business

Just days before Donald Trump’s inauguration in January, Blue Origin, the space company owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos, launched its New Glenn rocket, named for John Glenn, the Mercury astronaut who was the first American to orbit the Earth. Around 2am on 16 January, the 30-story rocket powered by seven engines blasted off into the … Read more

Markets are braced for another rollercoaster week as the most punitive of Donald Trump’s tariffs kick in and world leaders weigh up retaliatory action, adding to fears of a global recession. Stock indices plunged by nearly $5tn last week, with markets in the UK and US suffering losses not seen since the early days of … Read more

It would be unsafe for Russia to restart the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and would take Ukraine up to two years in peacetime if it regained control, the chief executive of the company that runs the vast six-reactor site has said. Petro Kotin, chief executive of Energoatom, said in an interview there were “major problems” … Read more

The former chief executive of Metro Bank says he has been made “untouchable”, advised to move to Australia and even had trouble opening bank accounts after the UK regulator accused him of misleading investors over a £900m accounting blunder. Craig Donaldson, who resigned in 2019, told the upper tribunal in London that both his career … Read more

Emergency services are continuing to battle a wildfire that started in Galloway, south of Scotland, and has spread north into East Ayrshire, forcing the evacuation of walkers and wild campers. The blaze started in the Newton Stewart area on Friday, then spread northwards over the weekend after a change in wind direction to reach Loch … Read more

The UK government agency responsible for overseeing a national register of companies has collected just £1,250 in fines after being given new powers to crack down on corruption, it has emerged. Companies House is implementing a series of reforms, amid embarrassing revelations about fraudsters and jokers signing up to the corporate register with names such … Read more

A climate protester who alleged their head was repeatedly slammed by members of Victoria police’s riot squad in 2019 has reached a settlement with the state. Timothy Buchanan, 39, alleged their head was slammed into a metal wall, the ground and a glass door that their head was then used to open, during their arrest … Read more

Britain is “behind the curve” in tracking Russia’s deep sea operations, an ex-minister has said, after spy sensors targeting Royal Navy submarines were found in waters around the UK. Tobias Ellwood, a former defence and Foreign Office minister, called for a huge expansion of the navy’s surveillance capability after it was revealed that a number … Read more

Ministers could introduce legislation to abolish a swathe of quangos in one go as part of the government’s plans to restructure the state and cut thousands more civil service job cuts, the Guardian understands. Government sources said they were considering a bill that would speed up the reorganisation of more than 300 armslength organisations that … Read more

The Israeli military has backtracked on its account of the killing of 15 Palestinian medics by its forces last month after phone video appeared to contradict its claims that their vehicles did not have emergency signals on when troops opened fire on them in the Gaza Strip. The military said initially it opened fire because … Read more