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Electoral Commission reviewing whether Reform UK leader should have declared billionaire's gift before entering parliamentAnalysis: Farage's bid to get ahead of story only raises more questionsFarage referred to standards watchdog over undisclosed £5m giftThe UK elections watchdog is considering whether to investigate an undisclosed £5m donation received by Nigel Farage before he announced his candidacy at the last general election.The move comes after the Guardian revealed this week that the Reform UK leader was given the money by the crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne. Continue reading......

Drivers seem undeterred by high fuel prices and gloomy weather forecasts, while engineering works spell delays for railway passengersDrivers have been told to expect the UK's busiest May bank holiday traffic in years, despite high fuel prices and the looming end of the sunny spell threatening to dampen the long weekend.More than 19m leisure trips by car were expected over the long weekend from Friday to Monday, according to research by the RAC motoring organisation – the most since 2016. Engineering works are also likely to disrupt rail journeys this weekend. Continue reading......

Live, rolling coverage of business, economics and financial markets as average house price rose 0.4% in April and NatWest sets aside £140mIt is likely to be a quiet morning on equity markets, as most of the major indices around Europe are closed – and on that note, happy May Day!But London is still open for trading (and closed on Monday). Futures prices suggest the FTSE 100 is due to dip by 0.3%.Despite the uncertainty caused by developments in the Middle East and the subsequent rise in energy prices, the UK housing market has continued to regain momentum following the slowdown recorded around the turn of the year.This is somewhat surprising given that indicators of consumer confidence have weakened noticeably. GfK's headline index has fallen to its lowest level since late‑2023, reflecting households' more pessimistic views of the economic outlook and their own financial position over the year ahead.The surprisingly strong rise in the Nationwide measure of house prices in April shows that house pri...

EnComm Aviation says the firm's action has cut off vital support for crisis-hit countries including South Sudan and the DRCBritain's biggest weapons manufacturer, BAE Systems, is facing a £120m lawsuit after scrapping support for aircraft used to deliver aid to some of the world's neediest countries.EnComm Aviation, a Kenya-based aid cargo operator, claims the decision forced the cancellation of humanitarian contracts and reduced supplies to South Sudan, now threatened by famine, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), among others. Continue reading......

Observers say pressure on IMO negotiations appears to be linked to countries that have invested heavily in gasAbout a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) passed through the strait of Hormuz, a strip of sea less than 30 miles wide at its narrowest point, before it was in effect closed by the US-Israeli attack on Iran, which sent the price of oil soaring and left an estimated 20,000 seafarers on 2,000 vessels stranded.Their plight has shone a spotlight on the complex and dirty relationship between shipping and the fossil fuel industry. The sector is one of the most polluting, with most ship engines fuelled by what has been called the dregs of the oil refining process, heavy and carbon-intensive diesel too filthy for any other purpose. Shipping produces about 3% of global greenhouse gases, a portion set to rise as trade globalises further. Continue reading......

At world-first Santa Marta climate meeting, delegates say it was 'euphoric' to finally be focusing on concrete solutionsAfter a landmark climate meeting in Santa Marta, Colombia, where nearly 60 countries gathered to work out how to end the production and use of planet-heating fossil fuels, what have we learned? Continue reading......

Company asserts in court filing that the state's proposed remedies would be too onerous to comply withMeta has threatened to block access to Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp in New Mexico, which would be an unprecedented move in its home country. The ultimatum, made in a court filing this week, comes after the company was found liable and fined $375m for child safety failures in a landmark lawsuit brought by the state's attorney general. The second phase of the suit, known as the remedies phase, is scheduled to begin on Monday and will determine what actions the tech giant is obligated to take in response.Should Meta lose the second phase of trial, which will begin on 4 May, it would be compelled to introduce a series of reforms to its products. The New Mexico department of justice argues these changes would make Meta's social networks safer for underage users in the state. Meta has argued these reforms are unfeasible and it would be left with little option but to withdraw its services completely. Cont...

Four months after US capture of Nicolás Maduro, officials hail repairing of ties as airliner touches down in CaracasUS and Venezuelan officials have hailed a new era in diplomatic relations as the first direct commercial flight between the two countries in more than seven years landed in Caracas.Nearly four months ago, US special forces attack helicopters and planes swept into the skies over Venezuela's capital after Donald Trump ordered the capture of its president, Nicolás Maduro. Continue reading......

Prices at the pump have leapt since the start of the conflict – but clinging to fossil fuels will only prolong the painThe car is perhaps the closest thing Germany has to a national symbol. For this reason, the success of the auto industry and the happiness of motorists has long been a barometer for the standing of the Federal Republic.Since the beginning of the war on Iran, German news has been filled with stories about drivers. Journalists have filed breathless dispatches from petrol stations all over the country, reporting scenes of anger and frustration at the hike in fuel prices.Tania Roettger is a journalist based in Berlin Continue reading......

UK was close behind, exporting 675,000 tonnes, with much of the waste sent to Turkey, Malaysia and Indonesia Germany was the world's largest exporter of plastic waste in 2025 and sent more than 810,000 tonnes abroad, according to analysis of trade data carried out for the Guardian.The UK followed close behind, according to the analysis by Watershed Investigations and the Basel Action Network. It exported more than 675,000 tonnes, its highest level in eight years and enough to fill about 127,000 shipping containers. Continue reading......

President says decision made 'in honor of the king and queen' as industry officials call deal 'significant boost'In a gesture of diplomatic friendliness after King Charles's visit to the White House, Donald Trump said the US would be removing all tariffs on whisky imports.“In Honor of the King and Queen of the United Kingdom, who have just left the White House, soon headed back to their wonderful Country, I will be removing the Tariffs and Restrictions on Whiskey having to do with Scotland's ability to work with the Commonwealth of Kentucky on Whiskey and Bourbon,” Trump said in a post on social media. Continue reading......

Advice charity also helping thousands of tenants before Renters' Rights Act comes into force on FridaySolicitors say they have been inundated with requests to serve last-minute section 21 no-fault eviction notices before they are banned when the Renters' Rights Act comes into force in England on Friday.The legislation, which has been hailed as the biggest change to renting in a generation, bans no-fault evictions, limits rent increases and abolishes fixed-term tenancies. Continue reading......

People describe awkward and unnatural process as survey finds nearly half of job seekers have been interviewed by AINearly half (47%) of UK job seekers have had an AI interview, research from the hiring platform Greenhouse has found.In its survey of 2,950 active job seekers, including 1,132 UK-based workers, with additional respondents from the US, Germany, Australia and Ireland, it found that 30% of UK candidates had walked away from a hiring process because it included an AI interview. Continue reading......

Parliamentary committee takes unusual step of declaring no confidence in executives at utility providerMPs have accused the leadership of South East Water of incompetence over repeated water outages for tens of thousands of customers, and expressed no confidence in their ability to reform the company.MPs from across the political spectrum said David Hinton, SEW's chief executive, and the board of directors operated a culture of unaccountability at the company, which provides drinking water for 2.3 million customers in Berkshire, Hampshire, Kent, Surrey and Sussex. Continue reading......

The AI boom is worsening a global memory chip shortage, which Samsung predicts will continue into 2027Samsung Electronics on Thursday reported record quarterly profit driven by a 49-fold jump in chip income, saying it expects a severe supply shortage to deepen next year as clients spend on AI, driving up prices of its memory chips.A boom in the construction of AI datacentres has spurred Samsung and chipmaking peers to allocate production capacity to advanced chips that Nvidia uses in its so-called AI accelerators. Even so, chipmakers are struggling to meet demand while the move also squeezes the supply of conventional chips. Continue reading......

PocketOS was left scrambling after a rogue AI agent deleted swaths of code underpinning its businessIt only took nine seconds for an AI coding agent gone rogue to delete a company's entire production database and its backups, according to its founder. PocketOS, which sells software that car rental businesses rely on, descended into chaos after its databases were wiped, the company's founder Jeremy Crane said.The culprit was Cursor, an AI agent powered by Anthropic's Claude Opus 4.6 model, which is one of the AI industry's flagship models. As more industries embrace AI in an attempt to automate tasks and even replace workers, the chaos at PocketOS is a reminder of what could go wrong. Continue reading......

Yara CEO warns of global auction that would leave poorest countries scrambling for supplies they can ill affordThe Iran war could have “dramatic consequences”, causing food shortages and price rises in some of Africa's poorest and most vulnerable communities, the head of the world's largest fertiliser company has said.Svein Tore Holsether, the chief executive of Yara International, said world leaders needed to guard against soaring prices and shortages of fertiliser causing a de facto global auction that would leave the poorest countries, particularly in Africa, scrambling for supplies they could ill afford. Continue reading......

Company details $111.2bn in revenue in first earnings report after announcement of Cook's pending departureApple blew past Wall Street expectations in its first earnings report since it announced CEO Tim Cook would be stepping down.Cook shared his thoughts about the leadership transition on Thursday, saying: “There's no one on this planet I trust more to lead Apple into the future” than incoming CEO John Ternus. Asked by an investor what advice he has given Ternus, Cook said: “Never forget the north star for the company. You know, we're about making the best products in the world that really enrich other people's lives.” Continue reading......

Exclusive: Accessories chain will be reopened in the UK by its operator in France, Austria, Portugal and SpainThe jewellery and accessories chain Claire's is expected to return to UK high streets with about 50 stores to be reopened from June onwards by the operator of its shops in France, Austria, Portugal and Spain.Julien Jarjoura, the French entrepreneur behind jewellery company Une Ligne, which sells online and via museum stores including the Louvre and the Palace of Versailles, said he had the blessing of the US owner of the Claire's brand, Ames Watson, to open stores in the UK and was signing new leases with UK landlords. Continue reading......

State pension was 'built for a different era', says former PM's organisation amid pressure on government financesLabour has been urged by Tony Blair's thinktank to scrap the pensions triple lock amid mounting pressure on government finances.With the Iran war threatening to derail public spending plans, the Tony Blair Institute (TBI) said the “unaffordable” manifesto pledge to maintain the triple lock should be torn up as part of a wider overhaul of the state pension. Continue reading......