24 h. ago IMF warns that trade tensions could test stability of world economy; Reeves ‘confident’ about US trade deal – business live

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial newsDonald Trump’s tariffs will make it harder for Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s car division, Ineos Automotive, to reach its first profit.Ineos Automotive’s CEO, Lynn Calder, told Bloomberg that the US president’s 25% tariff on foreign cars will make it harder to hit the earnings target.“For sure, this last week has put a dent in that and, for sure, delayed it,”“We’re stubborn as mules. We’re not easy to knock down.”“With fieldwork completed just days after Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs, it is unsurprising that consumer expectations for the economy plummeted to a record low. The original tariff schedule, since reduced for most countries, was expected to reduce growth in the UK and elsewhere. Yet despite this economic pessimism, expectations of retail spending rose slightly as the prospect of Easter shopping drew closer.The state of the economy dropped significantly to -48 in April, down from -35 in March.Their personal financial...

Events

29 h. ago US trade war fears drive UK consumer confidence down to record low; Tesla’s European sales fall again – business live

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial newsDonald Trump’s tariffs will make it harder for Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s car division, Ineos Automotive, to reach its first profit.Ineos Automotive’s CEO, Lynn Calder, told Bloomberg that the US president’s 25% tariff on foreign cars will make it harder to hit the earnings target.“For sure, this last week has put a dent in that and, for sure, delayed it,”“We’re stubborn as mules. We’re not easy to knock down.”“With fieldwork completed just days after Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs, it is unsurprising that consumer expectations for the economy plummeted to a record low. The original tariff schedule, since reduced for most countries, was expected to reduce growth in the UK and elsewhere. Yet despite this economic pessimism, expectations of retail spending rose slightly as the prospect of Easter shopping drew closer.The state of the economy dropped significantly to -48 in April, down from -35 in March.Their personal financial...

Economics

41 h. ago Bailey says BoE must ‘take seriously’ risk to growth from Trump tariffs

Bank of England governor signals that central bank is likely to cut UK interest rates next month in response to uncertainty

Politics

48 h. ago Trump tariffs risk driving public debt to postwar high, says IMF

Fund warns global government debt could reach 117% of output by 2027 or worse if trade tensions intensify

Events

52 h. ago The global south has lost its pope. The world has lost its conscience | Nathalie Tocci

He was no liberal, but Francis embodied a spirit of international solidarity that is in alarmingly short supplyPope Francis died hours after meeting the US vice-president, JD Vance. If that wasn’t a bad enough omen, the Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, Donald Trump’s acolyte and self-styled “Christian nationalist”, appeared to welcome the pope’s death as a sign of “evil” being “defeated”.In fact, despite a series of clashes with the Trump White House, Francis was no liberal. While refraining from judging homosexuality, he explicitly disapproved of the liberalising synodal path embarked on by the Catholic church in Germany, which ruled in 2023 that church employees could not be sacked for entering same-sex relationships or remarrying after divorce. On abortion, euthanasia, women and LGBTQ+ rights, Francis betrayed the high hopes that liberals and progressives had bestowed upon him. Continue reading...

Politics

53 h. ago UK annual borrowing nearly £15bn above official forecast; stocks rise as Trump rows back on Fed attack – business live

UK government borrowed £151.9bn in year to March; investors cheered by hopes of US-China trade dealEuropean stocks have also opened higher, as a wave of relief spread across markets.The UK’s FTSE 100 index is up by 1.2% at 8,430, while the Italian FTSE MiB rose by 1.4%.Bessent threw a lifeline to fragile US sentiment with conciliatory remarks on the US-China trade war. Bessent said the current tariff situation is “unsustainable” and expects a de-escalation in the near term.We could witness a period where the dollar is tossed around by headlines of Fed independence risk and market-friendly news on US tariff policy. What is clear by now is that no other G10 currency has a higher positive beta to trade news than the dollar. Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago Federal judge orders US to restore visas of 2 international students in Oregon

A federal judge in Oregon has ordered the U.S. government to restore the visa status of two international students whose visas had been revoked

Society

4 d. ago Emboldened by Trump, the ‘liberal’ UK is giving free rein to its colonial impulses | Kenneth Mohammed

Faced with fading empires’ petulance, the global south must draw a red line under its relationship with them and forge new ties based on mutual respectAs Donald Trump rains chaos down upon the US – dismantling the rule of law trading in rage-fuelled nationalism and bullying the rest of the world – his ideology is now being eagerly imitated not just by the expected rogues of global politics, but by supposed bastions of democracy.These democracies now wear only a mask of civility over that old colonial impulses: control, divide, exploit. Continue reading...

Politics

4 d. ago With ‘AI slop’ distorting our reality, the world is sleepwalking into disaster | Nesrine Malik

A perverse information ecosystem is being mined by big tech for profit, fooling the unwary and sending algorithms crazyThere are two parallel image channels that dominate our daily visual consumption. In one, there are real pictures and footage of the world as it is: politics, sport, news and entertainment. In the other is AI slop, low-quality content with minimal human input. Some of it is banal and pointless – cartoonish images of celebrities, fantasy landscapes, anthropomorphised animals. And some is a sort of pornified display of women just simply being, like a virtual girlfriend you cannot truly interact with. The range and scale of the content is staggering, and infiltrates everything from social media timelines to messages circulated on WhatsApp. The result is not just a blurring of reality, but a distortion of it.A new genre of AI slop is rightwing political fantasy. There are entire YouTube videos of made-up scenarios in which Trump officials prevail against liberal forces....

Events

6 d. ago Judge blocks Trump administration’s from passport changes affecting transgender Americans

A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from enacting a policy that bans the use of “X” marker used by many nonbinary people on passports as well as the changing of gender markers

Politics

6 d. ago Lawsuit challenges revocation of visas for international students

A class action lawsuit filed Friday asks a federal court to reinstate the legal status of international students who have been stripped of their visas in a Trump administration crackdown that has left more than a thousand fearful of deportation

Society

6 d. ago Show goes on for Ralph Lauren as fashion reels from Trump tariffs

With the sector bracing itself for a global trade war, investors may find comfort in a trusted pair of handsTwo weeks after Donald Trump announced his “liberation day” tariffs, the fashion industry finds itself in turmoil as it tries to navigate the chaos unleashed.Some are calling it the “tariffpocalypse”, with the sector bracing itself for a global trade war, snarling up supplies and hiking costs, alongside plummeting consumer confidence. Continue reading...

Politics

8 d. ago AP PHOTOS: Trump's tariffs could be tough to crack for a German nutcracker maker focused on the US

U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs threaten to become a tough nut to crack in an unlikely place — a small Germany company producing painstakingly hand-crafted nutcrackers that are snapped up by American collectors.

Politics

8 d. ago ‘Who is going to face Mr Trump’: Canada leaders’ debate dominated by US crisis

Mark Carney’s Liberals have surged in the polls since Donald Trump’s attacks on Canada, scuppering Conservative calls for change after Trudeau eraPrime Minister Mark Carney said the key question in Canada’s upcoming election is who is best to deal with Donald Trump as he faced his Conservative rival in a French-language leaders’ debate on Wednesday.Opposition Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre said during the debate Canada needs change after a decade of Liberal party rule and Carney is just like his predecessor, Justin Trudeau. Carney responded: “Mr Poilievre is not Justin Trudeau. I’m not Justin Trudeau either. In this election the question is who is going to face Mr Trump.” Continue reading...

Politics

8 d. ago Trump tariffs put Fed’s jobs and inflation goals at risk, Powell says

US central bank chair says ‘without price stability, we cannot achieve long periods of strong labour market conditions’

Economics

8 d. ago Trump’s tariffs put Fed’s jobs and inflation goals at risk, says Powell

US central bank chair says ‘without price stability, we cannot achieve long periods of strong labour market conditions’

Economics

8 d. ago Trump's tariffs could be tough to crack for a German nutcracker maker focused on the US

U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs threaten to become a tough nut to crack in an unlikely place — a small company whose factory nestled deep in the hills of eastern Germany produces painstakingly hand-crafted nutcrackers that are snapped up by American collectors

Politics

9 d. ago Inside the Chinese ‘Shein villages’ facing an existential threat from Trump tariffs

Despite allegations of exploitation, thousands of Chinese workers have come to rely on Shein for their livelihoods, writes Casey Hall and Sophie Yu. Trump’s tariffs could put all that at risk

Politics

9 d. ago Judge in Colorado puts temporary hold on removals sought by Trump under 18th century wartime law

A federal judge has put a temporary hold on deportations of immigrants in Colorado who face possible removal under President Donald Trump's invocation of an 18th century law known as the Alien Enemies Act

Events

1 week ago Aircraft deliveries at risk from tariff chaos, says Ryanair boss O’Leary

Airlines and plane manufacturers are preparing to battle over who pays for the duties

Events