne, 113-year-old church from its foundations and hefted it onto a specially built trailer – part of a 30-year project to relocate thousands of people and buildings from the city of Kiruna in the region of Lapland.

Mine operator LKAB has spent the past year widening the road for the journey, which will take the red-painted church – one of Sweden’s largest wooden structures, often voted its most beautiful – 5km (3 miles) down a winding route to a brand new Kiruna city centre.

The journey, which begins on Tuesday, will save the church but remove it from the site where it has stood for more than a century.

“The church is Kiruna’s soul in some way, and in some way it’s a safe place,” Lena Tjarnberg, the vicar of Kiruna, said. “For me, it’s like a day of joy, but I think people also feel sad because we have to leave this place.”

For many of the region’s Indigenous Sami community, which has herded reindeer there for thousands of years, the feelings are less mixed. The move is a reminder of much wider changes brought on by the expansion of mining.

“This area is traditional Sami land,” Lars-Marcus Kuhmunen, chair of the local Gabna Sami community, said. “This area was grazing land and also a land where the calves of the reindeer were born.”

If plans for another nearby mine go ahead after the move, that would cut the path from the reindeer’s summer and winter pastures, making herding “impossible” in the future, he said.

“Fifty years ago, my great-grandfather said the mine is going to eat up our way of life, our reindeer herding. And he was right,” he added.

The church is just one small part of the relocation project.

What next?

LKAB says about 3,000 homes and approximately 6,000 people need to move. A number of public and commercial buildings are being demolished, while some, like the church, are being moved in one piece.

Other buildings are being dismantled and rebuilt around the new city centre. Hundreds of new homes, shops, and a new city hall have also been constructed.

The shift should allow LKAB, which produces 80 percent of the iron ore mined in Europe, to continue to extend the operation of Kiruna for decades to come.

The state-owned firm has brought up about two billion tonnes of ore since the 1890s, mainly from the Kiruna mine. Mineral resources are estimated at another six billion tonnes in Kiruna and nearby Svappavaara and Malmberget.

LKAB is now planning the new mine next to the existing Kiruna site.

Rare earth elements

As well as iron ore, the proposed Per Geijer mine contains significant deposits of rare earth elements – a group of 17 metals critical to products ranging from lasers to iPhones, and green technology key to meeting Europe’s climate goals.

Europe – and much of the rest of the world – is currently almost completely dependent on China for the supply and processing of rare earths.

In March this year, the European Union designated Per Geijer as a strategic project, which could help to speed up the process of getting the new mine into production.

About 5km (3 miles) down the road, Kiruna’s new city centre will also be taking shape.

“The church is … a statement or a symbol for this city transformation,” mayor Mats Taaveniku said. “We are right now halfway there. We have 10 years left to move the rest of the city.”

It seems the therapists Olivia Rodrigo found for her band really helped.

The 22-year-old “Vampire” singer and her tour manager Marty Hom provided free and accessible therapy for the entire “Guts” tour crew, rhythm guitarist Daisy Spencer revealed on “The StageLeft Podcast.”

“I have never had anything like that,” Spencer, 31, told host Chris Simpson. “And that reignited the importance of therapy to me because I had kind of fallen off for so long.”

Rodrigo and Spencer just wrapped the 102-date “Guts” world tour July 1 and completed a successful headlining set at Glastonbury, where they were joined on stage by the Cure’s Robert Smith. While on the podcast, Spencer described Rodrigo as “the dreamiest boss of all time” and opened up about taking care of her mind and body on the road.

“Suddenly I had this free resource of incredible therapists and I utilized the crap out of that,” she said. “I was going, you know, once a week, once every other week, whenever I could. And it was even during the off time — we also still had access to this resource.”

Rodrigo’s dad, Chris Rodrigo, is a family therapist, and the singer has been very open about starting therapy at 16.

“That was a really big, life-changing moment,” she told CBS Sunday Morning in 2021. “I’ve learned so much about myself.”

And she’s not the only musician promoting therapy. Lewis Capaldi, who returned to the stage after a two-year break from performing to focus on his all-around health, announced Monday that he’s partnering with BetterHelp to provide 734,000 hours of free online therapy. Ariana Grande has also partnered with the virtual therapy platform several times in the past.

Though the “Guts” tour has concluded, Rodrigo still has several festival engagements lined up for the summer, including a headlining set Aug. 1 at Lollapalooza.

June 29 (UPI) — The Senate has started formal debate on the Trump administration’s budget reconciliation bill after lawmakers spent 16 hours reading the entire measure aloud on the Senate floor.

This Senate’s version of the budget measure would make deeper cuts to social service programs and lead to fewer people having insurance than previous versions, the Congressional Budget Office has reported.

According to the Congressional Budget office report, nearly 12 million Americans would lose coverage by 2034. Federal spending on Medicaid, SNAP and marketplace insurance benefits would drop by $1.1 trillion. At least $1 trillion would come from Medicaid alone.

With its changes, he Senate version of the bill would add nearly $3.3 trillion to the national debt over a decade, the CBO report said, while the House version would add $2.4 to the debt. These estimates are based on including the costs of extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts.

Republicans in the House and Senate have asked CBO, as well as the Joint Committee on Taxation, to score the bill using a method called “current policy baseline,” which would not include the the cost of extending the cuts.

The fate of the bill in the Senate remains unclear as some high profile lawmakers have expressed skepticism of the measure in its current form.

Majority leader John Thune, R-D., has said the measure could lack key GOP support in a final vote, which could send it back to the House.

“Well find out,” Thune said.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, and Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., were the only GOP senators who voted Saturday night against brining the bill to the Senate floor for debate.

When the cost of extending the tax cuts is excluded from estimates, both the House and Senate versions of the bill have been estimated to add between $400 billion and $600 billion to the debt over the next decade, according to the New York Times and Politico.

Medicaid cuts have been at the center of a high profile debate as social service agencies and rural hospitals have planned for spending reductions that could come at the expense of the nation’s hungry children and force some hospitals, especially in rural areas, to reduce services or close their doors.

The Senate voted Saturday to open debate on the bill and began a full reading of the measure on the floor.

The Trump administration has said it is reducing waste and fraud in social service programs, and that some of those responsibilities would be shifted to the states.

President Donald Trump has said he wants the budget bill passed by July 4th.

The cuts being considered to Medicaid would be the largest since it was launched in 1965.

Ahmedabad, India — For the Patel family, April was a month of answered prayers.

The news arrived in a simple email: their son, Sahil Patel, had won a visa lottery. He was one of 3,000 Indians chosen by a random ballot for a coveted two-year United Kingdom work visa, under the British government’s India Young Professionals Scheme.

For the 25-year-old from a middle-class family, it was a pathway from a modest home in Sarod village, 150km (93 miles) from Ahmedabad, the biggest city in the western Indian state of Gujarat, to a new life in London. For his family, the visa was the culmination of every prayer, a chance for the social mobility they had worked their whole lives for.

But less than two months later, that excitement has turned to grief: Sahil was one of the 241 people on Air India 171 who died when the plane crashed into a medical college’s hostel just outside Ahmedabad airport on Thursday, June 12, seconds after taking off.

Only one passenger survived India’s deadliest aviation disaster in more than three decades. Dozens of people on the ground were killed, including several students at BJ Medical College, when the plane erupted into a ball of fire after crashing into their mess. Several others were injured, many of them still in critical care.

Those killed on board include young students on their way to London on scholarships, a family returning home from a wedding in Gujarat, another that was visiting India for Eid, and those like Sahil whose families believed they had won the luck of a lifetime.

‘Why my child?’

In the mess hall at Gujarat’s oldest medical school, Rakesh Deora was finishing his lunch along with more than 70 other medical students. From a small town in Bhavnagar in southeastern Gujarat, Deora was in the second year of his undergraduate studies – but, friends and family recalled, did not like wearing his white coat.

When the plane struck the building, he was killed by the falling debris. In the chaos that followed, many of the bodies – from the plane and on the ground – were charred beyond recognition. Deora’s face was still recognisable when his family saw his body.

At the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital, five hours after the crash, another family rushed in. Irfan, 22, was an Air India cabin crew member, his uniform a symbol of pride for his family. They rushed to the morgue, unaware of what they were about to face. When an official showed Irfan’s father his son’s body – his face still recognisable – the man’s composure shattered.

He collapsed against a wall, his voice a raw lament to God. “I have been religious my whole life,” he cried, his words echoing in the sterile hallway. “I gave to charity, I taught my son character … Why this punishment upon him? Why my child?”

Beside him, Irfan’s mother refused to believe that her son was dead. “No!” she screamed at anyone who came near. “He promised he would see me when he got back. You’re lying. It’s not him.”

For another family, recognition came not from a face, but from a small, gold pendant. It was a gift from a husband to his wife, Syed Nafisa Bano, and it was the only way to identify her. Nafisa was one of four members of the Syed family on board, including her husband Syed Inayat Ali, and their two young children, Taskin Ali and Waqee Ali. They had been buzzing with excitement, talking about their return to London after spending a wonderful two months in India celebrating Eid al-Adha with their relatives. On Thursday, their family in Gujarat huddled together in the hospital corridor in mourning, the laughter they had shared consigned to memories.

‘God saved us, but he took so many others’

Just 500 metres from the main crash site, rickshaw driver Rajesh Patel was waiting for his next customer. The 50-year-old was the sole earner for his family. He wasn’t struck by debris, but by the explosion’s brutal heat, which engulfed him in flames. He now lies in a critical care unit, fighting for his life. His wife sits outside the room, her hands clasped in prayer.

In the narrow lanes of the Meghaninagar neighbourhood near the crash site, Tara Ben had just finished her morning chores and was lying down for a rest.

The sudden, deafening roar that shook her home’s tin roof sounded like a gas cylinder explosion, a familiar danger in the densely packed neighbourhood. But the screams from outside that followed told her this was different. “Arey, aa to aeroplane chhe! Plan tooti gayo! [Oh, it’s an aeroplane! It’s a plane crash!]” a man shrieked in Gujarati; his voice laced with a terror she had never heard before. Tara Ben ran out into the chaos. The air was thick with smoke and a smell she couldn’t place – acrid and metallic.

As she joined the crowd rushing to view the crash site, a cold dread washed over her – a mix of gratitude and guilt. It wasn’t just for the victims, but for her own community. She looked back at the maze of makeshift homes in her neighbourhood, where hundreds of families lived stacked one upon another. “If it had fallen here,” she later said, her voice barely a whisper, “there would be no one left to count the bodies. God saved us, but he took so many others.”

Veteran rescue worker Tofiq Mansuri has seen tragedy many times before, but nothing had prepared him for this, he said. For four hours, from mid-afternoon until the sun began to set, he and his team worked in the shadow of the smouldering wreckage to recover the dead with dignity. “The morale was high at first,” Mansuri recalled, his gaze distant, his face etched with exhaustion. “You go into a mode. You are there to do a job. You focus on the task.”

He described lifting body bag after body bag into the ambulances. But then, they found her. A small child, no more than two or three years old, her tiny body charred by the inferno. In that moment, the professional wall Mansuri had built to allow himself to deal with the dead, crumbled.

“We are trained for this, but how can you train for that?” he asked, his voice breaking for the first time. “To see a little girl … a baby … it just broke us. The spirits were gone. We were just men, carrying a child who would never go home.”

Mansuri knows the sight will stay with him. “I won’t be able to sleep for many nights,” he said, shaking his head.

‘Air India killed him’

By 7pm, five hours after the crash, ambulances were arriving at Ahmedabad Civil Hospital in a grim procession, not with sirens blaring, but in a near-silent parade of the dead.

Inside the hospital, a wave of anguish rippled through the crowd each time the doors of the morgue swung open. In one corner, a woman’s voice rose above the din, a sharp, piercing cry of accusation. “Air India killed him!” she screamed. “Air India killed my only son!” Then she collapsed into a heap on the cold floor. No one rushed to help; they simply watched, everyone struggling with their own grief.

Dozens of families waited – for a name to be called, for a familiar face on a list, for a piece of information that might anchor them amid a disorienting nightmare. They huddled in small, broken circles, strangers united by a singular, unbearable fate. Some were called into small, sterile rooms to give DNA samples to help identify their dead relatives.

Then an official’s announcement cut through the air: identified remains would only be released after 72 hours, after post-mortem procedures.

As the night deepened, some relatives, exhausted and emotionally spent, began their journey home, leaving one or two family members behind to keep vigil. But many refused to leave. They sat on the floor, their backs against the wall, their eyes vacant.

While some families still cling to the fragile hope of survival, such as in the case of Rajesh Patel, the rickshaw driver, others are grappling with the grief differently.

Away from the hospital’s frantic chaos, Sahil Patel’s father Salim Ibrahim was away in his village, calm and composed. Over the telephone, his voice did not break but remained chillingly calm, his grief masked by a single practical question.

“Will they give him back to us in a closed box?” he asked. “I just … I cannot bear for anyone to see him like that. I want him to be brought home with dignity.”

The visa that promised a new world to Sahil is now a worthless piece of paper. The plane was a Dreamliner, an aircraft named for the very thing it was meant to carry. The dream of London has dissolved into a nightmare in a morgue. And in the end, all a father can ask for his son is the mercy of a closed lid.

The swan fountain and the Mistley Towers are the only remaining physical reminders of an ambitious plan to turn the town of Mistley into a saltwater spa in the 18th century

At first glance, the charming riverside town of Mistley in Essex might not seem particularly remarkable. However, two enduring symbols of an ambitious yet ultimately failed 18th-century project to transform the town into a saltwater spa still exist – the swan fountain and the Mistley Towers.

According to English Heritage, Richard Rigby’s father accumulated significant wealth and influence when he was appointed Paymaster General of the Forces by George III in 1786. Back then, the village of Mistley consisted of warehouses, a granary, a malting office, quays and a medieval church – only the porch of which survives to this day.

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There was also a more recent church, built to the north of the village in 1735 at the request of Rigby’s father. However, when Rigby dreamt up his grand plan to turn Mistley into a fashionable spa, the simple brick structure of the church didn’t fit with his vision.

Initially, Rigby commissioned Robert Adam to design a saltwater bath by the river, but this idea never materialised. Instead, the architect was assigned to work on the church around 1776, reports Essex Live.

In a departure from the norm, Adam’s design broke away from the traditional 18th-century parish church blueprint, featuring towers at both the east and west ends and semi-circular porticoes to the north and south.

It’s been suggested that Adam may have drawn inspiration from Roman tombs, giving the structure an unusual flair. Regrettably, Rigby’s grand plans to turn Mistley into a bustling spa destination never came to fruition.

The central part of the church was demolished in 1870, making way for a newer, trendier place of worship nearby.

Despite the original plans falling through, the remaining towers found a new purpose as a “seamark” and were sold off to local families who had aspirations of converting them into opulent mausoleums.

Yet, this idea too did not take hold, and over time, the towers were left to deteriorate. It wasn’t until the 1950s that the towers saw a revival, thanks to architect Raymond Erith and the efforts of the Georgian Group, who meticulously restored them.

The surrounding churchyard is peppered with monuments dating from the early to mid-18th century, including an eye-catching polished black granite mausoleum in the Egyptian style, erected in memory of the Norman family.