Afternoon.

It’s Friday 9th October: Labour has survived a challenge from the Greens, the NHS could be changing how it helps people with ADHD and autism, and Virgin wants to give Eurostar some competition.

Kettle on.

📅 On this day: In 1940, John Lennon was born in Liverpool. He went on to become one of the founding members of The Beatles, who would sell hundreds of millions of records and become one of the most influential bands in music history.

Labour has held Keir Starmer's former seat, defeating a high-profile challenge from Green Party leader Zack Polanski.

Sagal Abdi-Wali won the Holborn and St Pancras by-election with 12,292 votes, ahead of Polanski's 8,928. Labour retained the seat with 45% of the vote, while the Greens took almost 33%, up from around 10% at the 2024 general election.

The contest was particularly interesting because Starmer's departure gave the Greens an opportunity to challenge Labour in one of its traditional London strongholds. Polanski stood himself, turning an otherwise fairly routine by-election into a test of his party's growing support.

For Prime Minister Andy Burnham, it's a welcome victory. Labour has kept a seat it was expected to win, while seeing off a prominent challenger on its left. But the Greens will also take encouragement from their improved vote share, even if their leader failed to win a seat in Parliament.

One constituency doesn't tell us how the whole country would vote, of course. But the result gives both parties something to think about.

A major government-commissioned review has called for changes to how the NHS supports people with ADHD, autism and mental health conditions, warning that services are struggling to keep up with demand.

More than 800,000 people are waiting for ADHD or autism assessments in England. For some, that means spending months or years without the support they need.

One of the review's central recommendations is that people should be able to receive help based on their needs, rather than having to wait for a formal diagnosis. At the moment, a diagnosis can effectively act as a gateway to certain services. The review argues that this can leave people stuck in long queues before they can access appropriate support.

It also raises concerns about inconsistent diagnoses and the possibility of overdiagnosis, although the report makes clear that widespread overdiagnosis has not been established. It recommends tighter regulation of private assessment providers.

These are recommendations rather than immediate changes to NHS services. Health Secretary Yvette Cooper has backed the general shift towards support based on need, but the government still has to decide how to put it into practice.

Eurostar could finally be getting some competition. Virgin has unveiled its planned trains for new services connecting London with Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam from 2030.

The company has ordered 12 trains and secured permission to use Britain's high-speed railway infrastructure. It still needs further arrangements and approvals before it can start carrying passengers through the Channel Tunnel.

For years, Eurostar has been the only operator running passenger trains between London and mainland Europe through the tunnel. Virgin wants to change that. Competition could mean more departure options and potentially better fares, although there's no guarantee tickets will become cheaper. Much will depend on how much capacity is available and whether Virgin can make its plans commercially viable.

There's still a few years to wait, then. But Eurostar may eventually have to get used to sharing the platform.

Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has warned the government that credible borrowing and spending plans are more important than ever as financial markets remain unsettled.

The cost of UK government borrowing has been rising, putting pressure on the public finances. When the government pays more interest on its debt, there's less money available for other things unless it raises taxes or borrows more.

Bailey's warning comes ahead of the next Budget, when ministers will have to explain how they intend to balance their spending commitments with the money coming in.

US technology company Palantir is facing renewed scrutiny over its £330m contract to help the NHS organise and analyse data. The company's technology is intended to help hospitals share information and manage resources more efficiently. But critics have raised concerns about patient privacy, transparency and the growing role of private technology companies in public services.

Former Labour deputy leader Tom Watson, now a senior Palantir executive, has defended the way government contracts are awarded. The wider question is how the NHS can benefit from better technology while keeping sensitive patient information properly protected.

The government has announced a £48m partnership with industry to help speed up the development of new dementia treatments. Dementia is a term for conditions that affect memory, thinking and everyday functioning, with Alzheimer's disease being the most common cause.

The partnership aims to make it easier for people to take part in clinical trials and help promising treatments reach patients sooner. Dementia will also be a priority for a new service linking NHS and research data.

Any new treatment would still need to demonstrate that it works and is safe before becoming widely available.

The government has opened a consultation on extending protections against dangerous housing conditions to private renters in England. The proposals build on Awaab's Law, named after two-year-old Awaab Ishak, who died following prolonged exposure to mould in his family's home.

The law already requires social landlords to investigate and address certain dangerous conditions within specified deadlines. Extending similar rules could give more than five million additional households stronger protections against hazards such as severe damp and mould.

For now, these are proposals rather than new legal requirements for private landlords.

Scientists at University College London have identified changes in the immune system that may allow lung cancer to develop years before diagnosis.

The researchers found that certain immune responses can become less effective at identifying potentially cancerous cells. Using prototype blood tests, they tracked these changes and found that drugs could reverse them in experiments on mice.

The discovery could eventually help scientists develop ways to intervene before cancer develops. It's still early-stage research, not a treatment available to patients, but it's a promising avenue for prevention.

Scientists at Kew have identified a new species of giant waterlily in Colombia, five years after a researcher first noticed something unusual in an Instagram photograph.

The plant, named Victoria colombiana, has enormous floating leaves that can grow to around two metres across. Researchers even used satellite images to help locate it.

Scientists believe only around 30 to 50 individual plants remain in the wild, making the discovery important for conservation as well as botany.

Not bad for something that started with a bit of scrolling.

Have a great weekend.

See you Monday.

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