The UK is set to rejoin the Erasmus programme, restoring access for British students to the EU-funded study, training and volunteering scheme five years after the country ended its participation following Brexit. Ministers are expected to confirm the move this week, with UK students understood to be able to take part in Erasmus placements from January 2027. The government has declined to comment on the detail of ongoing talks with the European Union. The decision...
Rishi Sunak has defended the government’s Covid-era Bounce Back Loan (BBL) scheme against claims that it was plagued by excessive fraud, telling the Covid-19 Inquiry that the need to act quickly outweighed the risks. The former chancellor said he was fully aware of the scheme’s vulnerabilities when it was launched in May 2020, but insisted that delaying it to introduce additional checks would have put hundreds of thousands of small businesses at risk of collapse....
Britain’s largest chemical plant will remain open after Ineos secured more than £120 million in government support in a deal designed to safeguard around 500 jobs at its Grangemouth petrochemicals site. The rescue package will keep the Ineos Olefins & Polymers facility operating after the future of the strategically important site was thrown into doubt earlier this year. The government and Ineos will together invest around £150 million into the plant, which ministers have designated...
The European Commission has watered down its flagship plan to end the sale of new petrol and diesel cars by 2035, following intense lobbying from carmakers concerned about slowing demand for electric vehicles. Under existing rules, all new cars sold in the EU from 2035 were required to be “zero emission”. However, the Commission’s revised proposal would require only 90 per cent of new vehicles sold from that date to meet the zero-emissions standard, rather...
OpenAI has appointed George Osborne as managing director and head of its OpenAI for Countries initiative, tasking the former chancellor with leading the company’s global push to work with governments on national artificial intelligence strategies. Osborne, 54, who served as Conservative chancellor from 2010 to 2016, will take up the London-based role in January. He will oversee the international expansion of OpenAI’s “Stargate” initiative, which aims to support the development of AI infrastructure while promoting...
President Donald Trump on Tuesday ordered a total blockade of oil tankers entering or leaving Venezuela, declaring the Nicolás Maduro regime a foreign terrorist organization and accusing it of using stolen U.S. assets to finance terrorism, trafficking and other criminal activity. ‘Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest Armada ever assembled in the History of South America,’ Trump said on Truth Social. ‘It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like...
A federal judge on Tuesday said he was ‘inclined to deny’ a bid to force the Trump administration to halt construction of the White House ballroom but warned officials not to undertake any irreversible work before a January hearing that could still stop the project. U.S. District Judge Richard Leon said he will hold another hearing during the second week in January and hinted he may still order a pause. ‘Any below ground construction’ in...
Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., is being sued by the People’s Republic of China (PRC) for tens of billions of dollars in damages for a lawsuit he filed against the country during his time as Missouri’s attorney general. Schmitt is being sued by the People’s Government of Wuhan Municipality, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Wuhan Institute of Virology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences for roughly $50 billion, several years after the lawmaker sued...
There’s a year-end rush in all aspects of life. Businesses try to run up profits in December. Supervisors want to finish employee reviews. Professors must grade exams. Congress is no different. There’s always a race to the finish line in December on Capitol Hill. This year’s adventure is health care. But it’s a practical impossibility that Congress can actually make law on health care before the calendar flips. Premium spikes for 24 million Americans loom...
President Donald Trump isn’t offended by White House chief of staff Susie Wiles’ comments in Vanity Fair describing him as someone with ‘an alcoholic’s personality.’ On Tuesday, Vanity Fair published the first part of a two-part story about Wiles and the second Trump administration — which White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed featured comments that were ‘wildly’ taken out of context. In response, Trump and his allies have come to dish out praise for...
