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Wednesday are under a transfer fee embargo until 2027Arise hope takeover will be approved by end of seasonSheffield Wednesday's prospective new owners, Arise Capital Partners, are in talks with the EFL over a partial lifting of the club's transfer ban this summer.Wednesday are currently under a transfer fee embargo, which prohibits them paying any money for new players until January 2027, as a punishment for the multiple late payment of wages by former owner Dejphon Chansiri. Continue reading......

Promotion of 'bitcoin treasury' firm with Kwasi Kwarteng draws new attention to Reform leader's relations with industryA thumping electronic beat provides the soundtrack to the video as Nigel Farage appears in front of a bank of screens.At first glance, it could be yet another of the Reform UK leader's “second jobs” – whether promoting gold as a pension fallback or recording Cameo videos. And in a sense, it is: Farage is promoting a £2m cryptocurrency purchase by a company in which he has £215,000 invested, Stack BTC. Continue reading......

Members to hold meeting on 7 May to approve dealClub in more saleable position after £10.3m loss last yearExeter Chiefs have finalised a deal with a wealthy American backer to take control of the club, subject to the approval of their membership. An extraordinary general meeting is to be held on 7 May at which members will be urged to support the move to sell the 155-year-old Devon club and unlock significant fresh funding.Insiders are describing the impending multimillion pound investment as “meaningful” at a pivotal stage in the development of English professional club rugby. The existing 10-team Prem is to become a franchise “expansion” league from 2029-30 and the race for new funding is accelerating. Continue reading......

UK motoring group fined £4.2m for not showing full price of lessons at time of bookingThe AA has been fined £4.2m and ordered to make payments to more than 80,000 learner drivers for not showing the full price of lessons at the time of booking, an illegal practice known as “drip pricing”.The UK competition watchdog, which launched an investigation into the practices employed by the AA Driving School and BSM Driving School last year, said that the AA-owned businesses must repay more than £760,000 as a result. Continue reading......

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial newsMiddle East crisis live: US claims blockade has 'completely halted economic trade' into Iran, as Trump hints at return to talks in PakistanScott Bessent has also claimed the US economy could have a strong year, despite the hit from the Middle East conflict.Bessent said the underlying US economy remains strong and that growth could still exceed 3% or 3.5% this year despite the impact of the US-Israel war on Iran. Continue reading......

Plans for such a transport system have been discussed for many years and not all locals believe that service will comeIt is 1993 and a young James Lewis is going to do work experience in Leeds city council's highways department. His team, Leeds United FC, have only just relinquished the title of defending English champions. And the council is marching on with big ideas: putting the abandoned 1980s Metroline tram plan behind them, and forgetting the unloved 1991 concept of a Leeds Advanced Transit skytrain. The Supertram is the coming thing.“I remember these drawers and drawers, full of big paper plans,” says Lewis, 33 years on. Lewis is now leader of the city council, and it is all done online. Much of the city centre has been transformed, rebuilt and pedestrianised. Leeds United have never threatened to be champions again. But as Lewis stands outside Elland Road stadium, explaining how to cross the adjacent motorway, one thing has not changed. What Leeds really wants is to build a tram. Continue rea...

Air pollution caused by wildfires is another blow to northern Thailand's tourism industry as businesses suffer amid war in IranThe Doi Suthep temple in northern Thailand is known for its spectacular views of Chiang Mai and the lush forested mountains that surround it. Over recent weeks, though, visitors can see little of the city beyond a thick cloud of grey haze.Persistent wildfires have caused intense air pollution across the north of Thailand, forcing three provinces to declare emergencies and triggering spikes in pollution-related illnesses. Continue reading......

Studio and television business, ESPN, certain corporate functions and more to see workforce reduced, source saysWalt Disney's new chief executive, Josh D'Amaro, announced layoffs in an email to employees on Tuesday, as he looks to streamline the company's operations.About 1,000 positions will be eliminated, according to a person familiar with the development. Continue reading......

Report by Common Wealth argues rest of the world should pay for country's transition as reparative climate financeCuba could beat the US's crippling energy blockade for ever with just an $8bn investment in renewable energy. And the rest of the world should pay for it.Those are the bold claims of a thinktank analysis of the embattled socialist republic's energy policy, which claims that Cuba could show its Caribbean neighbours the way to a green energy future. Continue reading......

ASA rules ads on Instagram and Daily Mail website broke ban on promoting items high in fat, salt and sugarLidl and Iceland have become the first companies to have ads banned after the introduction of rules cracking down on the marketing of junk food in the UK.The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has been policing the ban on ads featuring junk food on TV before 9pm, and in paid online advertising at any time of the day, since 5 January. Continue reading......

Analysis by IFS shows George Osborne's mortgage schemes launched in 2013 had little effect on social mobilityHigher-income households were the biggest beneficiaries of George Osborne's Help to Buy mortgage schemes, introduced in the 2010s, according to an analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) thinktank.Launched by the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition government in 2013, Help to Buy involved two separate schemes aimed at making home ownership more achievable in a period of rapid house price growth. Continue reading......

With the army's size halved since the cold war, UK ambitions to be globally deployable do not match the reality, experts say Middle East crisis – live updatesIf Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 was a wake-up call for Nato, the war in the Gulf has brought some harsh realities home to the British public about the state of the UK's armed forces.While air defence systems and fighter jets were already in place or deployed relatively swiftly, the time it took to send a single destroyer to Cyprus in the form of HMS Dragon focused minds on Britain's military readiness and capabilities. Continue reading......

Experts point to Chinese backing for multinational attempts to introduce global governance of AIChina is now the “good guy” on AI rather than Donald Trump's US where the technology is being pursued in a dangerous “wild west” manner, a former UN and UK government adviser has told MPs.Prof Dame Wendy Hall, who was a member of the UN's AI advisory board and co-wrote a review of AI for Theresa May's government, told the House of Commons business and trade committee that China was backing multinational attempts to introduce global governance of AI in contrast to America, which had set up a race between profit-hungry companies that relied on hype. Continue reading......

David Hinton will only receive his £400,000 salary this year after thousands of customers were left without waterThe chief executive of South East Water has said he will forgo his bonus in an act of penitence for “unacceptable outages” that left thousands of customers in Kent and Sussex without water.David Hinton told MPs on the environment, food and rural affairs select committee that he had decided not to accept an additional “performance payment” this year. Instead, he will receive only his £400,000 salary. Continue reading......

Chancellor faced with fund's forecast that impact of Iran war will leave Britain as G7's biggest loserIran war escalation could trigger global recession, IMF warnsThe Iran war is bad news for the global economy. But for some countries, the unfolding conflict is having a bigger impact than for others. The International Monetary Fund's verdict is that Britain is the G7's biggest loser.Amid the rising damage from the Middle East war, the Washington-based fund warned UK economic growth rate would be 0.5 percentage points lower this year than it had predicted back in January – the biggest downgrade among the club of wealthy nations. Continue reading......

With a summer glut on cards, customers are being urged to use more energy when renewables are abundantGreat Britain households to be urged to use more power this summer as renewables soarGreat Britain is on the brink of a record-breaking summer for renewable energy which could lead to the first periods of zero-carbon electricity in the history of the power system.These green milestones are an important step towards the government's goal of creating a 95% gas-free grid by 2030 to power the electric vehicles, heat pumps and greener factories that will help the UK to reach its climate goals. Continue reading......

Recent losses on loans in relatively unregulated sector are not a systemic risk to financial sector, says JP Morgan bossThe boss of JP Morgan, Wall Street's biggest bank, said a downturn across the $3tn private credit market would not put financial stability at risk, adding that losses would have to be “very large” before the pain rippled out to major banks.Dimon played down the potential impact that a series of private credit loan defaults would have on the wider financial system, arguing that while there were some areas of of weakness, the unregulated industry did not pose a “systemic” risk. Continue reading......

Deal, subject to regulatory approval, would give Bezos firm access to Globalstar's network of two dozen satellitesAmazon said on Tuesday it would acquire a satellite company in an $11.57bn deal, bolstering its own fledgling space business as it looks to take on Elon Musk-led bigger rival Starlink.The deal gives Amazon access to Globalstar's network of two dozen satellites, boosting the tech giant's ambitions to challenge SpaceX unit Starlink, which currently has about 10,000 units in orbit. Continue reading......

Growth forecasts cut for US and global economy, while UK suffers sharpest downgrade in G7Business live – latest updatesA further escalation in the Iran war could trigger a global recession, spiralling inflation and a sharp backlash in financial markets, the International Monetary Fund has warned.Against an increasingly volatile backdrop, the Washington-based fund said the economic damage from the Middle East conflict was steadily rising as it cut its growth forecasts for 2026 based on the impact from the war so far. Continue reading......

Party says plan for 'radical change' will be funded in part through higher taxes on aviation, gambling and landlordsUK politics live – latest updatesThe Scottish Greens have called for free bus travel, thousands of extra teachers and doctors and a universal basic income among hundreds of uncosted manifesto pledges.The party is enjoying a bounce in Scottish opinion polls, with some putting it ahead of Labour, driven partly by the surging support for the Green party of England and Wales under the leadership of Zack Polanski. Continue reading......