FTSE 100 Live: Stocks slump as oil rises; Reeves tax hikes trigger borrowing boost April 23, 2026 Good morning and welcome back to the Morning Wire liveblog. An extended ceasefire may have been announced in the Middle East, but its left markets with major appetite for further peace before investor sentiment recovers. Brent crude – the international benchmark for oil prices – was trading back over the $100 mark on Thursday morning. [...]
Back to the 1970s: Brits know the damage being done to our economy April 23, 2026 By late 1978 Britain was in the grip of what became known as the Winter of Discontent. Waves of strike action caused huge economic and social disruption as rubbish piled up on the streets and bodies went unburied. It was a crisis for the Labour government and a low point in Britain’s recent history. It [...]
Startups should pray the US AI giants don’t run out of cash April 23, 2026 As Morning Wire revealed earlier this week, a London-based business has raised £2m to fund the development of an AI-powered coffee vending machine. The company’s founders say they can tailor the contents of the hot drinks – like coffee strength and milk content – based on the preferences of the customer, using AI. That sounds [...]
Mayer Brown: Capital solutions are rewriting the rulebook April 23, 2026 Partner content, in association with international law firm Mayer Brown Historically, capital solutions were often associated with distressed situations or urgent deleveraging. Now, they are being rebranded as growth catalysts. According to Mark Evans, partner at international law firm Mayer Brown, businesses are increasingly relying on capital solutions not only to bolster corporate balance sheets but also [...]
The AI cracks are starting to show at law firms April 23, 2026 Law firms have poured vast sums into AI in a race to modernise, but ‘hallucinations‘ and security concerns are exposing the technology’s risks, writes Maria Ward-Brennan. There has been intense pressure on legal, advisory, and consultancy firms to invest in, embed, and deploy AI over the last couple of years, but this pressure is now [...]
Punchdrunk Theatre founder: These video games changed my life April 23, 2026 Punchdrunk is the company that put immersive theatre on the map. Since it was founded more than a quarter of a century ago, it has built a reputation for creating vast, intricate, freeflowing productions in which masked audience-members are allowed to roam freely through its spaces. Hits include The Drowned Man (2013), Sleep No More [...]
The digital bank revolution is over – and that’s a good thing April 23, 2026 Until it was finally unveiled last month, there was more than a year of will-they-won’t-they speculation in the press over whether Britain’s biggest digital bank, Revolut, would be awarded a banking licence by the UK’s financial regulators. It was a long, drawn-out process – far longer than for most of Revolut’s peers – thanks in [...]
Carolyn Dawson: If you’re the smartest person in the room, get out April 23, 2026 Founders Forum CEO Carolyn Dawson takes us through her career in tech, from her most embarrassing interview to her best job advice.
Robert Dyas losses double as Dragons Den star eyes turnaround April 23, 2026 Robert Dyas saw its loss double last year as Dragons Den star Theo Paphitis attempts to reverse the fortunes of the struggling hardware retailer. The company’s pre-tax loss widened to £4.7m last year, more than double its previous £2.3m setback, according to previously unreported Companies House filings. Former Dragons Den magnate Theo Paphitis announced last [...]
Untrained managers are stalling Britain’s AI returns April 23, 2026 British businesses are pouring copious amounts of capital into AI, but meaningful returns are by no means guaranteed. New research from the Chartered Institute of Management found that only one in 20 managers report real, transformational productivity gains from AI investment. Meanwhile, one in four say they have seen no benefit at all. The CMI’s [...]