Hegseth: US will stand by allies against ‘imminent’ China threat May 31, 2025 US defence secretary Pete Hegseth reassured allies in the Indo-Pacific on Saturday that they will not be left alone to face increasing military and economic pressure from China, while insisting that they also contribute more to their own defence. He said Washington will bolster its defences overseas to counter what the Pentagon sees as rapidly [...]
‘No doubt’ UK will spend three per cent of GDP on defence by mid-2030s, Healey says May 31, 2025 Defence spending at three per cent of GDP by 2034 is a firm commitment, John Healey has said. The government has previously set out its “ambition to reach three per cent in the next parliament”, after meeting its pledge to ratchet up defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by April 2027. But the [...]
Trump says he will double tariffs on foreign steel to 50 per cent May 31, 2025 President Donald Trump said that he is doubling the tariff rate on steel to 50 per cent, a dramatic increase that could further push up prices for a metal used to make housing, cars and other goods. Trump spoke at US Steel’s Mon Valley Works–Irvin Plant in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, to discuss investments by Japan’s [...]
Competition intensifies to buy UK supermarket stores despite uncertainty May 26, 2025 Real estate investors are increasingly competing to snap up UK supermarkets as a lack of new locations and slow planning processes weigh on developments. Grocery properties are “proving to be one of the most resilient and attractive investment sectors”, according to research by Colliers. Experts at the real estate firm said international and UK investors [...]
Broadcaster and former BBC executive Alan Yentob dies aged 78 May 25, 2025 Former BBC executive and TV presenter Alan Yentob has died at the age of 78, his family has announced. Yentob joined the BBC as a trainee in 1968 and held positions as controller of BBC One and BBC Two, director of television, head of music and arts, as well as the director of BBC drama, [...]
Farage in power would be ‘very bad for this country,’ says Badenoch May 25, 2025 Kemi Badenoch has said it would be “very bad for this country” if Nigel Farage gained power, accusing the Reform UK leader of making empty promises that would unravel in government. The Conservative leader issued the warning as her party dropped to fourth place in Yougov’s latest polling, falling behind Labour, the Liberal Democrats and [...]
Nvidia: Stage set for crucial earnings update amid US tariffs May 25, 2025 Investors are poised for a crucial update on Nvidia’s earnings after the AI chip maker has been caught up in the fallout of Donald Trump’s trade policy overhaul. The US technology giant will unveil its financial results for the first three months of 2025 on Wednesday. As the second most valuable listed company in the [...]
South Western becomes first rail service renationalised under Labour May 25, 2025 The government’s renationalisation of rail services has started as trains operated by South Western Railway (SWR) were taken into public control. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander, who travelled on the first renationalised departure from London Waterloo, said it was “a new dawn for our railways”. SWR was previously owned by Firstgroup and MTR Corporation, but is [...]
New rules could see housebuilders who leave sites unfinished stripped of land May 24, 2025 Housebuilders who leave vital development sites unfinished for years could face losing their land to local councils under new Government rules. For the first time, developers will have to commit to delivery time frames before they get planning permission. They will also have to submit annual reports showing their progress to councils to keep them [...]
X down as thousands report issues with social media platform May 24, 2025 The social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, experienced an outage on Saturday as users reported issues with the site. According to service monitoring site Downdetector, thousands of users in the UK experienced problems accessing the app and website. The site, which tracks user experiences and outages across different websites, showed that the issue [...]
