News

PoliticsChancellor weighs stamp duty cut as housing market stalls

Treasury officials have modelled a temporary holiday for first-time buyers after transactions fell to their lowest level in a decade

UKWater company hit with record £120m fine over sewage spills

Regulator says the firm discharged untreated sewage on more than 4,000 occasions when its works were not at capacity; shareholders, not customers, will pay

UKRecord entries for A-level maths as arts subjects fall to lowest in 20 years

More than 100,000 students sat maths this year; music, drama and art together drew fewer than 50,000

PoliticsLords reform bill clears Commons after late concession on retirement age

Peers will be required to retire at 80 and the last hereditary seats will go; the bill now faces the chamber it is designed to shrink

BusinessCity banks plan 4,000 job cuts as lending margins narrow

Falling interest rates were meant to lift the economy. For the banks, they have squeezed the spread between what they pay savers and charge borrowers

BusinessSupermarket price war deepens as the big four cut 2,000 lines in a week

Discounters are still taking share; analysts say the cuts are coming out of suppliers, not profits

LiveTube strike: unions and TfL to resume talks on Monday as fourth day of walkouts ends

Services expected to return gradually on Sunday morning; both sides say gap on pay has narrowed

LiveRail fares to rise 4.6% in January, the largest increase in a decade

Ministers say the rise is below inflation plus one; passenger groups say punctuality has fallen for three years running

Business‘The OpenAI of trading’: inside the lab that wants an AI to run the book

Foresight Research says its flagship model, Oracle, reads markets and news and trades without a human in the loop. It has yet to show the market its record

TechnologyBritain's chip strategy: Cambridge or nowhere

The government has decided not to compete on fabrication plants. Its bet is on design, and on one city

EnvironmentFirst onshore wind farms approved in England since ban was lifted

Three schemes in Yorkshire and Cumbria cleared planning this week; developers say dozens more are waiting

EnvironmentBritain's peat bogs hold more carbon than its forests. Most of them are leaking it

A £200m restoration programme has rewetted 50,000 hectares; scientists say that is a tenth of what is needed

ScienceJodrell Bank astronomers trace fast radio burst to a dead galaxy, upending theories of their origin

The millisecond flash came from a galaxy with no young stars, ruling out the magnetar explanation for at least some bursts

HealthNHS waiting list falls below 7 million for the first time in three years

Monthly figures show 6.9 million people waiting for treatment; the longest waits have fallen fastest, but A&E performance is still below target

WorldSmall boat crossings pass 40,000 for the year as October weather holds

Home Office figures show the highest annual total yet; ministers point to a fall in arrivals from one route under the new French agreement

WorldIreland's housing crisis is now its election. Nobody has a plan that fits on a poster

Rents in Dublin have doubled in a decade; the parties agree on the problem and on almost nothing else