Slovakian PM Robert Fico is in intensive care in a stable but “very serious” condition, according to a hospital director, after being shot several times yesterday in the town of Handlová. The suspect, a 71-year-old amateur poet with reported links to a pro-Russian paramilitary group, has been charged with attempted murder. Keir Starmer unveiled his six key pledges for the forthcoming election at an event in Essex this morning. They include sticking to tough spending rules; cutting NHS waiting lists; launching a “border security command” to stop small boat crossings; and setting up Great British Energy, a publicly owned clean power company. A new road safety campaign is urging French men to “drive like a woman”, says the Daily Star. Men are responsible for 84% of deadly road accidents in France; the slogan “conduisez comme une femme” asks them to slow down and be a bit more “femme non-fatale”.

As an outsider, I know what makes Britain great

Fifteen years ago, says Paola Totaro in The New European, I was posted to London to become Europe correspondent for two Australian newspapers. I remember the very first night in the company flat behind Fleet Street, “watching mesmerised as an unseasonably late snowfall dusted the rooftops”. The next day, in a hat and scarf – “a rarity back in Aus” – I tramped down to the Thames, looking past Waterloo Bridge to the turrets of Westminster, and explored streetscapes pre-dating Captain Cook’s charting of the east coast of Australia in 1788. For someone used to two brutal seasons – “scorching, or soaking” – the bitter cold “seemed otherworldly, magical even”.

Since then, Britain has weathered more than a few storms. Yet as an outsider – “Italian-born, raised in Australia” – I want to shout at Brits “to fight for the extraordinary cultural and societal pillars that still make this nation great”. History in this country is “imbued with life”: ancient abbeys and cathedrals are still “living structures”. It’s “a source of perpetual comfort” that London’s coppers – “how I love that word!” – do not carry guns. Big events, from royal weddings to protests, “almost always unfold with civilised respect”, and people are “wonderfully fierce” about taking care of common spaces. “I despair at the lack of a similar public spirit when I return to Italy.” But above all, the UK “has given me, a foreigner, a true sense of belonging”. Have I ever thought about leaving? Not even for an instant.

Taking a walk after dinner is a good habit to get into, says Vogue. Unlike “lying prone on the sofa”, it aids digestion. It also reduces stress, stimulating the brain to produce endorphins, and can help you sleep. If you walk with someone else, it can improve your relationship, too. “What’s more romantic than a moonlight stroll?” The optimum time to set off, health-wise, is within an hour of finishing dinner; 30 minutes’ walk at a brisk pace will reap the maximum benefits. “Your body and mind will definitely thank you.”

Taylor Swift is predicted to boost the UK economy by £1bn when her Eras tour graces the British Isles this summer, says The Times. Each of the 1.1 million fans with tickets for one of her 15 performances is expected to spend roughly £850 on average attending the shows, according to Barclays. One in five of them will buy a new outfit for the concert, while the rest of the cash will go on their tickets, accommodation, transport and merchandise. In total, each ticket holder is expected to spend more than 12 times the average cost of a night out in Britain (£67).

The EU has become a Remainer’s bad dream

Britain’s EU lovers must be experiencing a certain “cognitive dissonance”, says Thomas Fazi in UnHerd. The bloc is rapidly turning into “everything Remainers feared Brexit would bring to the UK”. The Brussels that our Europhiles once lauded as a “beacon of progressivism, peace and democracy” is about to swing “firmly to the right” in next month’s European elections, just as several national governments on the continent already have. Multiple EU governments met in Denmark last week to discuss “Rwanda-style” plans to deport asylum seekers to third countries, when just a year ago, Europe was criticising Britain “for proposing the exact same policy”. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen is rebranding herself as a champion of “traditional, conservative family values”, and police are cracking down on peaceful assemblies of both the left and right.

This is all an “inevitable consequence of the EU’s architecture”. Even though Remainers have a “rainbow-tinted” view of the bloc, it’s been demolishing “the post-war European social and economic model” since 2008, with harsh austerity programmes imposed by unelected bureaucrats on elected national governments. This, plus the “influx of migrants” during the mid-2010s refugee crisis, fuelled resentment towards the political mainstream, from which the populist right has reaped the benefits. Meanwhile, Britain is about to vote a centre-left Labour government into power. Though Remainers might despair of Brexit, the referendum “provided a democratic outlet for many of the tensions that are now building up across the EU”. Just look across the Channel “to witness the dismal alternative”.

Improbable as it sounds, says Food & Wine magazine, “it’s illegal to get drunk in an English pub”. As the Licensing Act 1872 puts it: “Every person found drunk in any highway or other public place, whether a building or not, or on any licensed premises, shall be liable to a penalty.” And “because British legislation builds on older laws”, says UCL professor James Kneale, the ruling is still, technically, in force today.

It’s Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, performing in a dive bar with a local band during a surprise visit to Kyiv. The foreign policy chief was a “serious rock guitarist” before he became a diplomat, says The Washington Post – and what better song to perform to combine those interests than Neil Young’s Rockin’ in the Free World, backed by the Ukrainian punk group 19.99.