The Week 1544

Eurostar has raised the prospect of a new “golden age” of international rail travel, in which passengers can board trains at St Pancras in London and alight, five or so hours later, in Geneva or Frankfurt. The operator says it will invest in a fleet of 50 trains, which will start plying those direct routes in the 2030s – once various hurdles, such as a lack of passenger space at St Pancras, have been overcome (see page 39). The cities were chosen because they attract business and leisure travellers. A surfing Catholic priest who won a bravery award in Australia in 2022 for rescuing a man who had been badly mauled by a great white shark, has made headlines again – this time for coming to the aid of a…

What happened The Spending Review After fraught last-minute negotiations with colleagues, Rachel Reeves delivered her first Spending Review this week. It outlined the Government’s priorities, setting out how much funding each department will receive for day-today spending across three fiscal years – 2026/27 to 2028/29 – as well as the level of capital spending over these years and the following one. The Chancellor announced a £113bn boost in capital spending, funded by borrowing, which she said would help renew Britain. It will be invested in nuclear power, social and affordable housing, local transport infrastructure, and science and technology projects. Overall, day-to-day spending is set to grow by an average of 1.2% a year in real terms over the Spending Review period. Most of this increase will go to the NHS:…

What happened On the orders of Donald Trump, some 700 US marines arrived in Los Angeles on Tuesday to join a controversial crackdown on protests against the president’s immigration policies. Trump had earlier defied the city’s leaders, and California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, by deploying 4,000 troops from the National Guard, America’s largest reservist force, to LA. It was the first time a president had called in the National Guard against the wishes of a state governor in 60 years, and triggered accusations from Trump’s critics that he was fanning the flames of the unrest to fire up his Maga base. The deployment failed to put a stop to the protests, which continued for a fifth consecutive day on Tuesday, and spread to other cities, including New York. The unrest…

Controversy of the week Reform’s Achilles heel “It was all going so well,” said Iain Martin on Reaction. Reform UK, buoyed by sweeping gains in council elections and riding high in the polls, broke new ground last week, when it won its largest-ever Scottish parliamentary vote share at the Hamilton by-election (see page 21). But while Nigel Farage’s upstart outfit should have been celebrating, Zia Yusuf suddenly quit as party chairman, stating on X/Twitter that the role was “no longer… a good use of my time”. A successful businessman and self-declared “British Muslim patriot”, who was instrumental in Reform’s recent successes, Yusuf quit after saying it was “dumb” for the party’s newest MP, Sarah Pochin, to have called for a burqa ban when Reform had not adopted the policy. He…

Young men are now more likely to spend money on facial “tweakments” than young women, according to new analysis by Barclays based on data from debit and credit cards. This suggests that 23% of men aged 18 to 34 have had Botox, fillers or dental veneers, compared with 21% of women of that age. Across all age groups, 12% of men and 13% of women have had a tweakment in the past ten years, though these are not cheap. Botox costs from £150 and lasts three to six months. Residents of a famously “Instagrammable” street in London’s Notting Hill are trying to deter hordes of visitors by painting their colourful houses jet black. They say the influencers who flock to Lancaster Road make life there “hell”.…

M&S, which resumed online trading, six weeks after its services were halted by a cyberattack. The retailer said that “a selection” of its fashion ranges were now available for home delivery in Britain, with more products being added daily and deliveries in Northern Ireland resuming “in the coming weeks”. Lilo & Stitch, Disney’s live-action remake of the 2002 animated film, which is set to be the biggest box-office hit of 2025. Although it was mauled by the critics, the film has so far grossed nearly twice as much as Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, and is on track to break the $1bn mark. Anglican priests, who are getting a pay rise of 10.7%. The increase will take the minimum stipend from £30,110 to £33,350 from next April. Priests are…