All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
A £9 billion deal for nuclear submarine reactors was announced this morning between the Ministry of Defence and Rolls-Royce, the biggest-ever agreement between the two. The eight-year contract, called Unity, is to design, make and provide support services to nuclear reactors that power the Royal Navy’s fleet of submarines. John Healey, the Defence Secretary, says
We’ve heard more from the 47th President of the United States this week than we heard from his predecessor over many months. But Donald Trump has always loved the spotlight: especially when he gets to rile up all his favourite people. This was on full display this week when, rather than winding down from his
US president Donald Trump has pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the cybercriminal mastermind who founded Silk Road and pioneered the drug trade’s move into cyberspace. Ulbricht was serving life without parole after he was found guilty in 2015 of conspiracy to commit drug trafficking, money laundering and computer hacking. On Wednesday, after over a decade in the dungeons, Ross
The murder of three young girls in Southport last July by Axel Rudakubana was an act of extreme savagery and calculated evil. Six-year-old Bebe King, seven-year-old Elsie Dot Stancombe and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar were victims not only of a brutal killer but also of a system of policing, intelligence and criminal justice which
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Cryptocurrency became a key feature of the American election and the Trump universe. Not only did Trump and Melania launch their own coins, but the President has also appointed venture capitalist David Sacks to be the AI and Crypto ‘czar’. Freddy Gray is joined by podcaster and owner of Bedford FC Peter McCormack to discuss
You won’t be able to get a cup of coffee. Nor will you be able to pick up something from the patisserie or the pizza oven. A trip to Sainsbury’s was hardly the most exciting thing in the world, but it is about to get a little bit duller, with the grocery chain set to
Donald Trump has withdrawn the United States from the Paris Climate Change Agreement for the second time and reiterated his desire that America should ‘drill, baby drill’. The US president’s decision exposes the naivety of MPs in Britain who, in 2019, nodded through a legal commitment to reaching net zero by 2050, with the hope
Do we have to choose between prioritising European or American trade? Let’s hope we don’t, because we need both. But the question has sharpened this week for two reasons. The less important one is that Maros Sefcovic, the EU’s new trade commissioner, has suggested that the UK might join the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean Convention, a group of 23 countries with
Southport killer Axel Rudakubana will serve a minimum of 52 years in prison for the horrific murder of three young girls. But despite the lengthy sentence handed to the teenager at Liverpool Crown Court today, it’s hard to say that justice has been served. Rudakubana should die behind bars, yet the law prevented the judge,
This afternoon, the Southport killer Axel Rudakubana has been sentenced to a minimum of 52 years in jail – for the murder of three young girls and the attempted murder of ten other people at a dance class last summer. The 18-year-old murderer also admitted to producing ricin and being in possession of terrorist material
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After last week’s bond market jitters, the Chancellor pledged to go ‘further and faster’ to improve the UK’s anaemic economic growth. It looks as though Rachel Reeves’ hunt for growth could come at the expense of Labour’s green agenda. Reeves is poised to make a series of announcements over the next month, starting with a
Well, well, well. The former footballer and pundit Gary Neville has been spotted on the streets of Davos during the 2025 conference of the World Economic Forum. The ex-BBC presenter is not known to keep quiet about his views, with the former sports star keen to highlight his Labour membership and speaking up on British
Growth, growth, growth is back on Rachel Reeves’ agenda – having been conspicuously absent in her first Budget last October. Still, no matter, the Chancellor now insists she is storming ahead with pro-business plans. Speaking at Davos – where else? – Reeves heavily hinted this morning that she will next week back a third runway
Sadiq Khan may have collected a knighthood – but he is still missing a czar. It is now three months since Amy Lamé announced she was standing down as the Mayor’s ‘Night Czar’ and a successor is yet to be found. Lamé role was to champion London’s nightlife – so it is a shame then
It may prove to be just the first of many screeching U-turns. Whilst hobnobbing among the plutocrats in Davos this week, the Chancellor Rachel Reeves has admitted that she may have to tweak her clamp-down on non doms, to make it less punitive for anyone who isn’t British, and happens to have a bit of
As in a more delirious version of Bill Murray’s Groundhog Day, Donald Trump withdrew from the Paris Climate Accord on his first day in office, again. In a thinly-veiled attempt to mend Beijing’s relations with Europe, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman commented: “Climate change is a common challenge facing all of humanity. No country can stay out
Last November, when the House of Commons voted on her assisted suicide legislation, Kim Leadbeater told her colleagues that the Bill would face ‘further robust debate and scrutiny’, including ‘line-by-line scrutiny in Committee’. But judging by the disgraceful scenes at her Bill committee’s first formal sitting on Tuesday, Kim Leadbeater and her supporters have given up on any pretence
Britain is heavily dependent on its underwater infrastructure. Ninety-nine per cent of our digital communications overseas are carried through subsea fibre optic cables. Significant damage to them at the hands of malign actors would jeopardise our way of life. Defence Secretary John Healey reported to parliament on an incident last November when a Russian spy
Well, well, well. It seems that Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government is looking to row back on its non-dom rules after Britain suffered an exodus of millionaires after the introduction of the policy. Talk about a quick turnaround… Speaking at a fringe event in Davos with the editor of the Wall Street Journal, Rachel Reeves
On Sunday night a screening of the controversial Bollywood film Emergency was disrupted in Vue cinema in Harrow, West London, when a group of 30 masked men barged in and started shouting ‘down with India’. Most viewers left the screening, with one eyewitness describing the behaviour as a ‘frightening and intimidating experience’. Censorship of Emergency
As Rachel Reeves attempts to woo investors at Davos, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury has stayed behind in London as work gets underway on Labour’s comprehensive spending review. Darren Jones also found time to set out his thinking in a keynote speech at the Institute for Government’s 2025 conference, where he laid out stricter
Rishi Sunak (remember him?) is back in the public eye. The former prime minister has landed new jobs at Oxford and Stanford universities. The roles are his first since returning to the backbenches last year following the crushing Tory defeat at the general election in July. His time in Downing Street doesn’t look as bad
As a biographer of the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini and thus possessed of a certain expertise in the matter I want to add my thoughts about Elon Musk’s bizarre raised right arm salute. Many on the left, including historians who ought to know better, say that the gesture delivered with such passion at the rally
In a knife attack in the Bavarian town of Aschaffenburg, a two-year-old boy and a 41-year-old man were killed in a park on Wednesday. Three more people were injured, among them two-year-old girl. A suspect has been arrested and identified as an Afghan national with a history of violence and psychiatric issues. The horrific details
To the great surprise of very few the European Court of Human Rights this week rejected an appeal by Calin Georgescu to overturn last month’s annulment of Romania’s presidential election. The Eurosceptic Georgescu had won the first round of November’s election, but days before the second round Romania’s Constitutional Court cancelled the result because of
Donald Trump has told Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine. ‘Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous war!’ he wrote on Truth Social yesterday. ‘IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE.’ But if the new president wants the war in Ukraine to end, American diplomats may have to open talks with Russia on issues much
Coulter’s Law, named after its originator, the right-wing polemicist Ann Coulter, holds that the longer it takes the authorities or the news media to identify the suspect in a terrorist attack or other notorious incident the less likely that suspect is to be white. Allow me to propose a British corollary to this rule: the
Nigel Farage’s Reform UK has had a rather good few months, with a number of opinion polls showing the Clacton MP’s party topping the Tories – and, occasionally, even Labour – among Brits. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch has rubbished the idea of a Reform merger – but it would appear her backbench colleague Suella Braverman
The Commons was half asleep at PMQs. Trump’s re-election has severely damaged Sir Keir Starmer’s authority. Last summer, he unwisely allowed his Labour colleagues to campaign for the worst presidential candidate in American history. When Kamala lost, so did the Labour leader who now has zero influence over the US. He couldn’t even bring himself
Australia is supposed to be a nation of tolerance and acceptance – the one place in a troubled world where people of different ethnicities, cultures and faiths can get along. That no longer feels like the case. Since the Hamas atrocities of 7 October 2023, and the conflict in Gaza and Israel, Australia has been exposed
Oh dear… it appears that birthday and greetings cards are sexist. This is, at least, the claim of a group of MPs who have submitted an EDM (Early Day Motion) calling for more representation of female footballers on such items by their manufacturers. The motion was tabled by Liberal Democrat MP for Epsom and Ewell,