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Royal Mail delivered Christmas post late to 16 million people, Citizens Advice finds

Royal Mail has come under renewed fire after research found it failed to deliver Christmas letters and cards on time to around 16 million people, the worst festive performance in five years outside periods of strike action. The findings, published by Citizens Advice, suggest the number of people affected by delays over Christmas 2025 was 50 per cent higher than in 2024, highlighting what campaigners describe as a persistent deterioration in postal services. Anne Pardoe,...

Poundland owner Gordon Brothers buys LK Bennett out of administration

The struggling British fashion brand LK Bennett has been bought out of administration by US restructuring specialist Gordon Brothers, raising the prospect that its remaining nine UK shops could close with the loss of around 380 jobs. Gordon Brothers, which acquired Poundland for £1 last year, confirmed it has purchased LK Bennett’s global brand and intellectual property assets for an undisclosed sum after the retailer collapsed for the second time in six years. The Boston-based...

Lanarkshire named latest AI Growth Zone with 3,400 jobs and £8.2bn investment boost

More than 3,400 jobs and billions of pounds of private investment are set to flow into Lanarkshire after the UK government named the region as Scotland’s first AI Growth Zone, a flagship initiative under its Modern Industrial Strategy. The Lanarkshire AI Growth Zone, announced on 29 January, will be delivered by Scottish data centre operator DataVita at its Airdrie site, in partnership with AI cloud specialist CoreWeave. The project is expected to generate more than...

Pornhub to block UK access for new users amid age-verification row

Pornhub will restrict access to its website for UK users from next week, effectively blocking new visitors in protest at tougher age-verification requirements introduced under the Online Safety Act. From 2 February, only people who already hold a Pornhub account will be able to access the site. The same restrictions will apply to other adult websites owned by its parent company Aylo, including YouPorn and Redtube. Aylo said the UK’s age-check regime had failed to...

Gulf shipping operations grind to halt near Iran; US quietly prepares for possible strike: ‘Heightened risk’

Shipping in the Persian Gulf dipped sharply Wednesday as tensions with Iran intensified amid signs the U.S. was positioning military forces for a potential strike, according to maritime intelligence assessments. The U.S. Navy’s USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group entered the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility Monday, a U.S. official confirmed to Fox News Digital, as President Donald Trump continued to keep military options on the table. ‘At this stage, it remains ambiguous, and...

Gulf shipping operations grind to halt near Iran, US quietly prepares for possible strike: ‘Heightened risk’

Shipping in the Persian Gulf dipped sharply Wednesday as tensions with Iran intensified amid signs the U.S. was positioning military forces for a potential strike, according to maritime intelligence assessments. The U.S. Navy’s USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group entered the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility Monday, a U.S. official confirmed to Fox News Digital, as President Donald Trump continued to keep military options on the table. ‘At this stage, it remains ambiguous, and...

Powell warns Lisa Cook’s Supreme Court case could be most consequential legal threat in Fed’s history

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned Wednesday that a Supreme Court showdown over sitting Fed governor Lisa Cook could have far-reaching consequences for the central bank’s independence and the U.S. economy. ‘I would say that that case is perhaps the most important legal case in the Fed’s 113-year history. As I thought about it, it might have been hard to explain why I didn’t attend,’ Powell told reporters Wednesday at the Federal Reserve. ‘Paul Volcker...

Schumer rolls out list of ICE demands as White House says Dems ‘blocked’ deal-making session

The White House invited rank-and-file Senate Democrats to discuss government funding options, but they declined, instead opting to unveil a list of demands to rein in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in exchange for their votes to avert a shutdown.  ‘The White House hopes to avoid another debilitating government shutdown, and invited Democrats for a listening session to better understand their position,’ a senior White House official told Fox News Digital in a statement....

US moves fast to reopen Venezuela embassy after yearslong freeze

The U.S. will ‘very quickly’ reopen its embassy in Venezuela and establish a diplomatic presence on the ground, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio. ‘We have a team on the ground there assessing it, and we think very quickly we’ll be able to open a U.S. diplomatic presence on the ground,’ Rubio told members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Wednesday.  The goal, he said, would be not just to interact with officials on...

Capitol police arrest Rubio hearing disruptor; Republican senator says ‘off to jail’

The U.S. Capitol Police told Fox News Digital one person was arrested for disrupting Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday during his Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Capitol Hill.  The individual was escorted from the hearing room at the Dirksen Senate Office Building as Rubio was about to deliver his opening statement about U.S. policy towards Venezuela.   ‘All right, here we go … you know the drill, off to jail,’ Sen. Jim...