Reeves to announce ‘megafunds’ shake-up of local government pension scheme

Rachel Reeves will announce plans to merge local government retirement schemes into “megafunds” as she tries to revive long-running efforts to overhaul the UK’s public pension system.The chancellor will tell an audience of City leaders and chief executives on Thursday that she will introduce a new pensions bill next year that will aim to pool assets from the 86 separate local government pension schemes (LGPS), which together represent one of the world’s largest defined-benefit schemes, with 6.5 million members and £360bn in assets.The decision is meant to mirror similar set-ups in Australia and Canada, where public sector pension schemes have been consolidated into larger funds that are managed in-house by professional investors. The idea is that retirement funds can then invest larger sums of money into a wider range of riskier and long-term assets like infrastructure, startups and private equity, all while saving on expensive fees paid to bankers, lawyers and advisers

Thames Water should explain its murky logic on fundraising

Congratulations to Thames Water: it is not going bust early in the new year. Probably. The necessary three-quarters of A-class bondholders have backed a proposal for the company, already drowning in £15bn of debt, to borrow another £3bn at the nose-bleed rate of 9.75% plus a hefty serving of fees on top. And, critically, the numbers are looking good to get permission from bondholders to access £400m of cash reserves

FBI raids home and seizes phone of Polymarket founder

The FBI raided the home of the chief executive of the predictive betting site Polymarket and seized his phone late on Wednesday.Shayne Coplan, the 26-year-old CEO of the company, woke early on Wednesday morning in Manhattan to federal agents in his home, the New York Post first reported. Coplan himself was not arrested, the company said.On X, formerly Twitter, Coplan wrote on Wednesday evening: “New phone, who dis?”Polymarket claimed the raid was retaliation for its users betting overwhelmingly that Donald Trump would win the election. The site displayed a large chance of Trump winning before the election, giving Kamala Harris a minimal one, out of line with most mainstream polls

Bitcoin clears $93,000 and Dogecoin soars amid Trump-fueled crypto rally

The price of bitcoin scaled a fresh all-time high on Wednesday, soaring above $93,000 as cryptocurrency investors continued to cheer the election victory of Donald Trump.Dogecoin, a meme coin previously backed by Elon Musk, has risen as much as 150% in value since election day. It continued to rise after the president-elect announced that Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy would lead the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), a new outside advisory group.Bitcoin has surged by more than a third since Trump’s win.Many of his biggest supporters, such as Musk, have deep ties to the crypto industry – and they are expecting large dividends for their loyalty after his victory

‘Salads don’t win scrums’: Ox Nché is icing on Springboks’ front-row cake

A World Cup winner in 2023, the loosehead is part of South Africa’s feared ‘Bomb Squad’ and a hero in his home countryOx Nché is far from the finished article. By his own admission, the Springboks prop has just about mastered the basics. He’s not bad at the flourishing touches but there is a long way to go in his development. In short, he is a work in progress. “I’m learning, actually

‘I couldn’t be bullied’: Danny Cipriani joins criticism of Eddie Jones’s style

Danny Cipriani has become the latest former England star to weigh in with criticism of Eddie Jones, insisting he felt the Australian refused to select him at Test level because he “couldn’t be bullied” by Jones.Cipriani will return to a rugby field this weekend when he takes part in the inaugural 745 Game, a cross-code hybrid match featuring some of rugby union’s and league’s biggest names to raise money for those living with motor neurone disease. The event, which will be held at Headingley, was devised by Rob Burrow and Ed Slater before Burrow died earlier this year.Cipriani insists supporting Slater is the only way he would ever consider putting his rugby boots on again, with the fly-half now retired and living in America. The 37-year-old, arguably the brightest attacking talent of his generation, was capped only twice by Jones and was overlooked for the 2019 Rugby World Cup