The Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, in a column for The Observer said she is “under no illusion about the difficulties that lie ahead” and set out the case for far-reaching changes to global trade and economic agreements, admitting that Donald Trump’s tariffs will have a “profound” effect on the UK. She wants to achieve “an ambitious new relationship” with the European Union, she wrote, while still negotiating a trade deal with the US.
While UK goods got off comparatively lightly with a 10% levy, British firms are still scrambling to respond to Trump’s new trading regime, wrote The Sunday Times.
Meanwhile, “Americans will face higher costs when filling their supermarket trolleys, the unavailability of the low-priced vehicle models that foreign manufacturers are withdrawing from the American market, or buying a house built with tariffed lumber, steel and concrete. In effect, we will be poorer, unless deregulation acts as an offset – a possibility,” notes Sunday Times economic columnist Irwin Stelzer.
Big food brands dramatically increased their spending on advertising last year, The Observer reports, “months before new junk food regulations aiming to curb Britain’s obesity crisis are due to come into force”. Food companies spent an extra £420m in 2024, an increase of 26% year on year “that coincided with a bumper 12 months for sales of snack foods” the paper writes.
Food companies spent an extra £420m in 2024, an increase of 26% year on year that coincided with a bumper 12 months for sales of snack foods.
Glasgow city landmark, the pink ‘People Make Glasgow’ Met Tower overlooking George Square, may soon house millions of insects, reported The Sunday Times, as university-backed agri-tech venture STAX targets 30 tonnes of bug-based feed a week in a £408bn global market.
“Who would steal 22 tonnes of posh cheese, or £37,000 of smoked salmon?” asks The Observer’s Will Coldwell, in a feature on the “boom in luxury food heists” that “has rattled the industry, leaving artisan producers with unpaid bills and a truckload of questions”.
“Do we need cocoa-free chocolate and is it nice?” asks BBC technology reporter Chris Baraniuk. As wholesale prices soar, Baraniuk looks at the alternatives, and tries a few. Like Aldi’s ChoViva mini eggs. He notes: “…the flavour is overwhelmingly dominated by the salty peanut at the egg’s core. But the chocolatey texture of the coating is impressive.”
Once considered a status symbol – a sign that “this man eats well” – the Indian pot belly has long been a target of satire and social commentary, writes the BBC. But “what was once dismissed or even celebrated is now raising alarm bells”. India had the second-highest number of overweight or obese adults in 2021, with 180 million affected – behind only China. A new Lancet study warns this number could soar to 450 million by 2050, nearly a third of the country’s projected population.
The oldest Indian restaurant in Britain is facing the threat of closure because of what the owner says is a dispute with the King’s property company over a space not much bigger than a prison cell, reports The Times.
Imports of champagne fell by almost 10% last year and “not just because there are cheaper alternatives” reported The Sunday Times.
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