Top economists call for halt to Sri Lanka debt repayments after Cyclone Ditwah

A group of the world’s top economists – including the Nobel prize winner Joseph Stiglitz – have called for Sri Lanka’s debt payments to be suspended as it tackles the devastation caused by Cyclone Ditwah.More than 600 people were killed and hundreds of thousands of homes destroyed across the island, in what Sri Lanka’s president, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, called the “largest and most challenging natural disaster in our history”.The country’s $9bn (£6.8bn) national debt was restructured last year, after lengthy negotiations with creditors after the government defaulted on repayments in 2022. But development campaigners warned at the time that the burden on Sri Lankan taxpayers remained unsustainable

There are reasons to be cheerful about UK plc in 2026. Here are four | Heather Stewart

Stalling growth, sticky inflation and fragile bond markets, the UK’s economic record in 2025 has hardly been one to inspire cheer. But in the spirit of the festive season, here are a few reasons to hope for a happier new year.The first is that, barring external forces, 2026 should not involve a repeat of this year’s fiscal drama.Rachel Reeves more than doubled the margin of error, or headroom, against her fiscal rules at last month’s budget, and that should gift the Treasury a quieter 2026.The chancellor’s spring statement should be a non-event for another reason, too: she announced that while the Office for Budget Responsibility will still carry out a forecast, it will not formally assess her against the rules

UK supermarkets turn to European turkeys as avian flu hits supply

Several of the UK’s big supermarkets have been forced to source turkeys from elsewhere in Europe to keep shelves stocked this Christmas, after avian flu curtailed UK production.Asda, Lidl and Morrisons are understood to be stocking branded turkey imported from mainland Europe – a move industry sources described as “unprecedented” – to “protect availability” and ensure sufficient supply for festive meals.All three retailers’ own-label fresh and frozen turkeys will be entirely British-sourced. However, Morrisons is stocking Bernard Matthews-branded turkey from Poland, and Asda is selling a Cherrywood-branded turkey crown from mainland Europe.Lidl said a small proportion of its branded frozen turkey, sold under the Gressingham label, was sourced from the EU

‘Bills keep going higher’: community ‘warm spaces’ on the rise in the UK

When Fatma Mustafa began attending Walworth Living Room, a community project in south London, a few years ago, she began to feel like it was her second home. The registered “warm space” is designed to feel like a living room: comfy sofas, a communal table, activities and food in a warm environment.Mustafa, 48, says that on universal credit (UC) it is hard to cover bills and easy to fall into debt. Attending three days a week, she says, cuts costs on energy and groceries.She has a pay-as-you-go energy meter, which is increasingly “just eating my money away”, she says

‘The anxiety never disappears’: Monmouth businesses recover from severe flooding

“It was heart-wrenching,” says Andrea Sholl, recalling the Friday night last month when flood waters started rising inside Bar 125, the restaurant she and her husband, Martin, own in the Welsh border town of Monmouth.The Sholls and a couple of colleagues were still clearing up after a busy evening serving diners when the building started to fill with water at about 1am.They were able to carry some furniture upstairs to protect it, but lost all of their appliances including dishwashers and freezers, as well as fridges full of thousands of pounds’ worth of food.“It was like a huge fountain coming up through the drains. It went through the cellar, then through into the kitchen, then the higher kitchen, and then before we knew it, in the lower dining room it was up to about here,” Andrea Sholl says, pointing to the windowsill

Christmas ads put on a diet as UK ban on TV junk food advertising bites

The festive season is traditionally a time of national culinary overindulgence but eagle-eyed viewers may have noticed that this year’s crop of big-budget Christmas TV ads have been decidedly lean and sugar-free.From Tesco and Waitrose to Marks & Spencer and Asda, the UK’s biggest exponents of extravagant festive food marketing have put their Christmas ads on a diet to comply with new regulations banning junk food products from appearing in TV ads before 9pm.The UK advertising watchdog will officially start cracking down on ads featuring junk food on TV – and in paid online advertising at any time of day – from 5 January. But the UK advertising industry voluntarily chose to start adhering to the new rules from October, making this TV’s first-ever low-fat, low-sugar and low-salt Christmas.Gone are shots of Christmas puddings and sweet treats, while healthy products have made a conspicuous appearance