The mysterious media moguls behind London’s pink slime propaganda machine April 21, 2026 Private jets, council estates and links to the Kremlin: Steve Dinneen goes looking for the owners of a pink slime propaganda machine Standing outside a squat, residential tower block on the outskirts of Harlow on a grey winter afternoon, it seems hard to believe this is the headquarters of a media organisation with links to [...]
City minister: Tax regime ‘sends a message’ to fintech IPO prospects April 21, 2026 The City minister has said the tax regime “matters” for how the UK can strengthen capital markets as part of its bid to lock down the next cohort of listing candidates. Lucy Rigby, economic secretary to the Treasury, said the government was looking to build on the “historical success of our capital market” as it [...]
Job vacancies fall to lowest level in five years April 21, 2026 The UK jobs market took a turn for the worst as job vacancies fell to their lowest level in nearly five years, according to official figures. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the number of vacancies fell by an estimate of 29,000 in the three months to March. It is the lowest level of [...]
Ministers urge cyber crackdown as Anthropic AI fears grow April 20, 2026 Ministers have ramped up pressure on UK businesses to strengthen their cyber defences amid concerns that the next generation of AI could supercharge hacking threats. In a new push led by cyber minister Baroness Lloyd of Effra, nearly 200 business leaders were told to sign a new “cyber resilience pledge”, as fears mount that powerful [...]
Consumer confidence suffers biggest drop in four years amid Iran inflation fears April 20, 2026 Consumer confidence fell at the fastest rate in four years as Brits tightened their purse strings amid fears the Iran war will spike inflation. Brits’ confidence in their spending power fell by three per cent at the start of this year, as it reached its lowest level since 2023 and made the biggest drop since [...]
London house prices jump by £3k as market slows April 20, 2026 The average asking price of a home in Britain rose by nearly £3,000 in April, but London’s property market is showing clear signs of strain as higher mortgage rates and a surge in supply curb momentum. New figures from Rightmove show asking prices increased by 0.8 per cent month on month to £373,971, a £2,929 [...]
Bank of England’s Breeden warns Iran war could set off bond and private credit crisis April 17, 2026 The energy crisis set off by Donald Trump’s war in Iran has made a financial crash more likely, according to the Bank of England’s financial stability chief, who warned that private credit, sky-high sovereign debt and stock market exuberance posed salient threats to the global economy. Sarah Breeden, the central bank’s deputy governor for financial [...]
Bank of England will set ‘high bar’ for any interest rate change April 17, 2026 Policymakers at the Bank of England will set a ‘high bar’ for making any interest rate change later this month despite growing expectations of rising inflation, top City analyst Simon French has said. The previous energy shock suffered by the UK following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 saw inflation spike to as high [...]
Forget Oasis, dynamic pricing could be coming for your weekly shop April 17, 2026 The rise of big data means dynamic pricing is easier to implement. Paul Ormerod asks what this could mean for consumers's everyday shopping.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest at the Old Vic: A blistering revival April 17, 2026 From his searing take on Othello at the National Theatre to his superlative Death of England cycle, Clint Dyer is one of the most distinctive voices in British theatre, deftly exploring and unpacking contemporary black culture. So it is perhaps unsurprising that the patients in his version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest are [...]