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Retailer says higher costs also hit first-half figures as group pursues its turnaround plan, though Waitrose grew sales Losses at the owner of John Lewis and Waitrose widened by more than 40% in the first half of the year as it struggled with higher costs and with shoppers feeling less confident about their money.The John Lewis Partnership, which operates 36 department stores and more than 300 Waitrose supermarkets, said its pre-tax loss for the six months to 1 August climbed to £124m, compared with £88m in the same period in 2025. Continue reading...

Play is one of eight world premieres in programme with global conflict and political upheaval at its heartA new play about John Major’s rise to power, written by James Graham, will premiere at the National Theatre in London next year, as part of a season that puts political upheaval and global conflict at the heart of its programme.Major reunites Graham with Jeremy Herrin, the director behind the acclaimed parliamentary drama This House. It will chart Major’s emergence from relatively obscure whip to prime minister, taking over from Margaret Thatcher at a pivotal moment in Britain’s relationship with Europe. Continue reading...

Senator lends support to ‘great friend’ Dave McCormick, Republican running for re-election in PennsylvaniaDemocratic senator John Fetterman made a surprise virtual appearance at the Republican midterm convention, delivering a video address supporting Dave McCormick, a Republican running for re-election in Pennsylvania.Fetterman, who has increasingly broken with his party since his election in 2022, said he would always reject “extremes and socialism” in the video, repeating an oft-used Republican critique of the Democratic party’s increasingly popular left wing. Continue reading...

The Wild Horse Nine actor had been due to appear on stage in The Music Critic in Tel Aviv – but pulled out over PR firm’s ‘unacceptable and untenable’ attribution of statementJohn Malkovich has cancelled a planned trip to Israel next year to appear on stage after a PR firm hired by the show attributed quotes to the actor that the company had written.Malkovich, who is a leading Oscar contender for his role in Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine, was due to appear in The Music Critic, a theatrical-musical satire composed by the Jewish violinist Aleksey Igudesman, in Tel Aviv’s Charles Bronfman Auditorium on 13 April. Continue reading...

Frontrunner Sununu beats Scott Brown to earn Republican nod in closely watched race in NovemberFormer senator John E Sununu triumphed on Tuesday in the New Hampshire Republican Senate primary Scott Brown, earning the GOP nod in what will likely be a must-win race if Democrats hope to seize the upper chamber.Sununu, 61, was the clear frontrunner in the GOP primary. He served one term in the Senate from 2003 to 2009. Continue reading...

Follow the day’s news liveFormer prime minister, John Howard, has warned political parties against banning migration from certain countries as the debate over Australia’s immigration settings continues.The 87-year-old was in Canberra last night for an hour-long chat with Australian National University national security professor, Rory Medcalf, ahead of the 25th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US.But I think the mood is overwhelming that we have to try very hard to stop terrorism creeping in under the cover of immigration, and you can’t do it by just stopping immigration, and it’s very hard to do it by stopping categories of immigration ...When some people say you stop it by saying ‘we won’t take migrants from any country that has got a reputation for terrorism’, well, it might be a lot more limiting than those people imagine. Continue reading...

Chancellor ducks questions on whether he will have to raise taxes but says he will stick firmly to fiscal rulesBusiness live – latest updatesJohn Healey has said boosting economic growth will be his defining mission as chancellor as he warned Labour had to “be honest” about the need to control public spending at next month’s budget.In his first big speech since taking the job in July, Healey said the top priority for his 28 October budget would be to support stronger growth across the UK while sticking firmly to the government’s fiscal rules. Continue reading...