Author: Blake Anderson

UK consumers are about to be hit by a series of price increases from this month, in what parts of the British media are dubbing “awful April”. Increases to water, energy and telecoms bills will push up inflation, even as chancellor Rachel Reeves’ £25bn boost to employers’ national insurance kicks in, leading employers both to raise prices and to curb wages.Kemi Badenoch, Conservative party leader, will cite the price increases as she attacks the Labour government, warning that the “true cost of Rachel Reeves will really hit home with a vicious cocktail of bill increases and price rises”. Mel Stride, shadow…

Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the worldDonald Trump was briefed by Sir Keir Starmer on the arrest of three people the US president called “terrorists” over alleged vandalism at his Turnberry golf resort in Scotland. “I was just informed by Prime Minister Starmer of the United Kingdom, that they caught the terrorists who attacked the beautiful Turnberry, in Scotland,” Trump said in a Truth Social post on Monday.Trump said, incorrectly, that the three people who allegedly vandalised his property were now “in prison”. He said they…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Cutting the number of small boat crossings by half over the next three years would count as a success, according to Sir Keir Starmer’s border security tsar, who said there would always be people searching for ways to migrate to Britain.“I’m realistic that there will always be people who seek to move [to the UK],” Martin Hewitt, the UK’s Border Security Commander, told the FT on Monday at the start of a two-day summit to tackle Organised Immigration Crime.“I think what [success]…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The Sentencing Council is preparing to suspend the introduction of guidelines criticised as leading to a “two-tier” justice system following a row with Downing Street, according to people familiar with its plans.The body is expected to delay contentious guidelines for judges to request pre-sentence reports for offenders from particular backgrounds, just hours before they were due to be implemented. The council had previously rebuffed ministers’ pleas to abandon the new guidelines, insisting last week that they “did not require revision” given they…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.British Steel’s auditor has warned the company faces “material uncertainty” and requires “further future funding” if it is to survive, in an assessment released only days after its Chinese owner turned down an offer of financial support from the UK government. The business, which last week announced plans to close its blast furnaces and lay off jobs, made a pre-tax loss of £231.2mn during 2023 after being hit by tough trading conditions including falling steel prices and high energy costs, accounts recently…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The UK’s largest local authority has declared a major incident over a bin strike it says has resulted in 17,000 tonnes of rubbish going uncollected across Birmingham. Birmingham City Council said on Monday that the blocking of depots by Unite picket lines had prevented it from carrying out contingency collections to alleviate the impact of ongoing industrial action. Unite union members have been on strike on and off since January over the council’s plans to redeploy 17 refuse workers as part of a restructure. The…

Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the worldSir Keir Starmer has held what Downing Street called “productive” trade negotiations with US President Donald Trump, as he seeks to avert punitive tariffs on British exports from April 2.But Whitehall officials have cautioned that Britain may well be hit by Trump’s threatened global tariffs on what the US president calls “liberation day” on Wednesday.One official said: “April 2 should not be seen as the end of the process. We will carry on talking to get the best possible deal…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Sultan Stevenson emerged from the ranks of the London-based Tomorrow’s Warriors forging house in 2020 and soon stood out for his personal touch. A regular trio followed, as did an album and a catalogue of club dates and tours. Now in his mid-twenties, the London pianist’s modal voicings, syncopated single note lines and gospel shades spice the modern jazz mainstream with originality and flair. Stevenson’s second album, El Roi, confirms his equally mature grasp of jazz composition on a set tackling themes of…

Yale philosophy professor Jason Stanley said he hesitated about leaving the US for Canada until the “capitulation” this month of Columbia University to a list of demands from Donald Trump administration. That settled the matter and convinced him to speak out.“I believe in the values of academic freedom and defending democratic institutions,” he said. “Not the idea that the proper response to authoritarians is to hide and hope you’re not next.”Stanley, along with Yale historians Timothy Snyder and Marci Shore, are joining the University of Toronto, with the latter also linking her decision with Trump winning a second presidential term.Their…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Plans by operators including Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group to launch new cross-channel rail services to rival Eurostar have been given a boost after the UK’s rail regulator said there was space for rivals to access the group’s east London train depot. The Office of Rail and Road said on Monday that an independent report had found that Temple Mills depot could accommodate more trains if needed, despite Eurostar’s claim that it was basically full. A number of prospective new operators including…