Mood-boosting rate cut is a fillip for Reeves but leaves future uncertain

Thursday’s interest rate cut to 4.25% is the fourth in a run of reductions that kicked off last August. It represents a fillip for Rachel Reeves, who will hope it helps revive the feelgood factor for gloomy British consumers.The Bank of England’s nine-member monetary policy committee (MPC) has passed judgment on the impact of Donald Trump’s trade war for the UK – and expects modestly weaker growth and inflation to be the result.Lower global energy prices as markets anticipate weaker demand, and cheaper Chinese imports, are likely to bear down on costs, the MPC has judged

BlackRock to order senior managers back to office five days a week – reports

BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset management company, is reportedly preparing to order its senior managers to work from the office five days a week.The New-York based company is expected to tell its staff as early as Thursday that about 1,000 managing directors around the world should work in the office full-time, the Financial Times has reported.BlackRock last told staff in 2023 they had to go into the office at least four days a week. More junior staff will still be allowed to work from home one day a week under the new guidance, according to the report.BlackRock, which has more than 21,000 staff around the world, is one of many big American corporations calling time on an era of remote and hybrid working triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic

EU targets US aircraft and car exports in new list of potential tariffs

The EU is considering imposing tariffs on US aircraft and car exports in a fresh attempt to persuade Donald Trump to drop his current and proposed tariffs against the EU.If acted on they will hit Boeing hard but also include further categories of US exports including chemicals, electrical equipment including cameras, health-related products and some foods such as sweet potato and nuts.At the same time Brussels has launched a consultation with member states on potential litigation against the US over the blanket 20% reciprocal tariffs the US president announced last month.As the EU prepared for the possibility of a prolonged transatlantic trade war, Trump reached an agreement with the UK and appeared to softened his position on China.The US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, and Washington’s chief trade negotiator, Jamieson Greer, are due to meet China’s vice-premier, He Lifeng, in Switzerland on Saturday for talks that could be the first step toward resolving the trade war between the two countries

From snail slime to salmon sperm: the K-beauty boom hits UK high streets

Korean beauty products are moving from phone screens to UK high streets as social media drives sales of skincare with the help of eye-catching ingredients such as snail slime and salmon sperm.Retailers are looking to capitalise on the TikTok and Instagram trend for skincare and makeup ranges from South Korea – known as K-beauty – by opening physical stores and launching brands in a push to get consumers to pick up products that havegone viral online.While some of the ranges have been available on specialist beauty websites for some time, British shoppers are now getting the chance to try them out on their skin and assess their supposed wondrous effects.The trend is another example of South Korea’s growing cultural prominence where food, film, TV and K-pop, with its international stars such as the boyband BTS, are becoming big business as companies expand into large consumer markets such as Britain.K-beauty’s positive reputation stems in part from Korea’s tradition of using natural substances in products, making them gentle on the skin, and its strict rules around labelling

Next sales buoyed by unusually warm spring weather in UK

Next enjoyed better-than-expected spring sales as the UK basked in unusually warm weather, raising hopes of a strong season for fashion retailers after many had a difficult autumn and winter.The retailer, which recently surpassed £1bn in profit for the first time, continued its winning streak on Thursday as it reported that full-price sales rose by 11.4% in the 13 weeks to 26 April, compared with the same period last year. Revenue was £55m higher than initially expected.It said warmer weather had “benefited the sale of summer-weight clothing”

Cause of Heathrow shutdown fire remains unknown, says system operator

Investigators have failed to find the root cause of the substation fire that shut Heathrow airport in March, six weeks after the government ordered an “urgent” investigation.A preliminary report from the National Energy System Operator (Neso) ruled out any suspicious activity behind the outage which cut power to the airport, affecting more than 1,350 flights and almost 300,000 passengers.But the state-owned body admitted that the “root cause of the fire”, which also left about 67,000 homes without power, still “remains unknown”.The system operator has promised to continue its investigation into the maintenance history and design of the 57-year-old power substation in west London that caught fire on 20 March to establish whether it was meeting its legal requirements.It will also examine the configurations of the airport’s private electricity network, which took hours to repower after the outage, even as two nearby substations continued to operate as normal