40 h. ago Little Simz on breakthroughs, betrayal and becoming one of the UK’s best

Critics’ favourite and curator of this month’s Meltdown festival, the British artist is flying high. But a nasty legal battle with her closest collaborator and a crisis of confidence left her close to calling it quits. Instead, she put it all on the new albumIt’s an unseasonably warm spring afternoon and sunlight is beaming through the floor-to-ceiling windows of a north London photo studio. When I arrive, Little Simz is out on the balcony. Wearing chunky sunglasses, a skirt and comfy cardigan, she sits on a chair with her back to the sun, eyes on the horizon, and pulls her legs up, wrapping her arms around her knees in a defensive position that’s verging on foetal.It’s curious body language for an artist at the top of her game. At 31, Simz is looking out at a city she can justifiably claim to have conquered since emerging as a teenage rapper more than a decade ago. But that’s not where she’s at right now. “I genuinely felt like I could disappoint everyone,” Simz says when I ask abo...

Politics

52 h. ago Between ‘rollover UK’ and ‘retaliatory China’: will EU hardball secure trade deal with US?

Optimism is growing in Brussels, but high-risk strategy has only weeks to play out before pause in tariff threat endsIn Brussels’ corridors of power, quiet optimism is growing that the EU’s hardball strategy to secure a US trade deal is working. While Britain quickly moved to try to cushion the impact of Donald Trump’s tariffs with a deal agreed last month – and US-Chinese relations are a tit-for-tat situation – the EU has taken a different stance. “We are positioning ourselves between ‘rollover UK’ and ‘retaliatory China’,” said a Brussels source.The stakes are not just the £706bn in transatlantic trade between the EU and US but the fallout from what diplomats and businesses say is a dangerous assault on the global rules-based system that governs western democracy. Continue reading...

Economics

3 d. ago Trump says he'll visit China with Melania after 'very good' phone call with Xi Jinping to work out trade deal

President Donald Trump confirmed Thursday that he had spoken by phone with Chinese President Xi Jinping amid trade uncertainty.

Economics

3 d. ago Millions of Brits heading to Portugal can use eGates at Faro airport and avoid lengthy Brexit border queues

The new arrangements come after the UK and EU agreed a new trade deal

Politics

3 d. ago Trump and China’s Xi speak after president calls trade adversary ‘extremely hard to make deal with’

US, Chinese leaders speak after Trump calls Xi ‘very tough’ on Truth Social

Politics

4 d. ago Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ could add $2.4tn to national debt, nonpartisan analysis says – US politics live

Congressional Budget Office assessment comes as Musk is among prominent critics of the bill; Mexico says it will act over tariffs if no trade deal agreedThe Trump administration has reversed its decision to revoke the legal status of a four-year-old girl, receiving continuing life-saving treatment in the US, and her family after a national outcry.Deysi Vargas, her husband and their daughter – whom lawyers identified by the pseudonym Sofia – had come to the US in 2023 to seek medical care for their daughter who has a rare condition that requires specialized treatment. But in April, the federal government ended their humanitarian parole, a temporary status granted to people on urgent humanitarian grounds, and ordered them to “self-deport”. Continue reading...

Politics

4 d. ago Keir Starmer promises Donald Trump trade deal will be in force in 'very short time'

The PM insisted the government is "working on it" to bring steel tariffs down to zero - as he promised when the deal was announced last month

Politics

4 d. ago PMQs: Keir Starmer trumpets UK as 'only country in world' spared Donald Trump's 50% steel tariff

Gareth Stace, the director general of UK Steel, said that Donald Trump’s decision is a ‘welcome pause’

Politics

4 d. ago Starmer admits finalising his US trade deal could take WEEKS after Trump spares UK steel industry from latest 50% tariffs

Donald Trump is offering 'different treatment' to Britain after doubling tariffs on imports from other countries to 50 per cent.

Economics

4 d. ago UK steel industry welcomes Donald Trump decision not to impose 50% tariffs but ‘uncertainty remains’

Donald Trump has decided to 'provide different treatment' to the UK with a trade deal still to be finalised

Politics

4 d. ago Why Starmer has five weeks to prove his Trump trade deal is worth the paper it’s written on

The intense talks on Tuesday night may have been about stopping 50 per cent steel tariffs, but at the heart of it whether politicians can prove their credibility, says political editor David Maddox

Politics

4 d. ago Relief as Trump spares UK steel industry from latest 50% tariffs

Donald Trump is offering 'different treatment' to Britain after doubling tariffs on imports from other countries to 50 per cent.

Politics

4 d. ago Britain spared Trump's new 50% steel tariffs but industry remains gripped by uncertainty

Gareth Stace, the director general of UK Steel, said that Donald Trump’s decision is a ‘welcome pause’

Politics

4 d. ago Trump is ‘obsessed’ about having a call with China’s Xi this week to hammer out trade deal, insiders reveal

A person familiar with the matter reportedly said the administration is “under a lot of pressure” following China’s critical minerals blockade

Politics

4 d. ago British industry exempted from Trump’s doubling of steel tariffs

But UK bosses are pressing Sir Keir Starmer for a rapid implementation of the trade deal agreed with the president

Politics

5 d. ago Fears British steel exports could be hammered with Trump's latest 50% tariffs TOMORROW as No10 admits there is STILL no timetable for Starmer's 'trade deal' to be finalised

Keir Starmer and Donald Trump announced the broad terms of an agreement almost a month ago that would exempt the UK from some of the US president's punitive levies on steel and cars.

Economics

5 d. ago Fears British steel exports could be hammered with Trump's latest tariffs TOMORROW as No10 admits there is STILL no timetable for Starmer's 'trade deal' to be finalised

Keir Starmer and Donald Trump announced the broad terms of an agreement almost a month ago that would exempt the UK from some of the US president's punitive levies on steel and cars.

Economics

5 d. ago Do we have a US trade deal or not? Business Secretary meets Trump officials amid fears there is STILL no timetable for terms to be finalised

Sir Keir Starmer and Mr Trump announced the broad terms of an agreement almost a month ago that would excise the UK from some of the US president's punitive levies on steel and cars.

Politics

6 d. ago China vows ‘forceful measures’ after accusing US of violating tariffs truce

Beijing says it is ‘strictly implementing’ consensus reached in Geneva but US is taking steps that ‘seriously undermine’ it

Politics

7 d. ago Manchester United could trade Rasmus Hojlund in genius swap deal

Man United are set to sign a new striker this summer and a swap deal involving Rasmus Hojlund would make sense.

Economics