Reeves plans to give England’s regional leaders a share of national tax revenues

Rachel Reeves has announced that the Treasury will draw up proposals to hand England’s mayors a share of national tax revenues as part of a radical plan to rebalance the economy.The chancellor promised “a genuine break with the past” that would shift spending power away from Westminster, as she promised to create investment-led growth across the UK.Reeves was delivering the Mais lecture – the second time she has given the high-profile annual address at Bayes Business School in London.It is no coincidence that the UK is “the most politically centralised of advanced democracies, and one of the most geographically unequal”, Reeves said.Treasury officials will bring forward a plan at the autumn budget to allow regional leaders to receive a share of national taxes, starting with income tax, she added

Oil and gas prices rise again after Iran attacks production facilities

Oil and gas prices rose again on Tuesday after Iran carried out attacks on production facilities for the first time since the start of the war with the US and Israel.Brent crude, the international benchmark oil price, climbed 2.3% to almost $103 (£77) a barrel and was up nearly 50% from levels before the war began on 28 February. Wholesale gas prices rose nearly 3% to €52 (£45) a megawatt hour, compared with about €30 before the war.For the first time, Iran successfully targeted oil and gas production facilities rather than just refineries, terminals and storage

UK must learn lessons from AI race and retain its quantum computing talent, says minister

The UK will not let quantum computing talent slip through its fingers and must learn lessons from US dominance of the AI race, the technology secretary has said, as the government announced a £1bn quantum funding pledge.Liz Kendall said the government hoped to retain homegrown quantum startups, engineers and researchers rather than lose them to competing countries, with the US stealing a march on its western rivals in AI.“I do look at what’s happened on AI,” said Kendall. “I do think we need to learn the lessons and make sure we give our brilliant scientists, spinouts and startups the ability to stay here and make it happen. And that requires a government that is bold and ambitious and confident in these technologies of the future

Child abuse material ‘systemic’ on Elon Musk’s X amid Grok scandal, Australian online safety regulator warned

The Australian online safety regulator warned Elon Musk’s X amid the Grok sexualised image generation scandal that it found child abuse material was “particularly systemic” on X and more accessible than on “any other mainstream service”, correspondence obtained by Guardian Australia reveals.The eSafety commissioner wrote to X in January after its chatbot, Grok, was used to generate sexualised images of women and children online, which the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, described as “abhorrent”.In the letter, obtained by Guardian Australia under freedom of information laws, eSafety’s general manager of regulatory operations, Heidi Snell, pointed to Musk’s promise when taking over the platform in 2022 that “removing child exploitation is priority #1”, but said “the availability of CSEM [child sexual exploitation material] continues to appear particularly systemic on X”.“eSafety has not identified CSEM to be as readily accessible on any other mainstream service,” Snell said.eSafety had found that while action by X to tackle bot accounts in October 2025 had reduced use of some previously commonly used hashtags and terms to advertise CSEM, eSafety found hashtags to advertise the material still prevalent

Venezuela win first World Baseball Classic title after taming USA in politically fraught final

Venezuela defeated the United States 3-2 on Tuesday night to win their first World Baseball Classic title, a landmark triumph in a politically charged final that resonated far beyond the diamond.Eugenio Suárez drove in the winning run in the top of the ninth inning to seal a dramatic victory for the South American side at Miami’s LoanDepot Park.After Daniel Palencia struck out Roman Anthony with a 100mph fastball for the final out, Venezuelan players poured onto the field, many draped in their national flag, celebrating a moment years in the making.“Nobody believed in Venezuela, but now we win the championship today,” an elated Suárez said afterwards. “What can I say about this? God is good! Jesus, he was with us the whole time

Sabalenka may avoid championships in Dubai after ‘ridiculous’ comment

Aryna Sabalenka says she may never return to compete at the Dubai Tennis Championships after she and Iga Swiatek were harshly criticised by the tournament director for their withdrawals from the tournament last month.“I think it’s ridiculous,” Sabalenka said during her pre-tournament press conference at the Miami Open. “I don’t think he showed himself in the best way possible. For me it’s actually so sad to see that the tournament directors and the tournaments are not protecting us as a player. They just care about their sellings, about their tournament and that’s it