Starmer eases sanctions on Russian oil despite calls to ramp up North Sea drilling May 20, 2026 Keir Starmer is to allow Russian imports of diesel and jet fuel in a major softening of what has been a hardline stance towards Russia since its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. A licence issued on Wednesday will allow such products to enter the UK “indefinitely”, as long as the oil has been refined in [...]
Job cuts at Big Four firms fuel worker burnout May 20, 2026 Job cuts at professional services firms are resulting in overworked staff, but the pressures – combined with increased reliance on AI – risk damaging firms’ reputations through mistakes, writes Maria Ward-Brennan. The professional services industry, especially the Big Four giants, has faced its fair share of job cuts, with thousands of roles laid off in [...]
Brits aren’t spending enough – time for Splash Out to Help Out May 20, 2026 Household debt has declined and people have stopped spending on productive things like home improvements but also in leisure. That’s bad news for the public finances, so the government should look at ways to incentivise spending, says Tim Sarson Brits have stopped spending. After the great financial crisis in 2008 we collectively decided to zip [...]
T20 leagues should be ranked into tiers, MLC’s San Francisco Unicorns chief says May 20, 2026 Global T20 leagues should be ranked in tiers to ringfence the best competitions and players, according to the chief of Major League Cricket club the San Francisco Unicorns. David White – whose Unicorns team shares investors with Hundred team London Spirit – says world governing body the ICC will be forced to adjust the cricket [...]
Mustafa Suleyman-founded Inflection AI to return to London May 20, 2026 Silicon Valley startup Inflection AI is marking a return to London as the company forges ahead with its expansion plans, City AM can reveal. The artificial intelligence business was launched in 2022 by Deepmind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman and attracted early backing from Linkedin founder Reid Hoffman. It released its own large language model, Pi, and [...]
The Square Mile gets its fourth City Minister – could it soon get its fifth? May 20, 2026 Four City minsters later, in this week’s column Samuel Norman takes a look at the blow to the Square Mile from the latest reshuffle. Also on the agenda: Revolut’s plans for the high net worth faces off with ambitions of incumbents. “Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes…” So goes the lyrics [...]
Johns Manville Announces John Vasuta as New CEO May 19, 2026 Johns Manville (JM), a global building and specialty products manufacturer and a Berkshire Hathaway company, announced today that Bob Wamboldt will retire and John Vasuta will assume the role of President and Chief Executive Officer, effective August 1, 2026. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260519630814/en/ Vasuta joined Johns Manville in [...]
Canva Brings On-Brand, Editable Design into Google Gemini May 19, 2026 With the addition of the Canva Connected App for Gemini, the Canva Design Engine now enables seamless creation in every major AI Assistant. Turn AI-generated images from Google’s Nano Banana model into editable designs with Canva’s Magic Layers AI tool. Connect to team context and brand intelligence stored on Canva to create on-brand designs from the first prompt.
Secret Barbican: visit these beautiful parts of the famous building May 19, 2026 I’m not sure anyone can really consider themselves an ‘insider’ at the Barbican. It’s a giant, complex dream of a place, a vision of what a community and a life might be like with creativity at its heart. I’m just lucky enough to be one of the people looking after it for a bit. And [...]
MP calls on government to mandate for free-to-air Champions League final May 19, 2026 MPs have called on the government to ensure the Champions League is on free-to-air television in the future after the three European football finals went behind a HBO paywall. The Champions League, Europa League and Europa Conference League will feature three Premier League clubs – Arsenal, Aston Villa and Crystal Palace respectively – but will [...]