Karim Ullah knew his eldest daughter, 28-year-old Shakila, was gifted from an early age. At the age of eight, she began playing the piano, followed by the violin, recorder and ukulele. But it wasn’t until she started singing in secondary school that he knew she would be a musician. “It’s a divine gift to be able to do what she does,” he says.
Although Shakila has gone on to write and produce her own music and graduated from the ICMP, one of the top music schools in the UK, Karim says she has been “disappointed that things haven’t quite happened yet”. This certainly isn’t down to a lack of effort on her dad’s part.
Over the years, as a result of countless emails, cold calling, LinkedIn networking and job applications sent off by Karim, the 53-year-old has booked his daughter several jobs, including performances at festivals in east London, Essex and Cambridgeshire, often with thousands of punters in the audience. “Sometimes I’ve called and said, ‘Look, I have a very talented daughter,’ and as a result, [people] have booked her,” he says.
The flaws in Reform’s plan to scrap PIP and slash £50bn from benefits bill
Reform Treasury spokesman Robert Jenrick said it would stop some claimants “taking everyone else for mugs” by slashing personal independence payments, banning foreign nationals from receiving benefits and forcing long-term claimants to do community work.
What is in the plan?
- Under the plans, foreign nationals would be excluded from most benefits – including EU nationals with settled status in the UK.
- It would also shake up disability benefits through a new system of “Return to Work Cover”.
- Lastly, people on universal credit for more than 12 months who are fit to work would be required to provide 20 hours a week of community work.
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Renegotiating with the EU
Reform’s ban on foreign nationals receiving benefits would require a renegotiation of the Brexit withdrawal agreement.
However, it is not clear that Brussels would want to rewrite the agreement, and the bloc would probably respond with countermeasures such as stripping British expats of benefits.
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Making employers pay
Making employers liable for sick employees for two years could have unintended consequences. It is not clear whether Jenrick’s promise that cutting 0.2 per cent to employer national insurance contributions would be enough to make up for the extra costs employers would be incurring.
It could also create a perverse incentive for employers to not hire people with disabilities or previous experiences of ill-health.
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Voter backlash
- The Institute for Fiscal Studies said the new disability needs assessment plans are vague and savings could fall significantly short of expectations.
- This policy may not be very popular in many of Reform’s top target seats which have large PIP caseloads. It could also open up a vulnerable new flank for Andy Burnham’s resurgent Labour Party.
Russia and Ukraine trade more deadly strikes – the latest
Mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, said Ukraine sent 620 drones towards the city overnight, with 180 downed by Russian defence systems.
Ukraine faces drone attacks
Ukraine was also hit as the warring countries traded blows overnight. The state emergency service said a 59-year-old woman was injured in the Russian attacks.
Pictures posted on Telegram show firefighters battling blazes in two outbuildings hit by a drone in the northern Chernihiv Oblast.
Major e-commerce giant hit
- Yet another Wildberries warehouse was struck near Moscow.
- It is the latest in Kyiv’s campaign to take out Russia’s equivalent of Amazon, which it accuses of supplying Vladimir Putin’s war machine.
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go deeper on this topic
Putin’s fury at the UK could escalate his sabotage campaign
The news that Ukraine is using British-made drones in its deep strike campaign has prompted scornful words from Russia and talk of potential retaliation.
How AI can reveal invisible patterns in breast tumours
Scientists have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) platform that can reveal patterns inside breast cancer tumours that were previously invisible.
Researchers believe the technology could help doctors predict how the disease might progress and pave the way for more personalised treatments.
What are these patterns?
- The patterns are caused by centrosomes – tiny structures that help divide DNA. Studying them has been “extremely challenging” because they are tiny and multiply regularly, which is what drives the disease.
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Distinct abnormalities discovered
The AI platform, known as CenSegNet, was developed to analyse hundreds of thousands of cells in tumour samples.
In doing so, it has uncovered two distinct abnormalities which had previously been thought to be the same process – one involved cells acquiring too many centrosomes while the other had abnormally enlarged centrosomes.
Defects behaving differently
Researchers found these defects behaved independently and could occupy different areas of a tumour.
The platform also helped discover that tumours with high levels of enlarged centrosomes were more aggressive, and patients whose cells had lower levels had a better chance of survival.
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The expert view
For more than a century, centrosome abnormalities have been recognised as a hallmark of , but studying them patient tissues has been extremely challenging. CenSegNet allows us to uncover that were impossible to see.
dr pauline swift, the charity chair of blood pressure uk
The fastest home-selling hotspots in Britain revealed
Your house could sell up to seven times faster in some parts of the country, property site Zoopla has found.
It comes as around half of local authority areas record longer times to sell than a year earlier.
What you need to know
While the average time to sell remains at 42 days in the year to July, houses in some areas take significantly longer.
For example, properties in Melton in the East Midlands took 76 days on average to sell – a 21-day increase compared with July 2025.
Sitting in stark contrast is Falkirk in Scotland, where the average selling time is around seven times faster at just 11 days – one day less for the area than a year earlier.
Is your home in a selling hotspot?
Zoopla said 180 of the 363 local authorities it analysed had seen an increase in the average number of days taken to sell a property in the past year.
Here are the fastest-selling hotspots in July:
- Falkirk, with 11 days
- Renfrewshire, with 13 days
- Stirling, with 15 days
- Clackmannanshire, with 16 days
The Scottish lure
Many of the faster markets are in Scotland, according to Zoopla, due to the Scottish sales market working differently to the rest of Britain, and homes generally being relatively affordable.
Homes in Scotland are typically marketed as “offers over” a price, with homes having a valuation and home survey available, Zoopla added.
Locations with sluggish sales
It comes as house prices fall, according to figures published by Rightmove yesterday, with homeowners struggling to flog their bricks and mortar.
According to Zoopla, these are the slowest-selling local areas in July:
- Melton, with 76 days
- Westminister, with 63 days
- Teignbridge, with 63 days
- Torridge, with 61 days
- Isle of Wight, with 60 days
- Thanet, with 60 days
- Elmbridge, with 58 days
The kitchen gadgets under £25
Victorinox paring knife
It’s comfortable to hold, with a point sharp enough for scoring pastry.
ProCook cast iron pan
For unbeatable searing and heat-retention, cast iron is the top choice.
Tesco chopping board
Priced at just £22, I’ve yet to find another board that matches it for sheer value and quality.
The kitchen gadgets under £25
Pyrex jug
It is the perfect vessel for blending smooth sauces, melting butter, or warming stock. It won’t stain like plastic and the red measurements never fade.
Salter scales
“I’ve had my slim little set of Salter Disc Scales for over a decade, and I’m delighted to see they are still made to exactly the same reliable design today.”
Microplane grater
It uses photo-etched stainless steel teeth that stay razor-sharp for a decade, something the lookalike copycats simply can’t match.
Braun hand-held blender
It’s an essential for everything from making velvety soup to getting the lumps out of white sauce.
Bodum cafetiere
As well as delivering great results, cafetieres are easy to clean and there’s no ongoing filter paper costs or pod recycling to deal with.
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The kitchen gadgets under £25
Oxo peeler
What truly sets it apart is the chunky, rubberised handle that absorbs pressure and stays completely non-slip, even if your hands are wet. It is inexpensive and incredibly durable.
Falcon pie dish
Made by fusing porcelain onto heavy-gauge steel for smooth durability, it is dishwasher, freezer, hob, air-fryer and oven-safe.
Eurostar rival finally gets go ahead – everything we know
Incoming Eurostar rival Virgin Trains has been granted track access for new services between London and Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam in 2030.
It marks a step closer to ending Eurostar’s monopoly. The trainline has operated without competition for nearly 32 years.
Approval lasts for 10 years
- The Office of Rail and Road (ORR) has given approval for Sir Richard Branson’s company to run up to 20 daily services through the Channel Tunnel between October 2030 to December 2040.
5 min read
Virgin Trains in Eurostar stations
- In October, Virgin Trains was told it could share Eurostar’s Temple Mills depot in east London.
- Temple Mills is the only depot that can be accessed from High Speed 1 – the line that runs between London and the tunnel.
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‘Still more work to do’
This is an important next step in bringing competition and growth to the market for international rail services, and we welcome the progress and London St Pancras High Speed have made. While there is still more work to do, we are supporting and the wider industry to grow international services.
Martin Jones, Deputy director of access and international
What next?
Despite just clearing a major regulatory hurdle, Virgin Trains has yet to secure access to other rail networks.
It must also obtain safety approvals from the ORR and relevant regulators in the EU before services start in 2030.
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The golden rules for a happy, secure relationship
Psychiatrist and neuroscientist Dr Amir Levine, author of bestselling book , explains why we behave the way we do in love.
Golden rules for happy relationships
Start with your own behaviours
The foundation of a secure, connected life is being what I call CARRP: that means being consistent, available, responsive, reliable and predictable. All of these qualities can be enacted in small gestures every day.
Express your needs
People need consistency and connection to feel safe. This is not, ‘You hurt my feelings by never replying to me’, it’s more ‘this is the kind of contact that helps me feel secure’.
Golden rules for happy relationships
The appendix ‘inflammation’ rule
If a relationship repeatedly inflames your nervous system, you need to disengage and deprioritise it.
Lean on community
You don’t need hundreds of friends. You need people and places that regularly remind you that you belong.
Stop blaming childhood
Humans are much more complicated than: ‘this happened to you, therefore you are doomed to be anxious’.
Reach for a
secure script
When something unsettles you in a relationship, your first reaction is not always the most accurate one.
If you’re anxious, your brain may jump very quickly to: ‘this is the beginning of the end’. If you’re avoidant, your brain may say: ‘this person wants too much from me, I need to get away’. So one very practical thing you can always do is pause and ask: ‘What would a secure person do here?’
Loneliness elsewhere
When people talk about loneliness, they often assume it means you don’t have enough people in your life. But you can be surrounded by people and still feel lonely if those relationships leave you feeling excluded, ignored or disconnected.
What to do
- Build a community that works for your temperament and gives you regular, reliable moments of connection.
- You can still be kind to people while not treating them as someone who belongs in your inner circle.
- Explain what you need. Sometimes people simply don’t realise how you are experiencing them.
- Check in with people: does this person actually feel that I’m reliable? Do they experience me as predictable? That’s the only way that you can start to become more secure.
Do some foods leave
you feeling hungry rather than satiated? Experts say there are…
Foods that leave you hungrier
A bowl of cereal and glass of orange juice
More refined cereals are digested quickly, and fruit juice, whilst one of your five-a-day, contains less fibre than whole fruit. This might mean you find yourself hungry again within 1-2 hours of eating this breakfast.
Swap the orange juice for a whole orange, the cereal for oats and milk or serve it with Greek yoghurt or a boiled egg. This would increase the fibre and protein content; two nutrients strongly linked with fullness.
Foods that leave you hungrier
These pastries are made primarily from refined flour and butter, and are relatively low in protein and fibre.
Toast and jam
Shop-bought packs can contain a lot of white rice, which is digested quickly, and the protein content is often modest.
Foods that leave you hungrier
Vegetable soup
On its own, it is often very low in protein and calories, so hunger can return quickly.
Unless it’s loaded with veggies, it’s probably pretty low in fibre.
Liquids are generally less filling as they require little chewing which may not trigger satiety signals.
Foods that leave you hungrier
Snack bars
They are ideal for a quick pick-me-up, but if reducing hunger is what you’re after, it’d be better to swap it out.
Low-fat yoghurt
A full-fat plain Greek yoghurt with berries and seeds tends to be much more filling due to the protein, fat and fibre.
On an empty stomach, it can actually increase your appetite.
What to eat instead
Instead of thinking about avoiding foods, think about what you can add to them.
- Add beans, lentils or shredded chicken to your vegetable soup and pasta.
- Thicken your smoothies with Greek yoghurt, chia seeds and oats.
- Apple slices with peanut butter, yogurt with berries and hummus with oat biscuits are better snack options than a pre-made snack bar.
- Have alcohol alongside a balanced meal containing protein and fibre.
He handles all of his daughter’s publicity, has written press releases, created listings for her in music directories. One application he made led to her taking the stage at Club Wembley. Another time, Karim found Stevie Wonder’s UK manager, and organised a meeting to show him Shakila’s music. He says he has “lost count” of how many people he has contacted.
Despite not having any music industry connections – Karim has worked as a chef, taxi driver, restaurant owner and now runs a luxury golf publication – he is just one of the rising number of parents going to extreme lengths to help their adult children navigate the world of work.
In many ways, it is nothing new. From the Bank of Mum and Dad, to passing down professional networks, or nepotism in many industries, parents have always opened doors for their children. But what feels starkly different now is not that parents help out, but just how much help seems to be necessary.
An increasingly competitive job market, decline of entry-level jobs and the disruption of AI have all contributed to a perfect storm. Official figures have revealed that more than one million young people, around one in eight, are not in education, employment or training (NEET) – the highest level in more than 12 years.
Surveys have shown that 70 per cent of Gen Z jobseekers have asked their parents for help in the job search process, 16 per cent say that their parents submitted job applications for them, and one in four have even gone so far as to bring a parent to their job interview. Other research has found parents helping with CVs and portfolios, contacting employers directly and even becoming involved in salary or holiday negotiations.
It’s something that Victoria McLean, founder and CEO of City CV, an international career consultancy that works with graduates and young professionals, has noticed increasingly. “Without a doubt parents are more involved in the process than they were five or 10 years ago,” she says. “Quite often at City CV, the first person who contacts us is the parent. What used to be a bit of encouragement from the sidelines has, in a lot of cases, tipped into something closer to helicopter parenting, where the parent is running the job search rather than watching it.”
Is this a result of a different style of modern parenting or just a consequence of an increasingly tough entry-level job market? McLean says it always comes from a good place: a parent who has seen a job go up and doesn’t want their son or daughter to miss the deadline or a child that is busy or lazy or lacks the drive, but it often means that the first time some of these graduates hear about a role is when they’re invited to interview for a job they never applied for themselves.
“It’s gone beyond phone calls and pep talks,” says McLean. “We’re seeing more parents who write the CV, draft the covering email and submit applications under their child’s name, sometimes before the young person has even seen the job advert.”
She says she understands the instinct. “You can see your child struggling and want to take the weight off them,” she says. “I have a lot of sympathy for parents because the job market their children are entering isn’t easy. There are online applications, automated screening, video interviews, assessments and often several rounds before somebody gets anywhere near an offer. Young people can apply for dozens of jobs and hear very little back. If you’re watching your child go through that week after week, of course you’re going to worry.”
It’s this rejection that mother-of-two Lucy* worries about for her 16-year-old son Owen*, who aspires to work in mechanical engineering but has struggled with high levels of social anxiety linked to his autism his entire life. Research in the UK has found that the steep rise of mental health issues, anxiety following the Covid-19 pandemic and neurodiversity are some of the primary drivers for many young people being out of work.
“Now he’s 16, a lot of family are making comments about him getting his first job or earning his own money, but he’s just not really there yet,” she says. “There are a lot of challenges that come from having social anxiety that make the process of applying for a job difficult: from having the confidence to write what you’re good at on a CV or doing work experience.”
Lucy has applied for work experience for Owen, which he will be starting next week and she hopes this will help boost his confidence. “My son really does want to work. But there are so few jobs nowadays – smaller jobs like using a sticker gun in a chemist don’t really exist and there are so many more people applying,” she says. “Being knocked back and having to deal with the effects of being rejected can impact mental health, anxiety and low mood.”
Ultimately, Lucy is clear that she doesn’t want to apply for jobs for her son and instead, would like him to “develop the skillset to be able to be independent and function independently of me”.
However, she has noticed parents around her doing the same, “whether that’s because there aren’t enough jobs available or because they don’t have the confidence and the skillset to be able to do that”. She says schools need to do a lot better at training kids to apply for jobs.
Karim echoes this sentiment. His family moved to Bishop’s Stortford, an affluent part of Hertfordshire, in 2009. “In the last year and a half, I’ve never seen so many parents posting on Facebook groups, ‘My son is 16, my daughter is 18, they need work experience – does anyone know of anyone?’ I think parents have really woken up to the fact that things have changed. It’s very sad and disheartening to see so many young people in that position,” he says.
Throughout her twenties, Shakila has applied for hundreds of jobs in industries such as marketing, PR and social media. “She’s so artistically talented, but in some ways, she’s a little bit reluctant to do the hustle like I did – she admits she’s not a business person” Karim says. “It is very hard for young people. I feel so desperately sorry for them. When I used to look for work, because I was good on the phone, I would just call people and say, ‘These are my qualities, this is what I can bring to your company, and if you need me, I can come.’ It meant that almost everyone I talked to, I’d at least get an interview.”
Although she appreciates her dad’s persistence, Shakila says there have been times she finds it “extremely annoying”.
“He isn’t a musician or creative and doesn’t understand not every gig or performance is worth doing as some may underpay for for example,” she says. “I had to say in my twenties to stop signing me up for these things unless pay is involved as I was an experienced performer.”
However, Karim says he will stop at nothing to help his daughter. “I try my best,” he says. “I live with this very simple formula: if there’s an opportunity to help someone and you know you can do it, you don’t think about it. Why would you say no?”
McLean has some advice to parents – she urges them to support from the sidelines. “Help them research. Read their CV. Practice an interview with them. Introduce them to somebody useful. Encourage them when the inevitable rejection arrives,” she says. “I understand completely why you’d want to step in and shoulder some of it, but the flip side is worth thinking about too: if your child walks into a role having never done the applying, the interviewing or the negotiating, they can end up genuinely out of their depth once they’re in the job and you’re not there to help.
“By all means help them find professional support if they need it, whether that’s a structured graduate programme like our City CV graduate programme or simply someone outside the family to look over their CV. Then let them send the email, make the call and have the conversation.”