Happy Monday. Some interesting reassurance to kick you off this week, while UK inflation was reported in December at 3.4% here’s a quirk to reassure you it doesn’t mean the price of milk is going through the roof.

The main contributor for the December increase was air fares, but get this - the good folks at the ONS (Office for National Statistics) calculates inflation over the Christmas period on the third Tuesday of the month and work out how much a return flight will cost you.

In 2024 (the comparison for this years % growth) the dates worked out as a return journey on Christmas Eve, when demand is minimal (who flies on Christmas eve?). But this time around the 23rd December when demand is always much higher and thus higher prices. Not quite apples with apples, hopefully it isn’t all that bad - let’s see what January figures have in store.

Notable UK earnings this week: Ryanair (RYAAY), Costain (COST), Babcock (BAB), Mitie (MTO), Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY).

Notable US earnings this week: Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Meta (META), Tesla (TSLA), IBM (IBM), Starbucks (SBUX), Mastercard (MA).

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🔌 National Grid updates plan for UK-Netherlands “LionLink” interconnector. Read more

🚂 Final HS2 tunnel drive set to begin to Euston. Read more

💧 Contractor search starts for £5.7bn Oxfordshire reservoir. Read more

Government debt drops in December
Government borrowing in December took a noticeable dip – £11.6bn, if you're counting – thanks largely to a tax haul that Father Christmas himself would've marvelled at. That’s £7.1bn less than December 2024, a 38% drop, prompting Westminster to briefly consider smiling. Spoiler: they didn’t. Still, it’s up from December 2023, so let’s not get completely ahead of ourselves.

The culprits (or heroes, if you’re HMRC) behind all this extra cash? A solid boost in income tax, VAT, corporation tax, and higher National Insurance contributions. Despite the government doing its best impression of a Scrooge with frozen income tax thresholds, fiscal drag meant higher earners unintentionally became even higher contributors. Congratulations, you’ve been upgraded from “average taxpayer” to “economic backbone” without ever asking for it.

Public spending didn’t exactly tighten its belt either – up to £92.9bn, a 3.5% increase. Benefits, some of which are sensibly linked to unrelenting inflation, shouldered much of the rise. But luckily, the Treasury raked in £7.7bn more in tax than the year before, just in time to recover from the Christmas party receipts.

IMF backs Britain for bronze in the growth olympics
Turns out, 2026 might not be the economic car crash we all braced for. According to the IMF - yes, those loveable optimists with spreadsheets - the UK is tipped to be the third fastest-growing G7 economy next year, pacing just behind the US and Canada. Not quite Olympic gold, but we’re comfortably ahead of Italy, France, and Japan... and matching Germany, provided they don’t start including towels on deckchairs into the summer figures.

Who do we thank for this slightly perkier-than-expected forecast? Our darling artificial intelligence, of course. Tech investment has surged across the West faster than British gas bills, with AI dragging stubborn post-pandemic economies out of their malaise. Even Blighty’s been chipping in - though at a more modest pace than our cousins across the pond.

The numbers? Lavishly underwhelming. The UK economy is set to grow by 1.3% this year, and 1.4% in 2025 (up a whopping 0.1% – steady now), nudging 1.5% in 2027. Call it slow and steady, or call it a flat pint – either way, Chancellor Rachel Reeves is taking it as a win. She’s boldly declared 2026 “the year the country turns a corner.” Presumably onto another road with mildly fewer potholes.

Licence, surveillance, and suspicion – a licence to drill?
Policing in the UK underwent a Bond-style makeover, with every officer soon needing a licence to be old bill. Yes, no longer just for driving or dog-walking, the "Licence to Practise" will be required to wield a warrant card, as the government rolls out a national policing overhaul.

Enter the National Police Service, aka the "British FBI", taking over serious crime while local bobbies get back to pinching petty thieves and scowling at litter. But just as Britain was trying to tighten its own security, it also gave the green light to China’s £255m mega-embassy slap-bang in London - right next to cables carrying half the UK’s secrets. Ministers insist it’s safe, critics call it digital divvie-ness.

Teens, treaties and tectonic shifts
The House of Lords has spoken: teens and TikTok should part ways - at least until they hit sweet sixteen. Backed by peers wielding concerns about mental health, radicalisation and doom-scrolling-induced doom, the proposed social media ban is now in legislative limbo, tangled in consultations and a looming Commons clash, and Canada’s clock is tick-tocking towards its own ban too.

Meanwhile, an even older British entanglement resurfaced, as the Chagos Islands debate got shelved faster than your New Year’s new juicer. Tories are calling for a rethink of the UK-Mauritius deal (cue China-paranoia and Trump-flavoured "act of great stupidity" critique).

Tariffs are back - Greenland Canada edition
They say there are only two certainties in life: death and taxes. But, Donald Trump threatening tariffs may just be the third. The former US President has aimed his latest threat to slap a 100% tariff on all Canadian goods if Canada cosies up too closely to China. At this rate, Canada might have a better shot at roasting marshmallows over the northern lights than at economic stability.

Recently, Canada struck a cheeky little deal with Beijing to lower tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles. In return, China would reduce import taxes on Canadian farm goods – a trade swap that even Britain's biscuit aisle would envy. Mr Trump, however, apparently mistook this as Canada morphing into a parcel depot for China's goods entering the US.

Since ‘giving it large’ on Truth Social is the modern day setting for presidential comms - the US-Canada interaction seems to be turning into something of a pantomime, with Trump dubbing Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney as "Governor Carney" – an insult that was reserved for Mr Trudeau when threatening to make Canada the 51st state of America.

Netflix set to close on all cash deal for Warner Bros
Netflix has switched its $83 billion offer for Warner Bros to an all-cash proposal, politely asking Paramount to clear the stage. If successful, the blockbuster merger could bring HBO Max under Netflix's wing, potentially turning their multi-stream subscriptions into a more consolidated viewing monopoly. The average American, clinging to optimism, dares to dream of a world where this translates to smaller bills.

As streaming costs skyrocket quicker than a London house price, Americans are reportedly clinging to an average of 2.9 streaming services, coughing up a staggering $552 annually for their pane of audio-visual pleasures. Indeed, a Forrester Research survey found Netflix reigns supreme in viewing packages, making USA hopes not entirely fanciful.

Data, drones, doors
This week in sky-high shenanigans, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin announced its TeraWave satellite swarm - a 5,400-strong squadron ready for space-based datacentres poised to beam bandwidth to data-hungry governments and businesses.

Meanwhile, Shanghai is giving civilian drones the green light - literally - with nearly half the city becoming a free-fly zone. While China aims for low-altitude economic lift-off, Ubisoft's ambitions took a nosedive, cancelling six games, including the long-awaited Prince of Persia remake.

The gaming giant closed studios and promised fewer flops and more franchise farming, proving once again that in tech, the sky’s the limit - unless you’re a reboot with nostalgia and no revenue stream.

Addicted, algorithmically afflicted
In the land of likes and litigation, Snap(chat) dodged a courtroom snapback by quietly settling a landmark social media addiction case. The lawsuit, brought by a 19-year-old who claimed algorithm-induced anxiety, still looms over Meta, TikTok and YouTube, with Zuckerberg prepped for the witness box and PR chaos.

Grip, grit
While Alex Honnold climbed all of Taipei 101’s 508 metres without any safety gear or ropes, giving Netflix a reason to invest in live-delay life insurance, history was clinging on elsewhere too - albeit with fewer GoPros and more government scrutiny.

In Hong Kong, three activists behind once-legal Tiananmen vigils found themselves on trial for challenging towering political structures. The vigil organisers face up to 10 years for the audacity of remembrance. Those involved in these Taipei and Tiananmen stories are masterclasses in defying gravity, be it physical or political.

Hands down, the oldest tag war
In a cave older than your nan’s biscuit tin, prehistoric humans left their mark - literally - by stencilling hands on Sulawesi’s walls some 67,800 years ago, officially beating the Neanderthals at paleo-Pictionary.

These early island-hopping artists weren’t just passing through; they were culture-carriers, sailing the ancient sea lanes to Australia while practising the original form of tagging: spit-painting their palms onto stone.