The Guardian view on Labour’s investment plans: sugaring the bitter pill of austerity

Editorial: The chancellor is right to be planning for the long term, but voters won’t be patient if change isn’t felt soon

UK tax rises in the autumn are essential – but who will pay?

Next week’s spring statement is buying time, but the writing is on the wall: Britain is broken, and repairs cost money, says Guardian columnist Larry Elliott

UK-US trade deal could come into effect in ‘a couple of weeks’, Starmer says

Prime minister’s comments come after White House signals Britain will be spared 50% steel and aluminium tariffs

BBC and Sky bosses criticise plans to let AI firms use copyrighted material

Media corporations call for opt-in rule and say companies must set up licensing deals before accessing creative works

Labour MPs poised to rebel over planning bill amid concerns for nature

Ministers understood to be drawing up amendments to bill to try to head off threatened rebellion by two dozen MPs

England’s planning bill has many naysayers. I’m not one of them

The legislation is a product of joined-up environmental thinking – aiming to create housing while preventing nature loss, says Nick Williams, a former adviser to Keir Starmer

Labour claims to be defending Britain from new threats, but its warfare state is steeped in old thinking

For every sensible proposal, there’s a failure to think through the UK’s place in the world – and a promised ‘defence dividend’ that won’t materialise, says academic and author David Edgerton

Fire stations in England ‘falling apart’ amid £1bn funding cut, chiefs say

Exclusive: National Fire Chiefs Council warns of pressures, with callouts up 20% in a decade as firefighter numbers fall

Rachel Reeves unveils £15bn for trams, trains and buses outside London

Focus on capital spending in northern cities and Midlands is recognition Labour needs better economic story for voters

Rachel Reeves looks to spending review to shift focus from welfare cuts

Ahead of next week’s statement, the chancellor is to announcing transport investments outside London

Hapless Thames Water is finally drinking in the last chance saloon

Can troubled UK utilities company find any willing suitors after KKR’s 11th-hour abandonment of £4bn bid?

SFO investigates alleged multimillion-pound fraud at collapsed council

Thurrock council invested £100m-plus into solar farms, via a bond scheme sold by Rockfire Investment Finance

Destroying our natural wealth makes us poorer in every sense of the word

Partha Dasgupta’s landmark study provided way to put a value on nature – but many fear report has been sidelined

Why are steel and fishing the only industries politicians care about? What about the ones that make real money?

Education and culture are worth vastly more to the UK. But you don’t see ministers cosying up to the US to support them, or opposition leaders complaining they’ve been ‘betrayed’, writes Zoe Williams

Ex-minister Greg Hands to advise Royal Mail buyer Daniel Křetínský

Former Tory MP will work with Czech billionaire’s EP Group in the UK and Germany