Amazon has announced a further 16,000 job cuts worldwide as it presses ahead with plans to slim down management layers and “remove bureaucracy”, putting an unspecified number of UK roles at risk. The latest round of layoffs follows the elimination of 14,000 white-collar jobs in October and forms part of Amazon’s broader ambition to shed around 30,000 corporate roles. While the majority of the new cuts will fall in the United States, teams in the...
Nearly 600 hospitality jobs have been lost following the rescue of the Revel Collective, after administrators confirmed the closure of 21 bars across the UK. Around 590 roles have been cut after the group, which trades under the Revolution Bars and Revolución de Cuba brands, fell into administration, with the remainder of the business sold off in a break-up deal. Administrators FTI Consulting said the closures were unavoidable given sustained pressure on trading. They cited...
Secretary of State Marco Rubio will publicly testify on the Trump administration’s policy in Venezuela Wednesday morning after vowing to lawmakers that no more military action was expected in the region. Rubio’s return to the Hill, an increasingly frequent occurrence in recent months, comes after he, President Donald Trump, administration officials and Senate Republican leadership successfully killed a bipartisan push to rein in the president’s war authorities in Venezuela. His scheduled appearance before the Senate...
UK businesses remained under intense financial pressure throughout 2025, with more than 28,000 insolvency-related activities recorded over the year, underlining the fragile state of the operating environment despite easing inflation. New figures from R3, the trade association for restructuring and insolvency professionals, show there were 28,616 corporate insolvency activities in 2025. While this was slightly lower than the 29,366 cases recorded in 2024, the total remains well above pre-pandemic levels. R3 said the data points...
Sterling has surged to $1.38 against the US dollar, its strongest level since October 2021, as a combination of US economic disruption, shifting interest rate expectations and geopolitical uncertainty weakens the greenback. Currency analysts said the move has been driven more by dollar softness than by a sudden strengthening of the pound, creating what some describe as a rare buying opportunity for consumers and businesses needing US currency. The rally follows heavy snowfall and ice...
Small British defence companies are set to gain easier access to Ministry of Defence contracts after the government launched a dedicated unit to simplify procurement and boost spending with smaller suppliers. The Ministry of Defence has unveiled the Defence Office for Small Business Growth, a new service designed to cut through what ministers describe as labyrinthine procurement processes that have historically shut small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) out of the defence market. Announcing the initiative,...
President Donald Trump paused during a restaurant stop in Iowa after a patron asked if he could pray for him ahead of the president’s remarks near Des Moines. Video shared on X by White House aide Margo Martin shows the moment unfolding inside the Machine Shed restaurant, where a man from the crowd addressed Trump directly. ‘Can I pray for you real quick?’ the man asked. ‘Absolutely! Come on. Let’s go,’ Trump replied, bowing his...
Sen. Ted Cruz called for the U.S. to arm Iranian protesters Tuesday as unrest continues inside the nation and Iran-backed militias issued threats against Washington. ‘We should be arming the protesters in Iran. NOW,’ Cruz wrote in a post on X. ‘For the Iranian people to overthrow the Ayatollah — a tyrant who routinely chants ‘death to America’ — would make America much, much safer,’ the Texas Republican added. Cruz was responding to another post...
A pair of Senate Republicans are demanding that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem lose her job in the wake of a pair of fatal shootings in the midst of the agency’s immigration operations in Minnesota. Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., are no strangers to being critical of the Trump administration, and have again broken from their party in calling for Noem to either step aside or be fired by...
Peers have warned that the government’s proposed inheritance tax reforms covering pensions could place an unrealistic and potentially unmanageable burden on personal representatives, creating widespread delays, cashflow pressures and legal risk for those administering estates. In a report published today, the House of Lords Economic Affairs Finance Bill Sub-Committee examined the tax administration and practical implications of measures in the government’s Draft Finance Bill 2025–26. The inquiry focused on changes to the inheritance tax (IHT)...
