business

On a cold morning in the heart of London, recently arrived refugees and more established migrants gather in a community centre. Their mission? To decide how £500,000 in funding will be used to support people like them. The initiative is part of the Borough of Sanctuary grants programme, which takes the government’s commitment to devolution … Read more

Chinese state media has reacted gleefully to the Trump administration’s decision to slash government funding to media organisations such as Radio Free Asia (RFA) and Voice of America (VOA). The Global Times, a daily English-language tabloid and Chinese Communist party mouthpiece, celebrated the cuts to the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees broadcasters … Read more

Two Nasa astronauts “stranded” aboard the International Space Station (ISS) since last summer are finally on their way back to Earth on Tuesday, more than nine months after the failure of Boeing’s pioneering Starliner capsule scuppered their originally scheduled week-long mission. A SpaceX Dragon capsule containing four astronauts, including Starliner’s test pilots Sunita Williams and … Read more

It was once crowned the “world’s ugliest animal” and now the disgruntled-looking gelatinous blobfish has a new gong to its name: New Zealand’s fish of the year. The winning species of blobfish, Psychrolutes marcidus, lives in the highly pressurised depths off the coasts of New Zealand and Australia and has developed a unique anatomy to … Read more

More than 30 performing arts leaders in the UK, including the bosses of the National Theatre, Opera North and the Royal Albert Hall, have joined the chorus of creative industry concern about the government’s plans to let artificial intelligence companies use artists’ work without permission. In a statement they said performing arts organisations depend on … Read more

Germany’s likely next chancellor is to face a key vote on plans to unlock a record level of state borrowing, which he argues is necessary to boost the country’s military spending and inject growth into its ailing economy. Ahead of the crucial Bundestag vote on Tuesday, Friedrich Merz has faced a barrage of complaints from … Read more

Chinese electric vehicle (EV) maker BYD has unveiled a new charging system that it said could make it possible for EVs to charge as quickly as it takes to refill with petrol and announced for the first time that it would build a charging network across China. The so-called “super e-platform” will be capable of … Read more

A jury has been unable to reach a unanimous verdict in the trial of a man accused of murder after a young woman was fatally stabbed on an isolated beach. Toyah Cordingley, a 24-year-old organic food store worker, was found buried in sand at a beach outside Cairns in far north Queensland on 22 October … Read more

Jim Chalmers has confirmed next Tuesday’s budget will unveil a deficit close to the $26.9bn predicted at the December update, as he flagged that the windfall tax gains from high commodity prices and a booming jobs market were now a thing of the past. The government has had to scramble to finalise a fourth Labor … Read more

Universal Music Group have moved to dismiss Drake’s defamation suit, characterising it as “a misguided attempt” by the Canadian rapper to “salve his wounds” after he “lost a rap battle” with rival Kendrick Lamar. In the motion, filed on Monday in the US district court for the southern district of New York, Universal Music Group … Read more