The search for Nigel Farage’s elusive wristwatch Life&Style We investigate the mystery of Nigel Farage’s wristwatch. Could the so-called man of the people really wear a £40,000 Patek Philippe Calatrava? Andy Blackmore starts digging and finds a surprising answer… Sometimes the watch we wear tells more about us than we would care to admit, far more than any session with a psychologist. With that [...]
Disinformation wars: The digital mafia weaponising online news Life&Style In part two of our investigation into the disinformation barons, Steve Dinneen dives into a world where hostile factions run smear campaigns for cash and victims have nowhere to hide. To catch up on the first part, follow this link “A fool may ask more questions in an hour than a wise man can answer in [...]
Burnham must kill off bonkers Chagos deal for good Opinion The proposal to cede sovereignty over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius and pay for the privilege appeals to no voters and has lost the support of Donald Trump. Andy Burnham should pull the plug, says Eliot Wilson It became clear early in Sir Keir Starmer’s brief premiership that here was a leader of unusual political [...]
Personal allowance hike on the menu at October Budget September 24, 2026 The Chancellor is weighing up proposals to raise the personal allowance at next month’s Budget in what could be the biggest shake-up to income tax rules in years. John Healey is reportedly considering unfreezing the income threshold at which earners start paying tax from £12,570 to as much as £15,570. The unfreezing would be the [...]
Ukraine hits out at EU decision to unsanction former Arsenal owner Usmanov September 23, 2026 Ukrainian officials have hit out at a European Union decision to remove former Arsenal co-owner Alisher Usmanov from its sanctions list. The Uzbek-born businessman, who once owned around a third of the current Premier League champions, was stripped of his sanction status alongside Mikhail Fridman – a prominent Russian financier – after a successful lobbying [...]
Nestlé vows to protect Russian operations despite Putin takeover September 18, 2026 Nestlé has vowed to protect its Russian business after Vladimir Putin placed the food giant’s operations in the country under external administration. The Swiss maker of Nescafé and Purina said on Friday it was assessing its options after a presidential decree handed control of Nestlé Russia and Nestlé Kuban to Russian firm L.E.V. Management. “Nestlé [...]
Rocco Forte Hotels’ Russian outpost pays out bumper dividend September 15, 2026 The ring-fenced Russian arm of Rocco Forte Hotels has paid its shareholders a dividend worth more than £3m, despite the luxury hospitality chain being accused of bankrolling Putin’s war machine in Ukraine by maintaining operations in Russia. Astoria Hotel Joint Stock Company – the holding group for Rocco Forte Hotels’ Russian portfolio – distributed £3.2m [...]
Anthropic blocks AI weapon plots after ‘catastrophic’ risk warning September 11, 2026 Anthropic has blocked attempts to use its AI models to help develop biological and conventional weapons, days after its own researchers sounded the alarm over the risks posed by increasingly powerful AI. The Claude-maker uncovered five cases in which researchers used its technology “in ways that could support biological weapons development”, according to a new [...]
Surge in third-party funding sparks wave in FTSE shareholder lawsuits September 4, 2026 A surge in the availability of third-party funding has triggered a wave of speculative FTSE shareholder lawsuits as investors seek to cash in on claims of wrongdoing. Over the last year, multiple blue-chip names, including gambling giant Entain, smoking tycoon British American Tobacco (BAT), and fast fashion retailer Boohoo, have been summoned before the High [...]
Citi hit with £5m fine for violating UK sanctions on Russia September 2, 2026 Citi has been hit with a fine of nearly £5m after regulators found it violated the UK’s sanctions regime on Russia. The Wall Street giant’s London branch was found to have processed £19.7m in illicit transactions spanning 970 payments. The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) ruled that, in one instance, Citi failed to freeze [...]