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A MUM halved her weight without the help of fat jabs and now men are racing to take her out.

Laura Taylor was a heavy size 24 before she embarked on her weight loss journey in March 2024, after struggling with her weight since she was a teenager.

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The mum claims fellas would flee dates because ‘they didn’t realise’ her size, but now blokes try to woo her with drinks.

The 35-year-old says the battle with her weight began when she was bullied for being ‘fat’ and branded ‘tree trunk legs’ by cruel bullies at high school.

As a result, the mum-of-five didn’t wear a skirt for decades and was reluctant to leave the house due to her size 24 figure.

The self-conscious cleaning business owner would only share pictures of her face, not of her body, on her dating profiles.

Laura says when she did meet up for dates, men would sheepishly admit they ‘didn’t realise how big she was’ before slinking off just an hour after meeting her.

After trying and failing to lose the weight naturally, Laura underwent a ‘life-changing’ gastric sleeve operation in Turkey in March 2024.

Since then, she has switched her old diet of McDonald’s breakfasts, pub lunches, takeaway dinners, and five cans of Coca-Cola per day for protein coffees, fruit and chicken salads.

As a result, Laura has shed a whopping 10 stone in 16 months, initially tipping the scales at 20st 1lb and dropping down to 9st 13lbs and a slinky size eight.

Following her incredible weight loss, Laura says men now race to the bar to buy her drinks – and she’s finally confident enough to share full body images on her dating profile.

Laura, from Barnsley, South Yorkshire, said: “When men tell me that I look beautiful and sexy because I’ve lost all of my weight I do feel it.

“When I was really big I used to go on dates and then an hour later they would say that they had to go and then I’d get blocked.

“They used to say that they didn’t realise how big I was or that my pictures looked different because they couldn’t see my body.

“I never used to show my body [on my dating profile], I just used to show my face.

“I include pictures of my body now. All of my profile pictures are of my full body because I feel more confident in myself now I’ve lost weight.

“I think I look a lot better, but I think I still have the mindset of when I was fat.

“I go out and I’ve got men coming up to me asking to buy me a drink and I’m like ‘what do you see in me really?’ Sometimes it’s quite hard to take in.”

Problems with Laura’s weight first began when she received cruel comments from bullies at high school.

Laura said: “I’ve had an issue with my weight all my life, really since I was a teenager.

“I got a lot of bullying at school because when I used to wear skirts I’d get called ‘tree trunk legs’ and fat.

“After a couple times of wearing skirts I never wore them again.

“I never wanted to go to school with a skirt on because I used to get called that all the time.

“Food was a comfort for me. I used to sit at home and eat food because I got bullied and I felt like nobody fancied me.”

After struggling with her weight since she was a teen, Laura decided to commit to having gastric sleeve surgery.

Laura said: “I went to the doctors and asked to be put on the waiting list for a gastric sleeve in the UK but they told me I wasn’t big enough.

“I looked at the prices in the UK but it was £10,500 and I didn’t have the money.

“When I was pricing it up it was so much cheaper in Turkey than it was over here.

“It was £2,400 and then the flights were £600, so about £3,000 in total.

“The NHS was a six-year waiting list and I couldn’t wait that long because I didn’t leave the house.

“I didn’t see my friends or anything like that because they were all quite skinny and I was the fat one of the bunch.”

Since having the £3,000 op, Laura says she gets told she looks younger and some of her friends don’t even recognise her when they see her in the street.

Laura said: “I get told I look younger because I have lost a lot of weight in my face.

“I feel good in myself and people say that I look amazing.

“I do need to start taking those compliments in because I’ve been fat all of my life it’s hard for me to say I do actually look good.

“A lot of friends haven’t seen me in the past 18 months and when I’ve been out they’ve walked past me.

“I’ve had to tap them on the shoulder and say ‘do you not recognise me?’.”

Laura says she now finally has the confidence to wear skirts and dresses again and will even be wearing a bikini when she goes on holiday in August.

Laura said: “I never used to wear the stuff I wear now, there’s no way I would be putting on a dress on above my knees.

“I don’t go out in jeans now, I only wear skirts or dresses.”

Laura says the operation ‘saved her life’ and has had a positive impact on her socially.

Laura said: “I’ve always been the one [in my friend group] that’s sat in the corner and not really danced because I didn’t want to.

“I’m on the dance floor before anyone else now because I’ve got so much energy I want to dance.

“The operation saved my life. I’d still be sat in the house now not going out, so it has changed my life completely.”

Here’s what Laura would eat in a day.

TYPICAL FOOD DIARY BEFORE WEIGHTLOSS

Breakfast – McDonalds breakfast

Lunch – Pub lunch mixed grill or English breakfast

Dinner – Takeaway or chips and sausages

Snacks – Chocolate, sweets, crisps and five cans of Coca-Cola per day

TYPICAL FOOD DIARY AFTER WEIGHTLOSS

Breakfast – Protein coffee

Lunch – None

Dinner – Chicken salad, chilli or chicken and rice

Snacks – Apples, cheese strings, decaf coffee

The 5 best exercises to lose weight

By Lucy Gornall, personal trainer and health journalist

EXERCISE can be intimidating and hard to devote yourself to. So how do you find the right workout for you?

As a PT and fitness journalist, I’ve tried everything.

I’ve taken part in endless fitness competitions, marathons and I maintain a regime of runs, strength training and Pilates.

Fitness is so entrenched in my life, I stick to it even at Christmas!

The key is finding an activity you love that can become a habit.

My top five forms of exercise, especially if you’re trying to lose weight, are:

1. Walking
2. Running
3. Pilates
4. High-intensity interval training (HIIT)
5. Strength training

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Despite some pushback from his party to deal with the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza – especially Israel’s starvation policy – the US governing Republican Party remains unmoved.

Republicans overwhelmingly support Israel’s tactics against the Palestinians, as support for Israel plummets among Independent and Democratic voters.

Trump says he wants more food to reach Gaza via the militarised distribution mechanism, the GHF. But he criticised Western countries that spoke of diplomatic moves, such as recognising Palestinian statehood.

Host Steve Clemons speaks with Republican analyst Mark Pfeifle and Democratic analyst David Bolger on Trump’s political calculations on Middle East policy.

Cameron Mofid has recently completed his mission to visit every UN-recognised country and territory in the world and has now named two surprising countries among his favourites

An intrepid explorer who’s visited every country on Earth by the age of 25 has named two surprising countries among his favourites. Cameron Mofid, who hails from San Diego, California, set out on a mission to visit every UN-recognised country and territory in the world (a total of 195) while he was battling obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) during the pandemic.

In April, the plucky traveller ticked off his final nation when he and his friends visited the hermit kingdom of North Korea. With nearly 200 countries under his belt, picking a favourite may seem like an impossible task.

However, two nations stood out in particular for Cameron, both of which carry some strong warnings from the Foreign Office (FCDO). The first nation that he highlighted was Algeria, a destination he described as “unbelievable”.

He told CNN: “It’s one of my favourite countries in the whole world. The countries that receive the least amount of tourism are often the ones where you have the best experience, because you feel totally immersed in their culture.”

Cameron also expressed his appreciation for the Middle Eastern nation of Yemen, having visited the country in February 2023. He noted that walking through the streets was like “going back in time.”

He added: “To see people dress the same way that they were hundreds if not thousands of years ago. To see people living in mud houses, to see people still using flip phones.”

Algeria is in the north of Africa and is largely encompassed by the Sahara Desert, with the exception of the north, which is situated along the coast and is home to most of the population.

Its rich history includes a number of Arab and Berber dynasties that ruled between the 8th and 15th centuries, prior to its links to the Ottoman Empire and later annexation by France in 1848.

In terms of travel to Algeria, the FCDO has highlighted much of the country in green on its website. It means “see our travel advice before travelling”, but the border areas carry orange and red advisories.

It advises against all travel to within 30km of the country’s borders with Libya, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, and certain provinces of Tunisia. In addition, the FCDO advises against all but essential travel within 30km of the rest of the Tunisian border.

A comparatively new state, Yemen is located in Western Asia on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, bordering both the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, south of Saudi Arabia.

It has experienced a political crisis since 2011. It continues to be in the throes of a brutal civil war that has reportedly resulted in the deaths of more than 150,000 people and led to a humanitarian crisis that has seen 23 million people requiring aid.

The Foreign Office’s travel advice for Yemen is resolute. It advises against all travel to Yemen and urges anyone in the country to leave “immediately”, citing “unpredictable security conditions”.

It said terrorist attacks are very likely in Yemen, as well as a “very high and constant threat” of kidnapping, noting that propaganda produced by Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) has urged the kidnapping of westerners.

Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Pierbattista Pizzaballa and Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III condemned Israel’s bombardment and blockade of Gaza as “morally unacceptable” after a rare visit to the besieged territory on July 18. Their trip followed an Israeli strike on Gaza’s only Catholic church, which killed three people.

Former leader accused of using a broker married to his personal secretary to secure government insurance policies.

Argentina’s former President, Alberto Fernandez, has been ordered to stand trial for alleged corruption related to insurance policies taken out by the government for the public sector during his 2019-2023 term.

Fernandez will be prosecuted for “negotiations incompatible with the exercise of public office”, according to Judge Sebastian Casanello’s ruling published in Argentinian media on Thursday, and confirmed by the former leader’s lawyer, Mariana Barbitta.

The 66-year-old stands accused of fraudulent administration over his government’s use of brokers – one of whom allegedly had ties to his office – to contract insurance policies that could have been negotiated directly.

The judge noted in his order that in December 2021, in the middle of his presidency, Fernandez issued a decree that forced the entire public sector to contract exclusively with Nacion Seguros SA, an insurance company then led by Alberto Pagliano, a friend of Fernandez.

It resulted in a boon and tremendous growth for the company.

The main broker of the deal was allegedly the husband of Fernandez’s personal secretary.

The court ordered a freeze on about $10m of Fernandez’s assets as the case proceeds, according to Thursday’s ruling.

Some 33 other people are also named in the case. Fernandez did not immediately comment on the case.

Fernandez did not seek re-election after serving a single term, handing the keys of the presidential palace to self-described “anarcho-capitalist” President Javier Milei in December 2023.

The corruption allegations emerged when a court ordered an examination of his secretary’s phone while investigating assault claims made against Fernandez by his ex-partner Fabiola Yanez.

Yanez filed a complaint accusing Fernandez of having beaten her during their relationship, which ended after he left office.

He faces a separate trial on charges of domestic abuse.

Fernandez’s leftist Peronist movement, which dominated Argentinian politics for most of the country’s post-war history, has been dogged by allegations of corruption.

Ex-President Cristina Kirchner, another senior Peronist, is serving a six-year sentence under house arrest after being convicted of fraud involving public works contracts awarded during her two terms.

SIPPING a glass of red on a garden bench as the sun sets over the neighbouring chateaux, mum Nicola Glover relishes the silence bar the therapeutic sound of evening crickets.

It’s a world away from her former life in Cambridgeshire, where she felt constantly stressed in her job working “ridiculous” hours as a primary school teacher to cover off her £1,000-a-month mortgage and rising bills.

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“In 2020, I split with my first husband and was re-evaluating my life and what I wanted to do,” Nicola, 50, tells The Sun. 

“I wasn’t happy in my teaching job I’d been at for 14 years – I was very stressed and worked ridiculous hours with deadlines and performance targets that seemed impossible at times. It was always busy.

“I felt like I was on a hamster wheel and was longing for a more slow-paced life.”

A few months after her marriage ended she began chatting to a man called Pete, now 58 and originally from Kent, in a Facebook community group for people considering a move to France.

With Pete, an HGV driver, having also tired of the daily grind in the UK, the pair bonded over their love of the country.

They began dating in August 2020, and decided to pursue their pipe dream to move across the Channel to start a new quieter, rural life together.

“I used to go to France every year as a child, and went to Strasbourg University,” Nicola explains. “I’ve always loved everything to do with France.

“Pete was working as an HGV driver with very early starts and long days. He was fed up with traffic jams and the conditions of the roads.

“So we explored different areas of France to see which area we’d like to move to, and figure out what we could do as a business.”

The couple eventually settled on the traditional French village of Affieux in the southern Corrèze region – a relatively undiscovered spot that’s less popular than the neighbouring, touristy region of Dordogne. 

Primarily populated with native French people, Nicola adds: “It has a rainforest vibe – it’s green with lots of lakes. Although we do get quite a lot of rain, it’s very hot in the summer.”

Prior to moving the couple outright bought a 19^th century stone cottage with an acre of land and five bedrooms for €175,000 (£149K) in April 2023.

They used their combined savings to purchase the house and used the sale of Nicola’s house in the UK to fund renovations to the property, turning it into a boutique bed and breakfast.

“It’s in the heart of the village of Affieux,” Nicola says. 

“It’s rural and very quiet, with amazing views. The architecture and buildings are medieval and stunning.”

All you can hear are cows in the field behind the house and crickets

Nicola Glover

It took nearly a year to sort out the paperwork – visas, business plans, and police checks – before the couple finally moved to France in February 2024, both quitting their jobs in the UK. 

Nicola says: “There is so much stuff that needs to be done before you can move over.

“You get a visa for 12 months initially, and once you’re here you have to re-apply every 12 months to the local prefecture unless you get a multi-year visa. 

“To get the multi-year visa, you have to meet certain criteria, which I managed to get.”

Compulsory French

However, with Pete’s French language level not as high as Nicola’s, his visa was only renewed for an extra year.  

“Pete spoke relatively little French when we moved here but has since passed his A1 level French after receiving compulsory free lessons from the government,” Nicola explains. 

“Everyone on a working visa is assessed on their French level when they move here and if your French isn’t good enough you will be assigned free lessons. 

“He is still continuing with French learning: online, books and apps.”

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In her previous life Nicola says she was constantly on the go commuting, working, shopping, ferrying teenagers around, fitting in a social life, sorting admin and cleaning.

Since moving to France, Nicola has loved the “calm and quiet” of the old-school village she now calls home. 

“All you can hear are cows in the field behind the house and crickets,” she says. 

“There is hardly any traffic. It’s all country roads unless you’re going to one of the big cities.”

She reckons this slow pace of living is in part due to French culture. 

“I think the French put more importance on downtime,” she says. “It’s not all ‘work, work, work’. 

“As soon as we go back to the UK we feel stressed. Everyone seems like they are in a rush. 

“Here it’s very slowed down. Everyone shuts for lunch, and hardly anywhere is open on a Sunday. You have to plan your day around it, which has taken some getting used to.”

Community feel

Nicola and Pete have the full support of their grown-up children, who now often visit for holidays. 

The couple married in September 2024, and now feel they have much more time for themselves and each other, alongside running their bed and breakfast. 

“We play golf, go for walks, explore the area, and cook together,” Nicola says. 

“We both love renovating and I do a lot of upcycling furniture. We spend time together in our garden, our allotment, and then work on the house.”

The community feel of Affieux has been a much-loved benefit of the move, Nicola adds.

“There is always a village fete, festival, or evening event. Our neighbours have all been really welcoming. 

“We’ve been around to theirs for drinks in the evening, and lunch. They talk to us about our lives.

“They don’t speak in English – we have to integrate in French. They’ve all been so helpful with any information I’ve ever needed.”

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Although most costs are similar to the UK, Nicola says the house prices in the Corrèze region are cheaper, as she was able to get much more for her money. 

Her bills are also cheaper, especially given her house in France is considerably bigger than the small home she had in the UK. 

Her water bill is £200 a year cheaper, council tax is £400 cheaper, gas and electricity is £1,500 a year and her weekly shop is two thirds of the cost it was back in Blighty.

Wine is also a lot cheaper, with a basic cheap bottle costing just over a euro, and a nice bottle setting them back just €4. 

For a “fancy” three-course lunch, Nicola would expect to pay no more than €25. 

Nicola says: “We only buy food that’s in season here, and we waste less food. We also grow a lot of our food now, which we didn’t do in the UK.

We only buy food that’s in season here, and we waste less food. We also grow a lot of our food now, which we didn’t do in the UK

Nicola Glover

“We have room for our own allotment on our land here and have a 30ft polytunnel in our garden. We’re currently growing all sorts which will save us even more money.

“People in France generally rely less on ready meals and convenience foods than in the UK, most meals are prepared from scratch.

“If fruit and veg is not in season it’s generally more expensive – I’ve seen cauliflowers out of season for sale at €5.99 in one supermarket!

“In the UK, we are so used to getting anything at any time. They don’t do that here.

“Seafood is much cheaper though – 12 large tiger prawns cost me €2.25 yesterday!”

Nicola and Pete brought their own car to France and had it registered there, something that proved quite costly.

“We wanted to keep a right hand drive vehicle and cars are more expensive here than in the UK,” Nicola says. 

“This was a long-winded process though and cost quite a bit as we had to change the headlights.”

Car insurance is much the same as in the UK, but they don’t pay an annual tax on cars in France, and MOTs are done every two years. 

Another thing that Nicola says is more expensive in France are clothes – but outside of the big cities she’s noticed there isn’t an emphasis on fashion, so she doesn’t feel pressure to keep up with the latest style. 

“It’s very casual – jeans, trainers, top and blazer,” she says.

“There aren’t many charity shops like there are in the UK. People hold onto their clothes forever.”

There aren’t many charity shops like there are in the UK. People hold onto their clothes forever

Nicola Glover

With the increased number of sunny days in France compared to the UK, Nicola spends lots of time outside with her dog or in her allotment. 

“It’s nice to be outdoors more,” she says. “The blue sky and sunny days help with your mental health.”

Although she misses her twin daughters, both at university in the UK, as well as Marmite and Dairy Milk chocolate, Nicola can’t see herself moving back to the UK and would recommend rural France to anyone seeking a slower pace of life. 

“I haven’t thought that far ahead, but we’re happy where we are right now,” she says.

Read more about how you can visit Nicola’s B&B here.

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As federal immigration raids continue to upend life in Los Angeles, Asian American leaders are rallying their communities to raise their voices in support of Latinos, who have been the primary targets of the enforcement sweeps, warning that neighborhoods frequented by Asian immigrants could be next.

Organizers say many Asian immigrants have already been affected by the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigrants working in the country without documentation. Dozens of Southeast Asian immigrants in Los Angeles and Orange counties whose deportation orders had been on indefinite hold have been detained after showing up for routine check-ins at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices, according to immigration attorneys and advocacy groups.

In recent months, a number of Cambodian, Laotian and Vietnamese immigrants whose deportation orders had been stayed — in some cases for decades — have been told that those orders will now be enforced.

The Asian immigrants being targeted are generally people who were convicted of a crime after arriving in the U.S., making them subject to deportation after their release from jail or prison. In most cases, ICE never followed through because the immigrants had lived in the U.S. long enough that their home countries no longer recognized them as citizens.

“Our community is much more silent, but we are being detained in really high numbers,” said Connie Chung Joe, chief executive of Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California. “There’s such a stigma and fear that, unlike the Latinx community that wants to fight and speak out about the injustices, our community’s first reaction is to go down and get more and more hidden.”

On Thursday, more than a half-dozen leaders representing Thai, Japanese and South Asian communities held a news conference in Little Tokyo urging community members to stand together and denounce the federal action as an overreach.

President Trump came into office in January vowing to target violent criminals for deportation. But amid pressure to raise deportation numbers, administration officials in recent months have shifted their focus to farmworkers, landscapers, street vendors and other day laborers, many of whom have been working in the country for decades.

While an estimated 79% of undocumented residents in L.A. County are natives of Mexico and Central America, Asian immigrants make up the second-largest group, constituting 16% of people in the county without legal authorization, according to the Migration Policy Institute. Across the U.S., Indians make up the third-largest group of undocumented residents, behind Mexicans and Salvadorans.

According to the Pew Research Center, the L.A. metropolitan area is home to the largest populations of Cambodian, Korean, Indonesian, Filipino, Thai and Vietnamese people in the U.S.

So far, the highest-profile raids in Southern California have centered on Latino neighborhoods, targeting car washes, restaurants, home improvement stores, churches and other locales where undocumented residents gather and work.

Los Angeles City Councilmember Ysabel Jurado and Peter Gee of the Little Tokyo Service Center were among the speakers who denounced ICE raids during a news conference Thursday.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

But Asian businesses have not been immune. A raid outside a Home Depot in Hollywood happened near Thai Town, where organizers have seen ICE agents patrolling the streets. In late May, Department of Homeland Security agents raided a Los Angeles-area nightclub, arresting 36 people they said were Chinese and Taiwanese immigrants in the country without authorization.

In Little Bangladesh, immigration agents recently detained 16 people outside a grocery store, said Manjusha P. Kulkarni, executive director of AAPI Equity Alliance, a coalition of more than 50 community-based organizations.

“They will come for us even more in the coming days and weeks,” Kulkarni said. “So we are only protected when we’re in solidarity with our fellow Angelenos.”

From June 1 to 10, at the start of the federal sweeps, ICE data show that 722 people were arrested in the Los Angeles region. The figures were obtained by the Deportation Data Project, a repository of enforcement data at UC Berkeley Law.

A Times analysis found that 69% of those arrested during that period had no criminal convictions. Nearly 48% were Mexican, 16% were from Guatemala and 8% from El Salvador.

Forty-seven of the 722 individuals detained — or about 6% — were from Asian countries.

“We know the fear is widespread and it is deep,” said Assemblymember Mike Fong, a Democrat whose district takes in Monterey Park and west San Gabriel Valley, areas with large Asian immigrant populations.

Los Angeles City Councilmembers Nithya Raman and Ysabel Jurado spoke of the repercussions the raids were having on immigrant communities. Raman is Indian American, and Jurado is Filipino American.

Jurado said undocumented Filipinos make up a sizable portion of the region’s caregivers, tending to elderly people and young children.

“Their work reflects the deepest values of our communities: compassion, service and interdependence,” Jurado said. “Their labor is essential, and their humanity must be honored.”

Jurado and Raman called on the federal government to end the raids.

“This is such an important moment to speak out and to ensure that the Latino community does not feel alone,” Raman said. “I also want to make it clear to every single person who is Asian American, these aren’t just raids on others. They’re raids on us.”

Staff writer Rachel Uranga contributed to this report.

This article is part of The Times’ equity reporting initiative, funded by the James Irvine Foundation, exploring the challenges facing low-income workers and the efforts being made to address California’s economic divide.

For years in this columna, I have repeatedly posed a simple challenge to Archbishop José H. Gomez:

Stand up for Los Angeles, because L.A. needs you.

The head of the largest Catholic diocese in the United States has largely stood athwart the liberal city he’s supposed to minister since he assumed his seat in 2011 but especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. He has railed against “woke” culture and refused to meet with progressive Catholic groups. When the Dodgers in 2023 honored the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a drag troupe that wears nun’s habits while raising funds for the marginalized, he led a special Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels that amounted to a public exorcism.

Most perplexingly, the Mexico-born archbishop stayed largely quiet as the Herod that’s Donald Trump promised to clamp down on legal immigration and deport people without legal status during his 2024 presidential run. As head of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops at the end of last decade, Gomez wrote and spoke movingly about the need to treat all immigrants with dignity and fix this country’s broken system once and for all. But his gradual turn to the right as archbishop has gone so far that the National Catholic Reporter, where I’m an occasional contributor, labeled him a “failed culture warrior” when they anointed him their Newsmaker for that year.

Gomez’s devolution was especially dispiriting because L.A. Catholic leaders have taught their American peers how to embrace Latino immigrants ever since Archbishop John Cantwell helped refugees from Mexico’s Cristero War resettle in the city in the 1920s. Clerical legends like Luis Olivares and Richard Estrada transformed La Placita Church near Olvera Street into a sanctuary for Central American immigrants during the 1980s and 1990s in the face of threats from the feds. Gomez’s predecessor, Cardinal Roger Mahony, long drew national attention for attacking anti-immigrant legislation during his sermons and marching alongside immigrant rights protesters, a cross to bear that Gomez never warmed up to.

So when L.A. began to push back against Donald Trump’s immigration raids earlier this month only to see an onerous federal crackdown, I expected Gomez to do little even as L.A.-area priests bore witness to what was happening.

Father Gregory Boyle of Homeboy Industries appeared in a viral video proclaiming the righteous, if well-worn, message that no human being is illegal, but also that “we stand with anybody who’s demonized or left out, or excluded, or seen as disposable … it’s kinda how we roll here.” His fellow Jesuit, Dolores Mission pastor Brendan Busse, was there with activists during a June 9 migra raid at a factory in the Garment District that saw SEIU California president David Huerta arrested for civil disobedience.

I especially admired Father Peter O’Reilly, who was a priest in the L.A. Archdiocese for 44 years before retiring in 2005. The 90-year-old cleric was at Gloria Molina Grand Park on June 8, the day protesters torched Waymo cars, just blocks away from the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels. O’Reilly told a television station in his native Ireland afterward that it was important for him be there to let immigrants know “we were with them and for them.”

Gomez? The archbishop put out a weak-salsa statement around that time about how he was “troubled” by the raids. His Instagram account urged people a few days later to light a candle and pray for peace. That same day, Diocese of Orange Bishop Kevin Vann and his auxiliary bishops posted a letter condemning the raids, which they maintained “invoke our worst instincts” and “spread crippling fear and anxieties upon the hard-working, everyday faithful among us.”

You know things are upside-down in this world when O.C. is more down for immigrant rights than L.A.

Faith leaders lead a prayer vigil in Gloria Molina Grand Park on June 10 to stand in support of community members facing immigration raids in Los Angeles.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

I wanted to blast Gomez last week but held back, praying that he might change for the better. So I’m happy to report he’s starting to.

On June 10, the same day he posted his Instagram call for prayer, the archbishop also attended an evening interfaith vigil along with Boyle, Busse and other faith leaders to tell a crowd of over 1,000 people, “Immigration is about more than politics — it is about us, the kind of people we want to be.” Gomez asked all parishes in the L.A. Archdiocese the following day to hold special Masses with L.A.’s current immigration troubles in mind. He led the lunchtime one in the cathedral, telling parishioners during his homily, “We want to go out and console our neighbors and strengthen their hearts and encourage them to keep the faith.”

Gomez saved his most stinging remarks for this Tuesday in his regular column for Angelus News, the archdiocese’s publication. While not able to resist a shot at the Biden administration, the soft-spoken prelate nevertheless said of Trump’s raids: “This is not policy, it is punishment, and it can only result in cruel and arbitrary outcomes.” Accompanying his thoughts was a photo of a young woman holding a sign that read, “Jesus was an Immigrant” in front of California Highway Patrol officers in riot gear.

“For him to show up was meaningful,” Busse said. Since Trump’s inauguration, Dolores Mission has hosted training for the rapid response networks that have alerted people about immigration raids. “But I hope there’s more. The diocese has a huge capacity for organizing, and I hope that his leadership can move people in a large way.”

Busse said the first instinct of too many religious leaders is “to step back into a place of safety” when controversy emerges. “But there’s also an invitation to be brave and courageous. What we need to do is step into the situation to bring the peace that we’re praying for.”

Joseph Tómas McKellar is executive director of PICO California, a faith-based community organizing network that co-sponsored the interfaith vigil last week where Gomez spoke. The nonprofit used to teach citizenship and English classes in the L.A. Archdiocese and McKellar remembered Gomez attending a gathering of social justice groups in Modesto in 2017 as an active participant “in these small group conversations.”

The PICO California head said Gomez’s recent reemergence from his years in the political wilderness “was deeply encouraging. … Our bishops and the leaders of our denominations have a special responsibility to exercise prophetic leadership. The prophets are the ones who denounce what is broken in this world, but also announce a different vision. I do see him more embracing more that call and that challenge to reflect.”

An archdiocese spokesperson said Gomez was unavailable for comment because he was at a retreat for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Earlier this week , the group released a reflection declaring, “No one can turn a deaf ear to the palpable cries of anxiety and fear heard in communities throughout the country in the wake of a surge in immigration enforcement activities.”

I have no expectations that Archbishop Gomez’s politics will ever fully reflect L.A.’s progressive soul. He remains the only American bishop affiliated with the orthodox Opus Dei movement and sits on the ecclesiastical advisory board for the Napa Institute, an organization of rich Catholics that has labored mightily over the past decade to tilt the church rightward. Its co-founder, Orange County-based multimillionaire developer Tim Busch, wrote earlier this year with no irony that Trump’s administration “is the most Christian I’ve ever seen” and told The Times in 2023 that Gomez “is one of my closest advisors.”

But I’m glad Gomez is moving in the right direction, right when the city needs him the most. I continue to pray his voice gets bolder and stronger and that the region’s millions of Catholics — and all Angelenos, for that matter — follow the archbishop’s call to action to help immigrants while pushing him to do more.

I hope Gomez keeps in his heart what Busse told me near the end of our chat: “If the faith community doesn’t stand up when there’s a moral issue to stand up for, then I don’t know what happens.”

As Canada hosts the G7 Summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, from June 15 to 17, 2025, an orchestra of economic collapse plays across free economies like Canada, the United States, and the European Union. The conductor is not war or scarcity but a silent plague: Anti-Job Creation Syndrome, fueled by a job-seeker mindset where individuals, driven by a quest for stability, prioritize secure careers over the daring act of building enterprises.

Job creators, those rare alchemists who forge businesses from dreams, are the antidote, yet they are stifled by a culture that clings to caution. Canada’s G7 presidency must spark a global shift toward job-creating prosperity or risk a financial collapse that reverberates across continents.

The spark of entrepreneurial mysticism—a primal force weaving prosperity from village squares to global markets—has long defined human progress. From the wheel’s invention to Steve Jobs’ digital revolution, this unexplainable drive has birthed enterprises, from humble workshops to towering giants.

In Canada, small and medium-sized enterprises account for 50% of GDP, yet too many falter under job-seeker policies that favor bureaucracy over risk. In contrast, China’s job creators drive 60% of GDP; their billion entrepreneurs are a symphony of innovation. Canada’s G7 stage must champion this mysticism to counter the syndrome’s chokehold, lest free economies fade into a dissonant fog.

Free economies suffer because 99% of their economic teams are job seekers, trained to support enterprises, not start them. Job creators, wielding tacit knowledge—the intuitive brilliance of innovation—face a world that prizes explicit skills like accounting or law. Canada’s education system, like its G7 peers, churns out resume-builders, not enterprise-builders, leaving small businesses to wither.

Across the European Union, 50% of small enterprises have closed since 2020, while India’s multi-million startups thrive on risk-taking. This divide fuels the Anti-Job Creation Syndrome, where job seekers caution against starving the entrepreneurial flame. Canada must lead the G7 in nurturing job creators, not coddling job seekers.

The global economy splits into abstract and real realms. Abstract economies, like those of Canada and the United States, indulge in financial games—stock manipulations and debt bubbles—while real economies, grounded in value creation, flourish in job-creator nations.

Canada’s enterprises, burdened by $1.3 trillion in national debt, struggle in this abstract haze, unable to match China’s relentless advance. G7 elections, despite bold promises, fail to launch grassroots prosperity, blinded by job-seeker policies. The summit’s focus on digital resilience and climate change risks missing the primal need for enterprise creation. Canada’s leadership must shift this narrative to real economies, where job creators forge lasting wealth.

Canada’s G7 presidency is a clarion call to host a global summit, uniting nations to forge strategies for real economies rooted in value creation. The absence of bold economic debates to address declining productivity demands this reckoning. When 99% of economic teams lack the spark to grow small and medium-sized enterprises, the damage is profound.

How long will Canada’s enterprises languish in debt’s shadow? A summit could draw lessons from job-creator nations, rekindling the entrepreneurial mysticism embedded in every community.

Five steps chart the path: promote entrepreneurial education to inspire job-creators; incentivize small and medium-sized enterprises with tax breaks; invest in training that blends tacit and explicit knowledge; foster public-private partnerships to break dependency; and convene a summit to share value-driven strategies.

The world watches as Canada stands at Kananaskis, its G7 baton poised to conduct a new symphony. Free economies teeter on collapse, their job-seeker mindset a weary colossus crumbling under caution.

Why is Expothon Worldwide gaining global attention? An international platform for entrepreneurial innovation and authority on National Mobilization of SME protocols, now so focused on 100 countries. Why is it challenging to use immediately deployable methodologies for all massive SME sectors within the GCC, OIC, European Union, African Union, Commonwealth, BRICS, and ASEAN for national mobilization of entrepreneurialism as pragmatic solutions? Over the last decade, these insights have been shared weekly and reached approximately 2000 selected VIP recipients at the National Cabinet-Level senior government officials across 100 free economies. This track record of expertise and trust forms the foundation of its proposed strategies.

Population-rich nations like India and China play a vibrant melody; their billion entrepreneurs are a testament to the reward of risk. Canada must lead the G7 in unleashing job creators, not job seekers, by forging enterprises that light up the global stage. Free economies and G& have some bigger challenges, like facing the anti-job creation syndrome.

Without this mega-shift, the old economic model risks a grand financial collapse, leaving free economies in darkness. Canada’s summit is the last stand to ensure job-creators triumph, creating a future of prosperity for all.

The rest is easy.

Why is it always the women who stand up first?

That’s a rhetorical question, of course. But it’s one that has a basis in fact because girl power is real.

From Joan of Arc to Cassidy Hutchinson, whenever men have proven too cautious, cowardly or complacent to act, women have had the courage to do the right thing. The latest example of this feminine fearlessness came last Saturday, after federal immigration agents launched a series of raids throughout the Southland targeting everyone from schoolchildren to elderly churchgoers.

Within hours of the first arrests, Angel City, a women’s soccer club, became the first local sports franchise to issue a statement, recognizing the “fear and uncertainty” the raids had provoked. A day later LAFC, Angel City’s roommate at BMO Stadium, released a statement of its own.

That was a week and a half ago. But Angel City didn’t stop there. While the collective silence from the Dodgers, the Galaxy, the Lakers, Kings and other teams has been deafening, Angel City has grown defiant, dressing its players and new coach Alexander Straus in T-shirts that renamed the team “Immigrant City Football Club.” On the back the slogan “Los Angeles Is For Everyone /Los Angeles Es Para Todos” was repeated six times.

“The statement was the beginning,” said Chris Fajardo, Angel City’s vice-president of community. “The statement was our way of making sure that our fans, our players, our staff felt seen in that moment.

“The next piece was, I think, true to Angel City. Not just talking the talk but walking the walk.”

Angel City, the most valuable franchise in women’s sports history, has been walking that walk since it launched five years ago with the help of A-list Hollywood investors, including Natalie Portman, Eva Longoria, Jessica Chastain, America Ferrera and Jennifer Garner.

Angel City coach Alexander Straus wears a shirt with the words, “Immigrant City Football Club” before Saturday’s match.

(Jen Flores / Angel City FC)

It has used its riches and its unique platform to provide more than 2.3 million meals and more than 33,000 hours for youth and adult education throughout Southern California; to provide equipment and staff for soccer camps for the children of migrants trapped at the U.S.-Mexico border; and to funnel $4.1 million into other community programs in Los Angeles.

But while much of that has happened quietly, last Saturday’s actions were provocative, boldly and publicly taking place in a city still under siege from thousands of National Guard troops and hundreds of U.S. Marines.

“We always talk about how we wanted to build a club that was representative of our community. But we built a club where we are part of the community,” said Julie Uhrman, who co-founded the team she now leads as president.

“In moments like this it’s how do we use our platform to drive attention for what’s happening, to create a sense of community and tell our community that we’re there for them.

“Our supporters wanted to do more,” Uhrman added. “And we wanted to support them.”

Angel City’s Sydney Leroux poses for photo before a match against North Carolina on Saturday.

(Ian Maule / NWSL via Getty Images)

So Fajardo reached out to the team’s staff and supporters. What would that next step look like this time?

“We knew we wanted to do shirts but like, is this the right move?” Fajardo said. “Also, let’s talk about language. It had to resonate and it had to be something they felt was true.

“And so it was through conversation that we landed on the Immigrant City Football Club and everybody belongs in L.A.”

That was late Wednesday afternoon. Fajardo needed more than 10,000 shirts to hand out to players and fans by Saturday morning. That led him to Andrew Leigh, president of Jerry Leigh of California, a family-owned clothing manufacturer based in Los Angeles.

“We wanted to be a part of it,” Leigh said. “These were definitely a priority as we believe in the cause and what Angel City stands for.”

That first run of T-shirts was just the start, though. Leigh’s company has made thousands more for the team to sell on its website, with the net proceeds going to Camino Immigration Services, helping fund what the team feels is a pressing need.

The campaign has resounded with the players, many of whom were drawn to Angel City by the club’s commitment to community service and many of whom see this moment as especially personal.

“My mom’s parents came here from China, and it wasn’t easy for them,” captain Ali Riley told the team website. “They had to find a way to make a life here. My dad is first-generation American. Being from Los Angeles, everything we do, everything we play, everything we eat, this is a city of immigrants.”

“It feels so uncertain right now,” she continued, “but to look around the stadium and see these shirts everywhere, it’s like we’re saying, ‘this is our home, we know who we are, and we know what we believe in.”

It has resonated with the supporters as well.

“It is great that they showed support and put it into action,” said Lauren Stribling, a playwright from Santa Clarita and an Angel City season-ticket holder from the club’s inception. “They really showed an empathy for the community they serve.

Shirts with the words “Los Angeles Is For Everyone” in English and Spanish were handed out to fans before Angel City’s game against North Carolina at BMO Stadium on Saturday.

(Jen Flores / Angel City FC)

“They stand up. It makes me proud of the team and makes me a bigger fan.”

And it makes the Dodgers, the Galaxy and the other Southern California franchises who have remained silent look smaller. On the same night Angel City was stepping up, seven miles away the Dodgers were once again stepping back, warning singer Nezza, the daughter of Dominican immigrants, to sing “The Star-Spangled Banner” in English, not Spanish.

“I didn’t think I would be met with any sort of like, ‘no,’ especially because we’re in L.A. and with everything happening,” said Nezza, whose real name is Vanessa Hernández. “I just felt like I needed to do it.”

So she sang in Spanish. Of course she sang in Spanish.

⚽ You have read the latest installment of On Soccer with Kevin Baxter. The weekly column takes you behind the scenes and shines a spotlight on unique stories. Listen to Baxter on this week’s episode of the “Corner of the Galaxy” podcast.

On May 30, the last day of Poland’s presidential campaign, Karol Nawrocki laid flowers at a monument that has long sparked controversy.

The 14-metre tall statue commemorating the Volhynian massacre depicts a crowned eagle, the symbol of Poland, with a cross shape cut out from its chest. In that cross, a child’s body is impaled on a trident, representing the Ukrainian coat of arms, the “tryzub”.

The statue was revealed in July 2024 in Domostawa, a village in southeastern Poland close to Ukraine’s border. It commemorates the ethnic cleansing of Poles by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in the Polish-Ukrainian borderland between 1943 to 1945. While statistics vary, it is assumed that between 40,000 and 100,000 people perished in the massacre.

But before Domostawa accepted the monument, several cities, including Rzeszow, Torun and Stalowa Wola, refused to host it due to the brutality of the sculptor’s vision and in order not to damage relations with Ukraine.

To Nawrocki, formerly the head of the Institute of National Remembrance, a state research institute, the scene felt like the place to end his presidential bid.

“The Volhynian Massacre was a cruel crime. The methods of murdering Poles were cruel. It was a neighbourly crime, because neighbours murdered neighbours. It was also a robbery, because Ukrainian nationalists often robbed their neighbours,” Nawrocki said.

“We have the right to talk about it. I have the right to talk about it as the president of the Institute of National Remembrance and I will have this right as the president of Poland after June 1.”

Dear President @ZelenskyyUa, thank you for your message. I am looking forward to countinue partnership of our countries, based on mutual respect and understanding. I believe it requires not only good dialogue but also solving overdue historical issues. Poland has been Ukraine’s…

— Karol Nawrocki (@NawrockiKn) June 3, 2025

During his ultimately successful campaign, President-elect Nawrocki, a nationalist, said that Poles should have priority in queues for doctor’s appointments and called to limit Ukrainians’ access to benefits. He also said he was against Ukraine joining NATO and the European Union, a stark contrast from Poland’s traditional position of support as Kyiv fights off Russian forces.

Warsaw’s support, Nawrocki believes, should depend on Ukraine making amends for the Volhynian massacre, which could include the exhumation of Polish victims.

Following the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in early 2022, Poland, under the rule of the Law and Justice – or PiS – party, which supported Nawrocki, accepted more than a million Ukrainian refugees and backed Ukraine with weapons as Kyiv’s other European allies, such as Germany, hesitated.

Thousands of Poles hosted Ukrainians in their homes as Poland became the loudest pro-Ukrainian voice in the EU and NATO.

But while PiS has a long history of supporting Ukraine throughout its revolutions in 2004 and 2014, and following the Russian onslaught, anti-Ukrainian rhetoric is now taking hold.

‘Playing the anti-Ukrainian card’

In the first round of the presidential election, 51 percent of Poles voted for candidates who had touted positions at odds with Ukraine’s ambitions. Even the liberal candidate from the Civic Platform, Rafal Trzaskowski, suggested that Ukrainians who do not pay taxes should be deprived of child benefits.

According to research by the Mieroszewski Centre, in 2022, 83 percent of Ukrainians had a positive opinion of Poles, but by November 2024, this number fell to 41 percent.

In January 2025, 51 percent of Poles said that Ukrainian refugees receive too much support. Almost half of respondents said that difficult historical issues should be solved to improve Polish-Ukrainian relations.

Research published in February 2025 by CBOS found that just 30 percent of Poles had a positive attitude towards Ukrainians, down from 51 percent in 2023, while 38 percent had a negative attitude towards their Ukrainian neighbours, up from 17 percent in 2023.

“I think that Poland should continue its support for Ukraine, but I am disappointed with the position of the Ukrainian state. If not for Poland’s strong and decisive reaction at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, which encouraged Europe’s support, Ukraine would not survive. And then in front of the United Nations General Assembly, Ukraine’s president compared Poland to Russia,” said Nawrocki voter Michal, a 33-year-old travel guide.

“Ukrainians never showed any remorse for the Volhynian massacre. And I find it unacceptable that figures like Stepan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych, who are responsible for massacres of Poles during World War II, are considered Ukraine’s national heroes,” Michal added, referring to the Ukrainian nationalist leaders and Nazi collaborators.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine considers the decision of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland to establish 11 July as a Day of Remembrance for the victims of the so-called “genocide committed by the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian… pic.twitter.com/c5nu1hPaDl

— MFA of Ukraine 🇺🇦 (@MFA_Ukraine) June 5, 2025

Michal’s views are not uncommon.

Meanwhile, grudges against Ukrainian refugees have swelled.

“In February and March 2022, in a few weeks, Poland became a country that was no longer culturally uniform. For many Poles, who had no experience of diversity, the very fact that suddenly their neighbours spoke a different language became difficult to accept,” said Rafal Pankowski from the antiracism Never Again association.

Currently, more than 50 percent of Poles declare solidarity with Ukrainian refugees, down from 90 percent in 2022, he said, citing his organisation’s polling data.

“One of the reasons why support for Ukrainians has fallen is right-wing propaganda and conspiracy theories spread on social media. We have been monitoring the situation since the beginning of the war, and it has been clear that in the long run, playing the anti-Ukrainian card will bring the far right political benefits. And this is what happened in this campaign.”

Igor Krawetz, a Ukrainian commentator who has lived in Poland for almost 20 years, said that he is surprised at the speed of the shift. Two years ago, open hostility towards Ukrainians was viewed as inappropriate, even among the right, he said.

“Polish anti-Ukrainian xenophobia is no longer limited to spaces where Ukrainian migrants compete with Poles, such as low-skilled jobs. Now xenophobia is expressed by the middle class, too, who see that Ukrainians moved businesses to Warsaw, buy expensive apartments and are no longer poor people that need the Poles’ support,” he added.

The shift brings back memories for Krawetz.

Polish solidarity with Ukraine ended in disillusionment and mutual accusations in 2004, when Poles supported Ukraine’s Orange Revolution and in 2014, after the Euromaidan.

“Poles have got used to seeing Ukraine’s misfortunes as their own pain. For the past 20 years, during crises, there have been romantic waves of brotherly support that lasted for several months and were always followed by complaints: ‘I helped you in 2022 and you still haven’t won the war’ type of thing,” Krawetz said.

“I have survived the first and second wave of solidarity with Ukraine. I will survive the last one, too. It always comes back full circle.”

The housing estate of Tlajomulco de Zúñiga has become a no-go area, with gang violence a regular feature of an abandoned project that is now crumbling into the ground

A big ‘no entry’ sign hangs ominously above the entrance to an abandoned town known as the ‘Mexican Chernobyl‘.

Unlike the Ukrainian town, which was evacuated following the nuclear meltdown of 1986, the housing estate of Tlajomulco de Zúñiga is not empty of almost all human life as a consequence of a futuristic energy solution gone wrong.

The housing complex was built with the people of the Guadalajara district in mind, designed to provide safe, spacious homes for families there. According to data from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography, there are 70,000 homes in Tlajomulco. Just 12 years after they were built, all of them are empty.

It takes a brave soul to visit the abandoned town. The unfinished buildings tower ominously over the empty streets. Many have no windows and have been battered by the elements. Plants have broken through the cracks in the brickwork, upon which graffiti has been slapped.

READ MORE: Inside most secret radioactive site in US said to be ‘Chernobyl in making’

Inside some, there are hundreds of scratches on the wall. In others, food and clothing have been scattered on the floor. The properties are occasionally frequented by homeless people looking for shelter for the night, although they have a long 20-mile journey from the bustling centre of Guadalajara over swaying fields of grass that seem to hold in the silence of the eerie settlement.

The area is under the control of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), reports Info Bae, meaning the YouTubers, media outlets and tourists who venture to the housing complex for a poke around do so at no small risk to themselves.

In the last six years, the area has become a go-to place for those looking to get rid of a body. Officials found 54 bodies in clandestine graves in the area in December 2019, and a further 110 in July 2020, reports La Jornada.

Next to the unfinished buildings are apartment blocks that stand over them, both a legacy of the construction company that went bust in 2014. The Mexican Army set up one of its bases in one of these apartment towers.

Mexico has a huge number of abandoned homes, with some estimates putting the total nationwide into the millions. As in the case of Tlajomulco de Zúñiga, housing estates are built on the outskirts of urban centres specifically for working people and their families.

During periods of wage stagnation and inflation, many have defaulted on unfavourable mortgages. At the same time, construction firms, including the one responsible for Tlajomulco de Zúñiga, have struggled to complete ambitious jobs. Some of the homes in Tlajomulco de Zúñiga are finished and ready for habitation, while other sections consist of half-built shells.

READ MORE: Creepy ghost town suddenly abandoned now overrun with polar bearsREAD MORE: Abandoned town left to rot for 40 years after plane crash horror

Some families still live in the housing complex, but it is a far cry from the brief period when a majority of the buildings were occupied. The remaining few live under a cloud of fear. “Those who stayed are living under a self-imposed curfew. At 6pm no one leaves their homes, and outside, only the wind and criminals roam the streets,” La Jornada adds.

Guillermina Sánchez is one of the limited number still living in estate, along with her husband. She adheres to the 6pm curfew after her partner was badly beaten while leaving their home, NMas reports.

“It gets really ugly out there,” she said.

THEY say age is just a number – but how old you feel does not correlate to the number of candles on your birthday cake. 

A new study found 36 years old is the age when most of us notice we are no longer in the first flush of youth.

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But there are plenty of ways to continue to feel young at heart. 

Here Laura Stott suggests ways to turn back time in a flash, whatever your age . . .  

CHALLENGE YOURSELF

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Whether it’s a fun run, starting dance lessons or walking 10,000 steps a day, set a target that is achievable. 

Completing a task that stretches your capabilities has been shown to build confidence and provide a sense of accomplishment, which makes us feel more youthful.

Feeling physically fitter puts a youthful spring in your step, too. 

SAY CHEESE

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Forget Botox or going under the knife, if you want to take decades off in an instant, then just smile more.

Research has found that people with happy faces are perceived as younger than they are, and also feel it. 

One study found that images of cheery faces were considered much to be more youthful-looking than those with neutral expressions. 

PUT ON RECORDS YOU LOVED IN YOUR YOUTH

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Whether these are rave tunes or power ballads might depend on how many decades have passed – and whether you first heard them on CD, vinyl or cassette.  

But whatever, listening to those songs can turn back the years in your mind. 

Studies show that favourite sounds activate a region of the brain linked to autobiographical memories. 

HAVE MORE SEX

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Making love can leave you looking and feeling five years younger, according to one study. 

The research, for the charity Age UK, revealed that keeping busy between the sheets makes older adults both look and feel years younger.

Experts believe this is because sex releases feelgood hormones, endorphins. Another UK study even found that regular sex can make you look up to seven years younger. 

STAND UP STRAIGHT

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As we get older, practising good posture is a proven way to look and feel younger.

Keeping your spine tall, shoulders down and core strong will stop your skeleton from looking outwardly old, by preventing stooping or sagging.

It can make us feel more confident which also turns back the clock cognitively. 

Whether sitting, standing or walking, pay attention to posture, to harness its instant anti-ageing benefits. 

TRY NEW FOODS

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If you always eat the same foods, change things up a bit. 

Whether that means a cuisine you’ve never tasted, at a new restaurant, or just varying your mealtime routine, these new experiences should make you feel open-minded.

Even if you don’t enjoy the flavours, breaking a dietary rut should make you feel younger. 

STAY ORGANISED

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From filing your paperwork, to sorting your wardrobe, good housekeeping has been proven to make people feel younger. 

Researchers in 2019 concluded that the more ordered people’s homes were, the more youthful they felt – with a structured environment boosting their optimism and improving memory, even longevity. 

GET SOME KIP

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Studies show that tiredness from a lack of quality shut-eye can make us feel ten years older. 

Participants who did not have sufficient sleep reported feeling older than their real age. 

In contrast, research in Sweden, at Stockholm University, found that being well rested can make us feel up to four years younger. 

YOUNG AT HEART

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Embracing a youthful mindset can also work wonders. 

Don’t dismiss activities or opportunities as not being for you because of your age – challenge those ideas.  

Whether it’s downloading TikTok, a new hobby or wearing this summer’s latest trend, remain curious about new things – whatever your age. 

How to reverse ageing in just 2 weeks, according to royal go-to nutritionist

LONDON -based Gabriela Peacock, who has helped the likes of Prince Harry and Princess Eugenie prepare for their weddings.

She told Fabulous: “The science is evident that we all have the power to make simple life changing alterations to better our future selves – no matter what genetic hand we might have been dealt with.

“The reality is, we all sometimes indulge in unhealthy eating habits like processed foods, smoking cigarettes, drinking too much alcohol, inhaling city pollutants, and even drinking water from plastic bottles – none of this is good for us. 

“All this does is promote the ageing process, but we all have the potential to change this.”

It may be hard, but try to keep away from sugary carbohydrates, because they feed chronic inflammation, which is one of the worst enemies of reversing ageing. 

Now only will you end up putting on weight if you consume them regularly, but your energy and hormonal levels will be affected and this will influence how you look and feel.

Whatever your age or state of health, it’s never too late to reverse how quickly you are ageing and embrace the energy and vigour of a younger you.

Antioxidants, such as vitamins A, C, and E, are essential in neutralising free radicals—the culprits behind premature ageing. 

Integrating a spectrum of colourful fruits and vegetables into your diet provides a potent source of antioxidants.

Omega-3 fatty acids, abundant in fatty fish like salmon and flaxseeds, are vital for maintaining skin elasticity and hydration. 

Omega-3s act as nourishment for your skin, locking in moisture and diminishing fine lines and wrinkles. 

Collagen, a structural protein dwindling with age, can be replenished through collagen-rich foods like bone broth and lean protein sources. 

THE distraught father of drugs charge teenager Bella Culley has vowed to stand by his daughter – amid new fears Far East drugs gangs are targeting British backpackers.

Bella, 18, is on remand in a grim jail following her arrest in Georgia’s Tbilisi airport with a suitcase of cannabis after going missing 4,000 miles away in Thailand.

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Bella’s flight took off from the same Bangkok airport within hours of another pretty British trafficking suspect arrested with £1.2 million of a cannabis-related drug in Sri Lanka.

Former air stewardess Charlotte May Lee, 21, was in a gruesome Sri Lankan jail cell last night awaiting a court appearance.

Their arrests have sparked fears that Thai gangs may be hoodwinking vulnerable British backpackers into ferrying their drugs after a crackdown on postal trafficking.

Bella was facing at least nine months on remand in a grim Soviet-era jail alongside hardened criminals.

She had joked online of “Bonnie and Clyde” hijinks while showing off cash wads in the Far East and was pictured smoking a spliff.

Bella’s family from Billingham, County Durham are convinced she was preyed upon after flying to the Far East to party with a mystery man feared to have hooked her up with drugs runners.

Her dad Niel – a Vietnam-based oil rig electrician – flew to Tbilisi last week desperate for answers after tearful Bella told a court that she was pregnant.

But he has yet to meet his daughter within the drab confines of No5 Women’s Penitentiary on the outskirts of the Georgian capital and remains baffled by her plight.

Asked about his plans after arriving in Tbilisi, Mr Culley, 49, told The Sun today: “I can’t say anything but I will be here for as long as it takes.

“I obviously have no experience in dealing with situations like this and it’s very difficult.”

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Appearing shaky as he puffed on a cigarette, the anxious dad at one point appeared ready to make a statement when asked how his daughter was bearing up in prison.

But he broke off to confer with Bella’s aunt Kerrie Culley – who is supporting him in Georgia – and returned shaking his head.

He added: “I’m being advised by the British Embassy and can’t comment at the moment.

“But that may change in the future depending on what happens.”

Fears are growing that a Thai drugs gang is preying on British backpackers this summer as Charlotte became the second Brit flying out of Bangkok to be arrested within days.

She was detained at Colombo airport in Sri Lanka on Monday – the day after Bella’s arrest – where police say she had a huge stash of kush – a synthetic strain of cannabis.

Charlotte from Chipstead, Surrey was last night locked in a cell with 20 other prisoners with barely room to lie down as she awaited a court hearing.

Bella took off first from Bangkok on a 20-hour flight via Sharjah in the UAE to Georgia while Charlotte left later on a three-hour direct flight to Sri Lanka.

Both girls departed from the Thai capital during the Royal Ploughing Ceremony weekend – one of the busiest festivals of the year when airports are crammed with tourists.

It is believed to have provided a prime opportunity for traffickers to operate mules – particularly attractive young Britons who arouse less suspicion.

The two arrests follow a huge crackdown on smugglers sending cannabis to the UK by post.

A joint operation by both countries has seen a 90 per cent in reduction in the drug being mailed to Britain since last year.

It suggests Thai gangs may now be reverting to using drug mules to ship their products instead – and targeting British backpackers.

Thailand decriminalised cannabis in 2022 which sparked a massive rise in the narcotic being posted to Britain.

The law change allowed traffickers to hoodwink trippers into believing transporting it was legal.

Thai checks of mail being shipped stopped 1.5 tonnes in the first quarter of this year – a 90 percent drop in the illicit cargo – in a drive which frustrated the gangs.

Some 800 people including 50 British nationals have been arrested in Thailand for attempted smuggling since July 2024 with over nine tonnes of cannabis seized.

Retired Georgian police chief General Jemal Janashia voiced concerns that backpackers were being targeted yesterday.

He said: “The fact that two young British women have taken off with large quantities of drugs from the same airport will interest investigators.

“They will be concerned about the possibility of a link and that Thai gangs may be attempting to recruit vulnerable British travellers.

“After the crackdown on postal drug deliveries, the Thai cartel are seeking new routes and Georgia does look like an attractive middle transit point.

“It’s relatively close, and easy to reach Europe and is visa free to European travellers.”

He added: “I feel sorry for this woman because she was clearly used and manipulated. She’s 18, she’s a foreigner, pregnant.

“All of this indicates that she was chosen deliberately, chosen carefully, she was studied.

“Whoever chose her, they knew what they were doing.”

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A recent United States ambassador to Ukraine has published an opinion column explaining her decision to resign her post, and criticising President Donald Trump for siding with Russia over Ukraine.

On Friday, former diplomat Bridget Brink published an article in the Detroit Free Press, a newspaper in her home state of Michigan, expressing concern about current US foreign policy.

The US has long been an ally of Ukraine, and since 2014, it has provided the war-torn country with military assistance, as it fends off Russia’s attempts at invasion and annexation.

But Brink wrote that there has been a shift since President Trump returned to office for a second term in January.

“I respect the president’s right and responsibility to determine U.S. foreign policy,” she wrote.

“Unfortunately, the policy since the beginning of the Trump administration has been to put pressure on the victim, Ukraine, rather than on the aggressor, Russia.”

Brink pointed out that her time at the US Department of State included roles under five presidents, both Democrat and Republican. But she said the shift under the Trump administration forced her to abandon her ambassadorship to Ukraine, a position she held from 2022 until last month.

“I cannot stand by while a country is invaded, a democracy bombarded, and children killed with impunity,” she said of the situation in Ukraine.

“I believe that the only way to secure U.S. interests is to stand up for democracies and to stand against autocrats. Peace at any price is not peace at all ― it is appeasement.”

Brink’s position as ambassador has spanned much of the current conflict in Ukraine. After annexing Crimea and occupying other Ukrainian territories starting in 2014, Russia launched a full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022. Brink assumed her post that May.

But the slow-grinding war in Ukraine has cost thousands of lives and displaced many more. While campaigning for re-election in 2024, Trump blamed the war’s eruption on the “weak” foreign policy of his predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden.

He also pledged to end the war on his first day back in office, if re-elected. “I’ll have that done in 24 hours. I’ll have it done,” Trump told one CNN town hall in 2023.

Since taking office, however, Trump has walked back those comments, calling them an “exaggeration” in an interview with Time Magazine.

Still, his administration has pushed Ukraine and Russia to engage in peace talks, as part of an effort to end the war. How those negotiations have unfolded under Trump, however, has been the source of scrutiny and debate.

Ukraine and its European allies have accused Trump of sidelining their interests in favour of his one-on-one negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin. They also have criticised Trump and his officials for seeming to offer Russia concessions even before the negotiations officially began.

On February 12, for instance, his Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told an international defence group in Brussels that Ukraine may never regain some of its occupied territory.

“We must start by recognising that returning to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective,” he said, adding that membership in the NATO military alliance was also unlikely. “Chasing this illusionary goal will only prolong the war and cause more suffering.”

Trump has gone so far as to blame Ukraine’s NATO ambitions as the cause of the war, something critics blast as a Kremlin talking point.

Amid the negotiations, the relationship between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has grown increasingly testy. Already, during his first term, Trump faced impeachment proceedings over an alleged attempt to pressure Zelenskyy by withholding military aid.

During his second term, though, Trump upped the ante, calling the Ukrainian president a “dictator” for not holding elections, something prohibited under Ukraine’s wartime laws.

One public display of frustration came in the White House on February 28, when Trump shouted at Zelenskyy, calling him “disrespectful” during a gathering with journalists.

The US president also used the appearance to defend his warm relationship with Russia’s president. “ Putin went through a hell of a lot with me,” Trump told Zelenskyy.

The shouting match led to a brief suspension of US aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine.

In the months since, their two countries have agreed to a deal that would establish a joint investment fund that would allow Washington access to Ukraine’s mineral resources — a long-desired Trump goal.

The US president has voiced concern about the amount of money invested in Ukraine’s security, with Congress appropriating more than $174bn since the war began in 2022. He has also argued that a US mining presence would help deter foreign attacks in Ukraine.

But peace between Russia and Ukraine has remained elusive. Talks between the two warring parties on Friday ended after less than two hours, though they did agree to an exchange of 1,000 prisoners each.

In her op-ed column, Brink was clear that she held Russia responsible for the ongoing aggression.

“Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, it has done what can only be described as pure evil: killed thousands of civilians, including 700 children, with missiles and drones that hit their homes and apartments in the dead of night,” she wrote.

She added that Europe has not experienced “violence so systematic, so widespread and so horrifying in Europe since World War II”.

Brink warned that, if the US did not stand up to Russia, a domino effect could occur, paving the way for military assaults on other countries.

“If we allow Putin to redraw borders by force, he won’t stop with Ukraine,” she wrote. “Taken at his word, Putin’s ambition is to resurrect an imperial past ― and he can’t do that without threatening the security of our NATO allies.”