Category Archives: Business

Asian markets drop further as IMF warns Trump tariffs ‘a significant risk’ to global economy – business live

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Kristolina Georgieva warns against retaliation to US levies while US president insists ‘markets will boom’ after sweeping tariff announcement

In the Pacific, Fiji is the hardest hit by Trump’s tariffs. It has been levied with a 32% tariff, Vanuatu at 22% and Nauru at 30%.

Fiji prime minister Sitiveni Rabuka said the move was akin to a “trade blockade” that his country could not win.

Today was the worst stock market experience in five years. Usually when you have a terrible stock market experience, it’s because a bank fails, a pandemic, a hurricane or because some other country does something.

We don’t have these kinds of stock market responses in response to policies that the President of the United States is proud of. That is something that is entirely without precedent. It is extremely dangerous.

If any administration of which I was a part had launched an economic policy so totally ungrounded in serious analysis or so dangerous and damaging, I would have resigned in protest.

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Cross-Channel train services to be cheaper to run as operator cuts charges

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LSPH chief executive announces ‘groundbreaking proposal’ intended to grow international rail travel from the UK

Cross-Channel train services serving new destinations will be cheaper to run under a scheme to grow international rail travel from the UK.

London St Pancras Highspeed (LSPH), which owns and operates the railway and stations from the capital to the Channel tunnel, said it would slash charges for operators planning new routes.

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Tata redundancy scheme targeted older, non-Indian nationals in UK, tribunal hears

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Three claimants allege Mumbai-based consultancy firm discriminated against them during restructuring

A UK division of the Indian conglomerate Tata “deliberately orchestrated” a redundancy programme in a way that unfairly targeted older, non-Indian nationals, an employment tribunal has heard.

Three claimants allege the Mumbai-based Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), which is valued at almost £110bn on the BSE stock exchange in Mumbai, discriminated against them on grounds of age and nationality during a restructuring that began in mid-2023.

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UK ministers will respond to US tariffs with ‘calm heads’, Starmer tells business chiefs

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Prime minister says tariffs will be ‘a challenge’ but UK is better placed with 10% rate than EU at 20%

Keir Starmer has told heads of business in Downing Street that “clearly there will be an economic impact” from US tariffs but that ministers would respond with “cool and calm heads”.

The prime minister gathered senior business figures in No 10 after Donald Trump announced he would introduce 10% blanket tariffs on imports from the UK, and 25% on car imports.

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Canada Trump tariff exemption ‘like dodging a bullet into the path of a tank’, says business leader

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Automotive industry and prime minister Mark Carney note that 25% tariffs on Canadian steel, aluminum and automobiles will still come into effect within hours

Canada’s exemption from Donald Trump’s global tariffs was “like dodging a bullet into the path of a tank”, say business leaders as other levies are poised to hit key industries that drive the country’s economy.

In a theatrical unveiling of tariffs on countries with “unfair” practices on Wednesday afternoon, Canada was noticeably absent, alongside trade ally Mexico.

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Trump goes full gameshow host to push his tariff plan – and nobody’s a winner

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There were charts and scores, as if The Price Is Right had come to Washington. The big prize? A global trade war

It was Jeopardy!, or The Price Is Right, come to Washington.

On an unseasonably chilly day in the White House Rose Garden, Donald Trump stood with a giant chart listing which reciprocal tariffs he would impose on China, the European Union, the United Kingdom and other hapless contestants.

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Trump hits UK with 10% tariffs as he ignites global trade war

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Britain gets off comparatively lightly but US president’s action could still cost billions in lost growth

Donald Trump has hit the UK with tariffs of 10% on exports to the US as he ignited a global trade war that could wipe billions off economic growth.

The US president accused other nations, including allies, of “looting, pillaging, raping and plundering” the US, as he announced tariffs on economic rivals including 20% on the EU and 34% on China as part of what he dubbed “liberation day”.

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Australia election 2025 live: PM dines with Greg Norman as nation braces for Trump tariffs; Howard says Coalition are election underdogs

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Golfer has been used before as a diplomatic bridge to US president. Follow today’s news live

Peter Dutton is in Western Australia for his first visit to the mining state of this campaign, and has come bearing a $600m announcement for roads which are critical to mining and agriculture.

He will spend the day in WA and Perth, before it’s expected he’ll return to the east coast late tonight or early tomorrow.

All candidates were made aware that if they were not coming tonight then they would be represented by an empty chair. This notice was given in advance.

The Liberals have failed to announce a 2030 or 2035 emissions target, committing only to net zero by 2050. The fate of the climate will be determined by cumulative emissions, so this lack of short or medium term targets is deeply problematic.

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UK government tries to placate opponents of AI copyright bill

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Economic impact assessment is one concession aiming to head off opposition from MPs, peers and creatives such as Paul McCartney and Tom Stoppard

The UK government is trying to placate peer and Labour backbencher concerns about copyright proposals by pledging to assess the economic impact of its plans.

Creative professionals including Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Tom Stoppard and Kate Bush have strongly criticised ministers’ proposals to let artificial intelligence companies train their models on copyright-protected work without permission, unless the rights holder opts out.

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US banks predict climate goals will fail – but air conditioning firms will thrive

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Reports predict global heating will bring catastrophes and that air conditioning market could grow by 41%

The world is on track for disastrous global heating – but this will create profits for some air conditioning companies, according to forecasts by leading Wall Street financial institutions.

Recent reports by Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase and the Institute of International Finance all make clear the finance sector considers the Paris climate agreement limiting global temperatures, signed a decade ago by nearly 200 nations, is effectively dead and investors should plan accordingly.

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Reeves defends Labour’s £40bn tax rise as businesses prepare for NICs hike

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Chancellor says autumn budget enabled £25bn of extra investment into NHS and shorter waiting lists

Rachel Reeves has defended the £40bn in tax increases in autumn’s budget as businesses brace for their impact, saying NHS waiting lists would now be higher if she had not taken action.

Employers are set for a £25bn increase in national insurance contributions (NICs), which comes into force on 6 April, at the same time as consumers are being hit by a slew of increases in bills for everything from utilities to car tax.

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Airlines warned Heathrow about power supply risks days before outage, MPs told

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Concerns about cable theft raised with airport before substation fire but Heathrow chief defends handling of incident

Airlines warned Heathrow about risks to its power supply days before the airport was shut down by a substation fire, a Commons committee has been told.

Heathrow’s chief executive, Thomas Woldbye, apologised for the disruption, which affected more than 200,000 passengers on Friday 21 March, but defended the decision to close as he said staying open was potentially “disastrous”.

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Wednesday briefing: What the latest wave of tariffs mean for the US, UK, Europe – and you

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In today’s newsletter: The administration’s sweeping tariffs have left markets bracing for volatility – but what impact will they have on an unsteady global economy?

Good morning. According to Donald Trump, it’s “liberation day”: the advent of a new trade order in which Americans reap the benefit of massive tariffs on imports, and the rest of the world picks up the tab.

Unsurprisingly, the United States’ trading partners tend to take a very different view. And they are doing everything they can to avoid being passive targets for the White House’s carnivorous vision of American exceptionalism.

Israel-Gaza war | Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz announced a major expansion of the military operation in Gaza on Wednesday, saying large areas of the enclave would be seized and added to the security zones of Israel. Follow the latest here.

Israel-Gaza war | Some of the bodies of 15 Palestinian paramedics and rescue workers, killed by Israeli forces and buried in a mass grave in Gaza, were found with their hands or legs tied and had gunshot wounds to the head and chest, according to two eyewitnesses. The accounts add to evidence pointing to a potentially serious war crime on 23 March.

UK news | More than 20 women have contacted police to say they fear they may have been attacked by the serial rapist Zhenhao Zou, with detectives fearing there may be even more victims to come. Zou, 28, was convicted last month of raping three women in London and seven in China between 2019 and 2024.

US politics | Cory Booker, the Democratic US senator from New Jersey, has broken the record for longest speech ever by a lone senator by spending 25 hours and five minutes inveighing against Donald Trump in the chamber. Booker’s speech was intended to highlight the “grave and urgent” danger that Trump poses to democracy.

Cinema | Val Kilmer, the actor best known for his roles in Top Gun, Batman Forever and The Doors, has died at the age of 65. His daughter Mercedes told the New York Times that the cause of death was pneumonia.

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Trump set to announce new round of tariffs on his so-called ‘liberation day’

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President’s plans have rattled global stock markets and triggered heated rows with US’s largest trading partners

Donald Trump will announce his latest round of tariffs at the White House on Wednesday, threatening to unleash a global trade war on what he has dubbed “liberation day”.

Trump has rattled global stock markets, alarmed corporate executives and economists, and triggered heated rows with the US’s largest trading partners by announcing and delaying plans to impose tariffs on foreign imports several times since taking office.

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Thousands of Ford Kuga hybrid drivers ‘left in limbo’ after fire risk warnings

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Carmaker reportedly has yet to announce plan for repairs after telling motorists not to charge their cars

Thousands of drivers have reportedly been left in limbo after warnings that their car could catch fire due to a battery defect.

Ford issued an urgent recall of its Kuga plug-in hybrid car in early March, warning drivers not to charge the battery because of a risk it might short-circuit while on the road. The problem could cause a loss of power or a fire, according to the recall notice. Four weeks later, the manufacturer has yet to announce a timescale for repairs and owners report that it is failing to respond to their requests for an update.

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UK regulator fines 10 carmakers and two trade bodies over green ad collusion

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CMA found car firms chose not to compete when advertising what percentage of their vehicles could be recycled

Ten leading car manufacturers – plus two automotive trade bodies – have been fined more than £77m by a UK regulator after admitting breaking competition law in relation to advertising their green credentials.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched an investigation after a tipoff from Mercedes-Benz, which allowed the German marque to avoid financial penalties despite also being involved in the cartel.

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Starmer dismisses claims he’s been ‘played’ by Trump, and says future trade deal could lessen impact of tariffs – UK politics live

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Starmer said that a future trade deal with the US might lead to the UK getting some exemptions from the tariffs

Richard Hughes, chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility, is giving evidence to the Treasury committee. There is a live feed here.

Hughes started by telling the committee that he wrote to the chancellor earlier this year to say that, when his five-year term ends later this year, he would like to have a second term in office.

We are of course negotiating an economic deal which will, I hope … mitigate the tariffs.

The US is our closest ally. Our defence, our security, our intelligence are bound up in a way that no two other countries are.

So it’s obviously in our national interest to have a close working relationship with the US, which we’ve had for decades, and I want to ensure we have for decades to come.

We are obviously working with the sectors most impacted at pace on that.

Nobody wants to see a trade war but I have to act in the national interests.

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Hooters restaurant chain files for bankruptcy protection

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Founded in 1983, the restaurant known for waitresses in skimpy outfits has run into financial difficulties lately

Hooters, the US-based restaurant chain known for chicken wings and skimpy waitstaff outfits, has filed for bankruptcy protection.

HOA Restaurant Group filed the motion for chapter 11 protection Monday in the north Texas bankruptcy court in Dallas.

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Wild co-founders ‘land £100m’ from sale of natural deodorant maker

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Childhood friends sell upmarket brand to Unilever, the maker of Dove soap, Axe deodorant and Marmite

A pair of UK entrepreneurs selling refillable deodorant cases and manuka honey lip balms made from natural ingredients have reportedly landed a near-£100m payday from the sale of their brand to the global consumer goods group Unilever.

Wild, founded by childhood friends Freddy Ward and Charlie Bowes-Lyon, has been bought by Unilever, the maker of Dove soap, Axe deodorant and Marmite.

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Large majority of Europeans support retaliatory tariffs against US, poll finds

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Survey shows between 56% and 79% across seven countries in favour if Trump introduces ‘Liberation Day’ levies

A large majority of western Europeans support retaliatory tariffs against the US, a survey has suggested, if Donald Trump introduces sweeping import duties for major trading partners as expected this week.

The US president appears likely to unleash a range of tariffs, varying from country to country, on Wednesday, which he has called Liberation Day. He also said last week that a 25% levy on cars shipped to the US would come into force the next day.

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