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WASHINGTON — In the escalating war in Iran, the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs would ordinarily be at the center of the geopolitical fray.

Typically led by a veteran diplomat, the bureau’s role would be to coordinate U.S. foreign policy across an 18-country region, much of which has become a chaotic battlefield scarred by drone and missile strikes as the U.S. and Israel remain locked in conflict with Iran.

The Trump administration for a time put Mora Namdar, a lawyer of Iranian descent with limited management experience, in charge before later moving her to a different post. One of her credentials was her contribution to Project 2025, a conservative think tank’s blueprint for the second Trump administration. Namdar’s last Senate-confirmed predecessor was a longtime Middle East expert who had been with the department since 1984 and had served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Arab Emirates.

Now that bureau is also working with far fewer resources. The administration’s most recent budget proposed a 40% cut to the bureau, though Congress eventually enacted less dramatic cuts. The administration also eliminated the dedicated Iran office, merging it with the Iraq office.

Staff reductions and management choices hamper emergency response

These kinds of personnel and management choices — coupled with President Trump’s moves to shrink government and confine decision-making to a tight circle — are limiting the ability of the United States to handle a global emergency, according to interviews with more than a dozen current and former U.S. officials, many of whom recently left government.

In divisions of the State Department that typically would handle the Iran response, numerous veteran diplomats with decades of collective experience were fired, retired or were reassigned — replaced by more junior officials or political appointees. The administration cut more than 80 staffers in Near Eastern Affairs, according to numbers compiled by a State Department employee who was terminated last year based on surveys of colleagues. (The department does not release official figures on Foreign Service officer staffing levels but did not dispute the number.)

The Trump administration has left the assistant secretary position in charge of Near Eastern Affairs vacant, along with key ambassadorships in the Middle East. Four of the five supervisors in the bureau have temporary titles.

The current and former officials, some of whom asked for anonymity to discuss sensitive internal matters during an active conflict, paint a portrait of an understaffed government workforce struggling to execute the president’s agenda. Those who remain tell colleagues that their analysis, recommendations and advice go unheeded.

The State Department vigorously disputed those assessments.

“As far as we can tell, AP’s entire ‘report’ on the evacuations does not include any conversations with people actually involved. Instead, it relies on ‘outside’ or ‘former official’ sources that have no idea what they are talking about. We walked AP through specific inaccuracy after specific inaccuracy — indeed how the whole premise was wrong,” State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said.

More than 3,800 State Dept. employees departed since Trump took office

The State Department saw a departure of more than 3,800 employees since President Trump took office through a combination of reductions in force, staffers taking the Fork in the Road deferred resignation plan and ordinary retirements. According to estimates by the American Foreign Service Association, the labor union that represents foreign service officers, senior foreign service ranks were disproportionately represented in the layoffs compared to their share of the overall workforce.

“He’s making choices without the larger expertise of the United States government that would flag issues of consequence,” said Max Stier, CEO of the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit group that studies federal workforce issues. “Sometimes government is slow-moving because there are a lot of different factors that need to be balanced against each other.”

For instance, the administration appears to have been caught off guard by what would happen once the U.S. struck Iran — something Trump himself acknowledged this week when he expressed surprise that Tehran retaliated with strikes on American allies in the region. “Nobody expected that. We were shocked. They fought back,” Trump told reporters this week.

Pigott said staffing reductions “are not having any negative impact on our ability to respond to this operation, our ability to plan, and our ability to execute in service to Americans.” He added that the department “rejects the premise that key decisions were made without meaningful input from experienced professionals.”

But Iranian retaliation on U.S. allies was predictable, according to former officials, as well as previous war games and conflict models run by both the U.S. military and private organizations. The National Security Council, which Trump has pared, typically would have presented the president with analysis from experts within the bureaucracy.

Instead, decisions are made by a small group of officials close to the president without the planning or coordination of the larger machinery of government, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who also serves as the president’s national security adviser.

“In the Trump Administration, decisions are made by President Trump and senior administration officials and not by no-name bureaucrat leakers who whine to the press about not being consulted about highly classified operations,” White House spokesperson Dylan Johnson said.

Advice from career officials often went unheeded

“In the time that I was there, there was no policy process to speak of,” said Chris Backemeyer, who served in Near Eastern Affairs as a deputy assistant secretary of state before resigning last year. Backemeyer was a major proponent of the Iran deal that Trump abandoned. He recently left government to run for Congress as a Democrat in Nebraska.

“They did not want to hear any advice from career people,” said Backemeyer.

Namdar was later moved to be the head of Consular Affairs, the part of the department responsible for providing assistance to American citizens overseas and issuing visas to foreign visitors.

When the U.S. made the decision to strike Iran, Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee offered embassy staff in Jerusalem the opportunity to evacuate — a sign that he knew strikes were coming. But some other embassies in the region did not make similar arrangements — leaving nonessential personnel and their families stranded in a war zone.

The department said it has been issuing travel warnings since January and was fully staffed to handle the crisis the moment the strikes were launched.

Evacuation planning was chaotic

Still, little planning appears to have gone into how to evacuate the Americans who were living, working, visiting or studying in many of the countries that became engulfed in the conflict — in part because the White House seems to have underestimated the possibility of the strikes expanding into a prolonged multi-country war, as evidenced by Trump’s own remarks.

After Iranian attacks on allies like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, the State Department began calling for Americans to leave the region. But numerous former Consular Affairs staffers say such planning should have begun long before U.S. strikes started.

In a statement posted to social media, Namdar only told Americans to evacuate several days into the conflict, when airspace was largely closed and many commercial flights were unavailable.

“The messaging that went out to American citizens — after the U.S. struck Iran — was woefully late and, initially, confusing,” said Yael Lempert, who served as U.S. ambassador to Jordan until 2025. Lempert is one of five former ambassadors expected to speak about the department’s failures at an event Thursday at the American Academy of Diplomacy in Washington.

Other poorly executed evacuations, such the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, have drawn criticism.

But this time they’re compounded by the loss of experienced people, officials say. Consular Affairs has lost more than 150 jobs in the Trump administration due to a combination of reductions in force, dismissals of probationary employees and retirements, according to a U.S. official who asked for anonymity — though other parts of the department were hit much harder.

The department notes that it has offered assistance to nearly 50,000 Americans impacted by the conflict, with more than 60 flights evacuating citizens from the region. In total, the department says more than 70,000 Americans have been able to return home since the outbreak of hostilities on Feb. 28.

Democrat says personnel reduction imperiled safety

“The loss of experienced personnel through these RIFs has clearly undermined the Bureau of Consular Affairs’ ability to fulfill its most important mission, to protect Americans abroad,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement.

Language skills at the department are also atrophying. Thirteen Arabic speakers and four Farsi speakers, all trained at taxpayer expense, were among employees let go, according to a draft letter being circulated by former foreign service officers.

It can cost $200,000 to train a foreign service officer in a language. The letter estimates that the total number of people fired by the State Department in the name of efficiency received more than $35 million in taxpayer-funded language training and more than $100 million in total training and other career development.

The State Department has set up two temporary task forces to deal with the crisis in the Middle East. One aims to bolster the capacities of Near East Affairs and another is aimed at helping Consular Affairs evacuate Americans.

A group of more than 250 Foreign Service officers were part of the administration’s reduction-in-force last year but still remain on the State Department’s payroll. Many have volunteered to return to the department to work on either a task force or do any other job that needs to be done with the outbreak of a global crisis.

“I haven’t been given any separation paperwork. I still have an active clearance. I could go back to the department tomorrow, either to backfill or staff a task force,” said one foreign service officer who asked for anonymity because they are still technically on the department’s payroll and are not authorized to speak to the press. “I will do the scutwork jobs.”

The department hasn’t responded to their offer but said in a statement that the task force is “fully staffed.”

Tau writes for the Associated Press.

“Well, I guess it’s a brother thing.”

The Black Crowes singer Chris Robinson is reflecting on his rollercoaster relationship with his younger sibling, guitarist Rich.

Their explosive chemistry once earned the outfit a fitting accolade — “The Most Rock ’n’ Roll Rock ’n’ Roll Band in the World”.

Chris is first to admit they’ve had their ups and downs since forming in 1984 under their original name, Mr Crowe’s Garden, as schoolkids in Atlanta, Georgia.

“Rich and I, for better or worse, were stubborn and arrogant but always strong believers in the art,” he admits.

“This has always been our path and, no matter what, we have to do it like this.

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“In rock ’n’ roll, there are plenty of show dogs, pure bred and beautiful. We’re f***ing feral.”

Following in the footsteps of other warring brothers — Ray and Dave Davies or Noel and Liam Gallagher — the Robinsons weren’t on speaking terms for five years after their so-called “contractual obligations” tour ended in 2014.

“Sometimes, you have to take your lumps,” continues Chris, employing that very American phrase for suffering setbacks. “But, right now, we’re in the zone. The chemistry is 100 per cent there.

“The way we feel goes right back to when we started — it’s f*** it, just play it — even if we are more well-mannered.”

The Black Crowes’ big reunion began in late 2019 with warm-up shows for a planned 30th anniversary tour of their debut album, the seminal Shake Your Money Maker, the following year.

But the pandemic slammed on the brakes before the dates finally happened across the US in 2021, uncorking the band’s celebrated freewheeling energy.

Back to the live arena came Jealous Again, Hard To Handle, She Talks To Angels and Twice As Hard, songs that somehow bottled up the band’s influences — Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones and Little Feat among them — but still refreshingly their own.

In 2024, with their creative juices flowing, The Black Crowes released their first album of original material in 15 years, Happiness Bastards.

Now the Robinsons are back again — with a bang.

The follow-up, A Pound Of Feathers, comes tearing out of the blocks with the rocket-fuelled, riff-driven Profane Prophecy, setting the tone for another of The Black Crowes’ “love letters to rock and roll”.

The album arrives with some sound advice — “This isn’t a record you play on Sunday morning, this is a f***ing Saturday night burner!”

In a world where smoothly produced pop dominates the airwaves, The Black Crowes are unashamedly sticking two fingers up at it.

“None of what’s going on in that world is relevant to me,” decides Chris, “and rock ’n’ roll is still huge for millions and millions of people.”

He is talking to me via video call from Aspen, Colorado, the premier ski resort in the States, playground of the rich and famous.

“My wife is an avid skier. She’s the Franz Klammer of the family,” he reports with a reference to the Austrian downhill legend.

“I get to do the cooking, the reading and the hanging out.” (And talking to people like me about The Black Crowes). Brother Rich is at home in Nashville and begins his call by apologising for being under the weather.

“I’m going to be coughing randomly,” he says. “I’m in the middle of flu that’s going around.”

After clearing his throat, Rich, the less flamboyant one who lets his guitar wizardry do most of his talking, gamely picks up on Chris’s theme.

“When we got back together, we both agreed we needed to do it properly,” he affirms.

“We knew that bringing back a toxic dynamic wouldn’t be healthy for anyone.

“We couldn’t have the overarching idea that when Chris and Rich get together, it’s a bad thing.

“We’ve always written all the songs, we own the name so coming back with a more mature approach has been very helpful.”

Rich acknowledges that the music landscape for the older, wiser Black Crowes is vastly different from when they started out. “There’s a bunch of people in the industry who like to think rock ’n’ roll is dead,” he says.

“But then there’s a bunch of people trying to keep it alive. Guns N’ Roses, the Rolling Stones, Metallica and Def Leppard are still selling out stadiums.

“Tens of millions of people still want to see bands like them. Rock ’n’ roll is one thing that no one could tame.

“And it’s still like that for us. We can go into a studio with almost nothing and, in a week, make a record.

“There’s a human, organic quality to rock ’n’ roll. We don’t have auto-tune and we don’t have to set our s**t to a grid.”

Looking back at their unfettered past, Chris exclaims: “I have to say I’m so f***ing proud of The Black Crowes, man!

“Rich and I started this band when we were teenagers in Mom and Dad’s house, as a vehicle to write songs.

“And we found our way to being musicians and performers.”

Yet the creation of A Pound Of Feathers has still blown Chris away, most notably because of the stellar contributions from Rich.

The album was made in double-quick time, carried along by the brothers’ spontaneous fusion of riffs and lyrics.

Chris says: “I’ve been on stage and sat in studios my whole life with my brother playing amazing guitar.

“But, with this album, I sat there with my mouth hanging open.

“Granted I’m very close to the flame but everything he did, I was like, ‘Wow, this guy’s taking it to a new place.’”

During the sessions, The Black Crowes were visited by Chris’s friend, Todd Snider, the singer/songwriter who died last November from pneumonia aged just 59.

Chris cherished the chance to hang out with Todd — and to get some memorable feedback from him.

“He was a storyteller, a real poet, and he and I had a great friendship. He also really liked The Black Crowes.

“He asked if he could come and check out the recording. I went, ‘Dude, yeah fine, but you’re going to be the only one here’. So he sat there taking in me and Rich putting music together.

“At the end of the day, he said, ‘Are you f***ing warlocks? Is this some kind of ESP or is it a parlour trick? You don’t say anything yet, 30 minutes later, there’s this massive song blasting out of the speakers’.”

For Rich, the studio is his happy place. “I’ve always loved being in a studio,” he says.

“It’s where you bring to ­fruition all the things you have in your head.

“With this record, we came in without any concrete ideas. By allowing ourselves just to play in the sandbox, it became fun and exciting.”

Rich gives a shoutout to producer Jay Joyce, who also helmed Happiness Bastards.

He says: “Nine and a half times out of ten, he agrees with us when we’re excited about something.

“He’s there with us, not bogging us down by trying to insert himself when its unnecessary.”

So what of the songs? There’s the aforementioned opener Profane Prophecy which captures the unvarnished sound of The Black Crowes’ live mayhem, yet recorded in the calmer confines of a studio.

You hear Chris nodding to past rock ’n’ roll excesses by hollering, tongue firmly in cheek, “My pedigree in debauchery is my claim to fame.”

He smiles, “Of course I have to embrace that life. That’s why I sing, ‘I eat casino breakfast off the kitchen floor’.”

But he maintains that while giving “a vision of a debauched rock ’n’ roller”, he’s also “confusing fact with fiction”.

The four-minute shindig concludes with the ensemble chant of the phrase that yielded the album title, “a pound of feathers or a pound of lead”.

Chris got the line from In Here The World Begins, a song by long-defunct British electro-pop band Broadcast.

“I loved the phrase and what it could mean because a pound is a pound,” he says. “It doesn’t matter whether it’s lead or feathers. There’s some weird wisdom to it.”

We turn our attention to Cruel Streak, pounding rock underpinned by funky rhythm.

“I’m adjacent to funk at all times,” says Chris. “Growing up in Atlanta, there was this multi­racial band called Mother’s Finest who played heavy funk with ‘Baby Jean’ Kennedy as lead singer.

“There’s a lot of Mother’s Finest in The Black Crowes.”

On the R&B-flavoured It’s Like That, which comes with heavy basslines and a hint of reggae, the brothers employed an amphibian guest, which, as Chris explains, fits with their anything goes attitude.

“I was staying in Nashville, and the doors were open. I heard this frog, so I recorded him. That’s my Nashville rasta frog on the solo.”

Rich says: “There are tree frogs all over the South. They were blaring one night and Chris said, ‘Man, I want to use that sound’.

“So he took his phone and pressed record. We found the right space for it on the song.” On the loose, laidback country-tinged Pharmacy Chronicles, recalling the vibe of the Rolling Stones’ Exile On Main St., Chris sings “let the demons find you” because, he insists, we mustn’t think everything is “sugar-coated, glossy and gorgeous”.

“Especially something as messy as a 40-year career in rock ’n’ roll,” he adds. “I can’t believe some of the s**t I was doing. Get some surgical gloves and get to it!”

But Chris is not one to dwell on the past, with all its euphoric highs and crashing lows. “I am devoid of nostalgia,” he says.

“I like to think I interact with the world as a poet. I’m always writing — it could be because I overheard a conversation at an airport check-in.

“I’m no Bruce Springsteen,” he confesses. “But I connect with the world through whatever inspires me.”

And, as he puts it, “a lot of the darkness that is the United States right now” informs A Pound Of Feathers.

It explains why final track Doomsday Doggerel with its line “a front row seat to the end of times” is in stark contrast to the closing song on Happiness Bastards.

“On that last record, Kindred Friend was a beautiful pastoral thing with harmonica, about me and Rich, the band and our audience,” says Chris.

“Doomsday Doggerel is much darker. We haven’t remembered lessons from our past and the f***ing racism means we’re operating at a very low frequency.

“I just hope that someone can play this record on a Saturday night, keep out the low frequency and get a better hum going.”

As Pharmacy Chronicles ebbs to a close, you hear a defiant chorus of “the good times never end”.

As far as Chris and Rich and the rest of The Black Crowes family are concerned, rock ’n’ roll is the perfect antidote to personal and universal turmoil.

“We’re loud, we can be sloppy but we are like an old cartoon of two people fighting on a train,” says Chris.

“The train goes round a bend, leaning all the way over a cliff, but then it comes back up. That’s us.”

THE BLACK CROWES

A Pound Of Feathers

★★★★☆

TIKTOK may be a breeding ground for influencers, Love Island stars and budding celebs, but it’s not just glitz and glamour that can bring in the cash on the streaming app.

In fact, some of the top-earning creators have very unlikely niches.

Creators are known for bagging big money brand deals – from the likes of Superdrug beauty collabs to M&S food promotions.

Here, we take a look at some of the biggest money-makers making bank from seemingly mundane activities.

Chip Shop Diva

Destiny Harold has turned working in a fish and chip shop into a lucrative social media career.

The star, better known online as Chip Chop Diva, catapulted to fame for filming videos in at work in Merchants fish and chip shop in Bewdley, Worcestershire.

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Destiny works two days per week at the fish and chip shop while studying, and unexpectedly blew up online for posting videos from behind the counter.

And now, she has worked with numerous brands on high-profile collaborations.

Last summer, she partnered with car brand Dacia to serve chips on the beach in Deal.

While she was also named one of the “icons of the year” by confectionary brand Quality Street in December.

Destiny now has over 20,000 followers on Instagram and almost 2 million likes on TikTok.

Bus Aunty Bemi

Bemi Orojuogun is known to her over 400,000 TikTok followers as “Bus Aunty”.

She became famous for filming selfie videos in front of London’s red buses.

Bemi simply goes around the capital and films herself in front of different buses, with her videos racking up millions of views.

Working as a mental health nurse by day, Bemi’s catapult to fame was completely unexpected – with the online sensation shocked by her own prominence.

The videos have even led to political impact, with Bemi meeting Prime Minister Keir Starmer in December.

Meeting the Prime Minister on a bus in Norfolk, Bemi urged him to look at making public transport across the UK more accessible as she pointed out that not everywhere has such constant travel options like London’s TFL.

After he laid out the government’s plan to improve transport nationwide, Bemi was lauded as a “real role model” by fans.

Weeks later, she was invited to 10 Downing Street for the Pride in Place reception, an event which celebrated millions of pounds of investment into our local communities.

Samuel Wolfenden

Samuel Wolfenden is a Farrier & Equestrian Influencer, becoming famous in 2023 for filming content at work.

The hunky star shares content from his workdays with horses and tips for fans.

He boasts a whopping 1.3M followers on Instagram.

Since rising to fame, Sam has appeared on This Morning – with Josie Gibson often commenting on his social snaps now – and taken part in fashion shows.

Amongst his famous list of followers are Maura Higgins and Katie Price.

Charzreviews

An account named Charzreviews, run by Charlotte Blockley, is one of the UK’s most prominent ‘review and restock’ creators.

While you may think testing household products such as pillows and storage bins is mundane, this creator has built up quite the career from it.

Charlotte known in the creator community for being a “TikTok Shop millionaire”.

The title comes as she has generated over £1,000,000 in sales (total revenue) by simply showing how she uses everyday gadgets in her UK home.

She boasts over 200,000 followers.

Jane Hastings

Liverpool hailing Jane has highlighted the power of TikTok shop by using it to boost orders for her small toy shop.

The creator live streams on the app daily to demo toys the shop sells and pack customer’s orders.

While it may not seem like much, Jane is thought to have sold over hundreds of thousands of items through the platform.

Jane describes herself as a “nan of 10” and posts under her toy shop’s page, @toystoystoys.uk.

She told Liverpool Echo of her success: “Within the the first 12 months I’d sold 100,000 items.”

Her page has almost 50K followers.

I LISTEN in pitch darkness as a creature scuttles from one end of my canvas roof to the other.

Huntsman spider? Giant goanna lizard? A giant goanna lizard-sized spider? My mind is racing.

Finally Emma, our Australian host, answers my panicked WhatsApp. “It’s a possum, Stew. No one ever died from a possum.”

Reassured, I snuggle back down under the covers and drift off to sleep with the soundtrack of the Australian forest echoing around me.

I’m staying at Paperbark Camp, an ­eco-glamping retreat 120 miles south of Sydney, tucked away in dense woodland on the banks of Currambene Creek.

My “pod” — essentially a wooden base with canvas roof and walls — has a sumptuous double bed, a deck with chairs and tables to chill while watching the exotic birdlife and kangaroos, and a delightful bath and shower room at the rear that is fully open to the forest.

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And, yes, I did check under the loo seat for spiders!

The camp is our base for a week exploring the delights of rural New South Wales.

Yes, Sydney is a fantastic city but what if you want a ­little more adventure and authenticity?

It was certainly a chance to get close to the famous Aussie wildlife, with possums trotting up to the bar terrace and mobs of kangaroos grazing just yards away in the paddocks surrounding the camp.

Having honed our canoeing skills with the camp’s boats on the delightfully placid creek, we headed up the road to Kangaroo Valley for a paddle with a twist.

Here, we had two canoes lashed together either side of a picnic table, with two bottles of local fizz chilling and freshly-made hors d’oeuvres. How civilised.

Our sedate hour-long paddle up the river surrounded by steep tree-covered mountainsides in the morning sunshine was beautiful, with guide Travis acting as wildlife spotter and giving us an education on the ways of the Aussie bush.

Every stop we made shed more fascinating light on the history of the country’s indigenous people and each stop revealed more of their mind-blowing bushcraft and knowledge of the land.

Up in the Blue Mountains — a Unesco world heritage site — local tribal elder “Uncle Dave” gave us a warm welcome to Scenic World and an enthralling introduction to Aboriginal history.

Whether out in the bush or in Sydney, a tour encompassing Australia’s indigenous culture is well worth the time, with more than 300 distinct “nations” living side by side in harmony for thousands of years, each with their own spiritual connection to the country around them.

Uncle Dave had our group enthralled as he talked us through the customs and folklore of the breathtaking landscape around us from a cable car 800ft above the forest canopy.

The same was true as we toured the mangroves and woodlands of the beautiful coastal town of Jervis Bay.

Here, our guide Jacob fashioned a soothing ointment for insect bites from the sap of a bracken fern he’d pulled from the ground in front of us.

No plant goes to waste, he explained, pointing out some of the various unique uses for the wide range of trees and grasses around us.

The plentiful mangrove trees and their twisted branches are perfect for making boomerangs, for example.

If the idea of walking through a coastal forest with stunning views of the ocean is your thing, the 90-minute trek from Hyams Beach to Greenfield is well worth a look, with miles of beautiful white sand — the whitest in the world, the locals claim — and crystal-clear waters.

There are of course snorkelling spots in the area, and a quick boat trip out into the bay will almost guarantee a sight of dolphins, with migrating whales also around from May to November every year.

Jervis Bay’s beaches are also famous for stunning night-time displays of bioluminescence — in which a plankton “bloom” in the water glows in the dark — but that’s not an experience you can plan for!

The local indigenous people’s name for Jervis Bay translates as “Bay of Plenty”, and the seafood on offer at renowned local watering hole The Huskisson Hotel certainly reflects that — a perfect way to refuel after a busy day and watch the sun set.

Exploring the stunning countryside of New South Wales will obviously require a car, and the average cost of hiring in Sydney is £45 a day.

And remember, they drive on the left Down Under so it’s easy for us Brits!

Back in the pitch darkness of the forest at Paperbark Camp, I’m woken from my well-earned slumber by a series of shrieks that sound not unlike the Demogorgon from Stranger Things.

I text Emma in the pod next door: “Did you hear that?”

As my ears pick up a rustling in the undergrowth just beyond my deck, her reply comes back: “If I told you that was just a possum, would you believe me?”

I don’t — but at least I know it can’t possibly be a 2ft Huntsman Spider.

The historic city has been named a better place to live than the likes of Leeds, Cardiff, York and Bath.

Dunfermline, Scotland’s historic former capital, has claimed the top spot in a new league table as Britain’s best value city. Despite only gaining official city status in 2022 ahead of the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations, the ancient Scottish settlement has beaten major competitors including Leeds and Cardiff to secure first place in The Telegraph’s value-for-money rankings.

Analysis by property specialists Savills shows Dunfermline emerges as the most attractive and affordable option for young graduates grappling with today’s cost of living crisis. The league table saw Newcastle, Salford, Leeds and Cardiff round out the top five most economical cities across the country.

Dunfermline’s success lies in its combination of “well-paid jobs, comparatively low house prices, a favourable ratio of property costs to household income and somewhere which is teeming with culture and amenities”.

Whilst Aberdeen boasts marginally lower property prices and a slightly superior house price-to-income ratio, Dunfermline secured the title due to its robust employment market and vibrant cultural offerings.

The research highlights Dunfermline’s advantageous proximity to Edinburgh, with rail connections transporting commuters to Scotland’s capital in just 32 minutes.

Despite sitting merely 30 minutes apart, homes in Dunfermline cost more than £133,000 less than comparable Edinburgh properties on average. Savills’ research reveals that typical properties in the Fife city command £206,900, with average household earnings sitting at £56,225.

By comparison, the average London home cost £723,132 last year, against a Great Britain average of £346,683.

Those making the move to Dunfermline can enjoy the breathtaking woodland surroundings of Pittencrieff Park, whilst a mere five minutes from the city centre lies the exciting Townhill Country Park and Town Loch – the national training centre for waterskiing and wakeboarding.

The area also boasts a wealth of wild swimming spots, including Aberdour Silver Sands Beach, as well as a flourishing community of independent craft artisans.

The former Art Deco fire station has been reinvented as Fire Station Creative, a buzzing arts hub home to artists, printmakers and jewellers. Newcomers can also discover up-and-coming bands through the city’s lively open mic scene.

Steeped in history, this ancient Scottish capital serves as the burial ground for some of Scotland’s most celebrated monarchs – among them Robert the Bruce.

Local campaigner Michelle McWilliams, who took part in the city status bid, said at the time: “We were Europe’s fastest-growing town. Now we’re one of its most creative and historic small cities.”

London failed to make the top ten, with Lucian Cook, head of residential research for Savills, observing: “House prices are as high as eight times household incomes across 75 percent of the capital.”

Separately, jobs platform Adzuna has found that Leeds offers the most lucrative employment prospects of any city outside London.

Feb. 27 (Asia Today) — Mizuho Financial Group said it will reduce up to 5,000 clerical positions over the next decade as it accelerates the adoption of artificial intelligence across its operations, in a bid to improve profitability.

The Japanese megabank plans to shrink its nationwide administrative workforce of about 15,000 by as much as one-third through automation, organizational streamlining and natural attrition.

Under the plan, its core unit Mizuho Bank will deploy AI systems to handle document verification for account openings and fund transfers, as well as customer data registration. The bank aims to sharply reduce manual tasks such as document review and data entry.

An executive at the group said AI use could render “most clerical work unnecessary,” as automated systems take over scanning, analyzing and validating customer applications.

The AI platform will be designed to review document accuracy, ensure consistency in customer information and check compliance with regulations and internal rules – processes that previously required multiple staff members.

The bank said it will avoid direct layoffs and instead reassign affected employees to revenue-generating areas such as branch sales, corporate client analysis and operational support. The group will also expand reskilling programs to help workers transition into new roles. Staff reductions will rely on hiring freezes, retirements and voluntary departures.

Mizuho has already cut about 10,000 clerical jobs over the past decade through digitalization and expansion of online services. The latest plan signals a further shift away from back-office-heavy operations toward a leaner, AI-driven structure.

As part of an organizational overhaul set for April, the group will rename its “Administrative Group” to “Process Design Group,” reflecting a stronger emphasis on efficiency and digital process management.

The bank plans to invest up to 100 billion yen ($670 million) over three years from 2026 through 2028 to develop and implement AI systems. In addition to back-office automation, the investment will support the development of AI assistants for asset management. The tools are expected to analyze customers’ assets, risk profiles and cash flows to generate personalized investment and cash management proposals for retail and corporate clients.

Among Japan’s major megabanks, Mizuho is seen as the most aggressive in restructuring its clerical workforce around AI. Industry observers say the move could accelerate similar changes across the country’s financial sector.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260227010008338

CARAVAN park owners have a message for Labour: park the holiday tax now. 

One of those making the call is Claire Flower, who runs a site in Paignton, Devon, which has ­welcomed guests for more than 60 years.  

Beverley Holiday Park was started by her grandfather and now 12,000 tourists a year spend their breaks there. 

But Claire, 53, fears for the future if Labour bring in a visitor tax of at least £2 per head per night. 

She says: “If the Government puts a tax on everyone ­visiting, that means a lot of families won’t be able to afford it.  

“Holidays aren’t just a luxury, ­people rely on them for their mental health and family time. 

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“Plenty of parents these days work two or three jobs and there can be shift work in families, too. Holidays are often the only place whole ­families get to sit and eat together. 

“The Government talks about wanting people to spend their money here, not in Spain or Portugal or wherever in Europe, but how are people encouraged to do that if they’re going to be taxed for it?” 

Clare is a member of the Holiday and Residential Parks Association (Harpa), which wants the Government to abandon plans for local mayors to tax anyone staying ­overnight on a break in their area.  

She believes the tourist tax will affect the whole English Riviera in the South West, which depends heavily on holidaymakers. 

Claire says: “The economy of the entire bay will be hit. We employ 180 staff in the summer and 80 all year round.  

“We pay our VAT, our business rates, all our taxes and we help the local economy in a really big way with all the visitors we can accommodate who go on and spend in local businesses. 

“If our numbers start to dwindle, it’s impossible to say where the impact will hit hardest.” 

The park has free indoor and outdoor swimming pools but its utility bills have gone through the roof. 

Claire says: “It’s becoming harder and harder to operate but we have such loyal and lovely visitors, so we work hard to keep prices affordable.  

“We’ve even got a 30 per cent off Easter holiday offer at the moment to encourage people in.” 

The park was founded by Claire’s grandad Stan Jeavons in 1965, and her nephew Adam Furneaux, 22, is the fourth generation to work there. 

Claire says: “Grandad would be devastated at the prospect of the tax. English holiday parks like ours contribute £9.2billion in visitor spend into the economy.  

“For a lot of people, even if they could afford to go abroad, there may be a health reason they can’t or there might be another reason they choose to holiday in the UK rather than overseas.” 

Lee Jenkins, from Abertillery in Gwent, has been visiting Beverley Holiday Park since 1971, when he was three years old.  

He spent his honeymoon at the park with wife Julie in the 1990s and visits several times a year.  

Taxi driver Lee, 58, says: “We’re supposed to support the UK ­economy, aren’t we?

“This country needs people holidaying here, not abroad, so we can support local businesses and spend what we earn here rather than overseas. 

“It seems so short-sighted to tax people out of UK holidays, and it will impact the whole country’s economy.” 

Association Harpa represents 3,000 holiday parks across the UK, from small campsites to major companies.

It believes a holiday tax on British families will place extra financial strain when many are already ­struggling with the cost of living. 

The organisation’s director general, Debbie Walker, says: “Holiday parks and campsites offer some of the most affordable holidays in the UK and this tax risks pricing people out of breaks at a time when money is so tight. 

“While we fully recognise the financial pressures facing local authorities, a holiday tax adding around £100 to a typical two-week family break is not the right ­solution. 

“If we want people to choose UK holidays, taxing them for doing so sends exactly the wrong message.”

Park Holidays UK, which operates more than 50 sites in the UK, says that a tourism tax would be “totally self-defeating” as well as punishing hard-working families who choose to take a holiday in Britain. 

Chief marketing officer Brad May says: “The Government imagines a holiday levy would help raise ­revenues for cash-strapped local councils.

“But it’s far more likely that ­visitor numbers to these areas would drop as families turn to other destinations which are not slamming a tax on their fun. 

“When our guests take a well-earned break, many enjoy visiting nearby attractions, going out for a meal and spending money in local shops.

“So, it’s these businesses which will also suffer as an unintended consequence of this move.” 

All of them are backing The Sun’s Hands Off Our Hols campaign. 

It is a sentiment echoed by Alfie Best, who owns Wyldecrest holiday parks. 

He says: “When you think of a budget holiday in this country you automatically have a picture of a caravan park in your mind. They have been the backbone of holidays for a generation.  

“This tax will surely drive ­holidaymakers abroad in search of better value getaways. 

“If it comes into force, the tax will ultimately lead to the closure of many parks and lots of job losses.” 

TODAY Sun Travel is urging our readers to stand behind our campaign to Stop The Holiday Tax.

The Government is proposing to allow local authorities the right to tax overnight stays in holiday parks, campsites, cottages, B&Bs and hotels.

That could see the cost of some of the cheapest stays at our beloved holiday parks almost DOUBLE.

The new proposals, originally announced during the Budget, could mean a £2 tax per person per night on staycations.

That would mean £70 extra for a family of five taking a week-long break.

And that’s after you’ve paid 20 per cent VAT on your trip.

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Most families already pay higher prices because of increased demand for travel during the school holidays.

The proposals will mean that many of those who have the least will be forced to pay more for precious breaks, including the many thousands who enjoy our own Hols From £9.50 trips.

The move has been met with dismay by tourism bosses and travel businesses who fear British holidaymakers may just decide to head abroad instead — or not be able to afford a break at all.

The new taxes would also have an impact on those visiting the UK from abroad.

Research from the World Travel & Tourism Council has found at least £14billion could be lost from the UK economy if daily visitor taxes were introduced.

As an industry, travel and tourism supports 4.5million jobs in the UK, the WTTC said, equivalent to roughly one in eight jobs nationwide.

But their research found that 29 per cent of visitors from the US, France and Germany — the largest inbound tourist markets — would consider alternative destinations or just decide not to visit if a substantial tax is introduced.

The levy would hit tourism in seaside towns that are already struggling to attract visitors away from the lure of cheap foreign breaks.

Just last week, VisitEngland announced a £1million campaign to encourage holidaymakers to visit the UK’s north west coast.

How can taxing those very staycation tourists help boost visits to areas of the UK where they are already having trouble attracting holidaymakers?

To show your support for our campaign and to see just how it could impact you, go to our website at StopTheHolidayTax.uk.

Enter your name and postcode and it will automatically write a message to your MP on your behalf asking them to stop the holiday tax.

The site also has a handy calculator to show you just how much it could end up costing you if the new rules go ahead.

We must stop this hols tax madness

SUN Holiday fans Diane Hunter and Michael O’Brien are already packing their bags for their next bargain break – four nights at Parkdean Resorts Whitley Bay Holiday Park, Tyne & Wear, in two weeks’ time.

But the couple, who have been on more than 200 of our great getaways in the past 20 years, are furious at the Government’s proposed holiday tax.

Retired fork-lift truck driver Michael, 61, says: “It’s an absolute disgrace.

“Just a couple of weeks ago, coinciding with my birthday, I had a major operation to remove a stomach ulcer. This break is part of my recuperation.

“But the threat of this added tax has only added to my anxiety and just shows the present Labour administration does not care about ordinary folk.

“I’m never going to agree with this idea.”

Michael and retired office worker Diane, 57, already have an astonishing nine Sun Holidays booked this year.

The couple, of Grangemouth, near Falkirk, say the value-for-money breaks put the icing on the cake of their time together. Michael feels Labour is now clearly targeting hard-working families as well as the less well-off.

He says: “The amount involved might not seem a lot, but it could mean the difference between being able to afford a holiday or not.

“Labour is scraping the bottom of the barrel here.

“So, we have no hesitation in backing The Sun campaign.

“People have to stand up and fight to stop this madness.”

‘Lots of us will lose out on trips’

JACK CULLWICK went on his first holiday in eight years this week.

With his wife and two sons, aged eight and two, he was spending half-term at Beverley Holiday Park in Paignton, Devon.

Jack, 33, of Stratford-upon-Avon, Warks, runs his own transport business and can’t take holidays overseas because he needs to be close to work, even when he’s off.

He says: “The holiday tax is a terrible idea.

“There are so many people who can’t go abroad for a number of reasons, whether it’s to be nearby for family or because of their jobs or being on call.

“If we’re priced out of coming away in the UK, plenty of people won’t have a holiday at all.”

THERE’S a line in Badlands, one of Mumford & Sons’ new songs, that feels like a mission statement for new record Prizefighter.

Singer Marcus Mumford says: “The lyric says, ‘Don’t look down now/I’m not done here yet’. I was listening to that song today and that’s the sentiment of Prizefighter.

“We try really f***ing hard, we want to be great. And I think we’ll keep trying.”

I’m chatting to Mumford and keyboardist Ben Lovett in Bath, a few hours before they are due on stage at The Forum to celebrate the release of their new album.

“We feel very fortunate to be launching our sixth album, it’s a big deal,” says Lovett.

“It’s a marker of beyond the creativity and how we feel about the music itself. “When we started this band, it was all about longevity for us.

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“And it feels great to be coming up to 20 years as a band and feel like we want to do another 20.

“That’s a big statement of success for us.”

The pair are seated together on a sofa, comfortable and clearly energised by their new record.

It’s hard to believe it’s only 11 months since fifth album Rushmere signalled their return from a seven-year hiatus.

For Prizefighter, they worked with producer Aaron Dessner from US rock band The National.

They had worked with him on 2015’s Wilder Mind, and they crossed paths again while mixing Rushmere in Electric Lady Studios in New York City.

Mumford says: “Aaron showed us the beginning of an idea for Prizefighter, the song he’d written with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon.

“And we instantly started writing on it.

“Aaron’s always writing music with his mates for fun. He then played us a snippet of what became new single The Banjo Song that he’d started with Jon Bellion as a sketch.

“This was the be­ginning of the record, a beginning of ideas, like we do with each other all the time. It was just for fun to see where it goes.”

Mumford & Sons have continued as a trio since founding member Winston Marshall departed in 2021 after publicly expressing support for a book by right-wing American journalist Andy Ngo.

Lovett explains: “We got together in January 2023 and started making music without any agenda and I felt very free.

“That was the right thing to do. That was the right start or restart after Marcus’s solo record [2022’s Self-Titled].

“And it was the first time we’d played together in a couple of years. It felt like riding an old bike.”

Their first new music came in the form of Good People — a surprising collaboration with Pharrell Williams in 2024.

“That record was a very different experience but showed us that we have range and versatility,” says Lovett.

“So, by the time we got to the studio with Aaron, we were confidence high. We loved it and wanted to be curious creatively, from a place of positivity.

“And that’s basically how the record got in to motion.”

Mumford says stepping back was crucial to finding their confidence again.

“I am less insecure about being an artist,” Mumford tells me. “I will go off to a coffee shop and read poetry and do it unapologetically.

“I’m also more playful with my lyrics. I love Clover in particular.

“I just didn’t have the confidence to be tongue-in-cheek, surreal or even slightly ridiculous.

“Those types of lyrics would never have got on any previous albums.

Aaron, like Pharrell and Dave Cobb, who produced Rushmere, sat us down and gave us quite a serious talking to about believing in ourselves and looking back at what we’ve done with pride while also looking ahead.

“Recognising our confidence and DNA at the same time is what led to us being able to write this record.

“There’s a lot of insecurity and confidence on the record and also nostalgia and ambition and so that’s why it’s called Prizefighter.”

Lovett adds: “We feel more comfortable in our own skin, with a stronger sense of identity than we’ve had as a band for a while.

“The success of Rushmere [their third No1 album] and touring last year gave us a big confidence boost and reminded us that people still care and we are having a good time.”

Prizefighter sees Mumford at their most collaborative. Gorgeous piano ballad Badlands features Gracie Abrams, while Chris Stapleton, Hozier and Gigi Perez are also guest singers.

Finneas, Dessner, Vernon, Bellion and Brandi Carlile are credited as co-writers on the record.

“We’ve always been a bit more protective in the studio,” says Mumford. “In the early days a band needs to set out their stall and show people who you are.

“We have always had this collaborative spirit where we’ve enjoyed playing with other bands but we’ve not really recognised that on record before.

“It felt the time to do it, so we’ve opened the doors and it’s been really fulfilling. It’s one big community.”

Gracie Abrams, a long-time friend of Mumford’s, was the first to hear the band’s new songs.

“I’ve known her right from the start,” says the singer. “Gracie was the first person to hear any of these demos, like before labels or managers or anyone else.

“And we found out recently that she came to one of our shows when she was 13.

“We’ve been friends for a long time. She’s amazing.

“With Badlands we asked her to pick any song to sing on and she said yes to that song which had been written to be her voice.”

Album opener Here was written with Grammy-winning country powerhouse Chris Stapleton in mind.

Mumford says: “I’m just a fan of his and I couldn’t get the idea out of my head that he should sing the second verse on Here.

“We hadn’t met, so I called him. We had a long conversation. We really connected. Then he heard the song and said, ‘Yeah, I’ll record it next week’. And he did. It was all pretty organic.

“We didn’t have a list. It was like, ‘Let’s send this to Andrew, aka Hozier, see if he wants to f*** with it’. And he said yes.”

Lovett adds: “It’s a simple environment up at Aaron’s Long Pond studio. We record then we sit around eating soup together.

“It’s not the glossy album where you’re stuck on the other side of the glass and the red light goes on and it’s your big moment.

“Making Prizefighter felt a much more human experience.”

Conversation With My Son (Gangsters & Angels) is another highlight on Prizefighter and a song that Dessner was a huge fan of.

“Yeah, Aaron was a huge advocate for that song,” says Lovett. “It felt like there was an opportunity to explore something musically and thematically that was a bit different to the rest of the record.”

Mumford, who has two daughters and a son with actress Carey Mulligan, adds: “It has a hymnal and intentionally repetitive, melodic thing like in a Trad Irish song.

“Ben is being modest but he had this clear vision for that song.

“Then we sat down and Ben made a little demo of his chord sequence, and I fell in love with it.

“I’d been writing some words that morning and it became an essential band moment.

“We sit quietly and play along until we have an idea. Ted Dwane was on the bass, Ben was on the piano, Aaron was playing a guitar, I was writing words.

“Aaron understands being in a band very well and when we play to our strengths. It fell together like that and is a good example of the alchemy of being in a band.”

Lovett, who has a young daughter with his partner, American fashion executive Molly Howard, says: “Having kids act as a mirror to your life makes you want to be a slightly better version of yourself.

“We all take fatherhood quite seriously and it means that when we’re together, it’s cherished in a very different way.

“There was a real fun and silliness to our 20s that was inefficient — like staying out until 5am just because, why not have one more?

“I think there’s something beautiful about treating this with more care. It’s a very precious thing.

“Being in Mumford & Sons is amazing and we’re lucky we get the opportunity to do this.

“And finding out we have people all over the place who appreciate that we continue to still do this, is a charger for Chapter Two.”

Mumford adds, smiling: “I would say we’re in the phase where we take our work more seriously but take ourselves less seriously.

“Making my solo album made me fall back in love with the band. I love these lads and the sense of belonging and home we get from being this band together.

“When we got back together it was like we renewed our vows.

“It’s very silly but a privilege so we’re really trying to be present and our audience has made us more grateful and appreciative. Seeing new and younger fans getting into the songs has been amazing.

“I think we’re about at the point of our career where Radiohead were when they released Hail To The Thief — that was my way into Radiohead. It’s my favourite record of all time. And through that record I discovered the rest of their catalogue.

“They’d always felt like my brother’s band, who is older than me, but then this album came out when I passed my driving test.

“I hope that Prizefighter is that first Mumford album for some people.”

Making an album so soon after another, has been inspiring and Mumford says: “We never want to turn the tap off. The tap still feels like it’s got something in it.

“We could have released Prizefighter a week after Rushmere, but we wanted to give people space and time, but now the idea is to be accelerating that process so that we can show people.

“I hope we can start writing songs and releasing them the next day, like Bruce f***ing Springsteen!

“Our Hyde Park show in July will be a celebration for us — the centrepiece of our year.

“We are inviting guests and friends and crafting the line-up at the moment.

“We’ve announced The War On Drugs, who are one of the best bands in the world and people know from working with Sam Fender.

“There’ll be more we can tell you about soon, which will be fun, we really put time and effort into those line-ups.

“Hyde Park is going to be wicked, with plenty of surprises on the day too.”

Lovett adds: “Prizefighter is important to us.

“As a band, we’ve had some fun getting here, but I think this album sets us up for a really bright future.”

• Prizefighter is out today.

MUMFORD & SONS

Prizefighter

★★★★☆