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Daily Mirror
a day ago
- Daily Mirror
Gorgeous UK seaside town that tourists love but the locals 'have no hope'
Beyond its beautiful whit-sand beaches, crystal-clear waters and charming high-street - this popular UK seaside town is facing a spiralling issue impacting swathes of locals Despite its sugar-like beaches and quintessential charm, there's a much darker side to one of the UK's most famous seaside towns. If there's one picture-perfect coastal resort that epitomises Cornwall - it has to be St Ives. Renowned for its pristine beaches, cobalt waters, vibrant high-street and impressive art scene - the town attracts a staggering 540,00 day trippers and 220,000 overnight visitors every single year, bringing an estimated £10 million to the area. In the summer months, St Ives becomes particularly busy, with social media videos revealing the extent of the town's popularity. Quaint cobbled alleys become filled with selfie-stick-waving tourists, while picturesque beaches turn into a row of sardine-stacked sun loungers. If you head towards the iconic row of Instagram-worthy houses by the end of the harbour, you'll find that they'll all be occupied. However, it's not locals that live here - and most of these grand properties have been snapped up by landlords who rent them out as holiday homes. Come September, most will stand vacant - and by the time winter comes - the resort will be left a ghost town. "It's all second homes and holiday lets," Rev Chris Wallis, who set up the St Ives Foodbank over ten years ago, told Cornwall Live. A former Pentecostal minister who officiated in the town until three years back, Chris launched the food bank in 2012 following a request from the mayor and town council who wished to take action to support local residents grappling with food poverty. 13 years on, the food bank remains a lifeline for many. Today, its shelves are brimming with tins of baked beans, custard, and soup, alongside packets of pasta and long-life UHT milk. It's a stark reflection of St Ive's darker side: where harbourside homes worth millions lie mostly vacant, while residents depend on food banks for survival. "Locals who have been here a long time have no hope," Chris said. "They have no hope of a good job paying decent wages. So they are stuck in a rut. Their kids leave in the hope of finding better jobs but the adults stay behind and continue to be stuck." The area also attracts retirees drawn by the allure of sunshine, stunning light, and serenity unavailable in bustling cities. But, St Ives has few care homes, leaving many elderly residents to fend for themselves at home. For medical care, locals rely on West Cornwall Hospital in Penzance or St Michael's in Hayle, but serious conditions like cancer require a trip to the Royal Cornwall Hospital at Treliske in Truro. "I can't afford to live in St Ives," Chris added. "Instead I live with my son, daughter-in-law and their children in Penzance. A single bedroom flat here costs £850 a month in rent. How is any family expected to afford that on low wages and seasonal work?". Initially, when the food bank opened its doors, it saw four families, comprised of 16 people, in need. Today, the food bank assists 180 individuals weekly, with numbers rising to 240 during the Christmas period. The food bank, supported by approximately 10 volunteers, caters to residents within the TR26 postcode, including those from surrounding villages near St Ives, but not areas like Penzance or Hayle which have their own food banks. It also aims to support families with energy expenses such as gas and electricity. However, with rising costs, the food bank itself is under financial strain. Until it moved to what used to be the Edward Hain Memorial Hospital, which is now a community hub, it did not have to pay rent but the church where the food bank was located was damp and the food would spoil. The organisation now faces a hefty £13,000 annual rent, which takes a significant bite out of its budget. However, the new space offers more room and is dry. "Most of the clients we help are locals," Chris said. "They tend to come from the two major estates at the top of the hill. There's great poverty in St Ives. Once they've paid for rent and bills, they have no money left for food. That's the tragedy of seasonal work. Now, even that's drying out." St Ives was one of the first towns in the UK to ban second homes. From April 1, second home owners are also subject to 100 per cent council tax premiums, effectively doubling their council bill. As a result, many second homes have hit the market at reduced prices compared to the pandemic peak, yet they still remain unaffordable for locals. The retreat of second home owners is also causing a downturn in the holiday rental market, leading to less demand for service workers. "Locals are struggling even more," Chris remarked. "Demand for the food bank is up." Residents cannot simply arrive and pick up a bag of fresh food or tinned goods. All visitors are referred through the NHS or social services. Nevertheless, there is a Food Share initiative in the town where supermarket food nearing its sell-by date is salvaged and given to anyone who shows up. "We have more families come through the doors," Chris added. "Many have two or three children. We have three families with six children." He revealed that 50 per cent of users are long-term disabled and unable to work. The remaining half may be employed but still struggle to balance their budgets. "Over the last three years demand has grown incredibly," Chris said. "It's all down to the cost of living crisis. More people simply can't manage anymore. Low incomes and the cost of rents and property are hitting people hard. "It's harder for us too. Costs are up. Demand is up but donations are down. It's the middle-income people who were just about coping who tended to donate. Now they don't because they are not coping anymore." He provided an example of food items the food bank typically purchases - such as frozen minced beef. He noted that recently it would cost £1.80 a packet, but now it's £3.30. "We don't tend to do sanitary products or cleaning products or pet food so much," Chris said. "Other food banks do and there is demand for it but we concentrate on people having food. Our main focus is on getting people fed." Supermarket giant has spotted the growing rise of food security across the nation, and has recently launched its Fair Share initiative within its stores in collaboration with the Trussell Trust. Chris revealed that initially, the local branch would only back food banks affiliated with the Trust, which meant St Ives' donations ended up supporting residents in different regions. "Why should donations in the local store go to Camborne? he asked. "The people who need them live here." Chris noted that under new management, the store now gets the picture, leading to a much-improved partnership between the food bank and Tesco which ensures the seaside town's inhabitants also reap the benefits of Tesco's summer generosity. This contribution is part of Tesco's Stronger Starts campaign, launched to tackle the pressing issue of feeding children who usually depend on free school meals during term time and might otherwise go hungry over the holidays. To lend a hand, Tesco is introducing pre-packed food donation bags across all its larger outlets. The bags, which are priced between £2 and £3, come pre-packed with a selection of wholesome, long-lasting food items and can be easily grabbed in-store and paid for at the till. The food contributions are directly channelled to FareShare and the Trussell Trust, from where they're distributed to various charities and food banks across the UK, aiding families in dire need. Claire De Silva, Tesco's head of communities, said: "Too often, families with too little support during the holidays worry about their children's physical and mental health, particularly if they're not getting the good food every child deserves." She further urged community action, saying, "If we all pull together over the summer, whether that's popping a few tins into a food collection point, picking up a food donation bag in our stores or rounding up our grocery bill, we can make a difference to the lives of thousands of children, who, without support, could have a tough summer holiday." But in St Ives, its seasonal dependency remains. "St Ives is not a thriving town," Chris said. "That's the illusion of summer... It's also a shame that most of the income from tourism goes to people outside of the town. "No one wants to see food banks. There shouldn't be any need for them. But it is a worldwide issue. I visited this old church in France about four years ago and they had a food bank there. There was a plaque saying there had been a food bank there since 1680... We will always have a part of society that's poor. It is a problem everywhere. The solution is better incomes for everyone [and] better housing..
Wall Street Journal
22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
‘The Congregation' Review: Devotion and Delirium on Viaplay
The members of 'The Congregation' maintain a state of general religious delirium, but none are more ferociously devoted to Jesus than Eva Skoog (Aliette Opheim), spiritual leader of the Swedish Pentecostal community of Knutby and a woman who puts the rapt in rapture. It's a mad, Miltonian performance by Ms. Opheim, one that will keep a viewer glued to the series. Who knows what might happen? Well, some viewers, at least in the broadest terms: The real-life Knutby, circa 2004, was the subject of the 2021 HBO documentary 'Pray, Obey, Kill'; in Sweden, 'Knutby' has become shorthand for the kind of situation not quite spelled out by another current TV title ('FUBAR') as well as a willful blindness in the face of the obvious. But foreknowledge of the story won't have much effect on the viewing experience: It's a crime thriller, a social commentary, and a parable of dark and light. Will it be the glamorous, charismatic, raven-haired Eva vs. the pretty, blond, wan and utterly guileless believer Anna Andersson (Alba August)? An apocalyptic battle between good and evil? No, nothing so simple.
India Today
17-07-2025
- India Today
Ontario town in shock after teen charged in attack on 8-year-old girl
A rural community in Canada's southern Ontario is in shock after police revealed that the brutal assault of an eight-year-old girl, originally thought to be an animal attack, was allegedly carried out by a 17-year-old boy now charged with attempted murder and sexual assault with a incident took place in Quadeville, a small town of just a few hundred people. The girl was reported missing on June 23 after last being seen around 6 pm near a local grocery store. She was discovered with severe injuries in a wooded area around 12:30 am the following morning and was rushed to a children's hospital in Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) told the community to keep their children indoors, warning of a potential animal threat. However, on June 25, authorities said they believed the injuries were from an animal attack but needed further investigation. Last week, that narrative shifted dramatically. Police arrested a 17-year-old boy, who cannot be named under Canada's Youth Criminal Justice Act, and charged him with attempted murder and sexual assault with a spokesperson Bill Dickson said the nature of the injuries initially led officers to suspect an animal, but investigators had also been exploring other possibilities from the start. 'You can't go into an investigation like this with tunnel vision,' he said, declining to provide specifics due to the ongoing court suspect and the victim's families are known to each other, further unsettling the close-knit community. Residents have raised concerns about the police response, including why the search for the missing girl didn't begin until 9 pm the day she disappeared. During a town hall on 12 July, acting OPP Chief Superintendent Derek Needham said specialized resources took time to arrive, but one parent responded: 'That's not good enough.'The local Pentecostal church has launched a fundraiser to support the victim's family. Pastor Joseph Fiorentino said the young girl is showing signs of recovery, though her healing journey will be long.- EndsMust Watch
Mint
14-07-2025
- Politics
- Mint
Emigration from Africa will change the world
After John Uwagboe moved to Scotland in 2008 he did not see another black man for several weeks. When at last he did, on the other side of a street in Edinburgh, he crossed over to meet him. Soon the strangers were hugging like long-lost friends. They went for lunch. 'The guy wasn't even another Nigerian," recalls Mr Uwagboe. 'He was from Ghana!" In 2001 there were just 5,000 Africans in Scotland, or 0.1% of the overwhelmingly pasty-faced population. By the time of the most recent census, in 2022, that population had increased more than 11-fold, and will very probably have grown faster since. Mr Uwagboe, who came to study, then worked his way up the ranks of a bank and later became a restaurateur, says there are more than 3,000 members of a WhatsApp group for Nigerians in Edinburgh. There are ten branches of his Pentecostal church. 'One thing for sure is that Africans will keep coming," he says. That may seem improbable when Donald Trump is booting out migrants, European politicians are embracing nativism and media coverage of migration from Africa focuses on the illegal sort, in leaking dinghies. But the vast majority of Africans leave the continent in prosaic, legal ways. This form of migration has continued to increase despite the rise of anti-immigrant sentiment. It will in all likelihood continue to grow in the coming decades, expanding African diasporas around the world. The trend will have profound effects in recipient countries and in Africa itself. The growth stems from the extraordinary demographic divergence between Africa, the world's youngest continent with the fastest-growing population, and everywhere else. Labour is becoming more abundant in Africa and scarcer in many other places. As a result, argue Kathryn Foster and Matthew Hall, demographers at Cornell University, 'The future of migration will be African in origin." Earlier this year McKinsey, a consultancy, published a report on the 'new demographic reality". It notes that a 'first wave" of countries including America, China, Japan, South Korea and all of Europe will see their working-age population (15- to 64-year-olds) shrink by about 340m by 2050. Longer lives and, especially, falling fertility rates, mean the 'support ratio" of working-age people to those over 65 in these places has dropped from 7:1 in 1997 to 4:1 today. By 2050 it will be just 2:1. Jobs but few workers A shift is also under way in emerging economies. By 2060, according to UN forecasts, the support ratio will fall from 6.2:1 to 2.3:1 in Brazil and from 7.5:1 to 2.4:1 in Vietnam, notes Michael Clemens of George Mason University. 'Nothing like this shockingly rapid disappearance of workers has happened in world history," he says. The exception is sub-Saharan Africa. Though fertility rates are falling there as well, they are doing so more slowly, from a higher starting-point. The region is decades behind in its 'demographic transition". Its working-age population will rise by around 700m by 2050, roughly doubling. By 2030 roughly half of new workers entering the global labour force will be from sub-Saharan Africa (see chart 1). They will struggle to find work at home. Sub-Saharan Africa sees around 15m people enter the labour market every year but just 3m formal jobs created. A survey last year by Afrobarometer, a pollster, found that 47% of Africans in 24 countries had considered migrating and 27% had given it 'a lot of thought"—increases of nine and ten percentage points respectively since the previous round of surveys in 2016-18. 'Better work opportunities" was by far the most cited reason. The tendency to migrate from a given country follows a pattern that, when drawn on a chart against GDP per person (adjusted for the cost of living), forms a bell curve. Emigration rises as countries approach around $5,000 in income per person, peaks at around $10,000 and declines thereafter. In poor countries people lack the resources to leave. In rich ones they lack the need. In middling places they have both the will and the wherewithal. Countries long associated with emigration, such as Mexico and the Philippines, are now rich enough to have passed their migratory peak. Meanwhile 94% of sub-Saharan Africans—1.1bn people—live in countries with a GDP per person of less than $10,000. African migration is 'an unstoppable force", says Mr Clemens. A need but little enthusiasm The politics of recipient countries, however, may seem an immovable object. Mr Trump has suspended America's 'diversity visa", which is popular among African migrants. The European Union is spending billions of euros trying to reduce illegal migration, much of it from Africa. The previous British government appeared keener to deport migrants to Rwanda than to admit migrants from Rwanda. Nativism may lead to more curbs on African migration. But restricting it will have political costs. In Britain it would make it harder to find nurses and doctors for its National Health Service. Everywhere it would mean resorting to unpopular alternatives to fill labour shortages and fund welfare states, such as cutting benefits or raising retirement ages. Before Giorgia Meloni became Italy's prime minister, she pledged to cut immigration. Since she has been in government the number of non-EU work visas issued by Italy has increased. Net migration also surged in post-Brexit Britain. So long as rich countries need labour from abroad, it makes sense to assume Africans will supply more of it. Indeed, they are already doing so. In 2024 there were more than 45m African migrants living outside their country of origin, according to the UN's Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), which released its latest estimates of international migration in January. Africans comprised 15% of the world's émigrés, up from 13% in 1990. Back then, 35% of migrants from Africa lived outside the continent, rather than in another African country. Today the share is 45%. That amounts to 20.7m people, triple the figure in 1990 and more than the number of Indians living outside India (18.5m) or of Chinese outside China (11.7m). Between 1990 and 2024, according to the UN, Africans living in Europe increased from 4m to 10.6m—about half of all African migrants living outside the continent. Over 4m live in France and 1m in Britain. The latest arrivals have swollen diasporas that date to the post-colonial period or earlier. Prior generations of migrants, often from professional elites, have seen their descendants thrive. Children of African migrants perform above the average in exams in England. British-Nigerians, in particular, are increasingly prominent in public life, whether in sport (Maro Itoje, England's rugby captain, has Nigerian parents), business or politics (Kemi Badenoch, the leader of the Conservative Party, grew up in Lagos). Though migrants from Africa continue to come to Britain to be doctors or members of other professions, they are increasingly joined by Africans seeking more menial jobs previously dominated by migrants from Asia or eastern Europe. Nigerians were the most common foreign nationals working in British care homes in 2023. Tens of thousands of Zimbabweans and Ghanaians have also been recruited for such positions. In the past decade America has overtaken France as the country with the largest population of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa. Africans' share of immigration to America has risen from less than 1% in 1960 to 11% in 2020. Net migration from the Caribbean and Africa in the 2010s was twice as high as from Latin America. Four times more Africans arrived in America between 1990 and 2020 than during the slave trade, estimates Neeraj Kaushal of Columbia University. In a forthcoming book she argues that 'the future of the United States is in Black Africa", since it will be the fastest-growing source of migrants. She notes that the Nigerian, Ethiopian, Ghanaian and Kenyan diasporas are roughly the size the Indian diaspora was in 1980. Since then the Indian-born population has risen 13-fold. A similar increase among those four African diasporas would equate to 10m more migrants by around 2060. Ms Kaushal accepts that some of the Trump administration's policies, such as the suspension of the diversity visa, will limit African migration. But over the long term, she believes, 'if America is to remain a nation of immigrants, then Africa will be the primary source of immigration." At a recent Africa Diaspora Day in Atlanta, Congolese, Ethiopians, Rwandans, Nigerians and others mingled at Georgia's state capitol. Ethiopian Airlines, the African carrier with the most extensive network, sent representatives to advertise direct flights to Addis Ababa. 'Africa has long been associated with the export of natural resources," noted Carl Kananda of the Atlanta Congo Coalition, 'but one of our most valuable exports today is intellectual capital, the resources of the mind." Yvonne Horsley McCowin, Ghana's consul-general in Atlanta, says that hers is one of four Ghanaian consulates opened in America last year. Moving to America can be a difficult adjustment for affluent Ghanaians, she says. 'We had folks who took care of us, we had a cook and all that. So imagine growing up and then moving over here to the US, and all of a sudden … it's like, well, where's the driver?" Ms Kaushal thinks that Africans will replace Asians as America's 'new model minority". Some 42% of immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa (and 64% of Nigerian-Americans) aged 25 or above have a degree, versus 33% of the rest of the population. Africans have a higher labour-force participation rate than the American average. A big majority of Nigerian-Americans say they believe in the American dream and think that America is 'a land of opportunity and freedom". African migrants are so successful that some black scholars on Ivy League campuses have questioned whether their children should have been allowed to benefit from affirmative action. The newcomers are changing what it means to be 'African-American". Mr Kananda says, 'I'm African. I had to learn that I was black when I came to the US." It is wrong to assume, as some scholars have, that 'race would overwhelm ethnicity" in shaping migrants' identity, argues Onoso Imoagene of NYU Abu Dhabi. Ms McCowin says, 'Most African-Americans will probably think the African thinks they're better, and the Africans would think the African-American, with all the opportunities afforded to them, are not taking advantage". It is not just the West that is home to more Africans. In 2024 there were almost 4.7m migrants from Africa in the countries of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) according to DESA, more than tripling since 1990. Saudi Arabia is the second-largest source of remittances to Kenya, after America, but ahead of Britain and the EU. Many Africans in the Gulf are abused. Fully 99% of Kenyans working there claim to have been mistreated by their bosses, according to one survey. Marie Mwiza, a Ugandan activist, says that women from her country who work as maids in the Middle East have no protection. 'Employers treat them like commodities," she says. 'Like bags of tomatoes." She has organised the return of coffins to Uganda after women died in suspicious circumstances. Yet Ethiopians, Kenyans and Ugandans still pour into the Gulf, with some knowledge of what may await. 'This is all about unemployment," says Ms Mwiza. 'People here just don't have jobs." Steven Nuwuguba was in his early 20s when he went to Qatar. He toiled seven days a week at the main airport and was hectored by racist bosses. He does not want his children to go there. But he made twice as much in a month as Uganda's GDP per person. That enabled him to start a business when he came back. '$2,000 in our country, it's a lot of money," he says. Maids make much less but can return with enough to start a business or begin building a house. In China there are more Nigerians than there are Indonesians and almost as many South Africans as there are Thais. Cities such as Yiwu, Zhongshan and Guangzhou are home to thousands of Africans who buy goods to send home. Peter Sosthenes, who moved from Tanzania in 2023, observes: 'Chinese people work so hard. It is not like in my country." He wants to use Chinese e-commerce software in Tanzania to help farmers find markets. If Africans are not trading they are probably studying. In 2018, the last year for which there are data, there were 80,000 African students in China, more than in America or any other country save France. How will emigration from Africa affect Africa? One perennial concern is 'brain drain", as educated Africans leave in disproportionate numbers. But the truth is more nuanced, argues Narcisse Cha'Ngom, a Cameroonian economist. His research weighs the pros and cons of outward migration on the sending countries. On one side of the ledger is the immediate loss of human capital, spending power in local shops and to the country's tax base. More positive effects include remittances, which last year exceeded both foreign direct investment in Africa and overseas aid (see chart 2). The prospect of emigration can also actually increase levels of education at home, by creating an incentive for locals to get more qualifications, which they may or may not end up using abroad. A paper from 2023 co-written by Mr Cha'Ngom that looked at emigration from 174 countries concluded that, in most cases, including for most African countries, the benefits outweigh the costs, as measured by the overall impact on GDP per person in source countries. Beneficial but under-exploited Yet he is at pains to add: 'The potential to maximise benefits and to minimise costs depends on policy." African countries could learn from the Philippines, which linked the emigration of its nurses to funding for health-care training back home, or from India, which encourages emigrants to return with skills and capital. Several African governments, including Ethiopia's and Nigeria's, have issued 'diaspora bonds" to raise money from émigrés for infrastructure projects. Last year Kenya struck a tentative migration deal with Germany, under which Kenyans would fill job shortages, with Germany paying for vocational courses and language training. Kenya has a dedicated cabinet ministry for diaspora affairs which holds jobs fairs across the country. William Ruto, Kenya's president, has argued: 'Kenya's workforce is our greatest resource." His government wants to export 1m Kenyans a year for the next three years, which is roughly equivalent to the number of new entrants to the Kenyan workforce. Other countries are mulling similar initiatives to promote 'emigration as an export". Earlier this year Ethiopia wrote to Norway and other European countries offering to export nurses. Tanzania is planning migration deals with eight countries, including the United Arab Emirates, according to Reuters. Many Africans are sceptical that states that have squandered their natural resources can do better with their human ones. Some young Kenyans see Mr Ruto's deal with Germany as a distraction from his failure to create enough jobs at home. Kenyans and Ugandans know that members of the political elite own some of the employment firms that send them to the Gulf. But that does not stop them seeking their fortunes abroad. Africans need jobs; the rest of the world needs workers. That confluence of interests is a massive opportunity, if only both sides have the good sense to seize it.
Time of India
13-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Apocalypse in the Tropics OTT release: When and where to watch the Netflix documentary on evangelism's impact in Brazil
Apocalypse in the Tropics OTT release: Apocalypse in the Tropics is a new Netflix documentary exploring the growing sway of evangelical groups over Brazil's political landscape. The film takes a closer look at how religious movements have helped shape policy and daily life in the country. Set to stream soon on Netflix, it offers viewers a timely perspective on the intersection of faith and power. Apocalypse in the Tropics OTT release Apocalypse in the Tropics will be released on 12th July on Netflix. What is Apocalypse in the Tropics about? Through conversations with politicians, faith leaders, and everyday Brazilians, the documentary explores how Evangelical power quickly gained ground in Brazil's political sphere, ultimately leading to the 2018 election of former president Jair Bolsonaro. It focuses in particular on the political clout of Pentecostal pastor and televangelist Silas Malafaia, showing how these forces have put pressure on Brazil's democratic institutions. Blending historical background with firsthand accounts, the film illustrates how Brazil's shift toward religious influence mirrors broader global trends of democracy under strain. Meet the crew Costa collaborated on the screenplay with David Barker, Alessandra Orofino, Nels Bangerter, and Tina Baz. The documentary is produced by Orofino for Peri Productions and Costa for Busca Vida Filmes, alongside partners including Impact Partners, Play/Action Pictures, Luminate, and Plan B/KM Films. Executive producers include Jenny Raskin, Jim and Susan Swartz, Geralyn White Dreyfous, Katrina vanden Heuvel, and Meadow Fund representing Impact Partners; Jeffrey Lurie and Marie Therese Guirgis for Play/Action Pictures; Felipe Estefan and Rafael Georges Zein for Luminate; as well as Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, and Jeremy Kleiner for Plan B Films. Additional executive producers are Katy Drake Bettner, Kate Hurwitz, InMaat Foundation, Frida Polli, James Costa, and Trevor Burgess.
