UK government borrowing costs rise as pressure mounts on Starmer, and oil price jumps – business live
Posted on Monday May 11, 2026

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news

• Starmer faces fight to survive as Streeting and Rayner eye leadership bids

Government bond yields are rising across the board this morning, although UK debt is leading the losses.

US and eurozone borrowing costs have also pushed higher, on concerns that the lack of progress towards ending the Iran war will lead to higher oil prices, more inflation, and higher interest rates.

Inflationary headwinds as a consequence of the conflict in the Middle East are weighing on a number of UK businesses. We have already heard from companies like Next, Asos, Sainsbury’s and WH Smith which have warned of higher costs. Now shares in Victrex have shed almost 6% today on the back of a profit warning. It anticipates weaker annual profit before tax of between £42m and £44m for fiscal 2026, falling short of estimates for £46.6m. First half underlying pre-tax also profit dropped by 18% to £19m.

The UK mid-cap polymer maker says the Iran war will push up energy and raw material inflation. The company is responding by reducing headcount by 10% to cut costs elsewhere.

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Delayed Great British Railways’ first station to open at Cambridge South in June
Posted on Monday May 11, 2026

Station will be first to be given full GBR branding and will directly link city’s Biomedical Campus to London, Brighton and Stansted airport

The 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.

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Defence sovereignty: Europe races to build the low-cost weapons of future
Posted on Sunday May 10, 2026

With Trump wavering on Nato and war in Ukraine, Europe is scrambling to spend billions on weapons such as drones

In a small workshop in England’s East Midlands, engineers at the British startup Skycutter are designing weapons for Ukraine. A row of 3D printers make the fuselage for interceptor drones, while parts such as motors and navigation chips are slotted together by hand. The same process happens hundreds of thousands of times a month in partner Ukrainian factories.

The swarms of cheap, deadly and often autonomous drones deployed in that war have already changed combat completely. Troops far behind the frontline must move constantly to avoid attack from the air, travelling along netted tunnels and landscapes crisscrossed by fibre optic cables used to steer drones past radio jamming. Cities are terrorised by guided missiles that are cheaper and therefore more widely used than those that came before.

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Dua Lipa sues Samsung for $15m over use of her image on TV boxes
Posted on Monday May 11, 2026

British singer claims electronics company ‘repeatedly refused’ to stop using a photo of her on its packaging

Dua Lipa is suing Samsung for at least $15m (£11m, A$20.6m), alleging that the electronics company used a photo of her to sell its TVs without financially compensating her or seeking her permission.

According to the legal complaint, filed in a US district court in California on Friday, Samsung began using an image of Lipa on an image of a TV screen printed on its cardboard packaging for “a significant portion” of its TVs sold in the US last year.

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I knew my writing students were using AI. Their confessions led to a powerful teaching moment | Micah Nathan
Posted on Sunday May 10, 2026

The problem wasn’t just the perfectly polished, yet mediocre prose. It’s what’s lost when we surrender the struggle to translate thought into words

I have been teaching fiction writing at MIT since 2017. Many of my students last wrote fiction in middle school, and very few have experienced a proper workshop, so at the start of every semester I offer these directions for writer and reader alike:

Read the story at least twice. Mark what works and what doesn’t – underline great sentences, flag clunky syntax, gaps in logic and unrealistic dialogue. Ask yourself: does the story work? Why or why not? What could improve it? Answer in a signed letter to the author, attached to their story. Give your honest opinions. Remember that an effective peer review demands close reading of the text accompanied by a boldness of spirit.

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UK firefighters called to one lithium-ion battery fire every five hours
Posted on Monday May 11, 2026

FoI responses collected by insurer show brigades tackled 1,760 battery-linked fires in 2025, up 147% in three years

Fire brigades across the UK are tackling lithium-ion battery fires at a rate of one every five hours, figures show, as fire chiefs warn that public awareness and government regulation have not kept pace with the ubiquity of this new hazard.

Lithium-ion batteries power most rechargeable devices including mobile phones, electric toothbrushes, toys and vapes, as well as ebikes, e-scooters and electric vehicles.

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Soaring World Cup ticket prices for players’ families and guests leave several FAs stunned
Posted on Monday May 11, 2026

• Average cost of one ticket claimed to be $3,000 (£2,200)

• Fifa insists terms and conditions of sale were made clear

Numerous Football Associations have been hit by increased prices when buying World Cup tickets for their players’ family and friends, with teams competing at the tournament affected by Fifa’s dynamic pricing model. While Fifa offered all national associations that have qualified for the World Cup a six-week window to buy tickets at a fixed price after the draw in December, any requests for tickets from the end of January have been subject to what Fifa describes as “adaptive pricing”, with the cost rising for most matches.

An executive at one national association said they had requested hundreds of additional tickets in recent weeks and have been surprised at the size of the bill. An executive at another association claimed the average cost of securing attendance at matches for their players’ family and their guests has risen to about $3,000 (£2,200) a ticket after extra purchases, a significant additional cost that will eat into their tournament funding. Fifa sources insisted the average cost of tickets bought by national associations is far lower than $3,000.

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Premier League: 10 talking points from the weekend’s action
Posted on Monday May 11, 2026

Jérémy Doku finds the net again, Joshua Zirkzee struggles at Sunderland and Ismaïla Sarr is fulfilling his potential

When Bruno Fernandes became the Football Writers’ Association player of the year on Friday, Declan Rice and David Raya could have been forgiven for feeling a touch aggrieved. They have been essential to Arsenal’s bid for a Premier League and Champions League double, but Raya who why he may have been more deserving at the London Stadium as his technically pinpoint one-on-one save gave Arsenal the platform they so desperately needed to secure a vital three points late on. Mikel Arteta’s side were on the ropes as Mateus Fernandes exchanged a one-two with Pablo to run in with the goal at his mercy. Surely this was it for Arsenal: the title slipping again. Raya’s nerve held strong, making the most crucial of saves. Arsenal’s dream of winning a first title in 22 years remains in his hands. Graham Searles

Match report: West Ham 0-1 Arsenal

Barney Ronay: VAR offers up title-deciding moment

Match report: Manchester City 3-0 Brentford

Match report: Liverpool 1-1 Chelsea

Match report: Sunderland 0-0 Manchester United

Match report: Nottingham Forest 1-1 Newcastle

Match report: Burnley 2-2 Aston Villa

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