A family missed their flight home from a trip to Disneyland Paris after being stuck for more than five hours in queues for new EU border biometric checks.
David Newton said he, his wife Kimberly and their four-year-old daughter Frankie-Mae were forced to go through Entry/Exit System (EES) checks twice in a day after missing their flight due to the delays at Charles de Gaulle airport.
Newton, from Stourbridge, West Midlands, said he and his family arrived three hours before their return flight to Birmingham with easyJet on 16 March, but ended up stranded for 11 hours in departures.
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Caption: A statue of a man holding a flag which covers their face, and signed ‘Banksy’, has appeared in Waterloo Place in London. Picture date: Wednesday April 29, 2026. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Stefan Rousseau/PA Wire
Photographer: Stefan Rousseau
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Source: PA
Copyright: PA Wire
ART
Mystery Banksy statue pops up in London
A new plinth and statue have appeared in the centre of London, bearing the signature of secretive street artist Banksy.
If confirmed, it will be his first work since Reuters unmasked him last month.
What are the details?
The statue depicts a man marching forward off the plinth, brandishing a flag which has blown back to cover his face.
It was first spotted on Waterloo Place yesterday.
Caption: LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 29: A new satirical statue attributed to Banksy appears in Waterloo Place on April 29, 2026 in London, England. The sculpture depicts a person in a suit marching forward off a plinth while their face is completely covered by a large, billowing flag. It is located near the Athenaeum Club and the Crimean War Memorial. (Photo by Martin Pope/Getty Images)
Photographer: Martin Pope
Provider: Getty Images
Source: Getty Images Europe
Caption: LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 29: A new statue and plinth in Waterloo Lace, signed by the artist Banksy, on April 29, 2026 in London, England. A new satirical statue attributed to Banksy appeared in Waterloo Place, Central London today. The sculpture depicts a person in a suit marching forward off a plinth while their face is completely smothered by a large, billowing flag. It is located near the Athenaeum Club and the Crimean War Memorial. (Photo by Martin Pope/Getty Images)
Photographer: Martin Pope
Provider: Getty Images
Source: Getty Images Europe
Copyright: 2026 Martin Pope
Is it the real deal?
Caption: LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 29: A new satirical statue attributed to Banksy appears in Waterloo Place on April 29, 2026 in London, England. The sculpture depicts a person in a suit marching forward off a plinth while their face is completely covered by a large, billowing flag. It is located near the Athenaeum Club and the Crimean War Memorial. (Photo by Martin Pope/Getty Images)
Photographer: Martin Pope
Provider: Getty Images
Source: Getty Images Europe
The statue has not been confirmed by Banksy, who claims his works on Instagram after they appear.
If it is genuine, it would be his first public work since December.
CULTURE
4 min read
The drunken monkey theory could explain humans’ drinking habit (Photo: Olga Pankova/Getty)
HEALTH
How even moderate drinking can damage your liver
MetALD is a type of liver disease which arises when there is a combination of moderate levels of drinking along with being overweight or having other “metabolic conditions” that often accompany weight problems.
What you need to know
Caption: 3D Illustration Concept of Human Internal Digestive Organ Liver Anatomy
Photographer: magicmine
Provider: Getty Images
Source: iStockphoto
MetALD is thought to affect up to one in 10 people.
Being overweight can interact with drinking because fat is a key part of how alcohol affects the liver.
Ultrasound scanning of intestines, abdominal cavity, right lobe, liver, bile ducts, gallbladder – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
(Photo: Brian Lawless/PA).
If excessive drinking continues, the liver develops scarring which can lead to liver failure and liver cancer.
What do experts say?
Even a moderate amount of alcohol can lead to liver scarring if combined with being overweight or other metabolic problems. Most people don’t realise how easy it is to damage your liver
Dr Naina Shah, liver specialist at King’s College London
What are the risk factors?
The condition was only named three years ago and public awareness is low.
MetALD is usually seen in people who are overweight and are drinking more than 17.5 units a week for women, or 26 units for men.
Having high blood pressure or type 2 diabetes also increases the risk.
NEWS
4 min read
How to stop liver scarring
In most cases, scarring of the liver can be reversed by stopping alcohol consumption and weight loss. Weight-loss injections such as Mounjaro and Wegovy may also help people lower their alcohol intake.
LIFESTYLE
5 min read
LIFESTYLE
6 min read
UK news
Everything you need to know about Golders Green terror attack
Caption: Screen grab from body worn camera issued by Metropolitan Police of police officers confronting and arresting a 45-year-old man who remains in custody, they have said, following two people being stabbed in Golders Green, north-west London. Issue date: Wednesday April 29, 2026. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Metropolitan Police/PA Wire
NOTE TO EDITORS: This handout photo may only be used for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned in the caption. Reuse of the picture may require further permission from the copyright holder.
Photographer: Metropolitan Police
Provider: Metropolitan Police/PA Wire
Source: PA
The stabbing of two Jewish men in Golders Green, north London, yesterday was declared a terrorist incident. Police arrested a Somalia-born British national on suspicion of attempted murder.
What you need to know
Iran-linked Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiyya (HAYI) took credit for the attack on Telegram.
The victims – Shilome Rand, 34, and Moshe Ben Baila, 76 – were taken to hospital after being stabbed shortly after 11am. They are in a stable condition.
Sir Keir Starmer said he would visit the community “as soon as possible”.
Chief Rabbi, Ephraim Mervis, called for the “silent majority in the UK to raise their voices” against antisemitism.
Developments since the attack
Caption: Members of the community watch as forensic officers search the area after two people were stabbed in the Golders Green neighbourhood, that has a large Jewish community, in London, Wednesday, April 29, 2026.(AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Photographer: Kin Cheung
Provider: AP
Source: AP
Copyright: Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved
The Home Secretary has condemned the “spate of attacks” on the Jewish community.
Met Police Commissioner Mark Rowley and local MP Sarah Sackman were both heckled at the scene.
Caption: Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley speaks to the media at the scene in Golders Green, north-west London, after two men – one aged in his 70s and another in his 30s – were stabbed on Wednesday morning. The Metropolitan Police said a 45-year-old man was arrested and remains in custody. Picture date: Wednesday April 29, 2026. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Lucy North/PA Wire
Photographer: Lucy North
Provider: Lucy North/PA Wire
Source: PA
Caption: LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 29: Police officers look on as people participate in an ‘Anti-Zionism = Terrorism’ protest, organised by the pressure group Stop the Hate in Golders Green following the stabbing of two people earlier today on April 29, 2026 in the Golders Green area of London, England. According to Shomrim, the Jewish community security organisation, a man with a knife was seen running down the high street attempting to stab Jewish people in the area. Shomrim said they responded immediately and detained a suspect before police arrived and deployed a taser. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)
Photographer: Carl Court
Provider: Getty Images
Source: Getty Images Europe
The Government has announced a further £25m for increased security for Jewish communities.
Who is the suspected attacker
The suspect is a 45-year-old British national who was born in Somalia and came to the UK as a child in the 1990s.
Body-worn footage shows the moment he was Tasered and pinned to the ground by police while holding a knife.
Caption: Screen grab from body worn camera issued by Metropolitan Police of police officers confronting and arresting a 45-year-old man who remains in custody, they have said, following two people being stabbed in Golders Green, north-west London. Issue date: Wednesday April 29, 2026. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Metropolitan Police/PA Wire
NOTE TO EDITORS: This handout photo may only be used for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned in the caption. Reuse of the picture may require further permission from the copyright holder.
Photographer: Metropolitan Police
Provider: Metropolitan Police/PA Wire
Source: PA
NEWS
5 min read
New technique could transform endometriosis diagnosis
Waiting times for a diagnosis could be slashed
after scientists developed a
new imaging tool to spot the
condition.
DOCTORS EMPTY WAITING ROOM – stock photo. (Photo: Getty)
What the study found
Endometriosis can be a debilitating condition for women which often takes years to diagnose.
The new imaging technique uses a molecular tracer which is injected into the patient and binds to a specific protein.
A scan then reveals inflamed areas or lesions.
HEALTH
5 min read
The story in numbers
9 years
Currently, the average time from first seeing a doctor to getting an official endometriosis diagnosis in the UK is about nine years and four months.
84%
Nineteen patients completed the study, which found that the new imaging technique was able to detect the presence or absence of endometriosis in 16 women.
This means it had a hit rate of 84 per cent of participants.
Diagnosis times slashed
If these results are confirmed in larger phase three studies, imaging with maraciclatide could transform clinical research and practice and potentially empower the development of treatments for women across the globe
Professor Krina Zondervan, co-director of the Endometriosis CaRe Centre
Labour said delays to treatment starts were also worsening even before the pandemic.
(Photo: Getty Images)
TECHNOLOGY
Training chatbots to sound friendlier ‘may cause more mistakes’
Caption: Businesswoman using technology smart chatbot AI
Photographer: Krongkaew
Provider: Getty Images
Source: Moment RF
Training AI chatbots such as ChatGPT to sound friendlier may lead them to make more mistakes, a study suggests.
Platforms that prioritised warmth were also more likely to tell people what they wanted to hear, especially if users expressed sadness.
What you need to know
For the study, experts at the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford generated and analysed more than 400,000 responses from five platforms; Llama-8b, Mistral-Small, Qwen-32b, Llama-70b and GPT-4o.
Caption: Smartphone with a glass speech bubble with the chatbot symbol inside.Chatbot concept. open AI, Artificial Intelligence.
Photographer: Francesco Carta fotografo
Provider: Getty Images
Source: Moment RF
Copyright: Francesco Carta
Caption: Illustration
Photographer: Malorny
Provider: Getty Images
Source: Moment RF
Researchers used a training process similar to what developers may use to make their chatbots sound friendlier, and compared how the original and modified platforms responded.
A closer look at the detail
The study found that chatbots trained to sound warmer made between 10 per cent and 30 per cent more mistakes on topics such as medical advice and correcting conspiracy theories. They were also 40 per cent more likely to agree with a user’s false beliefs, particularly if the user expressed sadness or vulnerability.
Exclusive
6 min read
LIFESTYLE
6 min read
‘Warmth may come at cost of accuracy’
Researchers said the findings, published in Nature, suggest that training AI platforms to be warm “may come at a cost to accuracy, and that warmth and accuracy may not be independent by default”.
“As these systems are deployed at an unprecedented scale and take on intimate roles in people’s lives, this trade-off warrants attention from developers, policymakers and users alike,” they added.
SCIENCE
8 min read
Caption: Pigeons fly around a woman who is feeding birds at St George’s Park, Bristol, in cold, but sunny Spring weather. PA Photo. Picture date: Tuesday April 14, 2020. See PA story WEATHER Spring. Photo credit should read: Ben Birchall/PA Wire
Photographer: Ben Birchall
Provider: PA
Source: PA
SCIENCE
Urban birds fear women more than men
Birds in urban areas are more scared of women than they are of men, scientists have discovered.
The findings have defied the expectations of researchers, who hypothesised that birds would perceive men as more threatening than women.
What methods did researchers use?
Caption: A pigeon drinks at a public fountain during a heatwave, in Mulhouse, eastern France, on August 22, 2023. (Photo by SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP) (Photo by SEBASTIEN BOZON/AFP via Getty Images)
Photographer: SEBASTIEN BOZON
Provider: AFP via Getty Images
Source: AFP
Men and women were paired monitored as they walked towards pigeons, starlings and other birds in green spaces.
Participants were matched according to their height and clothing, and hair was hidden if longer than a partner’s.
Photographer: Andrew_Howe
Provider: Getty Images
Source: E+
Caption: Close up of wild city pigeons in sunny day on asphalt.
Photographer: Olena Ruban
Provider: Getty Images
Source: Moment RF
Researchers tested whether birds perceived female versus male observers differently in five European countries.
What did the study show?
The birds allowed men to get a metre closer than women in the study, only taking flight when male participants were 7.5 metres away. Birds were less tolerant of women across the five countries in the study: Czech Republic, Poland, Germany and Spain and France. And this behaviour was observed in all 37 bird species in the research.
LIFESTYLE
5 min read
HOMES AND GARDENS
3 min read
What did scientists conclude?
Researchers have described the findings as unexpected. Based on the results, one possible explanation is that in hunter-gatherer societies “women, if they hunted, could have focused more on smaller prey, while males hunted mainly larger prey”.
Caption: LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – APRIL 18: A woman feeds birds under a tree at a park during warm weather in London, United Kingdom on April 18, 2026. (Photo by Rasid Necati Aslim/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Photographer: Anadolu
Provider: Anadolu via Getty Images
Source: Anadolu
Caption: LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – APRIL 02: A view of ducklings at St. James Park in London, United Kingdom on April 02, 2026. (Photo by Rasid Necati Aslim/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Photographer: Anadolu
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Source: Anadolu
But they said further research is needed to understand the phenomenon.
HEALTH
Cancer rates in under-50s are rising – and no-one can be sure why
Bowel cancer has the steepest rise in early-onset cases (Photo: Sebastian Kaulitzki/Getty)
One of the most concerning trends in cancer is that rates of the disease in people under 50 are on the rise. And we don’t know why.
Now, a group of respected British researchers say that part of the explanation is that people are getting fatter. But other experts are sceptical.
What you need to know
Trend in early-onset cancer spans decades
50%
The rise is biggest in bowel cancer, with about a 50 per cent increase in under-50s since the 1990s in the UK. There are also smaller rises in this age group in tumours affecting over 20 other parts of the body.
9 in 10
It is especially puzzling because rates in the over-50s worldwide have been flat or even slightly declining for many tumour types, studies suggest.
Cancer is a disease that usually affects older people, with nine in 10 tumours arising in people over 50.
What did the study find?
The study looked at lifestyle factors known to raise cancer risk to see if any of these could be responsible for the 22 tumour sites where early-onset cancers are rising.
Eleven of these cancers have known behavioural risk factors. These are: obesity, smoking, drinking, lack of exercise, red and processed meat intake and lack of fibre in the diet.
Only one of these – obesity – has been increasing over the past few decades and could potentially explain the rise researchers said, whose study was published in the journal BMJ Oncology.
That’s what led the researchers to claim that excess weight is “the strongest clue to the rise in cancers in under-50s”.
But this study did not prove that the rise in obesity is causing the rise in early-onset cancers – only that the two trends have been happening at the same time.
The bigger picture
When researchers looked at how much the rise in early-onset cancer could be blamed on rising obesity, they found it varied on the tumour type, but obesity never accounted for more than 25 per cent of the extra cases.
Caption: EMBARGOED TO 2330 WEDNESDAY JANUARY 7
Picture posed by a model. File photo dated 03/03/14 of someone using a set of weighing scales. People on fat loss jabs need ongoing support, researchers have said, after a major study found they put all the weight back on much faster than traditional dieters. Researchers from the University of Oxford discovered that people on drugs including semaglutide (Wegovy) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro) lose weight during treatment but, on average, regain it within 20 months of stopping the jabs. Issue date: Wednesday January 7, 2026. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Chris Radburn/PA Wire
Photographer: Chris Radburn
Provider: Chris Radburn/PA Wire
Source: PA Wire
Caption: Embargoed to 2330 Tuesday July 29
File photo dated 27/04/25 of a half-pounder burger and chips in a takeaway carton. Academics have found a link between consuming high levels of ultra processed foods (UPFs) and lung cancer. An international team of researchers tracked the health and food habits of more than 100,000 US adults, with an average age of 63. After an average of 12 years the team identified 1,706 cases of lung cancer. Issue date: Tuesday July 29, 2025. PA Photo. Photo credit should read: Philip Toscano/PA Wire
Photographer: Philip Toscano
Provider: Philip Toscano/PA Wire
Source: PA
“Body mass index only explains a small part of the increase,” Professor Montserrat García-Closas, a cancer expert at the Institute of Cancer Research in London, who led the research, said.
The hotspots where it’s most difficult to sell your home
The average length of time to sell a home is just a day longer than a year ago despite
higher mortgages,
although in London homes are taking nearly a week longer
to be snapped up typically, according to a property website.
Caption: Estate agents ‘for sale’ and ‘let’ signs outside residential properties in Guildford, UK, on Monday, July 28, 2025. The number of UK home loans given the green light rose to a three-month high in June, as the housing market continued to shake off the impact of April’s tax hike.??Photographer: Jason Alden/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Photographer: Bloomberg
Provider: Bloomberg via Getty Images
Source: Bloomberg
Copyright: ? 2025 Bloomberg Finance LP
A closer look at the figures
33 days
Across the UK, the average time to sell a home is 33 days, just one day longer than last year.
6 days
The London area stands out as being particularly affected by recent events, with the average home there taking six days longer to sell than a year ago, the report found.
The locations on the list of hotspots
Here is how long on average it takes to sell a home, according to Zoopla analysis of the seven weeks to 17 April, 2025 and the seven weeks to 17 April, 2026:
Scotland – 15, 15
North East – 28, 28
Yorkshire and the Humber – 31, 31
North West – 28, 31
Wales – 34, 34
West Midlands – 33, 34
South West – 36, 35
East Midlands – 37, 37
East of England – 35, 38
South East – 37, 39
London – 35, 41
Caption: LONDON, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 30: People lok at houses for sale in an estate agents window in Mayfair on October 30, 2025 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by John Keeble/Getty Images)
Photographer: John Keeble
Provider: Getty Images
Source: Getty Images Europe
Copyright: 2025 John Keeble
What do experts say?
Mortgage rates are drifting lower and there is greater choice of homes for sale
The best-value homes are moving quickly, particularly in northern cities and Scotland, whereas the room for negotiation is greater across southern regions,” Richard Donnell, executive director of Zoopla said.
He described “mayhem” as thousands of passengers queued at border control, many of them also families with children returning from Disneyland.
“The queues for passport control were all the way into duty-free,” he told The i Paper. “No one was actually coming out and explaining what was going on or that there was going to be delays. It took about five hours to get through passport control.”
He blamed a lack of border officers, with only around a third of around 15 booths being manned, and said around 25 registration kiosks for carrying out EES checks were not working.
Instead, passengers were processed manually with the checks done at an officer’s booth, which took about five minutes per person, he said.
“There were people from everywhere missing flights. It was crazy,” Newton added.
Queues at passport control at Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport, where many families were with children after a trip to Disneyland
After a phased six-month rollout, EES, which is replacing manual passport stamping, was launched fully on 10 April, with all non-EU citizens heading to the Schengen area now due to be checked.
Passengers are required to give fingerprints and a facial photo as part of EU rules to ensure non-EU nationals, including UK citizens, don’t stay more than 90 days in any 180-day period in Schengen countries.
The European Commission insists the system has been working “very well” in the “overwhelming majority” of member states since the full launch on 10 April.
While a few member states had detected “technical issues”, these were being addressed by those countries, a Brussels spokesperson said. The spokesperson added that registering a traveller takes on average only 70 seconds.
But ACI Europe, a body representing over 600 airports, warned this month passengers were facing delays of up to three hours during peak travel periods and said “major concerns are now a reality”, with passengers missing flights and delays due to prolonged border processing times.
David Newton, pictured with his daughter, said the experience has put him off flying to European destinations that are close
Newton and his family finally got through passport control around midday, he said – two hours after their 10am flight to the UK had taken off.
An easyJet official said they would be put on the next flight back to the UK at 6pm and would not have to pay for new tickets.
But the family found themselves forced to repeat the entire process, and queue for EES a second time – after waiting four hours to check their luggage in again.
“It was still a good hour and a half, two-hour queue for passport control. There were people coming up crying, saying, ‘Excuse me, I’m going to miss my flight’,” he said.
“And we were sort of saying, ‘I know where you’re coming from, but we’ve already missed the flight’.
“It was shocking. I’ve never missed a flight in my life. I did actually have a heated argument with the security officer in the booth. I didn’t know what EES was.
“I was trying to ask her what it was for. I’ve already scanned my eyes twice now and my fingerprints. So why am I doing it again? Instead of a nice explanation, it was just like, ‘Do you have a problem?’”
Several European countries have temporarily halted EES checks at airports in recent weeks as queues build up
He said the experience has put him off flying to European destinations that are close. “I’d probably drive. I just think the hassle of all that you can drive there quicker.”
A National Police spokesperson said: “We confirm that a technical issue affecting departures from Terminal 2B, unrelated to the EES system, which had not yet been deployed in its latest version, impacted operations that day.
“This problem was resolved as quickly as possible, and passengers experienced no waiting times exceeding one hour.”
An official from the main body representing French airports told The i Paper that EES kiosks at main hubs in France are currently not working due to technical issues, with border police having to manually carry out the fingerprint and facial scans required at booths.
Nicolas Paulissen, general delegate of the Union des Aéroports Français (UAF), said French airports had also been suspending EES checks temporarily as queues built up to prevent massive tailbacks.
But he said there are fears logjams could cause passengers to miss flights this summer – and of concerns there is “no plan B” after September when a grace period that allows EES to be temporarily lifted ends.
Greece has said it is suspending biometrics for British nationals, while Portugal and Italy have both temporarily halted EES checks at airports in recent weeks as queues build up, according to reports.
The commission says that suspension of biometric collection is allowed for a limited period in exceptional circumstances which could cause long waiting times.
It has also said there is no exemption for specific nationalities from EES checks, nor for a suspension over an extended period of time.
ACI Europe, however, has called for border control authorities to be allowed to fully suspend EES when waiting times become excessive.
This week, Jet2 welcomed the move by Greek authorities and urged other countries to announce a similar suspension.
The budget airline, which runs flights and holidays to 15 Greek airports this summer with over 3.5 million seats on sale, says Greece’s move is “expected to significantly improve the arrival and departure experience”.