King Charles hosts Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Windsor Castle

The King meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Windsor Castle. Charles welcomes Mr Zelensky to an audience at his Berkshire royal residence, ahead of the politician's afternoon meeting with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in London.

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Yahoo

41 minutes ago

• Yahoo

Starmer picks his winners in bid to revive British industry

Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to make Britain 'the best place to do business' with a new industrial strategy focused on eight key areas of the economy. At 160 pages, the lengthy document will form the centrepiece of Labour's economic policy as ministers try to navigate the impact of geopolitical crises and Donald Trump's tariffs. It is designed to provide a clear blueprint for the Government's priorities over the next 10 years, unlocking jobs and investment. But critics have argued it will do little to help businesses battling rising prices and higher taxes. Here we look at some of the most interesting policies in the strategy published on Monday. The Industrial Strategy focuses on eight areas of the economy that it says have 'the highest potential' over the next decade. They are: Advanced manufacturing (including cars) The creative industries Life sciences Clean energy Defence Digital and technologies Professional and business services Financial services Britain's 'foundational' industries – steel, construction, chemicals, ports and so forth – are also included. The eight sectors are those the Government believes will be most important to the country's future economic success. But as with any attempt to choose favourites, those left out are not happy. 'Ignoring 70pc of the economy is at odds with the Government's ambition to create jobs and help people into work,' Kate Nicholls, chief executive of UKHospitality, warned. The biggest new policy to come out of the strategy is a scheme to help manufacturers with soaring energy bills. British companies have been paying the highest industrial electricity prices in the developed world, according to official data. Now they will benefit from a new 'British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme', which will offer relief to 'electricity-intensive' firms by exempting them from paying net zero levies on their power bills. Support for energy-intensive manufacturers such as steel makers is also being expanded. However, the British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme won't come into effect until 2027 and key details, such as how it will be funded and which sectors will benefit, remain unclear. The UK Steel lobby group has also warned there will still be a disparity between European and UK power prices – even after the extra help is accounted for. 'This is an important milestone, but we are not out of the trenches yet,' said Gareth Stace, UK Steel's director. With Britain re-arming in response to rising global tensions, ministers have talked up the defence industry's ability to spread prosperity throughout the regions. For example, major programmes to build nuclear-powered submarines in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria; new types of frigates in Scotland; and a next-generation fighter jet in Warton, Lancashire, are creating thousands of jobs. The strategy sets out policies to increase the involvement of small businesses, boost defence exports, reduce the time it takes to issue contracts and buy British where possible. Some of this aims to address the long-standing concern that smaller companies lose out amid the Ministry of Defence's (MoD) labyrinthian approach to procurement. The strategy says the MoD will now be required to issue contracts much more quickly, and to funnel 10pc of its equipment budget into cutting-edge technologies such as drones, lasers and artificial intelligence. At the same time, a new defence exports office will be set up to roll the pitch for British equipment abroad, and institutions such as the National Wealth Fund have been ordered to invest more in defence companies. Perhaps the biggest beneficiary from the Industrial Strategy will be Ed Miliband's clean power plan. The Industrial Strategy describes the transition to net zero as 'the economic opportunity of the century', with a focus on wind farms, nuclear, fusion power, carbon capture and storage, hydrogen and heat pumps. However, critics have warned that tens of thousands of jobs promised from the green energy revolution will not materialise unless the Government succeeds in attracting investment in domestic factories for technologies such as wind turbines. Ministers have pledged to invest in these supply chains through Great British Energy, the new state-owned energy company. However, researchers at Robert Gordon University, in Aberdeen, recently warned that time was running out ahead of Mr Miliband's 2030 clean power target. The Government believes British firms are not using enough robots and this is hurting productivity. It says domestic firms have a 'poor record' on this front, with many small firms having not adopted artificial intelligence (AI) software or cloud computing so far. To tackle the problem, a network of 'robotics adoption hubs' will be set up across the UK to improve uptake. These will be backed by £40m of funding. One pledge that travellers across Britain will welcome is a promised upgrade to the troublesome WiFi currently provided on the creaking rail network. In a bid to help people work on business while on the move, the Government says it will spend £41m to 'introduce low-earth-orbit satellite connectivity on all mainline trains'. It is not clear what form this could take exactly but the statement suggests that a service such as Elon Musk's Starlink satellite broadband could be deployed to fix train network problems. The Government says it will also improve connectivity between cities with billions of pounds of transport upgrades, through major schemes such as HS2 and East West Rail. However, not everyone is happy with Monday's announcement. The loudest complaint came from Britain's struggling hospitality industry, which is facing surging taxes and wage bills. 'This is not an industrial strategy that will deliver growth equally across the UK,' said Ms Nicholls, of UKHospitality. 'In fact, by ignoring 70pc of the economy it is at odds with the Government's ambition to create jobs and help people into work. 'We were desperate to see a plan for hospitality and the high street, which together employ over 7m people. We were disappointed.' Support for Britain's retail industry – the country's biggest private sector employer – was also lacking, with companies in the sector worried they could be asked to pay for the electricity bill discounts handed out to other sectors. Tom Ironside, of the British Retail Consortium, said: 'It is essential that the costs incurred by these reductions are not redistributed to other industries, including retail and its supply chains, as has been the case with some initiatives in the past.' Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data

Washington Post

44 minutes ago

• Washington Post

Ukraine intelligence chief gives new details on Spiderweb drone operation

KYIV — For one year, six months and nine days, Ukraine's intelligence service carefully plotted, designed and built special drones, concealed in prefabricated mobile homes that were then transported across borders to strike an surprising blow thousands of miles away against Russia's strategic bomber fleet. Intelligence chief Vasyl Maliuk revealed to journalists new details of Operation Spiderweb in a two-hour conversation on Sunday about the plan to attack Russia's air bases on June 1 that crippled several long-range bombers and rewrote the rules for drone warfare.

Yahoo

an hour ago

• Yahoo

The view from Iran: ‘People have returned to Tehran, although the bombing hasn't stopped'

The internet in Iran was down for a full three days [at the end of last week], and there was no way to communicate with others. This outage has added to people's fear and anxiety, as we no longer knew which cities had been bombed or which areas were under evacuation orders. If the internet outage continues, many jobs will be lost. The government has arrested [scores of] people on charges of espionage and collaborating with Israel, [people fear that the regime] is planning to execute them. Just today on the national television news, arrests and executions were announced. It's frightening – because even if, hypothetically, these individuals were spies, a fair trial should take weeks to prove such a charge. The government has deployed police patrols and checkpoints at entrances of [various] cities and main streets, [according to] friends and relatives of mine who live in different cities. I see them every day in Kerman. They are even randomly confiscating mobile phones in the city, searching cars both when entering and leaving the city, and also on the main streets during normal traffic. It hasn't happened to me yet. It seems that the United States has also joined the war. People are worried about the risk of radioactive contamination [as nuclear facilities are being bombed]. We are very afraid that Iran might respond to the US attack, and that the situation could get worse. We are also worried about a possible strike on the Bushehr [nuclear power plant] facility, [that] this could lead to another Chernobyl. A large number of people have returned to Tehran, although the bombing there hasn't stopped. People were forced to come back to the city. Many of my friends also returned because they have to work, otherwise they won't have any income. And many people don't have a place to stay outside of Tehran for many weeks. There are gasoline shortages, and even in safer cities such as Kerman, many businesses have partially shut down. Everything is semi-closed. Online businesses, tourism-related jobs, and travel agencies are shut down. The postal service is closed, which has led to the closure of online shops as well. University exams and the national university entrance exam have been cancelled. However, government offices and banks remain open. Many private companies have not paid salaries, and it's unclear when they will. I myself haven't received my monthly salary either. My company announced that due to the wartime situation, they are currently unable to process salary payments. The same goes for my husband, as production in his factory has completely halted. I have some savings, but if the war continues and salaries remain unpaid, my savings will run out in at most two or three weeks. This is the case for most people. Due to high inflation, it's very difficult for us in Iran to save much money. In smaller towns like Kerman, Yazd, or Rafsanjan, food supplies are still available, although prices are rising sharply. However, in Tehran and other major cities, there is now a significant shortage of bread, fruit, eggs, and other essential food items. [I don't know anybody who has tried leaving the country] – not yet. People are still in shock and believe that this war will end soon. It's probably a psychological defence mechanism. Many believe the war will end once most major military sites have been bombed. One of my friends, who is undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer, has run into serious trouble. The medications for her chemotherapy used to be sent from Tehran every day, but now it is no longer possible to deliver them. With each passing day, situations like these are getting worse.