Business

Reeves begins push to remain as chancellor under new Labour leadership
Posted on Saturday May 23, 2026

Chancellor’s allies urge MPs to back her if Keir Starmer is replaced, saying she is only candidate to safeguard UK’s finances

Rachel Reeves has launched a rearguard action to save her job as chancellor, telling friends she would like to stay in the post even under a new prime minister.

The chancellor’s supporters have been urging MPs to back her if Keir Starmer is replaced later this year, saying she is the only candidate who can safeguard the country’s finances.

Five toys on sale in Britain found to contain asbestos in tests for Guardian
Posted on Saturday May 23, 2026

Discovery adds to fears about UK safety regime and exposes regulatory gaps as similar items were banned in Netherlands

Five children’s toys on sale in Britain analysed in a Guardian investigation have been found to contain asbestos.

It is illegal to sell products containing any quantity of asbestos fibres in the UK because of the long-term risk of cancer and respiratory problems if they are inhaled.

UK needs ‘national consensus’ over rejoining EU, David Miliband says
Posted on Saturday May 23, 2026

Ex-foreign secretary urges reset at ‘higher dosage’ after officials revealed to have pitched single market for goods

Britain needs a “national consensus” about rejoining the European Union, David Miliband has said, in response to revelations that the UK government pitched the creation of a single market for goods with the EU to the bloc.

The former foreign secretary, who is now president of the International Rescue Committee, said he thought the UK needed a reset of its relations with the EU at “a much higher dosage” than the government was planning.

Final frontier for meds? UK startup sends drug-making into space
Posted on Saturday May 23, 2026

BioOrbit hopes drug-crystallisation technology will lead to self-injected cancer treatment that could save millions

Onboard a SpaceX flight last week was a remarkable piece of cargo – a hi-tech box destined for the International Space Station to grow ultra-pure protein crystals, with the aim of producing self-injected cancer drugs.

A British startup, BioOrbit, has developed the drug-crystallisation technology at its labs in London and launched Box-E, a compact unit the size of a microwave, on the 15 May rocket from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Even if the Iran war ended today, US fuel prices aren’t likely to normalize this year
Posted on Saturday May 23, 2026

Prewar US gas prices averaged about $3 a gallon nationally – kiss that number goodbye for 2026

Sorry, US drivers, but don’t expect pump prices to return to prewar levels any time soon, even if the US and Iran agree to a lasting peace deal tomorrow.

As the war with Iran enters its third month, drivers have become infuriated by rising gas prices – and inflation – and Donald Trump is facing a historic backlash in the polls. The president promised recently that relief will be swift once the war ends. “I see it going down very substantially when this is over, I think very rapidly too, at levels that you’ve never seen,” he said.

SpaceX launches its biggest rocket yet in test flight from Texas
Posted on Saturday May 23, 2026

Starship V3 blasts off in 12th test flight of rocket that Elon Musk is developing with aim of taking people to Mars

SpaceX has launched its biggest, most powerful Starship yet, an upgraded version that Nasa is counting on to land astronauts on the moon.

The redesigned mega-rocket made its debut two days after SpaceX’s CEO, Elon Musk, announced he was taking the company public. It blasted off from the southern tip of Texas on Friday, carrying 20 mock Starlink satellites that were released midway through the hour-long spaceflight that stretched halfway around the world.

‘There is no great master plan’: anxiety as UK homes, roads and railways sink into the sea
Posted on Saturday May 23, 2026

Increasing coastal erosion has hit communities’ livelihoods and put lifestyles under threat

The remains of the road linking two towns in south Devon lie crumbled on the foreshore in a mess of tarmac, steel and concrete.

The dramatic coastal road, known as the Slapton Line, has an environmentally protected freshwater lake on one side and the sea on the other, and links the towns of Kingsbridge and Dartmouth. But this year, winter storms demolished a section of the A road between Torcross and Slapton, which is at the frontline of rising sea levels and coastal erosion, fulfilling a destiny that was predicted more than 30 years ago, but that has not been prepared for.