The bond market is wrong. Reeves should not cut welfare to placate the City | Richard Partington

There are less than three weeks to go. In the lengthy wait for Rachel Reeves’s autumn budget, the chancellor will on Monday get the first verdict on her tax and spending plans from the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).After the interminable weeks of speculation, kite flying and bad headlines, this moment matters. Has the widely anticipated fiscal gap of up to £30bn been filled? At what cost for growth, inflation, and living standards?Heading into this moment the chancellor can take some heart. Gilt markets have rallied in recent weeks, bringing down the cost of government borrowing

Drax still burning 250-year-old trees sourced from forests in Canada, experts say

Exclusive: report by Stand.earth says subsidiary of power plant received truckloads of whole logs at biomass pellet sitesDrax power plant has continued to burn 250-year-old trees sourced from some of Canada’s oldest forests despite growing scrutiny of its sustainability claims, forestry experts say.A new report suggests it is “highly likely” that Britain’s biggest power plant sourced some wood from ecologically valuable forests as recently as this summer. Drax, Britain’s single biggest source of carbon emissions, has received billions of pounds in subsidies from burning biomass derived largely from wood.The report, by Stand

US consumer sentiment drops to near record low as shutdown persists

The federal government shutdown dragged consumer sentiment in the US to a near record low in November, according to a monthly survey conducted by the University of Michigan.Consumer sentiment fell about 6% in November, with the consumer sentiment index for November 2025 at 50.3, down from 53.6 in October, nearly three points below expectations. Economists polled by the Wall Street Journal expected a 53

Lose weight or risk losing your job, chunky oil rig workers told

Thousands of North Sea oil and gas workers risk losing their jobs on offshore rigs unless they lose weight within the next year.Workers who weigh more than 124.7kg (19.5 st) fully clothed will need to shed some pounds by next November or risk being barred from working offshore, according to the industry’s trade body.The new safety policy is expected to affect 2,500 people employed offshore who are above the weight limit, which has been put in place so that workers can be winched to safety by a rescue helicopter in an emergency

Three big problems with ITV’s talks to sell television business to Sky: price, politics and regulation | Nils Pratley

Do a sum-of-the-parts analysis on ITV, City analysts have been saying for years, and you can come up with valuations way above the depressed share price. It’s just a question of someone making a decent offer for one of the two halves of the corporate entity – either ITV Studios, the production side that makes programmes such as Coronation Street, or the division that actually broadcasts the content and sells the advertising slots.Now someone has turned up: Sky, which was bought by the US giant Comcast for £30bn in 2018, has made a £1.6bn approach for the broadcasting operation. ITV’s share price gained 16% on Friday but, at 78p, it still stands way below some of the misty-eyed theoretical valuations

Stock markets drop amid jitters over US economy and tech valuations – business live

Wall Street has opened in the red as jitters over the health of the US economy, and sky high tech valuations, continue to hit the markets.The Dow Jones industrial average, of 30 large US companies, has dropped by 209 points, or 0.45%, in early trading to 46,703 points.The broader S&P 500 index is down 0.6%, and the tech-focused Nasdaq has lost almost 1%