US and Japan unveil $36bn of oil, gas and critical minerals projects in challenge to China

Japan has drawn up plans for investments in US oil, gas and critical mineral projects worth about $36bn under the first wave of a deal with Donald Trump.The US president and Sanae Takaichi, Japan’s prime minister, announced a trio of projects including a power plant in Portsmouth, Ohio, billed by the Trump administration as the largest natural gas-fired generating facility in US history.As a diplomatic row between Japan and China over the security of Taiwan continues, testing the Japanese economy, Takaichi said the projects would strengthen her country’s ties with the US.While Takaichi did not directly mention China, she expressed hope in a statement that the investments would enhance Japanese and US economic security.“Our massive trade deal with Japan has just launched,” Trump declared in a social media post

The death of Heather Preen: how an eight-year-old lost her life amid sewage crisis

In 1999, Heather Preen contracted E coli on a Devon beach. Two weeks later she died. Now, as a new Channel 4 show dramatises the scandal, her mother, Julie Maughan, explains why she is still looking for someone to take responsibilityWhen Julie Maughan was invited to help with a factual drama that would focus on the illegal dumping of raw sewage by water companies, she had to think hard. In some ways, it felt 25 years too late. In 1999, Maughan’s eight-year-old daughter, Heather Preen, had contracted the pathogen E coli O157 on a Devon beach and died within a fortnight

Boost to British Steel as Turkey places high-speed rail order

British Steel has secured an order worth tens of millions of pounds to supply rail for a high-speed electric railway in Turkey, amid continuing uncertainty over the long-term future of the government-controlled steelworks in Scunthorpe.The site will supply 36,000 tonnes of rail to ERG International Group, the company announced, in what it called an “eight-figure agreement”.The rail is destined for a 599km railway line being built to connect the Turkish capital, Ankara, with the western port city of İzmir, which will reduce the travel time and cut carbon emissions.British Steel said securing the contract had allowed it to create 23 new roles at the north Lincolnshire site and to restart round-the-clock rail manufacturing for the first time in more than a decade.The deal, which was supported by UK Export Finance, is seen as a commercial boost for the loss-making manufacturer

Goldman Sachs to drop race, gender and LGBTQ+ criteria from board evaluations

Goldman Sachs is removing race, gender and other diversity-related considerations when evaluating prospective candidates for its executive board after pressure from an activist shareholder group to remove the criteria.The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), a small Goldman shareholder, quietly submitted a request to the company last September asking the bank to eliminate its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) board criteria.According to a Wall Street Journal report, Goldman recently informed the group that it plans to remove the DEI criteria, and the two parties signed an agreement under which the NLPC would withdraw its proposal.Goldman’s board is expected to approve the changes this month, people familiar with the matter told the Journal.Currently, the board’s governance committee evaluates qualified candidates based primarily on four factors

UK interest rate cut likely in March as unemployment rate rises; youth joblessness to ‘increase significantly’ in coming months – as it happened

The chances of a cut to UK interest rates next month have risen, following this morning’s data showing a rise in unemployment and a slowdown in wage growth.The City money markets now indicate there’s a near-75% chance that the Bank of England lowers interest rates to 3.5% at its next meeting, in March, up from 69% last night.Investors now fully expect two rate cuts by Christmas, which would bring Bank Rate down to 3.25%

Surging prediction markets face legal backlash in US: ‘Lines have been blurred’

State lawmakers and gaming regulators across the US are escalating their fight against prediction markets, arguing that the fast-growing platforms are “basically gambling but with another name”.At least 20 federal lawsuits have been filed nationwide, disputing whether companies such as Kalshi and Polymarket should be treated as federally regulated financial exchanges, as they maintain, or as gambling operations that should be regulated like state-licensed sportsbooks.The row escalated this week, when the chair of the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which oversees these platforms, announced that it was filing a friend-of-the-court brief in defense of “its exclusive jurisdiction over these derivative markets’”.The legal battle comes as the sector surges. More than $1bn was traded on Kalshi alone during Super Bowl Sunday, and Bloomberg reported that Kalshi’s January trading volume reached nearly $10bn, most of it tied to sports