Are the stars finally aligning for the ‘new golden age’ of nuclear? | Nils Pratley

Presidential visits, like investment summits, involve a blizzard of claims about companies set to spend squillions in the UK. Some “commitments” are merely extrapolations of current trends. Some can be filed under “believe it when you see it”. Some involve throwing everything into the mix and producing an implausibly precise number for the “economic value” to the UK. A few pledges are genuinely new, but scepticism should be the default setting

Federal Reserve cuts interest rates by a quarter point, for first time in nearly a year – as it happened

The Fed just announced an interest rate cut by a quarter point, which was largely anticipated amid a weakening labor market.This is the first time the Fed has cut rates since December 2024. Rates now stand at a range of 4% to 4.25%, the lowest since November 2022.Stay tuned for a press conference Fed chair Jerome Powell is expected to give at 2

What is new in UK-US tech deal and what will it mean for the British economy?

Donald Trump’s arrival in the UK on Tuesday night was accompanied by a multibillion-dollar transatlantic tech agreement.The announcement features some of the biggest names from Silicon Valley: the chipmaker Nvidia; the ChatGPT developer, OpenAI; and Microsoft. Big numbers were involved, with Microsoft hailing its $30bn (£22bn) investment as a major commitment to the UK – and adding, in an apparent swipe at its rivals, that it was not making “empty tech promises”.Here is a breakdown of the announcements in the UK-US “tech prosperity deal”, spelling out what is explicitly new in them.Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith, hailed the “single biggest announcement” in the pact and insisted it was not an empty promise

UK is going to be ‘AI superpower’, says Nvidia boss as he invests £500m

Jensen Huang, the co-founder and chief executive of the US AI chipmaker Nvidia, has predicted “the UK is going to be an AI superpower” as he announced a new £500m investment in a British firm.Huang, who is due to join Donald Trump at Wednesday night’s state banquet with the king, said he was taking an equity stake in NScale, a UK cloud computing company, and predicted it would earn revenues of up to £50bn over the next six years.“We’re here to announce that the UK is going to be an AI superpower,” he told a press conference in London.Huang cited as evidence of Britain’s potential its universities and several companies founded in the UK, ranging from the AI giant DeepMind to the driverless car startup Wayve. “You just don’t appreciate it

Millions tune in to athletics broadcasts as Gout Gout attracts huge viewing numbers

The debut of Gout Gout at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo was Australia’s most popular television program on Wednesday night, out-performing ratings juggernaut The Block, and drawing more than three million viewers across the unusual free-to-air double act of Channel Nine and SBS.The Nine broadcast peaked at 2.2m viewers, securing the title of the evening’s highest rating programme ahead of The Block. Across Nine’s entire athletics broadcast, which finished close to midnight on the east coast, the audience averaged 519,000 viewers per minute.Australian Athletics’ president, Jane Flemming, used a team welcome at the Australian embassy in Tokyo to take a shot at the footy codes which traditionally dominate September on television

Eddie Hearn threatens to sue Chris Eubank Jr over ‘sabotage’ claim before Conor Benn rematch

Eddie Hearn has threatened to sue Chris Eubank Jr, after the boxer fired the first shots during a press conference ahead of his rematch with Conor Benn by accusing his opponent’s team of dirty tricks and “sabotage”.Eubank Jr, who won their first bout by unanimous decision in April, claimed an ambulance taking him to hospital afterwards was stopped – and appeared to point the finger at Benn’s promoters, Matchroom Boxing.The claim was met with derision by Matchroom chairman Hearn, who said “I’ve never heard so much waffle” and later threatened to take legal action against Eubank Jr for his comments. The press conference stoked hostilities before the two men meet at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on 15 November.“They did everything they could to try and destroy me in that last fight,” said Eubank Jr of Benn’s promoters