It’s just gone 3pm on a sunny Wednesday in Norwich, and the mid-afternoon, midweek slump is hitting hard at the cafe on Dereham Road. Almost everyone here is asleep – before they’re roused by the rattle of the Dreamies tub, that is. The Cat House, which opened nearly two years ago, is the city’s first cat cafe. From Wednesday to Sunday, for a cover charge of £10, punters can spend 60 minutes (or £13 for 90 minutes) enjoying feline company over a beverage and a snack. There are a few people already here – as well as the 20 resident cats dotted around the spacious converted building. They’re curled up above eye level in cat trees, hunkering in boxes and tunnels, weaving in between the table legs. The visitors hover respectfully in their orbit, hoping to be favoured by their attention. From the hushed voices, sound of the water fountain, and nature scenes playing on the TV, the Cat House resembles a library more than a cafe. There’s no clue to the controversy about whether it should be in operation at all.View image in fullscreenTwo months ago, the RSPCA and Cats Protection made a joint call for cat cafes to be phased out, saying that it was “almost impossible” for them to guarantee the animals’ welfare. Once a novelty, the concept has become relatively common in the UK, and not just in big cities. According to a freedom of information request lodged by the RSPCA and Cats Protection, there are 32 cat cafes licensed across England (and none in Wales). With 44% of those licences granted in the last financial year, their number may be set to rise further. Not all areas require licences, meaning the charities also suspect more are operating without any oversight. The sudden increase in cat cafes has led both organisations to take a joint stand, calling on local authorities to decline applications for new licences and not renew existing ones.Alice Potter, a senior scientific officer and cat welfare expert with the RSPCA, says the organisation is not solely motivated by the lack of regulation, or the risk of unscrupulous operators. Key to its concerns is the potential for stress from the confined environment, exacerbated by the presence of other cats as well as customers. Though Potter acknowledges that practices “vary greatly” between establishments, there’s no getting around those fundamental challenges, she says. “Cats are just not built to live in cafes … There’s only so much space and freedom they can give.”For cat cafe proprietors, however, the campaign lacks crucial nuance – and seemed to come out of nowhere. “I was shocked, to be honest,” says Tasmin Hirst, co-owner of the Bad Cat Cafe and Rescue in Wallsend, North Tyneside. She started a Change.org petition calling on the RSPCA and Cats Protection to distinguish between commercial cat cafes, run for profit, and those that operate primarily as rescues. It now has nearly 19,000 signatures.View image in fullscreenHer own venture is intentionally small-scale, home to only eight cats at once, with the aim of finding them permanent homes. When we speak, the cafe has only six felines after two were rehomed the previous day. It is barely even a cafe, Hirst says: “Ours is run more like a shelter, where we sell food and drink to raise funds for the cats.” The venue’s name is tongue-in-cheek, she explains, intended as a playful way of managing customers’ expectations should the cats not be forthcoming.Most of the new arrivals come from local shelters that are at capacity, or owners who are forced to relinquish their pets. Hirst says the cafe is also typically able to take bonded pairs or small groups, which shelters might have to split up. “We quite often take in cats that the RSPCA and Cats Protection have said no to,” she adds, noting the irony. The cats that don’t like or aren’t suited to the environment are placed locally in foster homes – but “being in the cafe is a lot better for them than being in a cage”, she says. For prospective owners, too, it’s a more relaxed way of meeting potential new pets. “We get to know them so well, we can identify suitable homes … and there’s a bit more peace of mind, because we say we’ll take the cat back if there’s a problem.” She estimates that cats are with the cafe for eight weeks on average – and that, in two-and-a-half years, the Bad Cat Cafe has helped 150 felines into new homes.Hirst has concerns about more commercial operations, and licensing. “We get the same licence as pet shops used to get, when obviously it’s a different concept. I’m not against more regulation, or inspections.” But she worries that the criticism from the RSPCA and Cats Protection, “unfairly … lumping all cat cafes as one entity”, will negatively affect her operation. A few days before our call, the cafe’s window was keyed. “It could just be kids – it was the school holidays – but equally it could be someone who’d heard that cat cafes are bad,” Hirst says. “People do still listen to the RSPCA and Cats Protection, especially older generations – I don’t like how it’s going to affect the public’s perception of us.”View image in fullscreenSome may still be catching up on the concept of cat cafes altogether. According to the BBC, the first cat cafe opened in 1998 in Taipei, Taiwan, with just five street cats. When the idea reached Japan in the early 00s, it took off with young professionals prevented by small apartments and strict leases from having pets of their own. Vice reported that 79 cat cafes opened across Japan from 2005 to 2010. Four years later, a pop-up cat cafe opened in New York as a marketing stunt by the pet food brand Purina One – then, in 2015, “cat cafe” was added to the online Oxford Dictionary. Their steady spread – through the US, UK, Middle East and Europe – coincided with the rise of social media, placing a new premium on novelty, visual spectacle and “experiences” to post to Instagram. Cat cafes often draw in punters with exotic breeds, photogenic backdrops – and the promise of a photo op. “While the majority of those who own, work in or visit cat cafes undoubtedly care for the animals, the sad reality is these spaces could be putting people’s enjoyment before the welfare of the cats,” says Elizabeth Mullineaux, president of the British Veterinary Association, which supports regulation.Lucy Hoile, a feline behaviourist, agrees that they are rarely “an ideal environment” for cats and their complex social needs. The perception of them as antisocial loners isn’t quite accurate: they can form strong bonds and social groups, but ideally, “they’d have that freedom to avoid each other, if they want to”, Hoile says. “And the nature of a cat cafe doesn’t really give them that opportunity.”The best-case scenario, Hoile suggests, would be a venue built around a “well-established, stable group of cats who really love each other” – but that is not what she has observed at the handful she’s visited as a punter. “There’s a lot of cats that are just making do,” she says. “They’re not attacking people or having huge fights … but there’s lots of subtle stress signals you can see, like hiding away and pretending to sleep.” That stress will make them more susceptible to illness as well as unhappy, says Hoile – but the signs aren’t always easy to spot, even for experienced cat owners.She is sympathetic to those cafe proprietors who are motivated to help and celebrate cats. “It must be so difficult to find the right combination of cats, and to set that up for success,” she says.Sarah Price, owner-manager of the Cat House in Norwich, believes she’s managed it with her resident group of 20. To see them, lined up together for treats, it’s hard to believe that they’re all the same species. There’s Romeo, an enormous blue-grey maine coon with a lion-like face, whose ears nearly reach knee height. Khamoon, the hairless sphynx, with piercing grey-blue eyes and skin that feels like suede. Augustus Le-Blanc, AKA Gus, a creamy-orange ragdoll who is described as “nice but dim”. None of the 20 are available for adoption – but Price laughs off the suggestion that that makes the Cat House a primarily commercial venture. “Business is secondary,” she says, over a mug of tea that reads BEST CAT MOM EVER. “I do it for the love of cats.” We’re seated on the outdoor “catio”, under the observation, from the highest rung of the nearby cat tree, of Lily the Lykoi (or “werewolf cat”, for their somewhat moth-eaten appearance. Nonetheless, she is not without charm).View image in fullscreenThough Price often highlights cats needing new homes on the Cat House’s social media pages, she says she would “never consider” rehoming directly from the cafe: Today’s group has been assembled carefully over time, mostly as kittens, which fit in easier than older cats, Price says. Even so, three have been rehomed because they weren’t a personality match, or otherwise disrupted the balance. One, a 10-week-old kitten named Obi, went home with Price, joining her family pets, after he took to haranguing Nellie, Dot and Pearl, a trio of jet-black sisters. “We took him out of the mix, and everything went back to normal.”Prior to the pandemic, Price worked in care homes, running music workshops. She imagined the Cat House as a sort of community arts centre, with resident cats – reflected now in its regular programming of art classes and craft workshops, all cat-themed. In late 2021, over a five-day road trip, Price visited 10 cat cafes and “learned that I didn’t want to do what they were doing”. Some were on high streets or in shopping centres, with no outdoor access and continual disruption from passersby; others seemed to prioritise the cafe above the cats, serving proper meals, not just snacks. It was clear that many cats weren’t thriving, Price says. “There were lots that were very timid and really didn’t want to be touched. You know when you go to stroke a cat, and they arch their back away? A lot of that was happening.”View image in fullscreenThe Cat House opened in August 2023, after a long search for a sufficiently spacious, one-storey venue off the high street. Ensuring peace and harmony on the premises is a constant process of observation and adaptation, Price says. Each cat receives daily grooming, a weekly health check and monthly weighing, meaning there are regular opportunities to check for concerns, signs of stress or changes in mood. There is also extensive record-keeping to ensure consistency and communication across staffing changes – including a 20-point checklist for each cat. “We write down any incidents – such as: ‘Roxy growled at Pearl’ – because it’s important,” says Price.There are rules for customers, too – chief among them, no feeding the cats or picking them up. The free-form “lounge sessions” are restricted to ages 10-plus, and 20 customers at a time, but there are regular supervised “cat awareness sessions” for younger children to learn how to respectfully interact with cats.Price says she “wasn’t worried” by the RSPCA and Cats Protection report. She too has noticed the rapid, recent increase in cat cafes, even in Norfolk, and believes that some would be best shuttered. “But I just think it needs to be monitored more.” Presently only some local authorities in England and Wales require cat cafes to be licensed and regularly inspected. Those that do tend to use regulations more typically applied to dog breeders, dog daycare and boarding kennels and catteries – so considerations specific to cat cafes can be lost. Instead of phasing them out, Price says a point-based system could be created to prevent them from being opened in high-density areas, to cap cat numbers and account for beneficial factors such as outdoor access and environmental enrichment. “How much space have you got per cat? … How big is your building? Can they climb?” says Price. Cat cafes could also be reimagined as add-ons to shelters or sanctuaries.But for the RSPCA and Cats Protection, the concept is not worth fighting for. They are urging the UK and Welsh governments to identify and stop all activities “that negatively affect the welfare of animals” as part of their review of licensing activities later this year. (Cats Protection has also specifically requested an end to “cat yoga”.)Potter points to the disagreement, even among cat cafe owners, over which approach is better for welfare – those with resident cats, or those that rehome them. “There are issues on both sides,” Potter says, “which is why we don’t think cat cafes are suitable for cats, full stop.” It may be possible to design and operate a venue that consistently meets all animals’ welfare needs, “but I think it’s very unlikely”, she says.Hoile agrees. “We should be aiming for the best, for every cat … and it’s a hugely complicated area to get right, if we do stick with it.” There’s perhaps a fundamental tension, she suggests, between cats’ needs for escape routes, hiding places and plenty of space, and customers’ expectations of coffee with a side of cuddles. “You wouldn’t pay to go to a cat cafe and leave without seeing a cat.”

Your Facebook or Instagram account can be your link to friends, a profile for your work or a key to other services, so losing access can be very worrying. Here’s what to do if the worst happens.What to do if your Facebook or Instagram account gets lost, hacked or stolen

If you have access to the phone number or email account associated with your Facebook or Instagram account, try to reset your password by clicking on the “Forgot password?” link on the main Facebook or Instagram login screen. Follow the instructions in the email or text message you receive.

If you no longer have access to the email account linked to your Facebook account, use a device with which you have previously logged into Facebook and go to facebook.com/login/identify. Enter any email address or phone number you might have associated with your account, or find your username which is the string of characters after Facebook.com/ on your page. Click on “No longer have access to these?”, “Forgotten account?” or “Recover” and follow the instructions to prove your identity and reset your password.

If your account was hacked, visit facebook.com/hacked or instagram.com/hacked/ on a device you have previously used to log in and follow the instructions. Visit the help with a hacked account page for Facebook or Instagram.
View image in fullscreenWhat to do when you get back into your account

Change the password to something strong, long and unique, such as a combination of random words or a memorable lyric or quote. Avoid simple or guessable combinations. Use a password manager to help you remember it and other important details.

Turn on two-step verification in the “password and security” section of the Accounts Centre. Use an authentication app or security key for this, not SMS codes. Save your recovery codes somewhere safe in case you lose access to your two-step authentication method.

Turn on “unrecognised login” alerts in the “password and security” section of the Accounts Centre, which will alert you to any suspicious login activity.

Remove any suspicious “friends” from your account – these could be fake accounts or scammers.

If you are eligible, turn on “advanced protection for Facebook” in the “password and security” section of the Accounts Centre.

A £25m post-Brexit border control post in Portsmouth may have to be demolished if the UK government’s deal with the EU removes the need for health and veterinary checks on food imports, according to the port’s director.Mike Sellers had already spoken out last year about how more than half of the site would never be used because planned checks on EU food and plant products had been pared back since it was designed, leading to the building being called a “white elephant”.The hi-tech facility at the UK’s second busiest cross-Channel terminal was one of more than 100 border control posts (BCPs) around the country built to government specifications to handle post-Brexit checks on imports subject to sanitary and phytosanitary checks, such as meat, fish, dairy products, fruit and vegetables.View image in fullscreenUnder Keir Starmer’s deal with the EU announced on Monday, some routine checks on animal and plant products would be scrapped completely.“Anything that would smooth the movement of trade as well as passengers around the port is welcomed, although the devil is in the detail,” said Sellers. “Based on Monday’s announcement and the information that has been provided, we believe that then negates the need for the border control post,” he added, leaving it with two costly choices.Sellers said the port’s owner, Portsmouth city council, could either “repurpose the facility and see whether we can get another use out of it, or demolish it to give us some more operational land”.Boasting 14 lorry bays, Portsmouth’s 8,000 sq metre (86,000 sq ft) border site was designed to allow inspection of low- and high-risk goods in air-lock quarantine zones to prevent cross-contamination.View image in fullscreenHowever, it has been heavily underused since it began operating in April last year, after the previous Conservative government’s changes to its post-Brexit import regime, known as the border target operating model, which significantly reduced the number of tests required.An average of three checks have been carried out each day at Portsmouth’s BCP in the 12 months since it began operating, Sellers said, compared with the 80 a day for which it was built.It and other ports have also been unable to earn the expected amount of money from levying charges on importers for the goods checks.Portsmouth, along with 40 other ports, received £200m in government funding for the new control posts. However, the port infrastructure fund was oversubscribed, meaning the ports themselves had to spend an estimated £120m to cover the remaining building costs.Sellers’ port received £17.1m from the fund after applying for £32m, forcing the council to take out a loan to cover the shortfall.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe British Ports Association (BPA) has welcomed the new deal between the UK and the EU, but is reiterating its call for compensation for ports that were forced to build now-redundant border infrastructure.View image in fullscreen“The sector is out of pocket by £120m in infrastructure costs and ongoing costs,” said Richard Ballantyne, the industry body’s chief executive.“It is very expensive to repurpose and modify the border facilities, and in some cases it will be more cost-effective to demolish them. We are left in a precarious situation of not knowing what to do, but ultimately the cost will need to be passed on as port operations can’t continue taking a hit.”The BPA estimates that the running costs for a larger BCP, such as Portsmouth, with about 15 lorry bays will be £200,000 a year, to cover energy, cleaning, insurance and business rates. Smaller BCPs may have running costs of about £100,000 a year.Portsmouth is backing the BPA’s call for compensation, and said the local authority had been left about £6m out of pocket.“We have been left with this huge white elephant,” said Sellers. “We are not blessed with a lot of operational land, and this took up acres of land and the opportunity cost around that. We were unable to handle some of the potential new business that could have come through Portsmouth.”

US chip exports controls have been a “failure”, the head of Nvidia, Jensen Huang, told a tech forum on Wednesday, as the Chinese government separately slammed US warnings to other countries against using Chinese tech.Successive US administrations have imposed restrictions on the sale of hi-tech AI chips to China, in an effort to curb China’s military advancement and protect US dominance of the AI industry. But Huang told the Computex tech forum in Taipei that the controls had instead spurred on Chinese developers.“The local companies are very, very talented and very determined, and the export control gave them the spirit, the energy and the government support to accelerate their development,” Huang told media the Computex tech show in Taipei.“I think, all in all, the export control was a failure.”“China has a vibrant technology ecosystem, and it’s very important to realise that China has 50% of the world’s AI researchers, and China is incredibly good at software,” Huang said.Nvidia, which designs high-end GPUs, has been battered by US chip export controls. Huang said on Wednesday the company had written off “billions of dollars” in sales, and it’s share of China’s AI chip market had fallen from almost 95% at the start of the Biden administration to 50%.Last month Huang made a surprise visit to Beijing, where he met with the head of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, according to Chinese state media, and the DeepSeek founder, Liang Wenfeng, according to the Financial Times.His visit came just days after further US restrictions banned shipments to China of Nvidia’s H20 datacentre GPUs, a lower-powered version of other Nvidia chips which was designed specifically to comply with Biden-era restrictions.The US government told Nvidia the new rules were designed to address the risk that its products might be “used in, or diverted to, a supercomputer in China”.Huang’s Beijing meeting with Liang was to discuss new chip designs for the AI company that would not trigger the new US bans, the FT report said.Last week the Trump administration rescinded some of the existing controls on chip sales to China, after some countries said they were being shut out from crucial technology needed to develop artificial intelligence.But it also unveiled fresh guidelines for other countries, warning companies that using Chinese-made hi-tech AI semiconductors, specifically tech company Huawei’s Ascend chips, could put them in breach of existing US export controls.In response China accused the US of “abusing export controls to suppress and contain China”. The commerce ministry said on Wednesday the warning was “typical unilateral bullying and protectionism, which seriously undermine the stability of the global semiconductor industry chain and supply chain”.It also warned that “any organisation or individual that enforces or assists in enforcing such measures” could be in violation of Chinese law.

Demand for copper, needed for the transition to a low-carbon world, will outstrip supply within the next decade, according to the global energy watchdog.Supplies of the metal, a key component of every form of electrical energy system at present, will fall 30% short of the amount required by 2035 if nothing is done, analysis by the International Energy Agency predicts.Fatih Birol, the executive director of the IEA, said: “This will be a major challenge. It’s time to sound the alarm.”He said developed countries should aim to do more of the refining of copper and other key metals needed for industry, and form partnerships with developing countries to do so.Critical minerals that are necessary for manufacturing solar panels and wind turbines, and transforming the global energy system, are overwhelmingly being refined in China, though they are mined in many locations, including Africa, Australia and Latin America.China processes more than 70% on average of the world’s top 20 minerals needed in the energy industry, according to IEA data. Elements such as cobalt, gallium, lithium and manganese are used in the production of batteries and electrical components needed for renewable energy generation.This stranglehold is increasing, even though the prices of many critical minerals have fallen from the highs of 2021 and 2022, when the shock of the Covid pandemic created a supply crunch. The average share of the top suppliers is expected to decline only marginally over the next decade.Birol said more must be done to increase the supply of critical minerals if the world was to shift to a low-carbon economy.“Diversification is key,” he said. “The UK, Europe, Japan, the US, South Korea – the technology is there. Africa, Latin America have the resources. There could be international cooperation among countries.”Governments should intervene, as market forces alone would not solve the problem, he added. “There is a need for government policies, to support new entrants [in the market],” he said.Developing these industries and trade links would diversify the global supply and could prevent bottlenecks and potential price rises, like those seen in 2021. “If the costs go up, that would be a major, if not the most important, hurdle” to shifting to a green economy, Birol said. “This is a major, major issue.”Copper must be a key concern, he added. It takes on average 17 years from the discovery of new deposits to the production of the metal.“We have analysed all the copper mining, in Latin America, Africa, Australia – all the pipelines,” said Birol. “[Rising costs would] make the cost of the green transition significantly higher, and may lead to delay.”But he said that if governments took rapid action, they could reduce the projected shortfall. “[A supply crunch] is not inevitable. We can soften it if we move very fast, by putting new projects to market very fast, by recycling copper, and substituting copper with other metals such as aluminium, to alleviate the problem.”China’s build-out of its electricity grids, as it moves to clean energy and the manufacturing of clean technology components such as solar panels and wind turbines, has been the biggest factor behind the sharp increase in demand for copper in recent years.The need for other critical minerals has also increased rapidly. Demand for lithium rose by nearly 30% last year.The IEA warned that any disruption to supply would be dangerous, not only for the green energy transition but also to the wider global economy.“The impact of a critical minerals supply shock can be far-reaching, bringing higher prices for consumers and reducing industrial competitiveness,” according to the report.“A sustained supply shock for battery metals could increase global average battery pack prices by as much as 40-50%.”

Oasis fans are expected to splash out more than £1bn on the reunion tour including tickets, accommodation, food, drink, outfits and merchandise, according to research that found a quarter of ticket holders would have been happy to spend even more.The band’s comeback concerts after a 15-year hiatus are expected to be the most popular, and profitable, run of gigs in British history.Research by Wonderwallets, part of the Barclays Consumer Spend report, estimates £1.06bn will be spent by the 1.4 million fans attending the 17 UK tour dates – more than £766 a person.However, the excitement around once again being able to see the Mancunian band live has been marred by a scandal over “dynamic” ticket pricing, which led to some fans paying more than £350 for tickets with a face value of £150, and has prompted an investigation by the UK competition watchdog.Nevertheless, six in 10 ticket holders said that while they had spent more than planned on tickets they believed the experience of seeing Liam and Noel Gallagher finally bury the hatchet would be worth it, with 24% saying they wish they had spent more to secure better tickets.Aside from tickets, fans are expected to spend the most on accommodation, an average of £108. Travel and new outfits for the concert will also attract a considerable spend, calculated at £70.50 and £73.70, respectively, while an average of £59.70 will be spent on merchandise.More than £75 will be spent on pre-concert food and drinks, while the cost of a pint at venues such as Wembley Stadium and Manchester’s Heaton Park will hit about £8.Almost 30% of fans surveyed said they intended to embrace 90s fashion trends at the concert, sporting baggy jeans, tracksuit jackets and trainers, while 14% are going as far as sporting a haircut inspired by the Gallagher brothers.The £1.06bn exceeds the estimate Barclays made for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour of £997m, although Oasis are playing two more nights than the US singer’s UK tour last year.In justifying the cost, 16% of fans said they had bought tickets as a gift, while 30% described it as a “sentimental purchase” due to the significance the band’s music had played in their life.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionBarclays said the Oasis spending spree was part of encouraging signs in the hospitality and leisure industries, with overall consumer confidence in spending on non-essential items – such as concert tickets, experiences and other events – surging 60% in April to the highest point in three years.“The experience economy is no longer a trend, it is a fundamental shift in how consumers determine their financial priorities,” said Rich Robinson, the head of hospitality and leisure at Barclays.“Just as we saw with the Eras Tour, fans are willing to go to great lengths when there is an emotional connection. It isn’t just about attending the event.”