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Five-step rating from ‘exemplary’ to ‘causing concern’ set to replace single-word judgments Schools in England are likely to be judged on a new five-step scale, under proposals by the Ofsted inspectorate to be put out for public consultation as soon as next week. The consultation is the culmination of plans by the government to overhaul the way schools are rated, with Labour having pledged to scrap inspection reports using single headline grades such as “outstanding” or “inadequate” after a coroner’s report said an Ofsted inspection had contributed to the death of Ruth Perry, a headteacher, in 2023. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie . In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/oxTPMN3

Regulator finally cuts Royal Mail some slack on its service obligations. But what if it had done so sooner? Royal Mail should cut second-class delivery days, says regulator Ofcom What if Ofcom had cut Royal Mail some slack half a decade ago? What if the universal service obligation (USO), the requirement on the postal operator to deliver nationwide six days a week at a uniform price, had been tweaked before letter volumes fully fell off the cliff? Would Royal Mail’s finances have been in better shape? Would Daniel Křetínský, AKA the Czech Sphinx , not have had an opening to make his £3.6bn takeover bid while the share price was on the floor? Or, if he had pounced, would the board of the International Distribution Services(IDS), the parent, have put up a stiffer fight? Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/SwKEfCX

It should be the GKN Automotive owner taking over its US rival American Axle, not the other way around US rival agrees £1.2bn deal for UK car parts firm in new hit to LSE There goes another hidden gem of the UK stock market, and the mini-tragedy in this case is that the deal ought to be structured the other way around. It should be Dowlais, the FTSE 250 company whose main business carries the grand historic UK manufacturing name of GKN Automotive, buying its US rival, Detroit-based American Axle. Instead, the transaction is a cash-and-shares offer for Dowlais at £1.16bn, or 85p a share . The terms cannot be described as punchy when you remember that the business was demerged from FTSE 100 firm Melrose at 120p as recently as 2023. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/AxujKmM

Palestinians are returning to the north – but the US president’s desire to ‘just clean out’ the strip, however unrealistic, is deeply concerning Palestinians are returning home to northern Gaza, though few of their homes still stand. Their hospitals, schools and other basic infrastructure are destroyed. For some there are tearful reunions; others search for the bodies of their loved ones. They seek hope amid the rubble of their former lives. Yet new threats loom. Israel and the United Nations are in a standoff over the future of Unwra, the relief agency for Palestinians. An Israeli law ending all cooperation with the agency is due to come into force on Thursday – just as desperately needed aid is finally surging into Gaza. Aid experts say no other entity has the capacity to provide its residents with the long-term support needed. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/W8if7s4

An economic shift raises alarming questions about government vision, priorities and commitment to transformative policies To hear Labour’s economic message, one might wonder if Downing Street has developed an unlikely admiration for Liz Truss . Given its focus on growth through cutting planning regulations, reducing welfare budgets and removing dissenting bureaucrats , some believe Labour is in danger of echoing not just the spirit but the substance of Ms Truss’s brief, ill-fated tenure. For a party that rose to power criticising the Tory right’s ideological misadventures, this shift in tone is striking. Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves may see Labour’s sinking poll ratings as reason to align with their opponents, adopting policies – like curbing legal challenges to planning decisions – few rightwingers would contest. In a speech later this week, Ms Reeves plans to give the go-ahead for a third runway at Heathrow, a divisive choice even within Labour that has earned support from ...

The loss of Tyrone Mings to another potentially serious knee injury overshadowed this niggly draw as Aston Villa failed to win for the sixth successive league game after a midweek Champions League tie. The former Villa captain, only three months after returning from the second ACL injury of his career, looks certain to miss this Wednesday’s crucial European game here against Celtic. With Pau Torres still injured and Diego Carlos just transferred to Fenerbahce, they are light in this position. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/onU8Sui

Exeter 31-22 Saracens Saracens finish with 14 men after Wilson red card The Premiership is about to go into hibernation for two months and Exeter badly needed a mood-enhancing win before the Six Nations pushes the club game into the background. They duly claimed a relieving victory against weakened opponents but only after a last-quarter surge from 15-10 down in a previously nervy, scrappy contest. The final scoreboard will show a healthy bonus-point success clinched by two tries inside three minutes from Tommy Wyatt and Ethan Roots but, until that rat-a-tat late burst the outcome was in real doubt courtesy of two tries by the visitors’ speedy right wing Tobias Elliott. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/1wFvyoc

Engaging with councils, universities and developers will be key to bringing the economy back to life It has been a tough beginning to the year for Rachel Reeves. The chancellor has found herself in the spotlight as debt interest costs spiralled, while consumer and business confidence fell. Manufacturers, hampered by high energy costs and the consequences of Brexit, are struggling, while Donald Trump’s threats against those who dare to trade with the US are unsettling. It’s not a completely new situation. Since the budget, Reeves has been criticised for the mix of tax rises and higher borrowing needed for what is only a modest rise in government spending over the next couple of years. Businesses are angry that much of the tax burden has fallen on them. Consumers, uncertain about the nation’s prospects, hunker down. If they spend big, it’s on a foreign holiday to escape the gloomy atmosphere at home. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/4EowZOc

Sundance film festival: Australian director Sophie Hyde’s earnest, semi-autobiographical film moves before it starts to meander More so than other film festivals, Sundance can be a kingmaking force, shining light on an unknown film-maker and then entering into a mutually beneficial relationship with them. Directors return, shifted from smaller to larger venues, off-peak to primetime slots, and watching this steady climb can be a gratifying reward. The Australian director Sophie Hyde has earned this more than most. Her first film, 52 Tuesdays , a thoughtful drama about a transitioning parent’s relationship with their daughter, won her the festival’s best director prize before she returned five years later with Animals , a sharp and spiky adaptation of Emma Jane Unsworth’s painfully perceptive novel of a fracturing friendship. She returned three years later with Good Luck to You, Leo Grande , an unusually frank and explicit comedy drama with a standout Emma Thompson (who, along with A...

It seems Thames is trying to scare the government into thinking the world will end if it falls into ‘special administration’ Make-your-mind-up time approaches for the board of Thames Water. The directors may not have liked Ofwat’s “final determination” last month – even though the regulator allowed bill increases of 35% over the next five years – but if they wish to dispute it, Thames is free to appeal to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The deadline to do so is 18 February. On the way, however, it seems Thames is engaging in another round of lobbying by trying to terrify the government into thinking the world will end if the company falls into the “special administration regime”, or SAR – the temporary nationalisation setup for failing or bankrupt water companies. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/21TforR

Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/Vh910kC

Pollution aside, the problem with expanding Heathrow lies in the disruption and delay inevitable in such a complex project Get ready for another season of that interminable saga, Heathrow’s third runway. There was a lull during the Covid pandemic when the airport’s owners, despite winning permission from the supreme court in 2020 to submit a planning application, cooled their jets while they waited for passenger numbers to recover. Now the whole thing is back, courtesy of Rachel Reeves. The chancellor is reported to be preparing to use a speech next week to declare support for a third runway at Heathrow alongside wider airport expansion in the south-east. The best form of airport expansion is none at all, environmentalists (some of them in the cabinet) will argue, but it looks as if Reeves has dismissed those objections in the name of economic growth. A £1.1bn investment in Stansted, to enable it to grow its annual capacity from 29 million passengers to 43 million, was welcomed by ...

God spared him to make America great again. Rejoice oilmen and climate change deniers, but immigrants watch out Donald Trump inauguration – live updates They came in dribs and drabs, the unwanted, the uninvited and the unloved. First to arrive in Washington was Liz Truss, wearing a red Maga hat and a bright blue coat looking like an extra in a Paddington Bear film. Lizzie could be found standing on a street corner in downtown DC, screaming: “I used to be prime minister of the United Kingdom.” Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/R4qKVne

Women’s Championship club become first to trial alcohol in the stands, with views mixed among supporters “If you can take a coke out there, why not a beer?” was the verdict of the Bristol City season‑ticket holder Andy Payne as he attended the game against London City Lionesses at Ashton Gate on Sunday. It was a historic day as the club, together with Southampton, became the first to pilot alcohol in the stands at a Women’s Championship game. Drinking in view of the pitch is not allowed in the top five men’s leagues in England. That ban is backed by the Sporting Events Act of 1985 but it is understood women’s football is not included in the legislation . If the pilot is successful, the initiative could be rolled out across the top two tiers of women’s football in England. The pilot – which is being conducted at Birmingham and Newcastle too – is being carried out across the clubs’ remaining home league games of the season with some derby fixtures exempt. Continue reading... from Th...

Saracens 24 Castres 32 England hooker limps off with hamstring injury Jamie George is a doubt for England’s Six Nations opener against Ireland in Dublin after limping out of Saracens’ Champions Cup defeat by Castres with a hamstring injury to cap a miserable week for the former national captain. George, who was replaced by Maro Itoje as England captain last Tuesday, was introduced as a second-half replacement here but could do little to stop Saracens letting the match slip through their fingers, ensuring they face an away fixture at Toulon in the last 16. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/ROnecJq

Nobody left early. Nobody stopped singing. Nobody grizzled or grumbled or booed or barracked. Ipswich have spent long enough out of this walled garden not to take its pleasures for granted, even if those pleasures occasionally include getting spanked 6-0 by the quadruple champions. Equally, this is a result the rest of the Premier League will not thank them for. Since Sammie Szmodics sensationally squeezed them ahead at the Etihad Stadium in August, Ipswich have now given up 10 unanswered goals to Manchester City in 173 minutes of football. And if that was partly stage fright, here they were more complicit: a collapse up there with their worst performances of the season, perhaps even playing an edgy City back into some kind of form. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/OoylTc5

A visiting interstate colleague proved the stuff of Dani Netherclift ’s literary daydreams – but could Al ever move beyond her couch? Find more stories from The moment I knew series here In the spring of 2004, I was working in sales in Melbourne. An IT guy was deployed from our Sydney headquarters to help set up the internet in our new office. Al had a laid-back vibe and played bass in a band and I immediately liked what I saw. I was in my late 20s and had been single for a few years, living what I liked to think of as a kind of Secret Life of Us existence in St Kilda (it was the era), drinking, smoking, reading good literature and writing (unpublished) poetry while dreaming of perfect kisses. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/W1kQRzY

Sir Ed Davey – and even Kemi Badenoch – are saying new things about post-Brexit challenges. It is time for Sir Keir Starmer to do likewise A settled British relationship with the European Union has become an increasingly pressing part of Britain’s unfinished national business. Labour came into office promising a welcome post-Brexit reset with Europe. As a result, there have been some useful changes . Yet the reset remains more performative than substantive. In the material world, Britain has not yet moved a single inch – or, if you prefer, a single centimetre – closer to the more constructive trading relationship that should be at any reset’s core. But that may be about to change. Not before time. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/edwxJbA

Kemi Badenoch says she’s sorry not sorry for the mess left by 14 years of the Tories, but offers no clue of how to dig us out of it Seeing is not always believing. Fair to say that Kemi Badenoch’s time as leader of the Tory party has not got off to the best of starts. Hopeless at prime minister’s questions and seemingly already out of ideas, many in the party are already looking around for possible successors. Even Robert Jenrick. Things really are that desperate. Even so, 10 weeks in feels a little premature for a relaunch. If that’s what it was. Hard to know really as no one was much the wiser after Kemi had finished what had been billed as an “important” speech at the Institute of Directors in central London. No one does pointlessness quite like KemiKaze. She is the queen of futility. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/rA3ITEc

The Biden administration has repeatedly undermined international institutions and law to shield Israel. This will come back to haunt them Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/LD3062e

More women are using apps instead of the pill, but while some find them ‘freeing’, others had unwanted pregnancies After 15 years on the contraceptive pill Francesca* decided that she wanted to know how her body felt without additional hormones. She started using a fertility tracking app – which tracks menstrual cycles or symptoms of ovulation to help estimate a woman’s fertile window – after learning about them on social media. “I had been taking hormones since my teens, and had no real conception of my menstrual cycle in my adult life,” said the Londoner, now in her early 30s. She had been diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) at 18 and told to continue taking the pill to help with symptoms. “Remarkably, pretty much all of my hormonal imbalance symptoms started to subside after stopping taking the pill,” she said. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/1ylY4kn

Instead of evaluating chancellor’s performance, her shadow apes rightwing press and calls for her sacking You can only conclude that Conservative MPs are just too trusting for their own good. Either that or they are catatonically dim. The rest of us know enough to not always believe what we read on the front page of the rightwing papers, but Tory MPs seem to take everything at face value. If it’s in the paper, it must be true. It’s almost touching. Tuesday’s front pages of the Mail and the Telegraph insisted Rachel Reeves’s time was up. Going to China while the international bond markets crept upwards was the last straw. The chancellor should resign. What’s more, the prime minister had expressed his “full confidence” in Reeves, which could only mean that he was about to sack her. Let’s just say that Monday had been a slow news day in Westminster and some hacks had decided to make mischief. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/UBf0Cvn

Public investment in technology is the right move. But ministers must not become boosters for an industry that causes harm as well as good Digital technology companies have reshaped our world and will continue doing so. Sir Keir Starmer knows his government must seek a role in shaping this new order – and avoid ceding all control to the US and China. According to official estimates, the UK is the third-largest AI market. Its universities are important incubators of talent. Google DeepMind, two of whose scientists won a Nobel chemistry prize last year , was a British company until Google bought it in 2014. But the world’s two largest economies, and particularly the US corporations that dominate our online lives, are a long way ahead. The danger for the rest of the world is being swept along in an AI wave over which it has little control. Expanding Britain’s publicly owned computing resource – a national asset known as sovereign compute capacity – is a necessary step toward securing ...

Italy’s Alpine cliff and cave rescue corps find items belonging to Aziz Ziriat as search continues Items belonging to a British hiker who has been missing in the Dolomites since New Year’s Day have been found as the search for him continues. Sam Harris, 35, and Aziz Ziriat, 36, from London, last sent messages home on 1 January and the pair did not check in for their flight home on 6 January. Friends and relatives have travelled to Italy. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/6P3wvCp

Polling for the far-right insurgent and its extreme policies is rising but other parties have closed ranks against it despite their weak popularity Germany’s far-right AfD party has signed off on its manifesto before next month’s critical election, proposing a series of deeply controversial policies on everything from migration to education as the campaign for a new government in Europe’s powerhouse formally kicked off. The party, founded in 2013, endorsed the far-right concept of “re-migration” into its programme, threatening the mass deportation of migrants if they came into power. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/1njwUq2

Manchester City reeled off a third win on the bounce and it was all the sweeter with their victims ­having such strong Manchester United connections. Salford City, owned by the Class of 92, David Beckham, Ryan Giggs, Phil and Gary Neville, Nicky Butt and Paul Scholes, were always primed to be easy fall-guys and with 65 places between them and England’s champions, Karl Robinson’s men were cuffed aside as if in an exhibition. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2amKUpM

More voters think tech tycoon’s comments on grooming gangs are unhelpful than those who back him More than half of voters think Elon Musk is having a negative effect on British politics following his criticism of Keir Starmer and Nigel Farage, according to the latest Opinium poll for the Observer . The South African-born billionaire has spent much of the past week using his social media platform X to attack Starmer and the Labour government for their opposition to another national inquiry into grooming gangs. He accused Jess Phillips, the safeguarding minister, of being a “rape genocide apologist ” and falsely claimed Starmer was “deeply complicit in the mass rapes in exchange for votes ”. Despite strong suggestions that Musk is preparing to make a large donation to Reform UK, he also recently tore into Nigel Farage, saying he was not up to the job of leading the party. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/VZa2wIT

The supreme court order may also be a harbinger of what awaits the US over the next four years: litigation that again divides the judiciary and the nation Donald Trump will take the office on 20 January 2025 as a convicted felon. On Thursday night, a sharply divided US supreme court declined to ride to his last-minute rescue . In a one-paragraph order, the majority refused to stay his state court-sentencing whose genesis lay with payments that Trump allegedly arranged to cover up his purported affair with the adult film actor Stormy Daniels. Last May, a Manhattan jury unanimously found the 45th president guilty of 34 counts of conspiracy and fraud. The supreme court order may also be a harbinger of what awaits the US over the next four years: litigation that again divides the judiciary and the nation. Five of the nine supreme court justices, including chief justice John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett, a Trump appointee, refused to buy what the monarch of Mar-a-Lago was selling. Th...

Unlike 2022, bond markets have not been shocked, but the chancellor will know threat of a doom loop is not far away Borrowing costs at the highest level since 1998, the pound at a 14-month low and some major UK company shares dropping like a stone. For a government that had pledged a return to economic stability, it has been a tough start to 2025 for Rachel Reeves. As the chancellor prepared to fly to China to promote closer economic ties with Beijing, the blow-up in the bond market appeared to ease on Thursday after a rough couple of days. But Reeves is still battling a political fire and comparisons to Liz Truss’s ill-fated mini-budget . Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/n4IzZqa

Labour’s fiscal rules may limit the chancellor’s ability to act, but waiting it out may be the best option The UK government has come under pressure from a bond market sell-off and the tumbling pound, heaping pressure on the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, to reassure investors about Britain’s economic and financial position. After a challenging first six months in power for the government, the chancellor’s options have been limited by Labour’s political promises. There are a range of measures, of varying severity, the Treasury and the Bank of England could still take, depending on how market conditions unfold. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/p7TMi64

Kemi Badenoch wanted an inquiry because she wanted an inquiry. Why was that difficult to understand? Last weekend the Daily Mail ran a front-page story about the imminent demise of Keir Starmer. A few days on and it’s increasingly looking like Kemi Badenoch whose job may be on the line. Just take a look at the faces of her backbench MPs at prime minister’s questions. Faces taut. Wishing they were somewhere else. Not a smile in sight. What’s more, they know they have no one to blame but themselves. KemiKaze hasn’t changed. She hasn’t got the top job by false pretences. She’s always been primarily a culture warrior. A fundamentally unserious politician. Someone who bounces around in her own echo chamber until she collides with a piece of political opportunism. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/NTHr3be

The fast-fashion retailer’s reluctance to disclose information about its supply chain in China won’t wash It is “not unusual” for UK-listed companies to carry legal risks around the world, Nikhil Rathi, the chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority, told the FT last month . The boss of the regulatory body that ultimately decides which companies can list their shares in London added: “What’s important is that they disclose it, the investors understand it and they can price that risk.” Rathi’s remarks were inevitably read as aimed at Shein, the Chinese-founded but Singapore-headquartered fast-fashion retailer whose possible listing in London has been a running story since the company filed preliminary paperwork seven months ago . Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/HAz3kmc

With infants dying of exposure and desperation growing, a ceasefire and hostage release deal have never been more necessary The new year has commenced as bleakly as the last one concluded in Gaza. As December came to an end, the UN announced that the healthcare system was on the brink of outright collapse due to Israel’s attacks. Within days of the new year beginning, an official with Unrwa warned that social order will collapse if Israel ends all cooperation with the aid agency for Palestinians later this month, as scheduled. In between, scores of people were killed in intensified Israeli strikes, including in an area designated as a safe zone . Gaza’s health ministry said on Monday that at least 45,854 have now died there in the 15 months since the Hamas attacks in southern Israel. The crisis is so familiar and relentless now that international attention has flagged. And yet it is so desperate that the facts must be reiterated. At least seven infants have died from the c...

The UK prime minister calls out the reckless amplification of conspiracy theories by the world’s richest man on child sexual abuse. Good On Monday, Sir Keir Starmer rightly defended robust debate but insisted it “must be grounded in facts, not lies”, in response to Elon Musk’s falsehoods about his role in dealing with child sexual exploitation. The prime minister has wisely not engaged Mr Musk directly, partly because the world’s richest man is a member of Donald Trump’s inner circle . Sir Keir recognises this epistemic crisis as a coordinated campaign to spread disinformation, sow division, and erode trust. As the philosopher Lee McIntyre aptly notes : “The truth isn’t dying – it’s being killed.” The goal is clear: to create groups in society that unquestioningly accept an authoritarian leader’s word. In this way, opinions are no longer based on facts but rooted in identity. Disinformation becomes a potent political weapon, making voters believe falsehoods while distrusting – even ...

Away from the spotlight sportsmen and women are helping tackle disadvantage and inequality and can have a huge impact As we anticipate what sport will bring us in 2025, we might be tempted to look ahead to the major international tournaments in rugby, cricket and football. But there’s another space to consider, less glamorous but absolutely vital, where sport is making an increasingly significant contribution to society – the growing cadre of sportsmen and women working as mentors in support of young people facing challenges and disadvantages. Organisations such as the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust (DKHT) , Dallaglio Rugbyworks , Football Beyond Borders and Streetgames use sportsmen and women to provide support, encouragement and a trusted connection for young people trapped in complex adverse situations around the country. Just turning up at a sports session isn’t enough; it’s about creating a relationship with a trusted mentor within that setting. Continue reading... from The Guardi...

Tributes paid to Lib Dem peer and former Wales culture minister who introduced free entry to museums Tributes have been paid to Jenny Randerson, a “titan” of Welsh politics who introduced free entry to museums in Wales, after her death at the age of 76. Lady Randerson brought in the measure while a minister in the Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition in the Welsh parliament between 2000 and 2003. She died on Saturday. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/enFvAiC

The PM can at least take comfort from the fact that the Tories are struggling just as much as he is Six months after Labour’s biggest landslide in a generation , the new government is already in the mire. The poll lead on which Starmer’s majority was built has already all but vanished, leaving Labour in a three-way dogfight with the Conservatives and Nigel Farage’s resurgent Reform UK , while, further down, both the Greens and Liberal Democrats have also made gains. Voters have historically given new governments the benefit of the doubt, with most holding their ground or gaining support in their first six months. Blair’s first two new Labour governments enjoyed polling honeymoons. Starmer has had no such luck. Labour’s seven-point decline since the election has been exceeded only once in the past four decades – by the Conservatives’ eight-point fall in the wake of “ Black Wednesday ” in 1992. Starmer’s early approval ratings are also worse than any PM at this stage except Major after...

His trilogy captured my heart – and while Amis, Bradbury and Jacobson spoke to me, Lodge’s writing had an extra something David Lodge, Campus Trilogy novelist and academic, dies aged 89 ‘It’s largely thanks to him that the British comic novel remains in good health’: David Lodge remembered by Jonathan Coe David Lodge was already a lauded novelist in 1987, when I arrived at the unassuming doors of Foster Court on Malet Place to study English literature and language at University College London. Lodge had taken the same course there himself more than 30 years before, got a first and went on to do a master’s there, too. His name was spoken with pride in hushed, reverent tones – and this was a department that would happily dismiss anything published after 1850 as hopelessly modern. I dutifully bought Changing Places to see what the fuss was about. The campus novel was a serious literary genre then – Kingsley Amis, Malcolm Bradbury and Howard Jacobson were prominent names and their n...

Factory closures highlight the turbulent shift to a green economy, exposing political challenges and the urgent need for a equitable move to net zero One of the biggest political battles of the future began to take shape in 2024, yet it did not centre on Westminster. Instead, try Grangemouth in central Scotland, Port Talbot in south Wales and Luton in the south of England. Their stories were not front-page staples, but each was of huge significance – locally, nationally and economically. Grangemouth is Scotland’s sole oil refinery, whose owners confirmed in September that it would shut, to be replaced by a terminal taking in imported fuel – with nearly 400 workers losing their jobs. In the last days of September, the only remaining blast furnace at Port Talbot was shut down, as part of a restructuring that will cost 2,800 employees their jobs. At the end of November, staff at Vauxhall in Luton were told the plant would shut, ending 120 years of the carmaker...

The deadly assault on crowds in the US city echoes those elsewhere. A bigoted and kneejerk reaction will not dispel the threat from terrorism The deadly attack on new year revellers in New Orleans , which killed at least 15 people and injured dozens more, was all the more terrible for its familiar characteristics. The method of attack – ploughing a vehicle into crowds – and the decision to strike those celebrating at a time associated with togetherness and joy are now far too well recognised internationally. It is less than a fortnight since a man used a car to kill at least five, including a nine-year-old child, at a Christmas market near Magdeburg in Germany. Part of the grimness of this event is that ordinary activities that should require no special protections are now guarded as a matter of course – and that even such precautions can prove inadequate. Bollards were reportedly being upgraded in New Orleans ahead of next month’s Super Bowl, and patrols and barricades were being u...

Over the holidays, this column is looking ahead at the urgent issues of 2025. Today, the expansion of the partnership between Beijing and Moscow It is almost three years since Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin declared a friendship with “no limits” – weeks before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Since then, they have retreated from such rhetorical enthusiasm. The “no limits” language was quickly dumped, probably at Beijing’s behest. When Mr Putin visited in May last year, he claimed that he and his counterpart were “ as close as brothers ”. Mr Xi more coolly called the Russian president “a good friend and a good neighbour”. China has conspicuously not reciprocated Mr Putin’s description of it as an ally. Yet the partnership continues to broaden and deepen, to western alarm, across economic, political and military fronts. The US Council on Foreign Relations recently assessed it “the greatest threat to vital US national interests in sixty years”. The last 12 months saw unpr...