The Week 1527

What happened Gaza on the brink The ceasefire in Gaza appeared on the brink of collapse this week after the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, threatened to resume “intense fighting” on Saturday if further hostages were not released then. Hamas had announced the previous day that it was suspending the next scheduled release of captives in protest at alleged Israeli violations of the ceasefire deal: it accused Israel of delaying the return of Palestinians to Gaza, carrying out strikes across the enclave and hindering the distribution of aid. Netanyahu’s warning echoed that of Donald Trump, who had earlier threatened that “all hell is going to break out” if the remaining Israeli hostages were not released. Trump also said he might withhold aid to Jordan and Egypt if they didn’t take…

What happened The Government released – for the first time – videos of illegal migrants being ushered onto deportation flights, as part of its drive to show that it is strengthening the UK’s borders. On Monday, Labour said that 18,987 people had been deported since the party won power in July – the highest number over a six-month period since 2017. It added that Home Office enforcement teams had raided 828 premises in January, arresting 609 people – a 73% rise on the same month last year. The videos angered left-wing Labour MPs; but Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, said that a tough approach was needed to restore “credibility” to the immigration system. Last week, Kemi Badenoch said that the Tories would make it harder for migrants to get indefinite…

The Foreign Office’s former chief mouser has been given a new diplomatic posting in Bermuda. Palmerston, a rescue cat of indeterminate age, worked at the Foreign Office until 2020, when he was adopted by his colleague Andrew Murdoch. He was thought to be retired, but when Murdoch was sent to Bermuda to serve as its governor, Palmerston went too. “I’ve been very busy meeting very welcoming Bermudians,” Palmerston wrote on his X/Twitter account last week. A six-year-old springer spaniel has been trained to avert ecological disasters by sniffing out oil spills. Locating oil spilled from the pipelines that run across North America’s lakes usually requires heavy machinery, but Poppy can find it submerged at depths of up to five metres and trapped under thick ice. “This isn’t just a novelty,”…

Controversy of the week “So, it seems that Donald Trump wasn’t bluffing after all,” said Matthew Lynn in The Spectator. The self-proclaimed “Tariff Man” ramped up his trade war this week by imposing a sweeping 25% tariff on all steel and aluminium imports, saying that it was “the beginning of making America rich again”. The tariffs could deal a “terminal blow” to the EU steel industry, which is already “crippled” by net-zero targets; UK steelmakers called the measures “devastating”. But Trump’s steel levies will also “harm US manufacturers and workers”, said The Wall Street Journal. “That’s what his first-term tariffs did”, and it’s worth “revisiting the damage of that blunder” as he now repeats it. While domestic steel production still rose after the 2018 tariffs, “the price was paid” by…

Network Rail has been accused of “patronising” passengers by taking trains off departure boards early, to stop people from rushing. As part of a trial at King’s Cross, trains are being erased from screens three minutes prior to departure, with final calls announced four minutes before time (see page 19). “Whether I run for the train is my decision,” one unhappy commuter told The Times. Gen Z are increasingly embracing “Palentine’s Day” – the friendship-focused alternative to Valentine’s Day – because it is less “exclusionary” for single people, The Daily Telegraph reports. Sales of Palentine’s cards have soared in recent years, and universities are putting on Palentine’s events to mark the day, which takes place on 13 February.…

Birmingham, after Ozzy Osbourne announced that he is going home for his farewell gig – a reunion of the heavy metal giants Black Sabbath at Villa Park. “It’s my time to go Back to the Beginning,” said the 76-year-old, who has Parkinson’s. “Birmingham is the true home of metal. Birmingham Forever.” Prince Harry, who can stop worrying about having his US visa revoked. Since Harry revealed in his memoir that he had used drugs, his critics have been demanding to know if he admitted that on his visa application. But last week Donald Trump said he had no interest in pursuing the matter, adding that the Prince has “enough problems with his wife”, Meghan, who is “terrible”. Czech taxpayers, upon the news that beavers had saved them £1m by completing…