A lucrative illegal trade in cars and car parts has driven a 74% increase in the number of vehicles stolen in England and Wales over the past 10 years. Many stolen cars will be swiftly stripped for parts, but some will follow the path of the UK’s stolen mobile phones and be shipped abroad.

What happens when a car is stolen?
Car thieves “take several steps to maximise profits and avoid arrest”, said the Daily Mail. The first is usually “soaking”: leaving the car for two or three days at a predetermined location, to check whether or not it’s been fitted with a tracker. The thieves then attach number-plates cloned from another car of the same make, model and colour, to avoid detection from automatic number-plate recognition systems. 

Sometimes the car will be sold to criminals or stripped for resaleable parts in a so-called “chop shop”. But many vehicles are shipped abroad. Stolen cars from the UK have been “found across the globe”, including in Russia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eastern Europe, Dubai, Thailand and Cyprus. 

What about phones?
The number of phones stolen in London has almost tripled in the past four years, from 28,609 in 2020 to 80,588 in 2024. Many end up abroad. Earlier this month, the Metropolitan Police busted a gang suspected of smuggling up to 40,000 stolen UK mobile phones to China, said the BBC. There, the devices are said to sell for up to £4,000 each because they are “internet-enabled and more attractive for those trying to bypass censorship”.

Is anything being done?
The “days of hard-bitten detectives getting tip-offs from snouts over a pint” and then “raiding a seedy backstreet garage” are “long gone”, said The Telegraph. Instead, police are turning to private companies. “Companies like ours do the investigation work the police may not have the time or resources to do,” said Ahron Tolley from one such firm, W4G. 

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has said “co-ordinated global action” is needed to “shut down” the trade in stolen phones.

“​​It might seem bizarre to speak of hope in these dark times,” said Neil Howard on Al Jazeera. But, as left-wing politicians Zack Polanski and Zohran Mamdani surge in popularity, “the green shoots of possibility are poking through” for progressives on both sides of the Atlantic. Today’s  “doom-loop politics” may yet have an alternative.

‘Radical message’
Polanski has taken the Green Party “to another level” since becoming leader at the beginning of September, said Peter Walker in The Guardian. Party membership has doubled from 70,000 to 140,000, overtaking both the Lib Dems and the Conservatives. Polanski’s “Bold Politics” podcast is “regularly in the UK top 10 for political podcasts”, and his “low-budget” social-media videos, with titles like “Let’s Make Hope Normal Again”, get millions of views. Polanski’s active media presence is important “not just in getting airtime” but in pushing his party’s message “beyond environmental issues” and towards, in particular, a populist left-wing “emphasis on a wealth tax”. 

Across the pond, Mamdani is predicted to win the New York City mayoral election next week, having promised to tax corporations and the rich to fund free public transport and childcare, said Al Jazeera’s Howard. Mamdani’s and Polanski’s talk of the “guaranteed provision” of “basics for all” threatens the conventional narrative of “scarcity”; “in this radical message, hope abounds”.

‘Hollowness of policy priorities’
Leftists with a “gift for storytelling”, a “common touch” and a “rhetorical thrust” can seem like strong alternatives to a Nigel Farage or Donald Trump, said Rosa Prince on Bloomberg. But Polanski’s digs at the ultra-rich are “a snapshot” of “the hollowness of his policy priorities”. He pays “scant attention to how policies might be funded without inflating the country’s already heavy borrowing costs”. 

Mamdani, likewise, has “made lofty, utopian promises”, said Tom Suozzi in The Wall Street Journal, but they “are all paid for by huge tax increases” at a time when “people are already fleeing cities and states with sky-high taxes”. Democrats “can embrace the need to address the people’s angst about the economy and affordability, without embracing the socialism”.

Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang signs a reporter’s shirt outside today’s Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation CEO Summit in Gyeongju. The Silicon Valley computer chip giant has just become the first company to reach a market value of $5 trillion. 

Jung Yon-Je / AFP / Getty Images

Worcestershire: The Court House, Wolverley
This atmospheric Grade II property was built in 1829 and enjoys plenty of period features, including a full-height gothic portico with octagonal turrets, and a front balcony set between tall arched pillars overlooking the courtyard. 2 beds with period windows, dressing room/bed 3, family bath, kitchen/dining room, recep, parking and driveway. £575,000; Morgan Aps

East Sussex: Undercliffe House, Lewes
Impressive neo-gothic house with great views, set in over 2 acres. 5 beds, 4 baths, kitchen, 2 receps, swimming pool, garden, parking. £2.25 million; Inigo

Cumbria: Millwood Manor, Barrow-in-Furness
A fine Grade II house with plenty of period features, including a grand entrance hall. 4 beds, 4 baths, kitchen, 3 receps. £685,000; Finest Properties

Wiltshire: Old St John’s, Ford
A fine church conversion with pre-Raphaelite connections, with a Grade II stained-glass window with a panel by the Victorian artist Edward Burne-Jones. Main suite, 3 further beds, family bath, shower, kitchen/dining room, recep, gym, study, garden. £900,000; Inigo

Kent: Gothic House, Walmer
Elegant Pugin-esque house with period features. 4 beds, 3 baths, 3 receps, kitchen/breakfast room, garden, garage. £895,000; Bright & Bright

Buckinghamshire: North Park Lodge, Butlers Cross
Formerly part of the Chequers estate, this striking Grade II Victorian lodge was built by renowned gothic architect E.B. Lamb. 4 beds, 2 baths, kitchen, 3 receps, garden, parking. £1.25 million; Brown & Merry

Sorry, Mr President, but Xi runs the world now
Mary Dejevsky in The Independent
Donald Trump’s meeting with Xi Jinping “brought a measure of stability” to relations between the US and China, writes Mary Dejevsky. But in Southeast Asia, a region “gradually orienting itself towards China”, Trump seemed “less consequential, somehow smaller, than he does at home”. His “preference is for dealmaking” and “peaceful competition in the Pacific” – provided it’s “on US terms”.“How much of a snag” this is may become clear during the “promised trade talks with China”.

Reform’s biggest problem is obvious: the party’s voters
Sam Ashworth-Hayes in The Telegraph
If there’s a “flaw in Reform’s plan to win power”, writes Sam Ashworth-Hayes, it’s their voters. Many of them are “reliant on the state for their incomes” but, “to fix the public finances”, Nigel Farage needs to slash welfare. Wherever his “axe falls”, his party’s supporters will “feel some of the pain” and he’ll “need to persuade them to vote for this”. He’ll be “trusting the migration and culture narratives to carry the day” but “it’s a hard sell”.

Tips are taking the place of restaurant wages
John Gapper in the Financial Times
“It feels mean” not to pay the “‘suggested’ tip or service charge” in restaurants and bars, writes John Gapper, but we don’t really know “who gets the money”. There’s a growing trend of tips “redistribution away from front-of-house staff” to “other staff whom the customer rarely sees”. This allows “hospitality companies to offset” wages “for in-demand roles, such as chefs”. Service charges “are the new cost of employment”.