Rachel Reeves may have to find more money to fix public services, says IFS

Institute for Fiscal Studies says budget allows for rise in public service spending this year and next, but not thereafter

Rachel Reeves could be forced to find more money to fix public services after her budget made a start at reversing the “unrealistic” and irresponsible spending plans of the Conservatives, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has said.

Britain’s leading experts on the government’s finances said the chancellor’s tax measures on Wednesday had allowed for a substantial short-term increase in public service spending this year and next, but not thereafter.

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Lloyds shareholders could take £1bn hit over car finance crisis

Analysts forecast bank will have to halve £2bn buyback plan, as ex-boss of City regulator blames watchdog for crisis

Lloyds Banking Group could give almost £1bn less to shareholders this year as a result of the car finance crisis, analysts have said, as the City regulator’s former boss blamed the watchdog for the chaos.

The estimated size of a multibillion-pound compensation bill for motor lenders has grown after a shock court of appeal ruling last Friday, which said customers could not consent to motor loans that involved “secret commission” payments to brokers and car dealerships.

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Business leaders keep quiet on Trump – what are they saying in private?

Experts say top chief executives are treading a fine line to avoid any backlash in the event of a Trump victory

After the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, America’s business leaders came out strongly in their criticism of Donald Trump. Now – as the Harris campaign brands Trump a “fascist” and Trump threatens retribution against “the enemy within” – there appears to be a conspiracy of silence.

In fact, as the nation heads to the polls in an election that is too close to call, some of America’s most powerful chief executive appear to be cozying up to Trump again.

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Meta rides AI boom to stellar quarterly earnings, but slightly less than expected

Company beats financial predictions but does not increase daily users as much as Wall Street thought it might

Meta’s blowout year continues after the company reported another stellar financial quarter on Wednesday. Shares fell in after-hours trading.

Wall Street analysts had high expectations for the Instagram and WhatsApp parent company, projecting an 18% jump in sales year over year. The company reported $40.6bn in sales, a 19% increase year over year that outpaced investor expectations of $40.19bn. Meta, which saw a 25% jump in its share price over the past two months, reported $6.03 in earnings per share (EPS), surpassing Wall Street’s expectations of an EPS of $5.29.

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The budget: Labour returns to tax and spend – Politics Weekly UK

Rachel Reeves has finally laid out Labour’s spending plans in the party’s first budget in almost 15 years. The Guardian’s John Harris is joined by political editor Pippa Crerar and political correspondent Kiran Stacey to discuss the fallout

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Reeves accused of betraying small family firms with inheritance tax rises

Chancellor also criticised for letting the very rich off the hook with a lower than expected rise in capital gains tax

Tax rises aimed at inherited wealth are at risk of backfiring, after the chancellor was accused of betraying small family businesses while letting private equity bosses off the hook.

Labour’s first budget in 14 years included measures to close inheritance tax (IHT) loopholes and press ahead with scrapping the controversial non-dom tax status, as well as levying higher taxes on private jet flights.

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OBR says budget unlikely to lift economic growth over next five years

Forecaster says extra spending revealed by Rachel Reeves will give only a short-term lift to economy

Labour has embarked on a “large, sustained increase in spending, tax and borrowing”, according to the government’s economic forecaster, as it judged that Labour’s first budget for 15 years is unlikely to increase economic growth over the next five years.

Assessing Rachel Reeves’s policies, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said the economy would expand at the same rate as predicted in March by the end of the parliament, despite a £70bn-a-year rise in spending.

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Fleet of 30 luxury cars taken to Thailand returned to UK, police say

Detectives say cars including £220,000 Lamborghini were fraudulently bought on finance, shipped abroad and sold on

A fleet of 30 luxury cars worth £6.5m whisked out of the UK to Thailand after being fraudulently bought on finance have been recovered and returned, police have said.

The haul of vehicles included a £220,000 Lamborghini Huracán Spyder – a car described by the maker as “the pinnacle of Italian taste and hand craftsmanship” – along with Porsches, Mercedes and a Ford Mustang.

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Remote Indigenous Australians paying more than double capital city prices for everyday groceries

Choice finds basket of nine items cost $99.38 on average at four remote community stores in Western Australia and the Northern Territory

People living in remote Indigenous communities are paying more than double the capital city prices for everyday groceries including flour, tasty cheese, apples and milk, new research has found.

A basket of nine items, which also included penne pasta, beef mince, teabags, carrots and Weet-Bix cost $99.38 on average at four remote community stores in Western Australia and the Northern Territory, the research by Choice found.

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Attorney general considering releasing full robodebt report – As it happened

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Mark Butler flags importance of an Australian CDC in future pandemic responses

The federal health minister, Mark Butler, spoke to ABC News Breakfast this morning, after the Covid inquiry report was released yesterday.

Currently, we’re the only developed country that doesn’t have that single authoritative body that can provide to governments and communities about an evidence-based approach to pandemic response and to other communicable diseases. So that is the foundation on which we build a system to respond to the next pandemic - because there will be a next one – much more effectively than we did to Covid.

We all remember just how incredibly difficult and challenging it was, how it affected every aspect of our lives. And in terms of how the government worked during that period of time – we worked with those public health experts and advisers. Our focus was very much on the health and wellbeing of our community, particularly the vulnerable members of our community who were most at risk.

This was a deadly disease. We saw, particularly overseas, it killed so many people. So we were focused on a public health response – a public health response that was focused on supporting the health of our community, and also too understanding the significant additional supports that we needed to provide to small businesses to support them during this incredibly difficult time.

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Nuclear submarine shipyard fire at Barrow-in-Furness leaves two in hospital

Residents told to stay indoors with doors and windows closed as emergency services say there is no nuclear risk from ongoing fire at BAE Systems complex

Two people have been taken to hospital after a fire broke out at BAE Systems’ Barrow-in-Furness shipyard in Cumbria, police said.

Cumbria constabulary said the fire at the nuclear submarine shipyard broke out at about 12.45am and was ongoing.

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Santander to cut more than 1,400 jobs in UK amid increasing automation

News of redundancies comes as UK division delays publication of results after car finance court ruling

Santander is cutting more than 1,400 jobs across its UK business this year as part of its efforts to reduce costs.

The Spanish bank’s chief executive officer, Hector Grisi, confirmed the cuts as its UK division delayed publication of its latest financial results to consider the impact of an influential court ruling linked to commission on car finance.

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Petrol and food prices will fall thanks to oil glut, says World Bank

Downward trend in oil price from higher production, falling demand in China and clean energy to continue

Petrol and food prices will fall over the next two years thanks to a glut in oil production, the World Bank has said, offering hope to consumers that the cost pressures of the past three years could start to ease.

Its analysis found that this year’s downward trend in the oil price resulting from increased production, falling demand in China and the transition to clean energy is set to continue even if the conflict in the Middle East worsens.

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HSBC denies breakup plan as it launches $3bn share buyback

London-headquartered bank says profits beat forecasts as it prepares to split eastern and western operations

The boss of HSBC has said moves to separate its eastern and western operations are not part of a plan to break up the banking group, as he announced a $3bn share buyback amid better-than-expected profits.

Georges Elhedery pushed back against rumours that a huge restructuring plan announced last week was a sign he was considering hiving off parts of the banking group, which had been under pressure to do so by its largest shareholder, the Chinese insurer Ping An. Investors last year rejected Ping An’s proposals.

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Peter Dutton says PM should refer himself to corruption watchdog over Qantas upgrades

Prime minister’s office says opposition leader is making a ‘pathetic attempt at creating a headline’ over flight upgrades from 2009 to 2019

Peter Dutton says Anthony Albanese should refer himself to the National Anti-Corruption Commission (Nacc) after questioning whether the prime minister’s ties to Qantas influenced his government’s decision not to allow more Qatar Airways flights into the country.

It follows allegations in a book that Albanese had personally liaised with the former Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce about obtaining free flight upgrades during his time as transport minister and opposition leader.

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Australia news live: PM to announce clean energy projects; property market losing heat but prices still going up

Anthony Albanese to launch schemes in NSW and Victoria today; Domain says rate of price increases is cooling. Follow today’s news headlines live

Bowen derides Coalition’s ‘nuclear fantasy’

Chris Bowen, minister for climate change and energy, is speaking on ABC Radio National this morning.

If I was the energy minister of another country, I would consider the opportunities that I had in that country – but a country saying to Australia, with our excellent renewable resources, that we should go down the nuclear road when we have no nuclear industry, no nuclear expertise of the scale that we would need for a nuclear power industry, is like us going to Finland or Scandinavia and saying, ‘Listen, we know [you have] a lot of snow, but you should really try beach surfing.’ It just doesn’t make any sense.

We have to play to our strengths in Australia, and we have the best renewable resources in the world, and the opposition wants to stop us using them, and in turn, keep coal in the system for longer. They’re quite explicit about that while we wait for this nuclear fantasy to come on board. That would be terrible for emissions and fatal for energy reliability.

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Cheese firm hails ‘overwhelming’ response after £300,000 theft

Owners of Neal’s Yard Dairy say they have heard from ‘a lot of incredible people’ since losing 950 wheels of cheddar

The owners of Neal’s Yard Dairy have said they have had an “overwhelming” response after it emerged that more than 22 tonnes of cheddar had been stolen from the London cheese specialist.

The company delivered 950 wheels of cheddar – reported to be worth as much as £300,000 – to an alleged fraudster posing as a wholesale distributor for a major French retailer. The cheese is believed to have been spirited away to Russia or the Middle East, according to suppliers to the company who were caught up in the scam on 21 October.

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‘Cock-up with the comms’: how Labour announced five non-existent freeports

Erroneous announcement traced back to briefing note prepared by Treasury officals, ahead of PM’s Samoa trip

When Keir Starmer announced a shake-up in his No 10 operation last month he hoped to put an end to the missteps of his first few months in office. But an embarrassing error by Downing Street this weekend demonstrates how many pitfalls there are for a new government still learning the ropes.

In a press release on Friday, Downing Street said five new freeports would be announced in the budget. The Guardian and other outlets covered the news, which was given first to reporters who had travelled with Starmer to Samoa for the Commonwealth summit. Both the prime minister and his aides answered questions on the policy they had unveiled.

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Whitehaven Coal faces rare shareholder action over mining plans and CEO’s $7m bonus

Australian miner paying ‘massive bonuses’ for ‘steamrolling ahead with an outdated and unacceptably risky coal growth strategy’, activists say

Whitehaven Coal, one of Australia’s biggest coal producers, faces a rare “second strike” from shareholders this week as climate activists seek to draw attention to the miner’s plans to ramp up volumes and resulting carbon emissions.

The ASX-listed company received a 41% vote against its executives’ remuneration report at last year’s annual general meeting. A vote of at least 25% at this year’s AGM on Wednesday would force a motion to spill Whitehaven’s board.

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Australia news live: Dutton says he ‘respects’ Crisafulli’s rejection of nuclear power but will push for a ‘mature conversation’

Earlier this morning, David Crisafulli said it was still a ‘no’ to any nuclear proposal, and Dutton said he ‘respected’ that. Follow the day’s news live

Employment minister Murray Watt has refused to comment on reports Anthony Albanese used his membership in Qantas’s chairman’s lounge to solicit flight upgrades when he was transport minister and opposition leader.

Watt was on RN Breakfast, where he refused to be drawn on what he called “unsourced claim by a journalist” that Albanese would reach out directly to former Qantas CEO Alan Joyce directly about his travel.

If you have a look at Peter Dutton behaviour, for example, several upgrades from the Qantas and other airlines, he’s had free flights paid for by Gina Rinehart.

I really would wonder whether it’s wise for the opposition to start calling this kind of stuff into question.

We obviously spend an enormous amount of time at airports. I think this week, I’m going to be in about three or four different cities, flying from place to place. And it is helpful from time to time, to be able to have private meetings or private environments, to be able to have teams meetings with your office, which I do every time I fly.

We want Labor to negotiate like we did in the previous housing legislation, where we not only improved and passed Labour’s housing legislation, but we got $3bn to start building public and community housing.

I think this is part of the message that we’re trying to give to the government. We are up for negotiation.

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