Financial news

• The best family board games for 2024 – played and rated

  11-12-2024 18:34
  
  From charades with a twist to supercharged Monopoly, our competitive family puts five exhilarating games to the testBoard games are a fantastic Christmas gift, but how do you know they’re any good if you’ve not actually played them? You don’t, so we’ve done just that for you. We’re a game-mad family, and we put five new ones to the test to rate them.I, along with my husband Garry and our children, James, 14, Ben, 12, and Lily, eight, played all the games several tim
  
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• Does the bizarre reaction to the killing of a health insurance boss make sense? Only in America | Emma Brockes

  11-12-2024 18:04
  Joyful memes, novelty merch, gushing support: it’s undeniably callous, but points to a deeply dysfunctional systemFor the almost two decades I lived in the US, my approach to medical bills was always the same. First invoice, ignore. Second invoice, ignore. Third invoice, written entirely in capital letters and in red, kick back to my insurer to buy another month of non-payment before receiving a fourth invoice, which I would also ignore. After that, the bill would go to a debt collection a
  
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• Food insecurity rising in UK because of climate breakdown, Defra report finds

  11-12-2024 14:04
  
  Access to balanced diet also affected by inflation and Brexit, hitting most vulnerable households hardestUK politics live – latest updatesNumbers of hungry and malnourished households in the UK are on the rise because of climate breakdown and inflation, government figures show, with poorer, younger and disabled people hit hardest.Many households worry about food running out, cannot afford balanced meals, experience hunger and have missed meals in the past 30 days, the figures reveal. Conti
  
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• Tax experts warn 75k farmers to be hit by Reeves's raid as doubts cast on Labour's figures

  11-12-2024 13:03 via express.co.uk
  
  Chancellor Rachel Reeves said just 500 farms a year would be affected by inheritance tax changes.
  
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• Energy bills £1,762 April warning as Brits pay 'highest power prices in the world'

  11-12-2024 12:46 via express.co.uk
  
  The price cap set by the industry regulator Ofgem rose by 10 percent in October taking it up by the equivalent of £149 a year for a typical household
  
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• Amex makes huge change to popular credit card - and customers will be happy

  11-12-2024 12:21 via express.co.uk
  
  The new change will come as a welcome improvement for travellers.
  
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• UK rail minister warns over staff shortage threat to Christmas services; Tui enjoys package holiday boom – business live

  11-12-2024 11:47 via theguardian.com
  Markets await US inflation data and more clues about fresh Chinese stimulus measuresBritain’s rail network shuts down every year on Christmas Day, with a limited service on Boxing Day.Many routes will be closed for longer during the festive period because of Network Rail carrying out engineering work.Christmas is a good time to do major engineering work, because the demand is lower over several days.The lessons of that were very severe, and the rail industry and Network Rail, in particular
  
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• Exact temperature your boiler should be set at to save on energy bills

  11-12-2024 11:29 via express.co.uk
  
  Brits could knock a hefty chunk off their energy bills if they follow this simple trick.
  
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• State pensioners born in these years given instant £100 Winter Fuel Payment increase

  11-12-2024 11:11 via express.co.uk
  
  State pensioners born in these years can get an extra £100 in their Winter Fuel Payment this winter if they're eligible.
  
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• DWP responds to WASPI urgent call for State Pension age compensation plan

  11-12-2024 11:09 via express.co.uk
  
  The Women Against State Pension Inequality campaign has received more than 132,000 signatures on a petition
  
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• Advice as shock figures show car insurance soars 40 per cent in two years

  11-12-2024 10:58 via express.co.uk
  
  The average cost of car insurance has surged by 40 per cent in the past two years
  
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• New DWP warning for Brits on state pension, PIP and Universal Credit and more

  11-12-2024 10:56 via express.co.uk
  
  DWP benefit claimants are being urged to "beware".
  
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• Ed Miliband and Angela Rayner have just sunk Rachel Reeves' big new plan

  11-12-2024 10:20 via express.co.uk
  
  Chancellor Rachel Reeves has vowed to take an "iron fist" to government waste but we all know it's just words. They're having too much fun blowing our cash.
  
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• Annual rent for newly let UK home £3,240 higher than 2021, research finds

  11-12-2024 10:06 via theguardian.com
  
  Rents have risen by 27% since end of pandemic lockdowns, while earnings have increased by 19%The average cost of renting a newly let UK home is now £3,240 higher than at the end of the pandemic lockdowns, after three years of rental increases outstripping rises in earnings, research shows.Rents have risen by 27% since 2021, the online property website Zoopla found, compared with a 19% increase in earnings, taking the annual cost of renting a property to £15,240, up from £12,000
  
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• ‘We’re an evolving laboratory’: the island on a quest to be self-sufficient in energy

  11-12-2024 10:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Harnessing wind, hydro and maybe geothermal power, the tiny Canary Island of El Hierro is blazing a trail for sustainable energy – and the secret is all in the mixWords and photographs by Ofelia de Pablo and Javier ZuritaA vertiginous outcrop with more than 500 volcanoes, El Hierro, the most westerly of the Canary Islands, is less than 12 miles (20km) wide but features elevation differences of more than 1,500 metres. Swept by strong Atlantic winds and pockmarked with volcanic craters, it h
  
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• Succession showed us the rich are largely miserable – and the Murdochs are living proof | Zoe Williams

  11-12-2024 09:00 via theguardian.com
  What does Rupert’s failed attempt to hand his empire to son Lachlan tell us? They’d be happier giving their money awayRupert Murdoch has lost an epic legal battle against three of his children: he wanted to wrest control of his media empire back from them, settle it solely upon his son Lachlan in the event of his death, and thereby … well, who knows his true motivation. Most likely to destroy, but who, and in what order, is now lost in a sealed court decision in Nevada.Everyon
  
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• Pointless jobs: the unbearable ennui of office life – in pictures

  11-12-2024 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Lars Tunbjörk spent the 1990s photographing offices in Stockholm, Toyko and New York – the result was an iconic series that captured the soul-sapping mundanity of modern work Continue reading...
  
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• I regret none of the climate policies we pushed in Ireland. But we underestimated the backlash | Eamon Ryan

  11-12-2024 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  From rural buses to solar panels, our Green agenda has been transformative. Yet, vested interests and big polluters helped to poison the well of public thinkingEamon Ryan was Irish Green party leader from 2011 to 2024Ireland’s Green party went into government in 2020 determined to bring Ireland from laggard to leader on the climate crisis. Public opinion was with us, and we won more than 7% of the national vote. This mandate allowed us to negotiate a coalition agreement with Ireland’
  
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• US judge halts Onion takeover of Infowars in Alex Jones bankruptcy

  11-12-2024 07:11 via theguardian.com
  
  Court rejects far-right shock jock’s claim of ‘collusion’ but finds that trustee should have got more money from parody site or Jones-affiliated bidder A US bankruptcy judge stopped parody news site the Onion from buying conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’s Infowars website, ruling that a bankruptcy auction did not result in the best possible bids.However, the judge, Christopher Lopez, on Tuesday rejected Jones’s claims that the auction was plagued by “collusion&r
  
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• England’s new towns must be walkable and green, say campaigners

  11-12-2024 07:01 via theguardian.com
  
  Thinktank founder says recent attempts to build new towns are ‘depressing, unsustainable and stupid’Labour should build 12 new towns in England that are not car-dependent or built on flood plains, a former government adviser has said in a report.A detailed plan for a dozen new towns, proposed by thinktanks Britain Remade and Create Streets, would mean 550,000 well-designed and appropriately located homes. The new homes would boost the economy by £13-28bn annually by improving a
  
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• Imported foods found with residues of 48 pesticides not approved for UK use

  11-12-2024 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Pesticide Action Network analysis of government testing data finds chemicals linked to cancer and harmful to beesImported food has been found to have residues of 48 pesticides that have not been approved for use by British farmers, including chemicals linked to cancer and imidacloprid, which is harmful to bees, analysis shows.Pesticide Action Network (PAN) went through UK government testing data, comparing the results for pesticide tests on imported and domestically produced food. They found the
  
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• From X to Bluesky: why are people fleeing Elon Musk’s ‘digital town square’?

  11-12-2024 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Musk’s platform has lost 2.7 million active US users in two months, while its rival has gained 2.5 millionA mass departure from Elon Musk’s X has led to the site losing about 2.7 million active Apple and Android users in the US in two months, with its rival social media platform Bluesky gaining nearly 2.5 million over the same period.The exodus has coincided with the departure of prominent figures such as the filmmakers Guillermo del Toro and Mike Flanagan, and the actors Quinta Brun
  
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• The town that fears losing its high street to climate change – podcast

  11-12-2024 04:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Flooding in Tenbury Wells used to be a once in a generation event, now its happening increasingly frequently. Jessica Murray reportsTenbury Wells is used to floods. But residents of the pretty market town say what used to be a once in a generation event has become exhaustingly frequent. After two floods this winter some businesses in the town say they are on the brink and may have to shut their doors, while the impossibility of getting insurance makes it harder for new businesses to open their d
  
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• Hundreds of thousands hit by ruinous carer’s allowance penalties, audit shows

  11-12-2024 01:01
  
  Campaigners say NAO report shows impact of DWP staffing decisions and failure to address flaws in benefit’s designHundreds of thousands of unpaid carers were hit with ruinous penalties for minor breaches of carer’s allowance rules in the five years after senior welfare officials promised to fix the scandal-hit benefit, an official audit has revealed.Campaigners said the National Audit Office (NAO) report highlighted the scale of the misery and hardship inflicted on carers over the pe
  
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