South East Water’s greatest failure was not contacting customers during winter outages, report finds Fewer than one in 10 SEW customers satisfied with firm’s handling of supply crisis, which left tens of thousands without water
Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland apologise as users report app and online banking outage – as it happened Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
UK government to pay £1.3bn to help fund Universal Studios theme park in Bedfordshire Chancellor hails deal saying it will create tens of thousands of jobs in the construction, hospitality, creative and technology sectors
Trump threatens tariffs on 60 trading partners including UK and Canada over ‘forced labour’ Proposal for 10-12.5% levies, to also include EU, Taiwan and Australia, would allow US president to skirt court-imposed limits
As the tech mega-IPO race heats up, has OpenAI missed its moment? With rivals racing to market to raise ‘eye-popping sums’, the spotlight is now on the AI sector’s one-time ‘poster child’
Federal workers experiencing ‘PTSD-like symptoms’ after unlawful firings by Trump administration In survey of more than 300 fired probationary employees, 95% reported continuing mental health effects
Ovo Energy to pay more than £10m over prepayment meter monitoring failings Regulator finds inadequate monitoring by firm could have exposed vulnerable customers ‘to clear risk of harm’
UK media websites given power to block Google using their articles in AI search Watchdog makes ruling on search summaries after publishers complain about drop in click-through traffic and revenue
Jim Chalmers is putting a positive spin on the economy, but is Australia’s outlook grim? The economy was slowing even before the Middle East conflict and interest rate hikes started to bite, while the boom in datacentres was a rare bright spot
OECD predicts spate of recessions globally if Iran conflict drags into 2027 Policy forum lays out ‘prolonged disruption’ scenario in which world’s GDP falls to 2.1% this year from 3.4% in 2025
Rural UK ‘particularly at risk’ of diesel shortages if Iran war continues OECD forecast sets out economic risks from conflict, pointing to potential shortfalls to key energy products
Noted swift nesting site destroyed by contractors in peak season Campaigners say builders’ demolition of nest site highlights weak protection of wildlife from development
‘Quite shocking’: why was a vulnerable customer sent a £8,400 energy bill? ScottishPower apologises for charging error, as millions face higher costs under revised energy price cap
George Santos reportedly investigated by DoJ over suspicious Kalshi bets Disgraced former congressman said to have put bet on whether he would be at Trump’s State of the Union speech
60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley fired by CBS News after clash Move comes after meeting in which Pelley said network chief Bari Weiss was ‘murdering’ news show