Happy Monday. Torn between the intro and a significant project update, but here we go. The work for an ambitious wetland restoration project in Somerset has been awarded to the unlikely experts - beavers.

A hundred of them are set to be released in the area over this year, good news to nature lovers and a boost to Rachel Reeves’ fiscal budget that the contract came so cheap. The beavers are expected to build dams, slowing the water flow, improving water quality and flooding the area to support a new habitat. Terms of the deal have not been announced in full, it is believed to be an unspoken agreement.

Notable UK earnings this week: HSBC (HSBA), Glencore (GLEN), Airbus (AIR), Rio Tinto (RIO), Lloyds Banking Group (LLOY), Rolls Royce (RR).

Notable US earnings this week: Walmart (WMT), Home Depot (HD), Nvidia (NVDA), DoorDash (DASH).

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🏗️ £500m plans for Wythenshawe revamp. Read more

🌊 AF Offshore Decom win more North Sea decommissioning work. Read more

🌊 Contracts for four new UK tidal projects. Read more

Crunch time for Hula Hoops (and friends)
If your weekend plans involved a bag of McCoy’s and the smug certainty that supermarkets are basically magical, you might want to brace yourself. Shoppers could see shortages of familiar favourites - Hula Hoops, McCoy’s, Pom-Bears and Discos - thanks to a looming strike at a KP Snacks factory in Teesside, according to the GMB union. On Valentine’s Day of all days, it’s oddly fitting: nothing says romance like the threat of being left with no crisps to share (or to eat alone in peace).

The dispute centres on workers being landed with additional duties without extra pay or proper consultation - a classic British workplace plotline, as timeless as moaning about the trains. Staff also say process workers have had breaks cut down to a single break per shift, and there are concerns that operational changes have compromised safety. In other words: more work, less rest, and a safety vibe that’s drifting from “factory” towards “season finale”.

GMB says dozens of workers have voted to walk out, and the union will meet members to discuss strike dates. GMB organiser Paul Clark described staff as “skilled, experienced and absolutely vital” to keeping production lines running and shelves stocked - which is union-speak for “you’ll miss them the second the multipacks vanish”. His message to KP Snacks is blunt: come back with a serious offer that actually recognises what people do, or enjoy the sound of shoppers loudly debating whether pretzels count as a substitute (they don’t).

Dismal growth, but still growth in December
If the UK economy were a Valentine’s date, it’s turned up, ordered tap water, and spent the evening saying, “I’m just not ready to commit.” Fresh ONS figures show GDP grew by a heroic-looking 0.1% in the final quarter of 2025 - exactly the same as the previous quarter, and a touch under the 0.2% most economists were hoping for. December managed 0.1% too, suggesting we ended the year not with a bang, but with the economic equivalent of a polite cough.

Look closer and it’s even less romantic: GDP per head fell across the second half of 2025, which is the measure that actually tells you whether living standards are improving rather than merely “existing”. ONS director Liz McKeown described an economy still growing “slowly”, with services - normally the big beast - flatlining. Manufacturing did the heavy lifting, while construction posted its worst performance in over four years, proving that not everything can be fixed with a hard hat and optimism.

Lyrics on trial
First up, a chorus of rappers, barristers and assorted sensible souls have written to the Justice Secretary insisting that art is not a confession. Prosecutors, critics argue, have been waving drill lyrics in court as though they’re signed statements, with young men disproportionately caught in the crossfire when storytelling is mistaken for autobiography.

One conviction was recently overturned after a man was misidentified in a video where drill music happened to be playing - less “forensic evidence”, more “forensic playlist”. An amendment to the Victims and Courts Bill would require the state to prove lyrics were intended literally and directly relate to the alleged crime. In other words: context, that old-fashioned relic.

Meanwhile, at London Bridge, your face has become the headline act.

Loos, camera, action
Live facial recognition cameras are now scanning commuters at London Bridge station, comparing them against a watchlist of serious offenders. No match? Your image is deleted, supposedly. Match? An officer reviews it. You can dodge the cameras via an alternative route - which feels very British: terribly sorry, just sidestepping the surveillance.

Elsewhere, the High Court has weighed in on one of Britain’s most heated debates: who uses which lavs. The equalooty watchdog had issued guidance stating that where venues provide single-sex facilities, those spaces can be restricted based on biological sex, following a 2025 Supreme Court ruling that defined “woman” and “sex” in the Equality Act as biological terms. Campaigners challenged the guidance, arguing it oversimplified complex rights and risked unfair treatment of transgender people.

The judge dismissed the challenge, saying the guidance had been misread and urging organisations to follow the law - but also to apply “common sense and benevolence” rather than ideological rigidity.

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Building bridges, and arguing about who owns them
With Valentine’s weekend barely in the rear-view mirror, Donald Trump has decided the most romantic gesture is… demanding joint custody of a bridge. The White House is now insisting Canada “share authority” — and effectively ownership — of the Gordie Howe International Bridge linking Windsor, Ontario to Detroit, Michigan, after what was described as a “clear and direct” call between Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

The bridge, a $6.4bn CAD (£3.4bn) mega-project spanning the Detroit River, is funded by Canada and being delivered via the Windsor-Detroit Bridge Authority, a Canadian federal Crown corporation. It’s expected to open once tests and approvals are signed off in the early part of this year. Trump, though, took to social media to say it won’t open until Ottawa treats the US with the “Fairness and Respect” it “deserves” — which is a strong line from a man whose one liners may often stray the wrong side of ‘the respect line’.

Carney, for his part, called the conversation “positive” and gently reminded Trump of a minor detail: Canada paid for the thing. He also noted the bridge was built by workers from both sides and with steel from both countries — contradiction to Trump’s claim that Barack Obama let construction start “without the use of any US steel”.

Golden syrup and golden defence
Canada has decided it’s had quite enough of buying its kit off the shelf from Uncle Sam, thanks very much. Ottawa is rolling out a defence‑industrial strategy designed to unlock more than C$500 billion (about US$369 billion) of investment over the next decade — the sort of number that makes even seasoned Treasury types reach for a stiff coffee and a lie down.

The plan is unapologetically industrial: more than triple Canadian defence‑industry revenue, lift defence exports by 50%, and create 125,000 jobs across ten years. The headline shift is procurement: Canada wants 70% of defence acquisitions to go to Canadian firms, a sizeable pivot for a country that’s long treated US contractors like a default setting.

The geopolitical mood music will feel familiar to anyone following Europe’s post‑2022 defence scramble and NATO’s collective drift towards spending 5% of GDP on defence and security by the mid‑2030s, Canada is sprinting to shed its “spending laggard” reputation.

Moon lads
The billionaires are back at it, and this time it’s less “to Mars!” and more “shotgun the Moon.” Elon Musk has pivoted SpaceX towards building “Moonbase Alpha” – a lunar base that would sprout into a self-growing city and catapult AI satellites out into deep space.

Yes, from red planet romantic to grey dust landlord in record time. The motivation? An eye-watering xAI/SpaceX IPO and the small matter of beating China’s planned 2030 crewed landing.

Hot on his heels, Jeff Bezos is steering Blue Origin away from space tourism and into serious Moon business, funnelling resources into its “Blue Moon” lander for NASA’s Artemis programme.

Meanwhile, four newcomers have just docked at the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule, replacing a crew who returned early after NASA’s first medical evacuation in 65 years.

Scrolls n doorbells mate
Back on Earth, the tech titans are in court. Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram under Meta, is testifying in a landmark US trial over whether social media harmed a teenage girl’s mental health. He conceded that 16 hours a day on the app sounds “problematic” – but not an addiction. The legal question is whether Instagram was a substantial factor in her struggles, or merely one tab in a much messier browser of life.

Not to be outdone in the “are we the baddies?” sweepstakes, Amazon’s Ring has scrapped a partnership with surveillance firm Flock after backlash. Critics slammed a Super Bowl advert for its “Search Party” feature – neighbours banding together via doorbells and cameras to find a lost dog. Ring insists no customer footage was ever shared and that the integration never launched.

Tiny tyrant in tiara
South Korea’s spy agency says Kim Jong Un has designated his 13-year-old daughter, Kim Ju Ae, as heir to the family firm. In a state built on dynastic handovers – grandad to dad to lad – the plot twist is that the lad may be a lass.

Ju Ae has been increasingly visible at missile tests, military parades and even a trip to Beijing, often positioned beside her father rather than trailing dutifully behind. In North Korean photo-politics, that’s less family snap, more constitutional hint.

Lawmakers in Seoul say she’s moved from training to a formal successor designation. Not bad for someone who, until 2013, was known mainly because former NBA star Dennis Rodman claimed he’d held her as a baby.

The intrigue runs deeper. North Korea is famously patriarchal, and there are whispers of an older son who’s never been publicly acknowledged. Yet Ju Ae’s prominence suggests Kim wants continuity stamped with the same surname, even if it now comes with long hair and designer coats forbidden to her peers.

Whether this teenage heir would bring reform or simply rebrand the regime remains anyone’s guess. After all, many once hoped her Western-educated father would open the windows. He mostly reinforced the locks.

Hong Kong gong show
In Hong Kong, the diplomatic temperature has risen faster than the biscuit tin lid when the kettle boils. China’s foreign ministry office summoned envoys from the UK, US, Australia and the EU after they criticised the 20-year sentence handed to Jimmy Lai.

Lai – founder of the now-shuttered Apple Daily and a prominent critic of Beijing – was convicted in a landmark foreign-collusion case under Hong Kong’s national security law. Western governments called the sentence troubling; Beijing called their comments meddling and urged respect for China’s sovereignty and the city’s rule of law. Cue stern meetings and diplomatic frowns.

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