The Week 1523

What happened Reeves under pressure Rachel Reeves pledged on Tuesday to go “further and faster” to boost economic growth, as she came under pressure over her handling of the public finances. The Chancellor’s Commons statement followed a week of turbulence in the bond market that pushed the UK’s borrowing costs to a 27-year high. The Tories accused Keir Starmer of lacking confidence in Reeves after he declined, at a press conference, to say whether she would still be in her post at the next election. No. 10 later insisted that she would. Government borrowing costs have risen worldwide owing to concerns about stubbornly high inflation, which have led investors to seek a higher rate of return on bonds. The rise has particularly affected the UK, where the value of the…

What happened Wind gusts of up to 50mph threatened to fan the flames of the wildfires still burning in Los Angeles this week, as officials warned that the natural disaster was set to become one of the costliest in American history. During a period of relative calm at the weekend, firefighters had made progress tackling the three worst fires ravaging LA and its environs: Palisades, which has burned 24,000 acres; Eaton (14,000 acres); and Hurst (800 acres). By Tuesday, however, there were warnings that “Santa Ana” winds could help the fires spread again. This week, some 90,000 people remained under evacuation orders (down from a peak of 190,000); the death toll rose to 25; and 12,000 structures, including homes and cars, were estimated to have been destroyed. President Biden likened…

More than 360 acres of low lying farmland on the Severn Estuary are to be turned back into saltmarsh: coastal areas that are regularly flooded by the incoming tides. The reserve on the Awre peninsula will be restored by the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, which will breach the sea walls and carry out engineering works to create habitats including creeks and ponds. Farmers have broadly welcomed the project, which the WTT says will also reduce flooding and capture carbon. Three friends who turned tiddlywinks into a competitive sport while studying at Cambridge in the 1950s have celebrated their club’s 70th anniversary. Bill Steen, 91, recalled that he and his friends were “hopeless” at sport, but saw tiddlywinks as a chance to be awarded a prestigious “blue”, the highest honour that…

“What will it take before Keir Starmer finally gets it?” said Dan Hodges in the Daily Mail. This week, several Labour MPs broke ranks with the PM and called for a national inquiry into the abuse committed by grooming gangs. Unlike Starmer, they can see that “the case for an inquiry is unanswerable”. First, there’s the sheer scale of the abuse: over a thousand young girls were subjected to rape and torture “on an industrial scale”. There have been local inquiries, and one “sprawling” national child sex abuse inquiry chaired by Alexis Jay – covering everything from the Catholic Church to foster children sent to Australia – but there has not been one full public inquiry to resolve this national scandal. Serious questions remain over what really happened in towns…

Nearly a quarter of Gen Z adults admit that they could not change a light bulb, according to a survey by Halfords. One in five don’t know what a spanner is, and one in ten say they would call in a professional to hang a picture. More than a quarter would get a car cleaned rather than do it themselves. A pot of hard-boiled eggs has overtaken crisps to become the UK’s favourite meal deal snack from Tesco. The supermarket said that, for the past three years, its most popular meal deal has been a sausage, bacon and egg sandwich, McCoy’s flame-grilled steak crisps and a 500ml bottle of Coca-Cola. Now, shoppers prefer a chicken club sandwich and an “egg protein pot”. However, Coke is still their preferred drink.…

The Princess of Wales, who revealed that her cancer is in remission. On a return visit to the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, where she was treated, she thanked staff and sought to reassure other cancer patients, telling them that though the treatment is “tough”, there is “light at the end of that tunnel”. Italian cultural traditions, after a pizzeria in Norfolk said it was charging £100 for its Hawaiian pizzas, to deter customers from ordering the “tropical menace”. The idea of putting pineapple on pizzas has long appalled some foodies. “It’s so repellent, were I to think of it, I might not survive,” actor Stanley Tucci once said. Job shares, with news that Gabby Logan, Kelly Cates and Mark Chapman are replacing Gary Lineker as host of Match of…