• President Trump and President Xi Jinping held a high-level summit, marking the first U.S. presidential visit to China in nearly a decade.
• The meeting focused on diplomatic relations and economic cooperation, signaling a potential shift in trade dynamics and geopolitical stability.
• This summit is critical for Asian markets as it may reduce trade tensions and influence investment flows across the region.
• Massachusetts Democrat Rep. Richard Neal plans a broad tax agenda if he reclaims the Ways and Means gavel after a House control change.
• Neal is unlikely to revive the battle over President Trump's tax returns, focusing instead on more urgent priorities like corporate rates and credits.
• This positions Democrats to counter GOP tax policies, impacting revenue and economic inequality debates.
Station will be first to be given full GBR branding and will directly link city’s Biomedical Campus to London, Brighton and Stansted airportThe delayed Cambridge South station will finally open in late June – and become the first station to be given full Great British Railways branding, the government has announced.The station sits beside the city’s Biomedical Campus, Europe’s largest medical research centre, and will connect it with direct trains to London, Brighton and Stansted airport, as well as up to nine trains an hour to the centre of Cambridge itself. Continue reading...
Moscow blanketed in heavy security despite last-minute announcement of three-day ceasefire with UkraineVladimir Putin has declared Russia will always be victorious as he oversaw a scaled-back Victory Day parade on Red Square held under heavy security amid mounting fears of Ukrainian attacks and growing public fatigue with the war.Speaking to the crowd, the Russian leader invoked the sacrifices of the second world war to rally support for his soldiers fighting in the war in Ukraine. Continue reading...
International Airlines Group expects to spend £1.7bn more on fuel than planned since US-Israeli attack on IranBusiness news – live updatesThe parent company of British Airways has issued a profit warning and said it expects to spend about €2bn (£1.72bn) more on fuel than planned this year due to the Iran war.International Airlines Group (IAG), which also owns Aer Lingus, Iberia and Vueling, said it has hedged 70% of its expected fuel use for this year with costs expected to be about €9bn, up from previous forecasts of €7.1bn. Continue reading...
Amber Davidson-Orozco said the family had lost Dodger, their cat, during their move out of CaliforniaA family cat who got lost amid a move from California across the US is said to be settling back into his old ways with his humans at their new home in Georgia after experiencing an unlikely – but long hoped for – reunion more than seven years in the making.As owner Amber Davidson-Orozco put in an interview Wednesday, her cat Dodger still responds to his name and allows her sons to flip him playfully over their shoulders despite an absence from them that to the cat lasted the equivalent of roughly 24 years. Continue reading...
Monarch to allude to recent strains in special relationship in speech to both houses during four-day state visitKing Charles is expected to allude to recent strains between the UK and US in a rare address by a monarch to the US Congress as he will underline that “time and again our two countries have always found ways to come together”.The king’s remarks in a speech to both houses on Tuesday come after Donald Trump has threatened to tear up a trade deal signed by the UK and US, mocked the Royal Navy and insulted the UK prime minister. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Documents released to campaign group 38 Degrees reveal UK officials briefed on possibility of altering food standardsBritish officials were briefed on the possibility of allowing chemical-washed chicken into the UK before a meeting with the US embassy, new documents reveal.The Food Standards Agency is also looking at studies performed in the US on washing chicken with bacteriophages, including chlorine dioxide, to remove pathogens, according to the documents, released to the campaign group 38 Degrees under freedom of information laws. Continue reading...
President says he gave Britain ‘better deal than I had to’ but ally was ‘not there when we needed them’ on IranMiddle East crisis – live updatesBusiness live – latest updatesDonald Trump has threatened to row back on the trade deal the US signed with the UK last year, in his latest salvo against the British government over sharp differences about the US’s approach to the Middle East.The US president said the economic deal struck with the UK, which cut some of his tariffs on cars, aluminium and steel, was “better than I had to” and that it could “always be changed”. Continue reading...
‘Ukraine has expertise concerning sea waterways, and the defence and reopening of maritime traffic,’ says president. What we know on day 1,500Volodymyr Zelenskyy offered on Thursday to provide Ukraine’s expertise in dealing with freedom of navigation in the Black Sea to those countries considering how to keep the strait of Hormuz open amid the conflict in the Middle East. The Ukraine president, speaking in his nightly video address, said the foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, had taken part in a virtual meeting devoted to reopening the strait of Hormuz, attended by about 40 countries. “Ukraine has relevant expertise concerning sea waterways, and the defence and reopening of maritime traffic,” he said. “If [our] partners are ready to act, we will consider how we can strengthen them, how we can apply our expertise, knowledge and technological potential.”Russia’s army recorded no territorial gains on the frontline in Ukraine in March, for the first time in two and half years, AFP analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) showed. The Russian army’s advances have been slowing since late 2025 due to Kyiv’s localised breakthroughs in the south-east, and losing ground in March and February on the southern section of the frontline, between the Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions, the analysis showed. Across the entire frontline, Ukrainian forces managed to recapture 9 sq km in March.North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, gave “field guidance” at the Memorial Museum of Combat Feats at the Overseas Military Operations, which is under construction , state media KCNA said. The museum in Pyongyang will be a place to commemorate the fallen soldiers sent to support the Russian army in the war in Ukraine. The construction of the museum is almost complete and Kim said the opening ceremony would be held in mid-April, marking the first anniversary of the deployment of the North Korean soldiers.Six Ukrainian children will be returned from Russia to their families in Ukraine, the White House said on Thursday, citing efforts by Melania Trump to expedite their return. A seventh Ukrainian child will also be returned to their family later this month, the first lady’s office said in a statement. Ukraine says almost 20,000 children have been illegally sent to Russia and Belarus, where they are sometimes subject to military training and forced to fight against their own country’s troops.Russian strikes across Ukraine on Thursday killed at least two people and wounded dozens, officials said, as Moscow stepped up its attacks amid stalled peace talks. In the south-eastern Kherson region, Russia attacked “with artillery, mortars and UAVs”, the regional prosecutor’s office said on social media. A 42-year-old man was killed when a drone hit a civilian car, and 16 others – including a teenage boy and three police officers – were wounded in air attacks and artillery shelling, it added. In the Chernihiv region, north of the capital Kyiv, Russia attacked with a ballistic missile, the head of Chernihiv’s military administration, Dmytro Bryzhynsky, said on Telegram.Russian forces maintained a daylong barrage of drone strikes on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, on Thursday, injuring at least two people, local officials said. Kharkiv’s mayor, Ihor Terekhov, posted reports on Telegram throughout the day and well into the evening, noting strikes in four city districts. One city official said there had been at least 20 drone strikes. He said some had triggered fires and two people had been injured in an evening attack, including an eight-year-old girl.Russian forces carried out 129 attacks on Ukrainian gas and heating facilities during the recent 151-day heating season, the state oil and gas firm Naftogaz said on Thursday. “The Russians hit pipelines, gas production, underground storage facilities, heating systems – everything that Ukrainians depend on for heat and gas,” it said in a statement. Continue reading...
Talks, convened by the UK, will examine ‘all viable diplomatic and political measures’ to get critical waterway openFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAustralia will join talks with 35 nations, convened by the United Kingdom, to explore ways to reopen the strait of Hormuz, the government confirmed on Thursday.The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, announced the meeting on Wednesday, which will exclude the United States, to discuss “all viable diplomatic and political measures” to secure the waterway and restore freedom of navigation. The meeting is expected to take place at about 10pm AEDT on Thursday. Continue reading...
• Anthropic accidentally published a blog post revealing the 'Kairos' always-on AI agent in Claude's codebase, prompting internal cybersecurity reviews.
• The leak occurred last week, with cybersecurity teams addressing the exposure of sensitive agent details on April 1, 2026.
• It underscores risks in AI model transparency, potentially impacting US AI safety standards and developer trust.
UK researcher uses maths to explain seeming inevitability of phenomenon experienced by many motoristsIt is a situation experienced by many motorists: one driver overtakes another only to find the slower car is right behind them when they reach a red light. Now a researcher has used mathematics to reveal why the situation feels inevitable.Dr Conor Boland from Dublin City University has called his work “The Voorhees law of traffic”. Continue reading...
• The House Ways and Means Committee unanimously approved five bipartisan bills on March 25, 2026, providing tax relief to natural disaster victims, sexual assault survivors, and pre-school teachers while enhancing IRS customer service and whistleblower protections.
• Key measures include the Doug LaMalfa Federal Disaster Tax Relief Certainty Act (H.R. 5366, passed 41-0) and the Supporting Early-childhood Educators’ Deductions Act (SEED Act, H.R. 5334, passed 43-0), allowing up to $350 annual deductions for classroom expenses for standard deduction filers.
• The IRS Whistleblower Program Improvement Act (H.R. 7959) strengthens protections for tax fraud informants; all bills received strong bipartisan support amid ongoing tax proposal discussions.
Research shows average front garden size has declined by 46% in areas where older low-density homes have been replaced by larger, modern housesFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastSydney’s increasingly supersized driveways are shrinking suburban front yards as residential redevelopment accelerates, a research paper has found.The research, which details the loss of private tree space due to knock down-rebuilds, lays bare the gaps in the planning system for minimum private green space standards. Continue reading...
Refund systems for individual train operators to be merged into single service under nationalised rail bodyRail passengers will be able to claim compensation for delayed trains directly from the website where they bought their ticket, the government has said, as part of a shake-up to make rail travel simpler.Passengers who use third-party retailers such as Trainline to buy tickets currently, have to submit applications for refunds to the relevant train operator for processing. Continue reading...
The House Committee on Ways and Means scheduled a hearing for March 17, 2026, titled 'Advancing America's Interests at the World Trade Organization's 14th Ministerial Conference,' to discuss U.S. trade strategies. The session will address tariff policies, global supply chains, and WTO reforms amid ongoing affordability concerns. Lawmakers aim to align positions ahead of the international meeting. This reflects heightened focus on trade legislation influencing domestic economic policy.
An analysis of ancient and modern DNA suggests the extent of convergent evolution in different peoples around the world is even greater than we thought
The first proper show since Valentino’s death is about the late designer, about beauty – and about Michele’s mother Valentino Garavani wanted to make beautiful clothes for the women who could afford them. The perpetually tanned designer, whose vision of jet set glamour was matched only by his own yacht-and-pug lifestyle, died in January. So there was an obvious logic in taking the first proper catwalk show since his death off the fashion week schedule and back to Rome, where he lived, worked, and died. Milan and Paris may be the capitals of European style, but Rome looks better.Garavani left his own brand almost 20 years ago. But his singular approach to beauty has not been without its obstacles for his most recent successor, Alessandro Michele, who took over the fashion house in 2024. “It’s a complicated DNA because beauty is always changing,” he said after the show, which took place in the 17th-century Palazzo Barberini. “This collection is about Valentino. It’s about beauty. But it’s [also] about the tension between me and the brand, a beauty I’m trying to translate.” Continue reading...