business 
Britons are widely ignorant of the scale and legacy of Britain’s involvement in slavery and colonialism, a survey has found, with the vast majority unaware how many people were enslaved, how long the trade went on for, or for how long UK taxpayers were paying off a government loan to “compensate” enslavers after abolition. The … Read more
The owner of B&Q has called on Rachel Reeves to reconsider planned tax increases for retailers before Wednesday’s spring statement, saying the industry is just as innovative on AI and robotics as US technology firms which could be handed tax cuts. On the eve of the chancellor’s statement to parliament, Kingfisher, the owner of the … Read more
The Coalition will not support Labor’s election-eve tax cuts in the federal budget, calling the changes a “cruel hoax” that will do little to improve standard of living. “Seventy cents a day, in a year’s time, is not going to help address the financial stress Australian families are currently under. This is an election bribe … Read more
Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature Andrew Roth If Europe wasn’t already on notice, the extraordinary leak of deliberations by JD Vance and other top-level Trump administration officials over a strike against the Houthis in Yemen was another sign that it has a target on its back. … Read more
A long investigation into the mysterious death in 2023 of a French toddler took a surprise turn on Tuesday when police arrested the boy’s grandparents on suspicion of murder. The death of Émile Soleil, who was two and a half when he went missing in a French Alpine village in July 2023, has remained unexplained … Read more
Bernie Sanders said Donald Trump has “absolutely” created a constitutional crisis in the United States and is pushing the country “very rapidly toward an authoritarian form of society”. The independent senator from Vermont has been rallying the anti-Trump resistance on a cross-country “Fight Oligarchy” tour, drawing some of the largest crowds of his decades-long political … Read more
Accepting free concert tickets is “not appropriate”, the housing minister has said, in an apparent criticism of the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, who received tickets to watch Sabrina Carpenter. Matthew Pennycook, the MP for Greenwich and Woolwich, whose constituency includes the O2 Arena, said he had accepted “zero” free tickets. Asked about Reeves’s decision to accept … Read more
Speaker – this budget builds on the progress we’ve made, together. It’s a plan to help with the cost of living. Cost of living is the first thing mentioned … but you would hope it’s more than just a plan With two new tax cuts, and higher wages – more bulk billing, and more help … Read more
Good morning. There are many reasons why people object to tens of thousands of asylum seekers being housed for long periods in hotels and other temporary accommodation, but one is the perception that this is enabling a small number of firms to make huge profits at public expense for providing what is often a miserable … Read more
A court in Japan has ordered the Unification Church to be dissolved after a government request that was spurred by the investigation into the 2022 assassination of the former prime minister Shinzo Abe. The church, founded in South Korea and nicknamed the “Moonies” after its late founder, Sun Myung Moon, is accused of pressuring followers … Read more