Former IMF chief and German president Horst Kohler dies at 81 February 1, 2025 Horst Kohler, a former head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) who became a popular German president, has died aged 81. Kohler, who was head of state from 2004 to 2010, died on Saturday morning in Berlin after a short illness, surrounded by his family, the office of current German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in [...]
Trump says he and Putin could do something ‘significant’ in Ukraine February 1, 2025 US President Donald Trump said his administration has already had “very serious” discussions with Russia about its war in Ukraine and that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin could soon take “significant” action towards ending the grinding conflict. “We will be speaking, and I think will perhaps do something that’ll be significant,” Trump said in [...]
Starmer accused of ‘fudging the facts’ of his schooling by education expert February 1, 2025 Sir Keir Starmer has faced accusations of “fudging the facts” about his education, from the founder of a social mobility charity. Sutton Trust founder Sir Peter Lampl, who went to the same school as the Prime Minister, Reigate Grammar, made the claim as he attacked the government’s plans to charge VAT on private school fees. [...]
Barclays customers ‘unable to make payments’ as bank outage continues February 1, 2025 A major IT glitch is still affecting Barclays customers, with some locked out of their accounts throughout the night and almost 24 hours on from the bank’s initial outage. The bank has apologised to customers, saying they are facing “ongoing technical issues that are impacting our customers’ accounts”. They warned some people may see an [...]
Astrazeneca cancels £450m vaccine plant, blaming state funding cut January 31, 2025 Astrazeneca has cancelled a planned £450m investment in a vaccine manufacturing plant in Merseyside, saying Labour have failed to match the previous government’s offer of funding. It sees the pharmaceutical firm scrap plans to expand its existing facility in Speke, as announced by then-chancellor Jeremy Hunt at last year’s March budget, as first reported by [...]
Britain needs to work harder to ‘compete globally’, Chris Philp says January 31, 2025 Brits need to work harder in order to “compete globally” with rival nations, Chris Philp has argued. The Conservative shadow home secretary told BBC Radio 4’s Political Thinking podcast that the UK “needs everyone to make a contribution” to keep up with states like China and India. He told presenter Nick Robinson that there were [...]
The Week in Business: is Reeves right to be an optimist? January 31, 2025 Rachel Reeves has been reset, but should we buy into this new optimistic Chancellor?
Rachel Reeves says tax-hiking Budget was needed to stop economic calamity January 30, 2025 Chancellor Rachel Reeves has defended her tax-hiking Budget today, saying that without the changes to national insurance, the government would have lost control of the economy. Speaking on Time Radio this morning, Reeves said she recognises there are “consequences to increasing National Insurance,” but the “consequences of irresponsibility would have been far greater” had the [...]
Chancellor Rachel Reeves ‘won’t apologise’ for reforming UK regulation January 29, 2025 Rachel Reeves has said that she “won’t apologise for wanting to reform how regulation works in Britain” after a major economic speech which saw her back a third runway at Heathrow. The Chancellor unveiled a suite of policies the Treasury said would “kickstart” economic growth, including an “action plan” intended to instil a pro-growth approach [...]
Heathrow: Sadiq Khan ‘remains opposed’ to third runway January 29, 2025 Sadiq Khan has confirmed he “remains opposed” to a third runway at Heathrow Airport, putting him on a collision course with Chancellor Rachel Reeves. The mayor of London responded to Reeves’ announcement of the government’s backing for the UK’s only hub airport to expand its facilities during her economic speech on Wednesday. Khan said: “I [...]