A small prototype jet is being heralded as a possible successor to Concorde more than two decades after the iconic aircraft disappeared from our skies. Nicknamed the "Baby Boom", the prototype broke the sound barrier during a test flight that came "years later than expected", said The Economist. While it "lasted just 12 minutes", the flight could signal the return of supersonic travel, halving some commercial journey times.

What happened to Concorde?
The era of supersonic commercial flying "came to an abrupt end" in 2003 with the retirement of Concorde, said the Financial Times. The revolutionary aircraft's high fuel consumption made it "extremely expensive" to operate, and its "loud noise" limited Concorde to transatlantic routes. The entire fleet was grounded following a fatal crash in July 2000, and the 9/11 attacks the following year resulted in a wider slump that was the "final straw".

How fast is the new prototype?
The Baby Boom broke the sound barrier for the first time during a test flight over the Mojave Desert in California in late January. The small jet, officially called XB-1, reached an altitude of 35,000ft before accelerating to Mach 1.1 (844mph) – "10% faster than the speed of sound", said Sky News. Boom Supersonic, the Colorado-based company that made the jet, hailed its test flights as a major milestone towards the return of supersonic air travel. 

When might it carry passengers?
At 63ft long, the XB-1 is a third of the size of Overture, the supersonic commercial airliner that the company hopes to make. Overture is intended to seat between 64 and 80 passengers and travel at speeds of up to Mach 1.7. The firm already has 130 pre-orders for the jet, from industry giants including American Airlines, United Airlines and Japan Airlines, for use on more than 600 routes worldwide.

It would be built using new materials such as carbon fibre and would be more fuel-efficient than Concorde, according to its makers. The engines would also be able to use sustainable aviation fuel. Boom Supersonic hopes to begin carrying passengers on Overture as early as 2029 and expects to charge around $5,000 for a seat.

Margaret Thatcher is "still adored and revered" by the Conservative Party, "grudgingly respected" by Labour PMs past and present, and "despised and reviled on the left and in many working-class communities", said Sky News. This week marks 50 years since Thatcher became Conservative leader, but her central ideology of "rolling back the frontiers of the state" continues to have a profound influence on British politics. 

'Lessons for Badenoch'
Kemi Badenoch has described Thatcher as her "political heroine", while Keir Starmer invoked her recently when he vowed to cut "the thickets of red tape" in his government's pursuit of economic growth. This is "our equivalent" of the Thatcher government's deregulation in the 1980s, he said. 

But while some see parallels between 1975 and 2025 – with another new female Tory leader now facing a Labour prime minister – others would argue the similarities "end there", said Sky News. On the evidence so far, "critics would say Kemi Badenoch is no Margaret Thatcher and Keir Starmer is no Harold Wilson".

Thatcher "still has lessons for Badenoch", said Charles Moore in The Telegraph. If Badenoch wants to succeed, she must "cultivate the talents of her best MPs", as Thatcher did with figures such as Geoffrey Howe and Nigel Lawson. And rather than trying to "out-shout Reform", Badenoch should "develop her party's thoughts more carefully and systematically". Thatcher often repeated the mantra that "time spent in reconnaissance is never wasted". Voters "might come to admire a party which had put in the work in opposition rather than making the most noise", said Moore.

'The unfortunate lived present'
This 50-year marker "comes at a melancholy time" when Thatcher's actions are "rebounding on the country with a vengeance", said Polly Toynbee in The Guardian. "Polls show the policies she was most famed for are those most voters now bitterly regret." Thatcher's economic reforms led to soaring wealth at the top, and "inequality has stayed at that high level ever since". 

Her privatisations resulted in monopolies and financial failures "on an epic scale", which took decades to acknowledge. Conservative think tanks continue to romanticise her "philosophy and vision" while ignoring the long-term economic damage still shaping the present. Thatcher is neither history nor entertainment. "She is the unfortunate lived present."

If the long, cold days have you fantasising about hot sun, arid plains and majestic beasts, a safari in Africa could be your dream getaway.

Greater Serengeti, Tanzania
If you're looking for a luxurious private-group safari, one of Singita's two exclusive-use five-bedroom retreats are just the Big Five ticket. Opened in 2024, they have "gobsmacking views across the vast grassland plains" of Gremeti, the "unfenced western section of the Serengeti ecosystem" that is Africa's "best game-viewing region", said Condé Nast Traveller. Each retreat offers a "peerless experience", with infinity pool, cinema room, wine tastings and personalised service.

Kruger National Park, South Africa
Kruger National Park is the most "popular safari destination of them all", thanks to its "superb" wildlife spotting opportunities, said The Times. Singita Lebombo Lodge is made for the "stylish safari-goer": each suite has a panoramic game-viewing deck, indoor and outdoor shower, air con and open fireplaces. Room rates include all meals and drinks, as well as a series of game drives and walking safaris.

Akagera National Park, Rwanda
Bordering Rwanda and Tanzania, Akagera National Park is a "patchwork of wetlands, lakes, savannah and woodlands", said The Times, making for "a geographically beautiful park that's full of fascinating wildlife, including the very rare shoebill stork". It's also a conservation success story: since 2010, degraded land has been restored and thousands of animals, including lions and black rhino, have been re-introduced. The four-star 60-room Mantis Akagera Game Lodge overlooks Lake Ihema and is a great spot to appreciate the results of the conservation work.

The House of Commons still has a WhatsApp problem… thank goodness
Sean O'Grady in The Independent
There is "dark humour" to be enjoyed in the discovery of Labour MPs' "shameful" WhatsApp message to each other, writes Sean O'Grady. The contrast between these politicians' "public piety" and "private invective" is "inevitably amusing". In assuming that WhatsApp channels are "entirely secret forever", they "display that great occupational hazard of the politician – vanity". And "how we love to see them fall" when their hidden thoughts are pulled "into the open".

How to provide evidence in turbulent times
Diane Coyle in the Financial Times
Donald Trump and "an increasing number" of other world leaders "seem to care little for evidence" if "it gets in the way of politics", writes economist Diane Coyle. This "raises challenging questions" for policy analysts, whose daily business is "instilling" a "reason-based approach" in politicians. The "tension" between "what politicians want to do and what the evidence seems to support is nothing new" but this "outright hostility to evidence-producing institutions" is.

Cummings' simplistic radicalism is reckless
Alex Massie for The Times
Dominic Cummings has been "immersing himself" in history, writes Alex Massie. The former Downing Street advisor compares the "minimalist" government of 1800, which "fired people for failure", with today's politicians, whose response to failure is to "give everyone gongs". His "superficially clever" conclusion that we should "sack every civil servant and start again" has "the excitement of novelty", but it's no "replacement for the tedious and complex business of actually governing a liberal society".