Call for means-tested grants or loans to cover upfront costs that prevent poorer households from benefiting
Poorer households could cut their energy bills by a quarter if solar panels were installed on their rooftops, a report has found.
However, the upfront costs mean that those who stand to benefit most from decreased energy bills are prevented from getting panels installed, according to the Resolution Foundation thinktank.
Continue reading...Private plans, such as State Farm, required to give to Fair plan so all residents have access to fire insurance
California’s home-insurance safety net does not have enough money to pay all of the claims from damage caused by the Los Angeles wildfires and has asked private insurers to contribute $1bn toward those claims.
All private insurers operating in California are required to contribute to the Fair plan, a plan of last resort established so all Californians would have access to fire insurance. More than 450,000 California homeowners got their insurance through the Fair plan in 2024 – more than double the number in 2020. As of 4 February, the plan had received more than 4,700 claims from the Palisades and Eaton fires, almost half of which were for “total losses”.
Continue reading...The president repeatedly claimed he would lower prices during the election campaign, but that’s not an easy task
As tens of millions of Americans prepared to watch the Super Bowl this weekend, Donald Trump sat for the customary pre-game presidential interview.
Trump was elected after pledging to bring down prices fast as much of the country grappled with the cost of living after years of heightened inflation. So when the Fox News anchor asked would families start to feel the impact, the president changed the subject.
Continue reading...‘Solidarity tax’ to go up in move criticised as ‘irresponsible’ by Air France, as Ryanair threatens to cut flights in country
The cost of flights from France will rise next month when the government more than doubles its “solidarity tax” on tickets.
The French government has said the increases are fair on ecological and fiscal grounds but critics say it will hit France’s ability to compete globally.
Continue reading...Greenpeace protest draws attention to worsening typhoons and demands accountability from major polluters
For two days and two nights, Ronalyn Carbonel and her four children clung to the roof of their home as a huge storm raged around them. With the wind battering her village of Rizal, about 10 miles east of Manila in the Philippines, and water swirling through the rooms below them, they had no choice but to wait, hoping that someone would come to rescue them and hundreds of their neighbours.
“We did not have shelter, we did not have food … we just had to wait for the government for two days,” Carbonel said. “It is not easy, no electricity, no light, we just wait for the sun to rise. The children were scared, we had never experienced anything like this.”
Continue reading...Peter Navarro’s comments to US media, which follow president’s 25% tariff announcement, were shared on an official Trump administration account on X
Donald Trump’s trade adviser claims Australia is “crushing” and “killing” America’s manufacturing sector with its imports of aluminium, as the Albanese government scrambles to try to secure exemptions to the president’s 25% tariffs on metal.
Anthony Albanese said he was still hopeful the local steel and aluminium industry could be spared from the tariff regime, even after escalating comments from the Trump administration criticising current trade arrangements with allies, including Australia.
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Continue reading...Watchdog upholds complaint about advert that digitally altered clothing and used low angle to accentuate long legs
The UK advertising watchdog has banned an advert from high street retailer Next for featuring an “unhealthily thin” model in digitally altered clothing.
The advertisement, which ran on its website, featured a model marketing Next’s “power stretch denim leggings”.
Continue reading...Third-largest healthcare insurer will be first to give 20% off treatments such as Wegovy and Mounjaro through health cover
Vitality has become the first health insurer in the UK to offer customers discounted weight loss treatments for up to a year through its health cover.
The UK’s third-largest health insurer behind Bupa and Axa, with 1.9 million members, said it would offer discounts of up to 20% for medications such as Wegovy and Mounjaro – which are popular but pricey – to members, based on their body mass index (BMI) and weight-related health conditions.
Continue reading...Ursula von der Leyen says tariffs ‘will not go unanswered’ as Justin Trudeau says Canadians will ‘stand up if we need to’
Canada, Mexico and the EU have sharply criticised Donald Trump’s decision to impose 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminium imports to the US, amid mounting fears of a global trade war.
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said on Tuesday she “deeply regretted” the US president’s move, announced late on Monday, adding: “Unjustified tariffs on the EU will not go unanswered.”
Continue reading...Downturn in jobs market will mean workers will be unlikely to be able to bid up their wages, says policymaker
The Bank of England policymaker Catherine Mann has said she backed a half-point cut in UK interest rates last week because she believes the downturn in the jobs market will make the inflation “hump” this year short-lived.
Mann surprised financial markets last week by switching from voting against the Bank’s last cut, in November, to supporting a half-point reduction.
Continue reading...Modified US duties will be enforced ‘without exceptions’, said president, in controversial bid to boost economy
Donald Trump announced 25% tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum on Monday, ramping up his controversial bid to boost the US economy by hiking taxes on imports from overseas.
The modified US duties will be enforced “without exceptions or exemptions”, the president declared, dashing the hopes of countries that hoped to avoid them.
Continue reading...Analysts say measures so far have been less than feared but traders still cautious as uncertainty about US policy ‘has basically exploded’
Asian markets were mixed on Tuesday as traders kept a nervous eye on Donald Trump’s next moves after he signed off on 25% tariffs for steel and aluminium imports, having warned of more measures to come.
The president has lived up to his campaign pledges to resume his hardball trade diplomacy to extract concessions on a range of issues, including commerce, immigration and drug trafficking.
Continue reading...Bloc’s leaders also pledge to protect EU interests after US president announces escalation in aggressive trade policy
Europe will not hesitate to retaliate if Donald Trump imposes any new tariffs, the European Commission and EU national leaders have said, after the US president announced another escalation of his aggressive trade policy at the weekend.
Trump said he would announce on Monday 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminium imports that would affect “everybody”, adding that reciprocal tariffs on all countries that tax imports from the US would follow on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Continue reading...Industry insiders say it will be ‘tricky’ to find suitable candidate who would agree to location and civil service pay
Britain’s state-owned energy company faces a “challenging” task to find a chief executive for its Aberdeen HQ when it begins recruiting this month, senior industry sources have said.
Great British Energy is poised to begin the hunt, but sources claim there are still no obvious frontrunners for the top job almost six months after the £8.3bn publicly owned clean energy company was formed.
Continue reading...Trump has teased two of the US’s biggest trading partners with levies but has moved the goalpost at least three times in two weeks
Donald Trump was in his element in the Oval Office this week. Surrounded by cameras, flanked by billionaire allies and confronted by a barrage of questions about whether he was really prepared to unleash a trade war on the US’s closest neighbors, the president talked tough.
By his telling, powerful economies were scrambling to bend to his will. Hours earlier, Mexico had announced a series of measures to shore up its border, prompting the White House to hastily postpone the imposition of 25% tariffs on all its goods; Canada would announce similar measures, and receive the same reprieve, later that day.
Continue reading...Shareholder lobby group says parents trust G8 Education to look after children but carers ‘are not supported to look after their own’
Australian employers commonly offer paid parental leave – in addition to the government scheme – to attract and retain workers in a competitive jobs market.
But the largest listed childcare provider in Australia, G8 Education, has no such policy, drawing the attention of activist shareholders who want to pressure it to change.
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Continue reading...A bizarre mining business’s fake audit reveals the potential for fraudsters at Companies House
At first glance, there is nothing remarkable about Gofer Mining plc. It appears to be just another multibillion-pound corporate giant, with London headquarters in Canary Wharf and interests stretching from Tibet to Ukraine.
Its lengthy financial accounts are full of prosaic details about mineral weights, rare metal assets and exploration plans.
Continue reading...The man given free rein by Trump to crusade against the federal government supported Democrats until 2022. But some of Musk’s longstanding positions lead a straight line to his far-right sympathies
Elon Musk is not a people person, as millions around the world will be able to attest after the planet’s richest man cut off food supplies, healthcare and probably even life itself to some of the most vulnerable without so much as a fore- or afterthought.
Musk sees himself as a data man, wielding numbers like a machete to slash and burn his way through government waste and corruption as he leads the rightwing charge to capture the US state.
Continue reading...President halts plan to put tariffs on low-value packages but says he will impose duties on more countries next week
Donald Trump halted a key part of his tariff attack on China on Friday, as he threatened to impose new US duties on goods from many more countries next week.
Plans to ensure shipments from China to the US worth less than $800 still face tariffs – removing the longstanding duty-free status of low-cast packages – have been delayed to give more time to federal agencies to prepare for the change.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Bank holds crisis meeting to discuss response to news that Sir Evelyn de Rothschild left after allegation of sexual misconduct
Senior bankers at Rothschild & Co gathered on Tuesday in a meeting room at its St Swithin’s Lane headquarters in the heart of the City of London to discuss a memo that would shake the storied financial group to its foundations.
The memo, to be sent to staff on Wednesday morning, would admit for the first time that their celebrated former leader, Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, had left the bank in 2004 after an allegation of sexual misconduct.
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