Author: James Carter

The UK economy contracted by 0.1 per cent in April as soaring fuel prices linked to the Iran war squeezed household budgets and weighed on spending, according to figures published by the Office for National Statistics on Friday. The contraction marks a sharp reversal from the strong start to the year. The economy had grown by 0.6 per cent in the first quarter of 2026, with March alone delivering 0.3 per cent growth — far outpacing expectations. Economists had been bracing for the slowdown, with most forecasters pencilling in a 0.1 per cent decline for April as the energy shock…

SpaceX is set to list on Nasdaq today in what is expected to be the largest IPO in history, with a valuation of £1.75 trillion — but analysts are warning retail investors piling into the offering that the numbers behind the hype tell a far less reassuring story. The deal is reportedly more than twice oversubscribed, with demand running at double the $75 billion fresh capital raise, and up to 30 per cent of the offer earmarked for retail investors. Ed Croft, founder and chief executive of investment research platform Stockopedia, has run the numbers from the prospectus and concluded…

Donald Trump is pushing Congress to formally void both of his first-term impeachments, with the White House dismissing the historic proceedings as “phony attacks by deranged Democrats” as momentum builds among Republican lawmakers for a symbolic resolution to erase them from the record. Trump told the Wall Street Journal that Congress should act to correct what he described as politically motivated attacks on his presidency. “It should be done because I did nothing wrong. It was a rigged deal — it was a whole rigged situation,” he said. White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told the Daily Mail: “Trump-deranged Democrats have…

Birmingham City Council has admitted that staff witnessed attempts at illegal family voting during May’s local elections and were subjected to “aggressive abuse” from voters when they intervened to stop the practice — a disclosure that has reignited debate over electoral integrity in parts of Britain. The admission came in response to a Freedom of Information request, with the council confirming that officials were forced to step in and separate groups of voters attempting to enter polling booths together. In a statement to the Daily Mail, the council said: “A number reported that families tried to go into the booths…

Robert F. Kennedy Jr has launched a forceful attack on the New York Times, accusing the paper of running a “hit piece” against him built on testimony from “disgruntled” former employees, several of whom he says he fired or who quit to avoid being fired. The Health and Human Services Secretary’s broadside on X came in response to a New York Times article published earlier this week, written by correspondent Sheryl Gay Stolberg and headlined “Kennedy Shows Minimal Engagement With Vast Health Portfolio.” The piece questioned Kennedy’s management of the department, focusing in particular on his handling of the ongoing…

Global stock markets staged a sharp rally on Thursday after US President Donald Trump said he had called off planned strikes against Iran for that night and suggested a peace deal with Tehran could be signed within days, marking a dramatic reversal of the tensions that had been driving markets lower in recent sessions. Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 closed nearly 1.8 per cent higher on Thursday, its biggest single-day gain since April and an end to a three-day losing streak. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite climbed 2.5 per cent, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose more than 900 points,…

Sir Keir Starmer has defended Chancellor Rachel Reeves and the Treasury after John Healey’s unexpected resignation as Defence Secretary, with the Prime Minister insisting the government’s defence funding plan would deliver “the resources our military needs to keep us safe” amid a fierce row over whether enough money has been committed to protect Britain. Healey quit the frontbench on Tuesday afternoon, hours ahead of the publication of the Defence Investment Plan, in a resignation letter that took direct aim at the Treasury. He wrote that “the excellent and extensive cross-government work that completed in January — overseen by you, me…

Labour’s deputy leader has complained that Britain’s leadership is being decided by a contest between “three men” — and suggested it will fall to a woman to “clear up the mess” they leave behind, in remarks that have fuelled speculation about her own ambitions amid the party’s escalating leadership crisis. Lucy Powell, the Manchester Central MP, vented her frustration to Politico that party attention had become consumed by “the moves of three men — or maybe it’s two men now” rather than substantive debate about “big ideas.” The comments come as Sir Keir Starmer fights to remain in Downing Street…

A north-east England wine merchant has extended its pioneering partnership with the Mining Remediation Authority through to 2044, after becoming the first private business in Great Britain to harness heat from disused coal mines to power its operations. Lanchester Wines, based in Gateshead, has installed two open-loop water source heat pumps with a combined capacity of 4 megawatts, capable of heating more than 33,000 square metres of warehouse space using heat drawn from flooded former coal mines beneath the region. The company has invested approximately £13 million in renewable heat and energy generation across its sites as part of a…

The Government is to introduce new powers requiring social media platforms to take down illegal content more rapidly during periods of civil unrest, Technology Secretary Liz Kendall has announced — with the Belfast riots serving as the immediate backdrop for legislation that critics warn could be used to suppress legitimate debate about immigration and policing. Kendall announced via X that an update to the Online Safety Act will be laid before Parliament next week, compelling platforms to act faster in removing content that incites violence during “times of crisis.” Ofcom, which regulates the existing Act, has already issued warnings to…