This European country's divisive migrant amnesty offers a lesson for the UK

MADRID – More than one million people have applied to get legal status in Spain as part of a divisive migrant amnesty that ended on Tuesday.

Chaotic scenes were witnessed in the early days of the scheme in May when migrants tried to climb over the wall of the Gambian Embassy in Madrid in order to submit papers.

The move defied a crackdown on irregular immigration in other parts of Europe and the United States. But despite fierce opposition from some in Spain, its Prime Minister has championed the plan. “The more than one million applications submitted… show how necessary this recognition of rights and responsibilities was,” Pedro Sanchez said on Tuesday.

Caroline’s mother Christine has called for an apology from the press and police over how she was treated before she died.

She made a documentary called Search for the Truth for Disney+ last year

Caroline Flack’s death has become a tragic parable about cancel culture, responsible use of social media, the intrusion of the tabloid press, the sensation of reality TV and the misunderstandings and stigmas about mental ill health, from which we were all supposed to learn and in which each of us who watched on as voyeurs was complicit. 

People who have a strong chest and back may be less likely to have a heart attack, according to a new study.

Researchers said that people with strong pecs, back muscles and torso are also less likely to die within the next decade.

Experts from the British Heart Foundation (BHF) said that it is “not just about being muscly”, as the size of people’s muscles was not linked to their risk of a heart attack or early death.

It said that all kinds of exercise, and not just strength training, can improve muscle density.

It is fascinating that people’s skeletal muscle could be linked to their risk of having a heart attack. I am now personally interested in exercises like cycling, planks and pilates, which I enjoy and may have an effect on these muscles.

What are the things that you do to keep yourself healthy? Your mind might jump straight to the run you do a couple of times a week, or the choices you make about what to eat, the amount of sleep you manage to get each night or the friends who make you feel seen and heard. And you’d be right. These are all things that keep us healthy.

Millions of Britons could pay higher energy bills than they need to if they do not submit a meter reading before the price cap rises on Wednesday.

The price cap, set by the regulator Ofcom, is set to rise, affecting 5.3 million households on a standard tariff.

How much the price cap will increase from Wednesday, 1 July.

The average gas and electricity bill will jump to £1,862 a year.

There are currently 27 fixed deals available that are cheaper than July’s price cap, with average savings of £285, so act now to save yourself money.  The price cap is going up, but your bills don’t have to.

People are future-proofing their homes for sustainability and to protect themselves against unpredictable energy costs

The summer’s first full Moon is lighting up skies across the country this week.

To see the Stawberry Moon, look towards the south-east after sunset. That will be after around 9.20pm on Tuesday, 30 June. The moon will track southwards through the night, setting in the south-west before sunrise on Wednesday.

Angry people on social media claim the current high temperatures are nothing special but they ignore the long-term trends

The Government has said it will appoint a national maternity commissioner to drive change after a report concluded families have suffered from repeated failures in NHS care.

For too long women, babies and families have been failed by a system that didn’t listen. Their stories are heart-breaking and demand action.

Some forecasts suggest temperatures could begin to climb again as we enter July. Here is everything you need to know about another upcoming heatwave.

Although a return to heatwave conditions is looking increasingly likely for some areas,  the likelihood of such extreme high temperatures or high levels of humidity as last week is currently low.

The UK just experienced it’s hottest June day on record with temperatures topping 36°C in some parts of the country. And while Britain has experienced hotter weather before, like the heatwave in July 2022, something about this one has felt particularly grim-humidity. But why does this make a difference? You can read Clare Wilson’s full article on The i Paper’s website. #heatwave #ukheatwave

It has raised questions over whether the UK – one of Spain’s only neighbours with a left-wing administration – should follow suit.

Sanchez claims the amnesty will help strengthen the nation as it battles dwindling birthrates and a need for more workers in key sectors like construction and tourism. “Some say we have gone too far, that we are going against the current. But I would like to ask you, when did recognising rights become something radical? When did empathy become something exceptional?” he said.

Mohamed, a Moroccan jobseeker living in the northern region of Cantabria, told AFP news agency that he had been in Spain irregularly for about four years and hoped gaining legal status would enable him “to be able to work legally, to pay contributions”. He said it would also spare him from employers who “take advantage” of irregular migrants “by paying low salaries, without any rights or… don’t pay at all”.

Andy Burnham – who is expected to be Britain’s next prime minister – has said the Government needs to “go further” when it comes to tackling the migrant crisis. Allies say he is considering plans to water down the Home Secretary’s hardline immigration reforms.

But experts say he would face intense political opposition if he attempted to introduce a Spain-style amnesty. Such a proposal would meet fierce opposition from Reform and might lead to a rise in support for Nigel Farage’s Reform party.

A poll in May for the left-leaning El Pais newspaper found 60 per cent of Spaniards believed there were too many migrants in Spain. But the same poll recorded that 37 per cent were in favour of the government’s regularisation scheme, while 33 strongly opposed the idea, and 21 per cent did not have an opinion.

“I struggle to imagine a one-off blanket amnesty [in the UK],” Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, told The i Paper. She said such migration amnesties also did not solve underlying drivers of illegal immigration.

Kate Hooper, senior analyst with the US think-tank Migration Policy Institute, said Britain and other Northern European countries had been sceptical about mass amnesties, believing they were a “pull factor” to bring more illegal immigration.

Since the start of Spain’s migrant amnesty, Sanchez’s left-wing coalition alliance has seen its popularity in the polls fall, though this is more likely to have been because of a series of corruption scandals that have beset the Socialist party.

Outside Spain, the Socialist prime minister’s regularisation plan has prompted concern from Brussels where the European Union has said it contravened the bloc’s currency policy which advocates an anti-migration drive.

Migrants outside the Pakistan consulate in Barcelona told The i Paper that if they were successful in their applications they might move to London later to be with family.

The programme offers immigrants without legal status a one-year, renewable residence permit if they have spent five months living in the country and have a clean criminal record. The window to apply opened in April. Since it began, Spain has witnessed long queues outside consulates of foreign nations trying to get the necessary papers for their applications.