Happy Monday. Big week for anyone chasing the Abbott Majors - these are the seven ‘major’ marathons across the world - London, New York, Sydney, Boston, Chicago, Tokyo and Berlin.

New York, the largest of the lot (by number of runners, not notoriety - Old Blighty takes the crown on that one in our book), opens its doors for ballot entries this week. If you missed out on London, your chances are twice as likely for New York… albeit from 1.5% for London to 3% for New York!

Notable UK earnings this week: GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Shell (SHEL).

Notable US earnings this week: Walt Disney (DIS), Palantir (PLTR), AMD (AMD), Alphabet (GOOGL), Eli Lilly (LLY), Uber (UBER), Amazon (AMZN).

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🏗️ Laing O’Rourke confirmed for £250m Brighton cancer centre. Read more

🎓 £274m appointment for Newcastle student housing job. Read more

Let’s go East
The Prime Minister has wrapped up the UK’s first PM-level visit to China in eight years with a tidy shopping basket: £2.2 billion in export deals, roughly £2.3 billion in market-access wins over the next five years, and hundreds of millions in fresh investment. Not bad for a diplomatic trip that—like most work travel—was probably heavy on meetings and light on natural daylight.

The headline-grabber for Scotland (and anyone who thinks “a quiet one” is a perfectly legitimate plan) is whisky: China has agreed to cut tariffs from 10% to 5%. That’s expected to be worth about £250 million to the UK economy over five years, helping Scotch compete in a fast-growing market where consumers are increasingly keen on premium imports. Consider it a pragmatic toast: clear-eyed engagement, with fewer added costs.

Investment announcements came thick and fast. POP MART—the Chinese entertainment brand behind the viral Labubus and a general sense that grown adults will queue for anything—plans to make London its regional hub, opening 27 new European stores (up to seven here) and creating over 150 UK jobs. Meanwhile, Chery Commercial Vehicles will set up its European HQ in Liverpool, pledging support for a local green supply chain—because if there’s one thing the North West loves, it’s jobs with a side of industrial revival.

Thames Water lenders deal to avoid public ownership
Thames Water is edging towards a multibillion-pound rescue deal designed to keep it out of temporary public ownership. Think less “romantic Valentine’s” and more “awkward group date” between regulators, creditors and a utility with a talent for making the wrong sort of splash.

A creditor group holding roughly £13bn of Thames Water’s hulking £20bn debt pile is aiming to strike an in-principle agreement with Ofwat and the company by mid-February. The rumour in the industry: lenders may swallow a haircut of up to 30% on Class A debt — a touch more bracing than the 25% floated back in October. In total, over £13bn of value could be written off, with participating investors said to include Assured Guaranty, Invesco, Elliott Management, Silver Point Capital and Farallon Capital.

Money goes walkabout, again
Rwanda has popped the kettle on and sent Britain the electric bill, claiming the UK still owes a tidy nine figures after Sir Keir Starmer ceremonially buried the asylum deal sometime between the election count and his first red box. The policy - dreamt up under Boris Johnson as a Channel-crossing deterrent - cost around £700m, moved precisely four volunteers, and now risks going down in history as the most expensive hypothetical ever trialled.

Rwanda argues Britain breached the agreement by talking about the money too loudly, not paying £100m it says was due, and failing to resettle a small number of vulnerable refugees from Rwanda to the UK. The UK, meanwhile, says the whole thing was a colossal waste and will “robustly defend” taxpayers - a phrase that usually precedes a very robust legal bill.

Rwanda says it’s owed the cash. Britain says absolutely not. Everyone agrees on one thing: the policy is dead, buried, and now haunting the balance sheet like a Victorian ghost demanding Charlesian zone-three rent.

Feudalism, but make it cheaper
While one bill threatens to grow, another is finally being capped. Ground rents - that curious feudal relic where homeowners pay for the privilege of owning nothing underneath them - are set to be limited to £250 a year in England and Wales. Labour calls it the beginning of the end for leasehold; campaigners call it progress with an asterisk the size of a studio flat.

Freeholders warn of investment apocalypse; campaigners warn of justice delayed. Ministers insist they’ve struck the balance between pensions and people. Somewhere in the middle sit leaseholders, but at least they’re now paying a little less for a lot of nothing.

Tariff turbulence sending leaders to China
Countries that once gave China the diplomatic cold shoulder during its trade scrap with the US are now turning up, suitcases in hand, for face time with President Xi Jinping — and, more importantly, for a bit of deal-making.

At least five national leaders have visited Xi in January alone, including UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Canada’s Mark Carney. Uruguay’s President Yamandú Orsi is due next week (the first South American country since the Maduro capture).

For Britain and Canada, these were the first trips in at least eight years; Ireland’s visit on 5 January was its first in 14. China’s borders, of course, were shut tight through Covid and only properly reopened in early 2023 — the diplomatic equivalent of finally taking the “Sorry we missed you” card seriously.

Economists aren’t yet calling it a grand romance though, more “managed, selective resets” driven by rising uncertainty in US policy — a polite way of saying Washington’s trade policy currently has the predictability of British rail replacement buses. Keeping the Beijing channel open is increasingly viewed as better than flouncing off altogether, especially as the economic upside becomes harder to ignore.

NASA launch update
Florida’s doing its best impression of Aberdeenshire, so NASA’s shifting the Artemis II wet dress rehearsal “tanking day” to Monday 2 February at Kennedy Space Center. That weather wobble means the earliest possible launch opportunity now isn’t before Sunday 8 February — because even rockets have to check the forecast before leaving the house.

Engineers have been watching the cold and wind roll through the Sunshine State (currently mis-sold, frankly) and comparing the kit’s limits against a forecast shaped by a rare arctic outbreak. Managers have opted for the sensible move: tweak the timeline rather than pretend “it’ll be fine” — the strategy most of us reserve for rail replacement buses, not spaceflight. Teams are still pad-ready, but this weekend’s conditions would have breached launch constraints, so NASA’s choosing “success” over “drama for the livestream”.

Ban, block, and broadcast
Le social media ban bash has entered France, with a vote to ban social media for under-15s. President Macron, channelling his inner digital Robespierre, called it a “major step” in protecting fragile teenage brains from the dopamine-fuelled doomscroll. Platforms like TikTok and Instagram would be exiled to the over-15 crowd. The logic? These apps promised connection, but instead left kids feeling like Napoleon at Waterloo - overexposed and a bit broken.

Across the Channel to the UK, Waymo’s robotaxis are set for launch in London by September, with trials beginning in April. Keeping with the future is here vibe, Elon Musk’s Neuralink chip is turning sci-fi into reality. 22-year-old Seb from England, paralysed from the neck down, now controls a computer with his mind faster than he ever could before, thanks to their brain chip implant. With plans to embody Tesla Optimus robots via brain chips, Musk might just make our species wireless. Beam me up, Elon.

Crypto, clutter, and cosmic clutter
Coinbase has had its crypto knuckles rapped by UK regulators for a cheeky ad campaign that implied crypto could solve the cost-of-living crisis. The ASA wasn’t buying it, branding the ads irresponsible and saying they trivialised the serious risks of crypto ‘investing’. Apparently, suggesting Bitcoin could replace baked beans as a budget fix didn’t fly. Coinbase insists it was just satire, not snake oil.

And now, to space - where SpaceX has applied to launch (deep breath) one million satellites. SpaceX wants to create orbital data centres to power the AI boom. Musk dreams of a Kardashev II civilisation, harnessing the Sun’s full power. But astronomers aren’t thrilled - they say Starlink is already blinding their telescopes.

Around the world twice in 80 days
Forty days, give or take, is usually how long Britain spends thinking about booking a holiday. For Thomas Coville, it was enough time to nip around the entire planet, beating the world record.

Sailing non-stop, battling storms, swells and the sort of sleep deprivation that makes a teabag look like a good pillow, Coville and his six-strong crew shaved twelve hours off the previous record.

The boat flew across the Atlantic, tiptoed around the Pacific, and behaved itself just long enough to make history. Coville sailed straight into the record books and reminded the rest of us that “plain sailing” is a phrase best reserved for people who have never actually been sailing.

Pandas, politics and a lot of sobbing
Meanwhile, in Tokyo, diplomacy took the shape of two fluffy ambassadors being quietly wheeled back into their black and white travel crates. Thousands queued at Ueno Zoo to say goodbye to Xiao Xiao and Lei Lei, Japan’s last giant pandas, amid tears, sniffles, and the unmistakable sense that something symbolic was happening.

The pandas’ return to China comes as relations with Japan sour dramatically, following comments by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi about Taiwan that went down in Beijing like a lead balloon. Pandas, long used by China as cuddly instruments of soft power, are never just pandas. They are trade signals with fur. And when they leave, they take the mood music with them.

Born in Tokyo in 2021, the twins became national treasures, symbols of friendship dating back to 1972. Now they’re off, leaving Japan panda-free for the first time in over half a century. China keeps ownership, Japan paid the fees, and the public provided the emotional investment.