‘Mortified’ OBR chair hopes inquiry into budget leak will report next week

The chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility has said he felt mortified by the early release of its budget forecasts as the watchdog launched a rapid inquiry into how it had “inadvertently made it possible” to see the documents.Richard Hughes said he had written to the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, and the chair of the Treasury select committee, Meg Hillier, to apologise.“I felt personally mortified by what happened. The OBR prides itself on our professionalism. We let people down yesterday and we’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme

UK retailers urge faster end to tax break on low-value imported goods

British retailers including Primark, Currys and Boohoo have criticised the government for waiting until 2029 to end a tax break on low-value imported goods that has allowed them to be undercut by the likes of Shein and Temu.The British Retail Consortium, which represents all the major retailers, said there were 1.6m parcels arriving in the UK every day, double the number from last year, and “businesses cannot afford any delay on scrapping the existing rules”.The “de minimis” rule allows overseas sellers to send goods valued at £135 or less direct to British shoppers without paying customs duty and has been criticised for “killing the high street”.Fears about China’s retailers and manufacturers dumping goods in the UK have grown since the US in May revoked its own de minimis exception for Chinese-made goods

Foreign interference or opportunistic grifting: why are so many pro-Trump X accounts based in Asia?

When X rolled out a new feature revealing the locations of popular accounts, the company was acting to boost transparency and clamp down on disinformation. The result, however, has been a circular firing squad of recriminations, as users turn on each other enraged by the revelation that dozens of popular “America first” and pro-Trump accounts originated overseas.The new feature was enabled over the weekend by X’s head of product, Nikita Bier, who called it the first step in “securing the integrity of the global town square.” Since then many high-engagement accounts that post incessantly about US politics have been “unmasked” by fellow users.An Ivanka Trump fan account that posts about illegal immigration to the US was shown to be based in Nigeria

London councils enact emergency plans after three hit by cyber-attack

Three London councils have reported a cyber-attack, prompting the rollout of emergency plans and the involvement of the National Crime Agency (NCA) as they investigate whether any data has been compromised.The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC), and Westminster city council, which share some IT infrastructure, said a number of systems had been affected across both authorities, including phone lines. The councils shut down several computerised systems as a precaution to limit further possible damage.The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham had also reported an attack. Together the three authorities provide services for more than half a million Londoners

Green days: Ben Ainslie’s new team lead the way on and out of the water | Emma John

British sailors have always been a belligerent bunch. Francis Drake, Lord Nelson, Admiral Cunningham … and, of course, Sir Ben Ainslie. The most successful Olympian in sailing’s history is also the sport’s equivalent of The Hulk: you really don’t want to make him angry.So perhaps it’s a good thing that there has been plenty to annoy him this year, not least that acrimonious split from his America’s Cup team owner, Sir Jim Ratcliffe. In true Ainslie style, it only seems to have made him more dangerous

Australia name unchanged squad for second Ashes Test with Pat Cummins still out

The opportunity that England squandered in Perth has presented itself once more after Australia opted to play it safe with Pat Cummins and name an unchanged squad for next week’s day-night second Test at the Gabba.Beyond their match-defining collapse on the second afternoon, one of the most galling aspects of England’s eight-wicket defeat in the first Test was the fact that both Cummins and Josh Hazlewood – two longstanding members of their fabled fast bowling group – were missing.But the situation remains unchanged as Ben Stokes and his tourists look to level the five-match series starting in Brisbane on 4 December.Hazlewood is still absent, while Cummins has been held back despite a recent return to training that has included bowling with the pink Kookaburra ball.Cricket Australia offered no specifics regarding the delay for Cummins other than to say Australia’s Test captain will travel with the squad