Rachel Reeves looks to reassure bond markets with tax-heavy budget – business live

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.“You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time,” as the old quote has it.And today, chancellor Rachel Reeves faces the challenging task of pleasing (or at least not displeasing too badly) four different constituencies – Labour MPs, voters, businesses, and the bond market – with her budget announcement, which is likely to be heavy on taxes.Reeves faces a tough task, given the £9.9bn headroom to keep within her fiscal rules has been eroded by higher borrowing costs, and welfare U-turns

Reserve Bank could raise interest rates as early as May after inflation climbs to 3.8%

The Reserve Bank of Australia could be forced to hike interest rates as early as May, economists say, after inflation climbed to 3.8% in the year to October, from 3.6% in the month before.The latest bad news on cost of living was accompanied by a shocking 37% annual jump in power bills as generous state government subsidies rolled off, figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed.As the Coalition again used parliamentary question time to attack the government for its record on electricity prices, Jim Chalmers flagged he could announce further energy bill relief for households in the upcoming midyear budget

Europe loosens reins on AI – and US takes them off

Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, writing to you from an American grocery store, where I’m planning my Thanksgiving pies.In tech, the European Union is deregulating artificial intelligence; the United States is going even further. The AI bubble has not popped, thanks to Nvidia’s astronomical quarterly earnings, but fears persist. And Meta has avoided a breakup for a similar reason as Google

Macquarie Dictionary announces ‘AI slop’ as its word of the year, beating out Ozempic face

AI slop is here, it’s ubiquitous, it’s being used by the US president, Donald Trump, and now, it’s the word of the year.The Macquarie Dictionary dubbed the term the epitome of 2025 linguistics, with a committee of word experts saying the outcome embodies the word of the year’s general theme of reflecting “a major aspect of society or societal change throughout the year”.“We understand now in 2025 what we mean by slop – AI generated slop, which lacks meaningful content or use,” the committee said in a statement announcing its decision.“While in recent years we’ve learnt to become search engineers to find meaningful information, we now need to become prompt engineers in order to wade through the AI slop. Slop in this sense will be a robust addition to English for years to come

Roman amphitheatre older than Colosseum gets accessible facelift for Winter Paralympics

A 2,000-year-old Roman amphitheatre is to be made fully accessible to people with disabilities before the Winter Paralympic Games in Milano‑Cortina, as organisers prioritise legacy with 100 days to go.The conversion of the Arena di Verona, which will host the Paralympics opening ceremony, includes the addition of a lift and toilets to a structure older than the Colosseum. Described by the Milano-Cortina 2026 chief executive, Andrea Varnier, as “the symbol of our Paralympic Games”, he admits the conversion has also been considered as an act of “blasphemy” by some traditionalists.“The decision to stage the opening ceremony in the Arena di Verona is not just an aesthetic one although, of course, we like to showcase such a beauty,” Varnier said. “But it was also an idea, to make the arena accessible and not only the arena itself but the entire route from the railway station to the venue

Short first Ashes Test results in record donation of surplus food across Western Australia

The shortened Ashes Test in Perth might have left administrators scrambling to recover a multimillion-dollar shortfall, broadcasters scrambling to fill three days of airtime and fans wondering what to do with newfound time on their hands, but for others, England’s early capitulation in the series opener was a blessing.A huge surplus of food, which was intended for another bumper crowd with a third day of cricket anticipated but never used as the game wrapped up inside two days, has been donated to charitable causes across Western Australia.Optus Stadium, known as Perth Stadium for the duration of the first Test, directed all surplus food to OZHarvest, Australia’s leading food rescue service, which in turn partnered with SecondBite and Foodbank WA to distribute the food to those in need across the state.The organisation said it was the biggest single donation it had ever received in Western Australia.WA’s deputy premier, Rita Saffioti, lauded the move, saying it demonstrated “community spirit at its best”