Month: October 2025

The warmness shown by the US president was held up as vindication of the PM’s foreign policy acumen, and the nerve he had shown in not begging for an earlier meeting

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Outside the White House cabinet room hangs a painting of Donald Trump flanked by Abraham Lincoln and Ronald Reagan, in front of a billowing American flag.

The fan-fiction rendition of three Republican leaders, proudly displayed on a main thoroughfare amid a gallery of other photographs and portraits of Trump, is far from the oddest thing in the home and office of the 47th president. The White House is a homage to gilding and gold, crown moulding daubed in glittering paint, with knick-knacks gaudy and glistening stuffed on to his shelves, a Diet Coke button on his desk, and a new ballroom requiring the partial tear-down of the historic East Wing.

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Annual September rate is same as August and July but confounds forecasts of cost of living increase

Inflation was unchanged last month at 3.8%, confounding expectations of an increase, official figures show.

The Office for National Statistics said that inflation measured on the consumer prices index (CPI) remained at 3.8% in September, the same reading as in August and July.

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Operator signs €2bn deal with Alstom amid boom in international rail travel from UK

Eurostar is to start running doubledecker trains through the Channel tunnel to meet growing demand for international rail travel from the UK.

The rail operator announced it had signed a €2bn (£1.7bn) deal for at least 30 – and up to 50 – new trains from the manufacturer Alstom.

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Annual survey finds about 21% of 249 swimming sites across NSW received ratings of ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’ for water quality

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Coogee beach and Shelly beach in Manly have ranked among the Sydney swimming sites most polluted with faecal matter in the city, a government report has found.

About 21% of 249 swimming sites across NSW received a rating of “poor” or “very poor” in the 2024-25 NSW State of the Beaches report, part of an annual survey by the NSW department of environment.

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