Chop and change: pork is ‘new beef’ for money-saving Britons, report finds

Pork is the “new beef”, with Britons increasingly making the money-saving meat swap for dishes such as spaghetti bolognese or T-bone steak, according to a new report.With the latest official figures showing beef price inflation running at 27%, customers are looking to buy pork cuts that you would typically associate with beef. That list runs to free-range fillets and short ribs as well as T-bone and rib-eye steaks, Waitrose says in its annual food and drink report.Recipe searches for “lasagne with pork mince” have doubled on its website, while searches for “pulled pork nachos” are up 45%. Its sales of pork mince are up 16% on last year, as home cooks adapt favourite recipes

Australian economy crawls back into growth mode thanks to datacentre boom and household spending uptick

Surging investment in datacentres to fuel the AI tech boom and rising household spending on essentials like electricity and rents buoyed economic growth through the three months to September.National accounts figures showed real GDP expanded by 2.1% in the year, accelerating from 2% in June.Despite positive signs that the private sector is starting to drive economic activity after a period of strong government support, the quarterly pace of growth was a disappointing 0.4% – well shy of the predicted 0

Production of French-German fighter jet threatened by rivalries, chief executive says

The leaders of France and Germany have a “strong willingness” to build a new fighter jet together despite bitter internal rivalries, according to the chief executive of engine manufacturer Safran.A row over who should lead between French aerospace company Dassault and the German unit of Airbus has threatened to break apart the countries’ efforts to make a next-generation fighter jet.France’s Safran, one of the world’s biggest engine-makers, is due to co-produce turbines for the aircraft. Its chief executive, Olivier Andriès, told reporters in London on Tuesday that relations were “very strained” between the lead partners on the Future Combat Air System (known as Scaf in France)However, he added that the offices of the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, wanted a solution. “Obviously the relationship between Airbus and Dassault is extremely difficult,” Andriès said

Tunbridge Wells water cut likely to last after treatment problem reoccurs

Water shortages in Tunbridge Wells that have forced schools and businesses to close look likely to continue for at least another day after the local water company said the problem with its plant had reoccurred.The Drinking Water Inspectorate (DWI) has said it will investigate.Thousands of homes in the Kent town have been without water since the weekend after South East Water accidentally added the wrong chemicals to the tap water supply.Schools across the area have been shut, and residents have been filling buckets with rainwater to flush toilets. Cats, dogs and guinea pigs have been given bottled mineral water to drink as the people of Tunbridge Wells wait for their water to be switched back on

Fiscal headroom is a matter of guesswork | Brief letters

Your editorial (The Guardian view on OBR v the Treasury: ministers have embraced the theatre of errors, 1 December) correctly flags the huge uncertainty in trying to come up with a five-year forecast of the difference between taxes and spending. Although markets like big fiscal headroom numbers, they seem to ignore the wise words of Bertrand Russell, who defined mathematics as “the subject in which we never know what we are talking about, nor whether what we are saying is true”. This also applies to the concept of the medium-term fiscal headroom that economists and politicians alike are obsessed with.Prof Costas MilasUniversity of Liverpool The scrapping of the two-child benefit limit certainly seems to have polarised opinion. One camp reckons it should not have been scrapped at all, and the other reckons it should have been done a year ago

OBR chief’s exit may ease pressure on Rachel Reeves but the battle isn’t over

Had Richard Hughes not resigned as boss of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) on Monday amid the indignation over the accidental publication of Rachel Reeves’s budget, the Treasury might now be under pressure over the tsunami of leaks that preceded it.The OBR’s David Miles told MPs on Tuesday the leaks had been so widespread and misleading that the watchdog feared its reputation was at stake.Alongside briefings about the potential direction of OBR forecasts, there were public comments too, including from Reeves herself, about the frustrating timing of the watchdog’s productivity rethink; and its refusal to “score” pro-growth policies.Arguing for an ambitious “youth experience scheme” in September, for example – details of which are still to be negotiated – the chancellor told the Times, “we want the OBR to score it. They scored it when we left the European Union