A major VAT reform unveiled in the Budget is expected to unlock millions of pounds’ worth of surplus goods for charity and significantly reduce the volume of usable products sent to landfill. From 1 April 2026, businesses will be able to donate goods to registered charities without incurring a VAT charge, removing a long-criticised tax barrier that has deterred companies ...
Experts are warning that Rachel Reeves’ decision to cap the National Insurance advantages of pension salary sacrifice at £2,000 a year risks dismantling one of the UK’s most widely used workplace savings tools, and may force smaller employers to freeze hiring or scale back staff benefits. The Treasury expects the change to raise £4.7 billion in 2029/30, rising from workers ...
President Donald Trump says Ukraine and Russia are ‘making progress’ toward a peace agreement, but he conceded that the conflict remains ‘difficult’ to solve. Trump made the comments while speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday night, giving insight into the ongoing Ukraine-Russia talks. He went on to say that U.S. Envoy Steve Witkoff would soon be engaging ...
Patrick G. Eddington US Sen. Mark Kelly (D‑AZ). In mid-July 1941, anti-interventionist Senator Burton Wheeler (D‑MT) sent 1,000,000 postcards to Americans across the country, urging them to write President Franklin Roosevelt to keep America out of the raging war in Europe. Two of those postcards were received, respectively, by Staff Sergeant William L. White at Fort Benning, Georgia, and 1st ...
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has delivered her second Budget, unveiling a wide-ranging package of tax, spending and regulatory measures shaped by weeks of leaks — and an accidental early publication of the OBR’s official forecasts. Here is a comprehensive overview of the main changes affecting households, businesses and the wider economy. Personal taxation Reeves confirmed that income tax and National Insurance ...
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has delivered a bruising second Budget, confirming more than £30 billion in tax rises and abandoning earlier assurances that “working people” would be shielded from higher taxes. Instead, she told MPs she was asking “everyone to contribute”, with most households now set to be worse off and middle-income families bearing the brunt. While welfare payments, pensions and ...
Jeremy Horpedahl In the summer of 2024, a passage from J.D. Vance’s memoir Hillbilly Elegy gained widespread attention on social media platforms, including X/Twitter. Vance described his refrigerator from the 1980s, asserting that it preserved lettuce for weeks beyond the capabilities of contemporary models. This was not just an offhanded comment by Vance, as he also said his takeaway from this anecdote ...
U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff gave a senior Kremlin official tips on how to sell a Ukraine peace deal to President Donald Trump, a report said. Witkoff spoke by phone to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s top foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov on Oct. 14, advising him on how Putin should bring up the topic with the U.S. president, according to ...
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has described the accidental early publication of the Office for Budget Responsibility’s report as “deeply disappointing”, after the market-sensitive document appeared online ahead of her Budget statement. Opening her remarks in the Commons, Reeves said the OBR had already taken “full responsibility” for the error. She stressed the government’s progress over the past 16 months in “rebuilding ...
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is facing mounting calls to resign from frustrated business owners after a series of leaks ahead of this week’s Budget – drawing comparisons with Labour Chancellor Hugh Dalton, who quit in 1947 after briefing a journalist moments before delivering his statement. The criticism intensified after the Office for Budget Responsibility accidentally published its full economic forecast online ...