Migrant workers have been keeping Britain's beleaguered care sector afloat for years but that could be about to change. Under plans outlined in the government's immigration white paper, social care providers will no longer be able to recruit staff from abroad on a Health and Care visa.

They will only be able to employ domestic workers, immigrant workers already here legally, or immigrants on other visas, which could be a "crushing blow to an already fragile sector", said Care England, the body representing adult social care.

How much do we rely on migrant care workers?
Migrant workers make up 32% of England's adult care workforce, according to a 2024 report, and fill almost 400,000 roles in the sector. Most are recruited from outside the EU, with Nigeria, India, Zimbabwe, Romania and Ghana being the most common countries of origin.

How did it get this way?
Austerity cuts from 2010 have slashed council budgets, limiting funding for social care. The "stressful and sometimes exploitative conditions" of the job, including the prevalence of zero-hours contracts, lack of progression and low social status of the work, make it difficult to attract staff, said The Bureau of Investigative Journalism.

Brexit added "fuel to the fire of severe challenges", said health think tank The Nuffield Trust. "Shutting off the 'relief valve' of EU migration" put more pressure on a system that had long "relied heavily" on recruitment abroad – and one that lacks an effective training and retention plan for British workers.

What does the future look like for the sector?
The government says the planned changes will crack down on "rogue care providers" and cut immigration by 7,000 people a year. But the care sector's vacancy rate (8.3%) is nearly three times higher than that in the wider economy. Critics warn that without urgent reform, including better pay and working conditions, those roles are unlikely to be filled domestically. Britain's ageing population will also create the need for an estimated additional 540,000 care workers by 2040.

"International recruitment wasn't a silver bullet but it was a lifeline," said Care England's CEO Martin Green. "Taking it away now, with no warning, no funding and no alternative, is not just short-sighted, it's cruel."

British cuisine has long favoured "big roasts, hearty pies and desserts that require a nap after consumption", said The Independent. But the surging popularity of weight-loss jabs such as Ozempic and Mounjaro is having a slimming effect on menus.

Diners with "dramatically reduced appetites" are pushing restaurateurs to offer lighter, more "Ozempic-friendly" dishes.

'Skinny-slice puddings'
The restaurant sector initially worried that weight-loss jabs would mean fewer customers. Instead, the same numbers are coming – but with reduced appetites. In 2023, as the jabs gained popularity, US restaurants began changing menus and cutting portions for the "Ozempic crowd" after realising that diners were "failing miserably" to finish their meals, said the New York Post.  

Now, some of "the most in-demand establishments" in the UK are reporting a "worrying dip" in profits as diners taking the "skinny jab" order just a starter or a small plate, said the Daily Mail. 

Chefs are trying to "cater to the fat-jab generation", said The Times. A dish of asparagus "draped with lardo" may be "reconfigured" so each spear is "individually wrapped", to make sharing easier. And "skinny-slice puddings" – a half-portion of tart or a single scoop of sorbet – are increasingly the norm.

Adapt or 'fall behind'
Restaurants have "always been about more than food", said The Independent. But when the food becomes a "mere accessory", the financial model of the industry "begins to wobble".

And there's an even more concerning "side effect" than "a few hardly touched mains". People on weight-loss jabs tend to have "reduced cravings for alcohol", sales of which are one of restaurants' biggest money-makers, "propping up" the slim profit margins on food.

With the weight-loss drug market forecast to be worth $105 billion (£79 billion) by 2030, restaurants will need to further adapt or "fall behind", so prices may rise and menus change. The "traditional three-course dining experience" could soon become as "outdated as smoking sections".

For now, weight-loss jabs are a "rich person's drug", said The Times, so it's the "more upmarket" restaurants that are affected. But, as the medication inevitably "becomes more widely used", mid-market chains and fast-food shops will be "next in the firing line". Anyone fancy "going halves on a Chicken McNugget"?

On a canal boat, you can "step back in time to a slower era", said Paul Miles in The Telegraph. The UK has more than 5,000 miles of inland waterways, snaking through some of the country's most picturesque spots.

No training or licence is needed to rent a boat, though hire companies should give you a "thorough handover". The Canal & River Trust has also put together a safety video with "invaluable tips for first-time boaters". But if the prospect of DIY navigation is too "daunting", some companies also offer a "hire a skipper" service.

Lancaster canal
Ideal for beginners, the Lancaster Canal offers 41 miles of "lock-free cruising" between the Preston and Cumbrian border, with easy access to the seaside towns dotted along Morecambe Bay.

Llangollen canal
If it's "dramatic scenery" you're after, head to Chirk in Wales for the Llangollen canal, said Adrian Phillips in National Geographic. Novices can take a short 16-hour return trip through the Dee Valley, "gliding over the world's tallest canal aqueduct" at Pontcysyllte and through the pitch-black Chirk Tunnel.

Ouse and Cam
For a fairly easy – but very pretty – four-day route, depart from the cathedral city of Ely along the "scenic" rivers Ouse and Cam, passing through the Wicken Fen wetland nature reserve and stopping off in Cambridge for "picnicking and punting".

Kennet and Avon canal
Those in need of a digital detox might enjoy a "signal-poor waterway" like Wiltshire's Kennet and Avon Canal, said Annabel Abbs in The Guardian. My normally "screen-addicted" family instead watched the "beady-eyed antics of our resident heron", and explored the "astonishing" Dundas and Avoncliff aqueducts.

Why state control won't fix our railways
Ioan Phillips in The Critic 
The nationalisation of South Western Railway will no doubt be "accompanied by much fanfare from the government", writes Ioan Phillips. But while nationalisation "works as a comms soundbite", it's "less viable" as an answer to "our rail woes". Returning railways to state control is a "popular policy", but the industry is "somewhat monocultural", with "personnel stasis or cyclical churn" making any "robust challenge difficult". Train users should expect the coming years to be "slightly bumpy".

Cheer up, people of Gaza! You'll get killed on a full stomach
Ahmed Al-Najjar on Al Jazeera
"For weeks now, we have had hardly anything to eat," writes Palestinian journalist and academic Ahmed Al-Najjar. I've been "dreaming" of a "slice of cheese and a warm loaf of bread". The US is "tired of" hearing about "starving" Palestinians and has announced a new "mechanism" for delivering food to Gaza, and Israel has "volunteered to secure the 'humanitarian' process, while maintaining its killing activities". But make no mistake, "we will liberate our homeland, even on an empty stomach".

Britain is now a slacker's paradise
Zoe Strimpel in The Spectator
"A great many people are no longer working that hard," writes Zoe Strimpel. "Or at all." While the super-rich are leaving, Britain has become a "heaven – or at least a haven – for slackers". It's becoming "easier and easier to claim you are too stressed, or neurodiverse, or victimised or traumatised to work", making life "pretty good" for those "without much ambition". "Forget the brain drain", we may soon see the "consequences of a strain drain".