As it happened: Stocks rise as oil fluctuates after Red Sea attack; US-Iran deal ‘being circulated’ August 5, 2026 Welcome back to the Morning Wire liveblog. Oil prices have snapped a losing streak following Yemen’s Houthis said they had attacked a Saudi vessel in the Red Sea. Brent crude drew back above the $80 per barrel mark on Wednesday morning on the news, but prices were still down for the week by around 10 [...]
Ask the expert: How do I avoid double tax on my pension? August 5, 2026 Got a question for our expert? Email [email protected] Fidelity personal financial specialist Marianna Hunt is back on hand to answer your burning questions, and today a reader is looking to avoid the incoming double tax blow. Q: I’m hoping to retire soon and am just deciding where I will draw my income from. I had [...]
What Burnham could learn from BP’s pragmatism August 5, 2026 In 2020, BP unveiled a “major, necessary step in support of our purpose to reimagine energy for people and our planet.” The new strategy – “performing while transforming” – would see the firm “significantly scale-up our low carbon energy business” as part of a commitment “to become a net zero company by 2050 or sooner [...]
Heineken-owned pubs group faces probe over eviction threat August 5, 2026 One of the UK’s biggest pub chains is facing a potential probe by the UK’s pubs watchdog after it threatened to evict one of its London tenants. Star Pubs, which operates more than 2,000 sites across Britain and is owned by Dutch brewing titan Heineken, has been told it will be referred to the Pubs [...]
Where are Andy Burnham’s economic advisers? August 5, 2026 Andy Burnham’s allies boasted that highly-regarded economists had been lured as advisers. Mauricio Alencar and Ali Lyon report on the non-appointments of some of Britain’s best economists – and what the Prime Minister and Chancellor’s new teams look like. In the end, all it took was a few rumours. In the weeks leading up to [...]
Gary Lineker forks out £10k to save England World Cup dream August 5, 2026 Gary Lineker and a group of private backers have come to the rescue of the England men’s amputee team while the Football Association refuses to fund them. The governing body stopped its financial support in 2006 and, despite now backing seven para teams, still excludes the amputee side. The England team, Nations League winners in [...]
Big bank bosses on alert as tax noise gets louder under Burnham August 5, 2026 Banks have delivered booming profits for the first half of the year. In this week’s column Samuel Norman takes a look at how the calls for a tax rise on the sector will get louder under the new Prime Minister. “The saxophones are getting louder” is the internet’s new saying to depict growing anxiety. If you [...]
Tour de France Femmes: World famous cycling race plunged into bra row August 4, 2026 For penis injections at the Winter Olympics, read bra padding at the Tour de France Femmes, where officials are making extra checks on riders to ensure they are not cheating by inflating the size of their chests. The move comes after unnamed teams raised suspicions that some cyclists were using padding on their chests – [...]
Monitoring the situation: HSBC to add 46 CCTV cameras with ‘face detection’ outside new City HQ August 4, 2026 Few banks are better at monitoring the situation than HSBC. The UK’s biggest bank is gearing up to install dozens of CCTV cameras around the perimeter of its new City headquarters as it ramps up security ahead of its move from Canary Wharf next year. HSBC plans to fit as many as 51 new cameras, [...]
Luton Airport expansion set for take-off after environmental challenge dismissed August 4, 2026 London Luton Airport’s growth plan has received judicial approval after a campaign group’s legal challenge was rejected by the UK’s top court. The Supreme Court has given the plans the green light after dismissing a challenge from Luton and District Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise (LADACAN), which had argued the decision was unlawful [...]