Local elections 2025: Final polls show fractured public opinion April 30, 2025 Thursday is the first major electoral test of a new political reality, with Reform UK looking to surge and the Conservatives facing crushing losses. These councils, last contested at the height of Boris Johnson’s post-Covid vaccine powers in 2021, present Kemi Badenoch’s party with a staggering number of seats to defend. Based on the current [...]
M&S: Police investigate cyber attack as FTSE 100 shares stall April 30, 2025 The ongoing cyber attack on Marks & Spencer (M&S) is being investigated by the Metropolitan Police as the FTSE 100 retailer and its customers continue to face major disruption. Officers from the force’s cyber crime unit are looking into reports a hacking group known as Scattered Spider may have carried out the attack. When it [...]
EU youth mobility scheme is essential for a post-Brexit reset April 30, 2025 An EU youth mobility scheme is a needed concession to repair the UK's post-Brexit relationship with the bloc, writes James Reed.
New powers to tackle fake immigration lawyers ‘unworkable in practice’ April 29, 2025 Crackdown on fake immigration 'lawyers' is said to be a "positive step" by the head of Law Society, but he warns it will be "unworkable in practice"
No criminal charges over ice hockey player death whose neck was cut April 29, 2025 The professional ice hockey player arrested on suspicion of manslaughter will not face criminal charges, the Crown Prosecution Service confirmed this week. Former Nottingham Panthers player Adam Johnson, 29 from America, died after a collision with Sheffield Steelers‘ Matt Petgrave, from Canada, resulted in his neck being cut in 2023. But the CPS have concluded [...]
Oxford Street pedestrianisation: Don’t let local objections ruin the nation’s high street April 29, 2025 Pedestrianising Oxford Street will unlock benefits for the whole country. We can't let local politics derail it, writes Ben Johnson.
Paradise ploughed: Laferm Coco is a pastoral oasis in Mauritius April 29, 2025 Wandering through Laferm Coco, you pass through neat little fields packed with guava and papaya and bananas and coconuts and turmeric, all hemmed in by jagged volcanic mountains, the splashes of colour from the produce impossibly saturated beneath a clear blue sky. Elsewhere farmyard animals flap and graze and squabble. There’s a duck pond that [...]
M&S: FTSE 100 shares start recovery after near-£700m cyber attack hit April 29, 2025 Shares in Marks and Spencer (M&S) have risen for the first time since a cyber attack wiped almost £700m off the FTSE 100 retailer’s valuation. M&S has seen its share price tumble from 411p to 383p in the last week after first revealing the cyber attack last Tuesday. The cyber attack initially impacted contactless payments [...]
High-tax Britain is losing the race for global talent April 29, 2025 High taxes, fiscal drag and the cost of living mean London is no longer the destination of choice for skilled employees – and competitors like the Basque Country are feeling the benefits, says Ivan Jimenez I’m a proud native of the Basque Country in northern Spain, but having spent a lot of time in the [...]
Why Donald Trump’s ‘bucks for babies’ plan won’t work April 29, 2025 Donald Trump is proposing a $5,000 “baby bonus” to reverse America’s plunging birthrates, but it’s an approach that has failed everywhere it’s been tried, says Eliza Filby Elon Musk calls it a crisis more serious than climate change. US Vice President JD Vance warns of the “rejection of the American family”. Now Donald Trump is [...]