The island of Lampedusa is Mediterranean holiday bliss, known for its sapphire seas and sandy beaches. But look beyond the palm trees and pleasure boats, and you’ll notice the signs of something darker.
Month after month, bodies are found floating off Lampedusa’s coast. They are different nationalities, ages and genders, but all were migrants who drowned while travelling on dangerous small boats in a bid to reach Europe.
Situated between the tip of Africa and Italy, Lampedusa is a key landing point for these journeys, recording one of the highest rates of small boat arrivals anywhere in Europe. More than 20,000 people have arrived in Italy by sea this year alone, mostly through Lampedusa, which has just 5,000 inhabitants.
From Italy, some continue to Germany, France or across the Channel to the UK, mostly seeking out relatives or a common language.
How to be more grateful for daily life in five easy steps
The world feels like a difficult place at the moment, and it can feel very hard sometimes to find things to be thankful for; when we are overwhelmed, we have less capacity to notice and reflect on the good things. Yet, ironically, proactively cultivating gratitude is one of the things that can actually help us feel less stressed.
NHS GP dR RADHA
The science
Research has shown that feeling or expressing thanks can actually alter our brain.
- The balance of neurotransmitters change; more serotonin and dopamine (feel good chemicals) are produced.
- This can be long lasting if we make gratitude a regular habit.
- We also get a decrease in our cortisol (stress hormone) levels which helps lower anxiety.
- Being grateful can strengthen the nerve pathways which triggers positive emotion.
How can we build gratitude?
Change your words
Instead of seeing something as a problem, try to see the opportunities within it.
Our brains are very receptive and what we read or write can alter our emotional system.
Express it
This will not only make you feel good, but you will also get a positive response from others.
How can we build gratitude?
Notice more
Throughout your day, try to notice all the things that are going well; has someone opened a door for you, or smiled?
The basics
By being thankful for the small things every day, we are far more likely to be and stay healthy so that we can enjoy them.
What to do
Gratitude can lead to feelings of optimism, lower our blood pressure, and improve sleep quality.
- Write down what potential good aspects there are to the things you don’t feel like doing, or even what could be worse about it.
- Spend a few minutes writing down three things that you are looking forward to that day, or the good things that have happened to you that day.
- Say thank you to yourself for the things you have achieved, or managed to get through and changed that day.
Sales of battery
electric vehicles hit a record high last year.
Starts at £22,995 for the smaller battery
Available with either a 40kWh battery or a larger 52kWh pack, that offers almost 255 miles, the latest, retro-inspired Renault 5 is both a joy to behold and a hoot to drive.
The interior has been lavished with a level of detail that’s typically reserved for more expensive cars.
4 min read
A champion of EV efficiency
It offers a remarkable 491 mile range on a single charge from the 85kWh battery.
It is a technological masterclass inside with the ability to option screens that span the entire width of the dashboard, including an optional display for the front passenger.
Priced from £37,400
2 min read
It’s a lot of money to part with, but this is arguably all the car you will ever need.
The £89,000 Macan is a premium SUV that somehow manages to blend Porsche’s reputation for dynamics and sporty driving with everyday practicality.
The 95kWh batteries can go from 10 to 80 per cent in as little as 21 minutes from the fastest public charging outlets.
With the business class-style six seat configuration costing a staggering £76,995, it is by far the most expensive Kia ever made, but it backs up its financial demands with a suite of genuinely useful and impressive onboard technology.
It’s fast, goes a long way between stops and charges relatively quickly but the interior is bland, the onboard technology is infuriating and the experience is devoid of emotion.
All of its gadgetry can’t disguise the fact that performance is weak, even for a typically zippy EV, the ride is fussy at slower speeds and it’s not in the least bit enjoyable to drive on a country road.
- While good value (prices start at £17,935) for the 200-mile max range, there are more interesting options from Hyundai, Citroen and Renault for similar money.
- It attempts to wow with tech, much of which hinders, rather than helps.
- There’s no tangible benefit over mounting your phone to the dash.
- Simply an average driving experience, adequate range and slow charging speeds.
2 min read
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.
5 min read
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.
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.
How to age well
without pain
Will Harlow, a physiotherapist
for the over-50s and author of Independence for Life, shares
the key signs you’re ageing
badly – and what to do about it.
How to know
Ageing well is maintaining the ability to do what you want you want for as long as you want without needing help. Everyone is talking about longevity but what’s the point in living longer if the last decade is painful and you’re [totally] reliant on people?”
The signs to look out for
- The most obvious early warning sign of bad ageing is pain says Harlow.
- Another is losing confidence in doing daily tasks, which can quickly lead to a lack of independence.
- One call Harlow often receives is people calling after having a fall and struggling to get up.
4 min read
How to age without pain
Not just stopping
When people retire, they often put their feet up and stop. Your body really is use it or lose it.
Throughout our entire lives, Harlow says we need between seven and nine hours of sleep.
Social isolation
The lack of connection can increase the risk of premature death by
as much as 29 per cent.
Strength training
It really is the proxy for
overall independence.
The more muscle mass you have, the less chance of heart disease, diabetes, falls and even anxiety, depression and dementia.
The brain can be linked to muscle mass too, Harlow says. It’s not just about being able to lift things. It gives you more energy, better sleep and you’ll look and feel better.
How to age without pain
Daily habits
Do short bursts of exercise, between 30 and 60 seconds, in otherwise dead time during the day.
Stretch in bed
Take joints through a full range of motion for five minutes to loosen it before getting up.
Don’t crash diet
How to age without pain
Harlow advises 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight to stop muscle loss alongside resistance training.
Don’t wait
Harlow finds that many patients put off making a change to their lifestyle until their lives are consumed by pain.
For most people, it’s about reducing the number of times per week you’re exercising, not reducing intensity.
The three ageing tests to do
- Lie completely flat on the floor and get back up to a standing position using any technique. This should take less than 10 seconds.
See how many times you can sit on the chair and stand back up again in 30 seconds. Men should be aiming for more than 14 times and women 12.
The single-leg stand, which involves standing on one leg and balancing for 10 seconds. Everyone should be able to do that and for those under 65, Harlow asks them to do it with their eyes closed.
Despite the job market hiring fewer entry-level roles, employers are still looking for grads…
But you should be prepared to keep an open mind.
We’ve compiled the sectors hiring graduate roles, what degree is required, and what they pay.
The degrees to choose for a career
Hiring in the UK could
finally be on the up
47%
of employers offered entry-level
positions from July.
That is up nearly 15 per cent from the same period last year.
700,000
But graduate unemployment rose to six per cent in 2025 and 700,000 jobless graduates were claiming benefits.
Finance and insurance
- Around 42 per cent of UK finance and insurance employers say they will be open to graduate roles this summer.
- Business loan company Portman Finance Group has taken on 50 graduates over the past four years.
Portman graduates start on £36,000 for the two-year programme and the education you need to apply is a minimum “ABB” of A-levels, and a 2:1 or above university degree. But not in a specific subject.
Trade and logistics
What makes it particularly rewarding is that there’s always something to learn.
Nearly half (47 per cent) of trade and logistics companies will be giving graduates a go this year.
Salaries start at £30,000 with an uncapped bonus, rising to £50,000 plus a company car as a senior account partner.
Technology and IT
More than half (52 per cent) of UK tech and IT firms are actively looking for graduates.
Successful entry-level candidates can earn a basic salary of up to £35,000, with the opportunity to triple that within their first three years of working.
4 min read
Public sector, health
and social services
46 per cent of public sector, health and social services organisations are also ready to take graduates, according to a survey by Manpower.
- For example, Police Now runs a graduate programme into policing. They recruit graduates from any degree field, as long as they achieve a 2:2 or above. Starting salaries range from £31,164 to £42,210 depending on location and rising each year.
Can we treat guests without blowing our budget?
According to Waitrose, a dinner party revival is underway led by younger people trying to reduce the cost of getting together.
Always have bread
People will feast on the
ELLA RISBRIDGER, AUTHOR OF THE KITCHEN BOOK – GOOD FOOD FOR EVERY DAY
bread, and then need less fish/steak/expensive whatever. All small plates restaurants know this: this is why the first thing on the menu is always artisan bread and butter.
Use vegetables as centrepieces
Add pantry items
Graham’s recipes include a braised cabbage with a preserved lemon sauce, a roast cauliflower with saffron, and harrisa roast carrots with mango labneh.
How to host on a budget
Improve the everyday
Guests will always appreciate a stellar interpretation of the ordinary. Think lasagna or curry.
Cooking dinner for your guests is spoiling them – you’re being generous with your time, your effort, and your home. So don’t feel the need to go overboard elsewhere.
Ask for help
Ask friends to bring a contribution, be it a nibble or a pudding.
Big platter energy
[Presentation] can be the key to elevating something . Spaghetti and tomato sauce suddenly looks like a feast when tumbled on a lovely big plate, dressed with olive oil and parmesan and placed in the middle of the table.
Food writer and editor Eleanor Steafel
How to host on a budget
Taco party
Have one expensive filling, like shredded chicken, and two cheaper options, like refried beans, says Ella Risbridger.
Shop-bought ice cream is so easily zhuzhed up with the help of handy toppings, says Eleanor Steafel.
Last year, the central Mediterranean route – from North Africa to Southern Europe – was the most active migration route into the EU, continuing a long-term trend. Arrivals peaked in 2023, with more than 150,000 people making the journey.
However, in the first nine months of this year, the number of arrivals through the central Mediterranean dropped to 22,500, a 56 per cent decline on the same point in 2025. This is thought to be down to a combination of tougher border policies from Italy and an increase in interceptions by Libya, from where most of the boats depart. The Libyan authorities are supported by the EU, despite being accused of involvement in the abuse of migrants.
This year, figures indicate that more crossings will be made from Turkey to Greece. Others reach Europe by travelling from North Africa to mainland Spain or the Canary Islands.
Many people do not survive the journey. At least 996 people have died on the central Mediterranean route this year alone, and in the last decade, the number recorded missing has reached nearly 27,000. This makes it the deadliest known migration route in the world.
Shipwrecks around these coasts have become common – search and rescue ships are docked in the harbour next to yachts, and Red Cross ambulances are parked next to rented scooters.
Last month, the humanitarian organisation Sea Watch dispatched a rescue boat in response to an alert about 40 people who were on a flimsy rubber boat. When the crew reached their position, it found a deflated boat with five people aboard and two bodies – one a child aged around eight. But six were missing, including three children.
“One mother survived and lost three children on the same night,” says Sea Watch crew member Rebecca Giarola, sitting on-board the rescue boat docked in Lampedusa’s harbour. Sea Watch believes the authorities were alerted to this case 12 hours before they found the wreckage, and did not send out a rescue.
Instead, the crew carried the survivors and bodies back to land. “The survivors we had on-board were incredibly strong in enduring a transit to [Lampedusa] with bodies on board,” Giarola says. “It’s a trauma that I don’t know if it can be healed.”
Nicola Dell’Arciprete is the head of Unicef in Italy, which supports many of the 4,400 children who have travelled to Italy unaccompanied this year. According to Unicef, 3,500 children and adolescents have died or gone missing attempting to cross the central Mediterranean migration route in the last decade – equivalent to a child disappearing almost every day.
The migrants travel on “completely unseaworthy” rubber dinghies, like those used to cross the Channel into Britain, and unstable wooden boats. But there has also been a rise in the use of iron boats in recent years, with migrants telling one humanitarian organisation they were forced to weld the vessel themselves.
“In many cases they sink and they’re never found,” Dell’Arciprete says, sitting on a rock on Lampedusa’s jagged coast.
Those who survive the route are often severely dehydrated or suffering from hypothermia. Women and children are frequently burned on the journey, as leaking fuel mixes with saltwater to create a toxic liquid which washes against their legs. It gathers in the centre of the boat, where women and children are placed to reduce the risk of them falling off. Rescuers have seen people so badly burned they cannot sit down because of the pain.
There is also widespread evidence of sexual violence along the route, with women often seeking care after having been raped. At least one search and rescue ship in the central Mediterranean even provides abortions on-board.
“Many of them have caught diseases along the trip. Many have been abused or victims of violence in the countries they are coming from,” Dell’Arciprete says. “There is this physical trauma, but there is other trauma as well that is not visible immediately. The trauma that these adolescents face – it’s something that no person should ever experience.”
Some boats arrive on Lampedusa independently, but most are intercepted and taken to shore by the Italian authorities, where they are met by ambulances and aid workers on a designated pier. Just metres away lies a harbour filled with pleasure boats, frequented by the tens of thousands of Italian tourists who flock to the island each year, despite its deadly reputation.
In the past three years, at least two women have given birth while on-board small boats, with doctors cutting their umbilical cords on the pier.
Although successful crossings are broadly declining, Lampedusa still sees around four boats arriving every day during the week I visit the island. Journalists are not allowed on the pier, but one afternoon I see four women walk up it wearily, with a man carrying a toddler. They are followed by 29 men, one wearing an Arsenal top. A man limping up the pier says he doesn’t know how long he was at sea, before an official interrupts our conversation and tells me to leave.
Another day, someone is pushed up the pier on a stretcher, moments before an ambulance with sirens blaring rushes down the harbour.
From the pier, arrivals are ushered onto minibuses and driven to a centre on the other side of the island, called the Hotspot, which is cut off by a large, metal gate that slides open when another minibus enters and slams shut behind it. The process is swift – tourists could easily never see a thing.
Outside the centre, four police cars and a van are parked up, as well as a portable medical unit providing obstetrics and gynaecological care, a reminder of the sexual violence many of those inside the centre have faced.
The head of the centre, Imad Dalil, who works for the Italian Red Cross, meets me outside the Hotspot, where 215 of 700 beds are full. At one point in 2023, the Hotspot held 12,500 people, with arrivals frequently topping 3,000 per day.
In the winter, Dalil regularly meets migrants who have spent days on the water. When they touch the pier, they have just “1 per cent of their power” and are often unable to walk, he says.
On arrival at the Hotspot, the first thing they do is charge their phones and connect to Wi-Fi so they can call home and tell their families they are alive. They receive clothes and toiletries, and the team explains the rules. Sometimes, they also need to explain where they are.
“Sometimes they ask, ‘Where is the railway station? They know they are in Italy, but sometimes they don’t realise that they are on an island,’” Dalil says.
The Hotspot has five blocks – two for women and families, one for teenagers travelling alone, and another two for men. The staff can share food for a thousand people in one hour – all halal, as 80 per cent of arrivals are Muslim.
After they are registered with fingerprints, migrants are able to come and go on Lampedusa. Most stay for just 24 to 48 hours though before being moved by ferry or plane to Sicily, where they further their asylum claims, and from there across mainland Italy.
The reasons migrants make the journey differ for each individual and nationality, Dalil says. Some are fleeing war or persecution, others seeking to escape poverty and build a new life.
“I saw teenagers, 12 or 13 years old, that came here alone, without relatives, only to escape becoming young soldiers, in countries like Sudan, Somalia or Eritrea,” Dalil says. “They think: I will die there for sure, but I am risking maybe dying on the water, or maybe reaching Europe or Italy to be safe.”
He recalls a quote he read in a book: “If a mother doesn’t think that the water is safer than where they are at that moment, she will never put her baby on the boat.”
Smugglers appear to charge different amounts for different nationalities and types of boats, but $2,500 (£1,876) is believed to be the minimum price to reach Lampedusa. It is usually saved through work or crowdfunded by a community, on the understanding they will be paid back through more lucrative work in Europe.
Dalil is regularly confronted with the darkest part of the human experience, but also, sometimes, unexpected joy. He recalls a man who arrived on a small boat with a child of around three years old and informed the staff that she was not related to him – she had been separated from her family as they got on to the boat and he had taken care of her.
Hours later, another boat arrived, with a crying man who said: ‘I lost my daughter during the embarkation, and I don’t have any kind of news about her. I don’t know if she’s in Tunisia, if she’s in the Mediterranean water.'” Dalil took the man into a room and brought in the girl. She shouted: “Daddy!”
“That was incredible,” he says. “That moment, I think I will take it inside my heart for all my life.”
It is hard to believe that this world coexists with the bustling, oblivious holidaymaking near by.
“Lampedusa is very famous everywhere. They know what happens,” Dalil says of the tourists. Sometimes tourists even visit the gates of the Hotspot. “But there is no contact,” he says. “They know that there is this centre, but it is separated.”
Despite the boat arrivals, tourism on the island is booming, with more than 42,000 visitors in 2025, according to data shared by the local tourism board.
A souvenir shopowner says migrant arrivals have not deterred visitors. Similarly, a bartender says the small boat arrivals do not affect business. “They don’t stay here,” he says of the migrants. “You don’t see them on the island.”
Mattia Forlini, 27, a local diving instructor, says the migrant arrivals “don’t bother the tourists” or affect the tourism industry “at all”, though on one dive a few years ago, his colleagues saw a small boat and helped with a rescue.
Rarely is the contrast between Lampedusa’s two worlds more stark than in its cemetery. On the top of a cliff, overlooking a popular beach, it is filled with row after row of tall, ornate marble graves adorned with flowers and photographs, commemorating beloved locals.
In the middle of the cemetery is a square with around 20 simple, foot-high crosses, mostly made from driftwood, marking the bodies of those who drowned trying to reach Italy. Most are unnamed.
Pinned to one cross is a photograph of a baby in a striped babygrow – a boy called Yousef born in Libya who died in the Mediterranean just seven months later. Another shows a young man smiling at the camera – 23-year-old Nazem from Sudan, who is buried with 30-year-old Mokwele from Cameroon. The pair died during a rescue on a stormy night in March last year, 40 miles from the Libyan coast. The note ends with a question: “Why?”
Many others will never be known, their bodies and boats disappearing, unseen, off Lampedusa’s buzzing, bustling coast.