Exclusive: Chancellor to target sector in his first budget, to help offset Iran war’s damage to public finances John Healey is poised to tax Britain’s banks in his 28 October budget, to help offset the damage inflicted on the public finances by war in the Middle East, the Guardian understands.The chancellor is in Bangkok, where the International Monetary Fund has praised the UK’s progress towards balancing the books, urging him to “stay the course”. Continue reading...

15 Oct 2026 16:17 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Water company tells creditors it will not survive long enough to agree refinancing deal without more moneyThames Water has asked its creditors for another £2.4bn as the embattled water company comes close to running out of cash.The UK’s largest water company said on Thursday it needed another short-term cash injection because it would be unable to reach a longer-term deal to sort out its giant debt pile before running out of cash by “the end of 2026 or the start of 2027”. Continue reading...

15 Oct 2026 17:14 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Move comes as Senator Elizabeth Warren condemns Barclays response to questions over ex-boss’s ties to sex offenderUS lawmakers have unveiled a new bill to hold Wall Street’s “Epstein-connected” bosses to account for helping finance the late sex offender’s crimes.It came as top Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren condemned the UK bank Barclays for “dodging responsibility” over its failure to vet former boss Jes Staley and his ties to the once well-connected billionaire. Continue reading...

15 Oct 2026 13:30 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Grid operator paying large sums to switch off windfarms in areas of excess electricity generation while turning on gas plants elsewhereThe cost of balancing Great Britain’s power grid has soared to near-record highs of almost £50m a day after windfarms were turned off because of bottlenecks in transmitting power around the country.The grid operator paid £47.9m on Wednesday to turn windfarms off in areas with an oversupply of electricity and turn gas plants on in areas where supplies were tight. Continue reading...

15 Oct 2026 15:55 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Culture secretary’s move paves way for deeper scrutiny of deal that would create UK’s biggest commercial broadcasterThe culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, has said she is “minded to intervene” in Sky’s £1.6bn purchase of ITV, in a move that paves the way for deeper scrutiny of a deal that would create the UK’s biggest commercial broadcaster.Sky announced over the summer that it had reached a deal to buy ITV’s broadcasting and streaming arm, representing a big shift in the ownership of Britain’s public service media. Continue reading...

15 Oct 2026 15:44 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Chip makers and tech investors such as Samsung and SoftBank plunge as potential interest rate hikes spook marketsBusiness news – live updatesLarry Elliott: the global economy is muddling through. But a storm is comingAn accelerating sell-off of AI-linked shares has hit global markets, as fears over rising inflation and future interest rate hikes spooked traders already wary of the heavily indebted sector.South Korea’s benchmark Kospi 200 index, which is heavily skewed towards the companies that make memory chips, fell more than 8% overnight to a six-month closing low, triggering circuit breakers that brought trading to a halt at various points. Continue reading...

15 Oct 2026 14:33 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN

Discover-Tech’s Controlium software lets clients mass-profile internet users then covertly hack targets, say researchers at University of TorontoAn Israeli advertising agency has been serving millions of online adverts that allow “zero-click” spyware to be used against targets, researchers at a Canadian university have said.Citizen Lab, a digital investigations research unit at the University of Toronto, said it believed dozens of devices at the Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera had been compromised by spyware delivered through ads run by Discover-Tech, which describes itself as a specialised digital advertising agency. Continue reading...

15 Oct 2026 12:15 ✍️ RSS THE GUARDIAN