Abramovich defies Starmer with new foundation plan for £2.4bn Chelsea funds April 1, 2026 Roman Abramovich has responded to Keir Starmer’s legal threats to claim the £2.4bn sum raised from selling Chelsea by taking steps to set up a new foundation. An application for the creation of the Foundation for Victims of Conflict will be made this week with the Charity Commission, without the permission of the government. No10 [...]
Ukraine is turning West in its economic thinking April 1, 2026 Ukraine and Russia once shared a Soviet system but are now moving in opposite directions. One is becoming more aligned with the economic values of Western democracies; the other remains rooted in a tradition of state control, says Rainer Zitelmann A quiet but consequential shift is underway in Eastern Europe. While geopolitical attention has focused [...]
FTSE 100 Live: Stocks inch up; Fuel shortage fears hit airlines; Unilever nears food deal March 31, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the City AM liveblog. Oil prices are on track for its biggest monthly gain on record for March following the outbreak of war in Iran. It comes as the war in Iran continues to cause ripples through the market, with Brent crude – the international benchmark for oil prices [...]
Sanctioned Russian oligarch’s charity launches legal action against Barclays March 30, 2026 The Potanin Foundation, a UK charity of its Russian sister organisation, the Vladimir Potanin Foundation, has launched legal action against Barclays Bank in London via advisory firm Forvis Mazars. Founded in 2006 by the former Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, Vladimir Potanin, the organisation has focused on education, culture, and philanthropy. The charity was intervened [...]
NS&I set to fork out millions over huge missing savings scandal March 26, 2026 National Savings and Investments (NS&I) is set to fork out millions of pounds to customers following a missing savings scandal. The government-backed bank is expected to pay out to customers who claim there have been failures in managing their money, with failings dating back years, according to reports in The Telegraph. The bank has been [...]
Here’s how to make energy cheaper March 23, 2026 Tax cuts, radical planning reform and massively expanding nuclear is the answer to the energy crisis, says Sam Richards How do you respond to an energy crisis? That’s the question ministers will be asking officials as war in Iran sends oil and gas prices soaring. I know, because I was sitting in Number 10 being [...]
Summerfolk is a witty, ruthless dissection of the bourgeoisie March 18, 2026 Summerfolk | National Theatre | ★★★★★ Maxim Gorky is a giant of the Russian literary canon, a playwright to be mentioned in the same breath as Gogol and Pushkin and even Chekhov. Yet his work is rarely performed on these shores and I’m a little ashamed to admit I have visited more municipal parks bearing [...]
Government ‘must not delay’ over Abramovich’s £2.5bn Chelsea funds, Tories say March 18, 2026 Shadow chancellor Mel Stride has insisted the government “must not delay taking further action” against Roman Abramovich to unlock £2.5bn held after his sale of Chelsea. The Russian was forced to offload the Premier League club in 2022 after Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, with the proceeds of the sale to a consortium led by [...]
Bank of England ‘should wait’ before cutting interest rates, City AM Shadow MPC says March 17, 2026 The Bank of England should “wait and see” how long the war in Iran goes on for before cutting interest rates again, leading economists on City AM’s Shadow Monetary Policy Committee have said. The crisis in the Middle East has pushed up energy prices and heightened fears that the UK economy is heading for a [...]
What happens now after Lloyds Bank’s tech disaster? March 13, 2026 Customers at Lloyds Banking Group were sent into panic on Thursday morning after a number of users opened their mobile app to find rogue transactions that did not belong to them. Screenshots quickly flooded social media with many of the bank’s 28m customers describing their horror at seeing up thousands of pounds of bizarre payments. [...]