The UK’s long-running “risk premium” in financial markets appears to be unwinding, with economists claiming investors are regaining confidence in Rachel Reeves’ fiscal strategy — and that the shift could save taxpayers billions of pounds over the next five years. New analysis from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), a think tank with longstanding ties to Labour, shows gilt yields have fallen faster than those in the US and eurozone since September. The move...
Britain’s live events industry has issued a stark warning to the Prime Minister, urging an immediate review of the government’s new Business Rates system amid fears it will trigger widespread venue closures, job losses and higher ticket prices across the country. In a strongly worded letter sent to No 10, senior figures from the sector said the changes unveiled at the Budget — including steep revaluations by the Valuations Office Agency (VOA) and a higher...
A new bill could see part of the national capital renamed after slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk, introduced three months after his assassination. Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., is introducing legislation to rename the area that until recently had been known as ‘Black Lives Matter Plaza,’ she first told Fox News Digital. ‘Black Lives Matter is a terrorist organization that wants to defund the police and take your speech away,’ Mace argued. ‘And what I want...
Businesses are preparing to sharply increase their investment in artificial intelligence next year, even as concerns around data privacy, regulatory compliance and security risks continue to weigh heavily on IT leaders. New research from enterprise content management platform Storyblok shows that nine in ten companies plan to raise their AI budgets in 2026, with more than half expecting a “significant” uplift. Only 2% anticipate cutting their AI spending. The survey of 200 senior IT and...
Disabled consumers across the UK continue to face significant barriers when trying to access products, services and customer support, according to new research published today by the Business Disability Forum (BDF). The findings, based on an Opinium survey of 1,073 disabled adults, reveal that more than a third (37%) believe their experience as customers would improve if staff had a better understanding of disability and how different conditions affect their needs. The study points to...
NatWest has surpassed its headline commitment to lend £2 billion to women-led businesses by the end of 2025, announcing that it has already delivered £2.84 billion in funding across more than 55,900 loans. The achievement comes a full year ahead of schedule and reinforces the bank’s role as one of the UK’s largest backers of female entrepreneurship. The average loan size stood at around £50,700, with high demand seen across a wide variety of sectors....
Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky announced on Tuesday that he had introduced a measure to remove the U.S. from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, arguing that the decades-old alliance is obsolete, has been costly for American taxpayers and puts the nation at risk of engagement in foreign wars. ‘NATO is a Cold War relic. The United States should withdraw from NATO and use that money to defend our country, not socialist countries. Today, I...
On Friday, the Supreme Court announced that it would hear challenges to President Donald Trump’s executive order to end birthright citizenship. The Fourteenth Amendment automatically makes all babies born on American territory citizens. Trump’s effort to overturn the traditional reading of the constitutional text and history should not succeed. Ratified in 1868, the Fourteenth Amendment provided a constitutional definition of citizenship for the first time. It declares that ‘all persons born or naturalized in the...
When the South Korean boy band/K-pop sensation BTS takes the stage in Seoul this June, ending a four-year touring hiatus, it will mark more than just a comeback — it will validate one of the shrewdest soft-power decisions in recent memory. In 2022, at the absolute apex of their global dominance, the group’s seven members chose to fulfill their mandatory military service rather than seek exemptions, which would almost certainly been granted. Their management company,...
The Trump administration is preparing to impose one of the most stringent travel-screening requirements in modern US history, with foreign tourists set to be required to hand over five years of their social media history before they are allowed to enter the country. The proposal, filed quietly this week in the Federal Register by US Customs and Border Protection, would apply to all foreign nationals, including travellers from visa-waiver countries such as the UK and...
