Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
Swedish appliances maker Electrolux is also counting the cost of the Trump trade war.
Electrolux, which makes white goods and household appliances, warned this morning that the demand outlook for home appliances is “increasingly uncertain”.
The market environment was characterized by increased uncertainty as the quarter progressed. In North America and Europe, market demand was largely unchanged. However, consumer confidence declined throughout the quarter due to economic uncertainty and concerns around U.S. trade policy developments. In Latin America, consumer demand increased marginally, primarily driven by Brazil, in a market characterized by rising competitive pressure.
Effects from changes in U.S. trade policies had a minor impact in the first quarter. It is impressive how our entire organization is acting with speed and agility to mitigate and adapt to the rapidly-changing market environment.
“President Trump is building an important partnership with both the domestic automakers and our great American workers,”
“This deal is a major victory for the President’s trade policy by rewarding companies who manufacture domestically, while providing runway to manufacturers who have expressed their commitment to invest in America and expand their domestic manufacturing.”
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© Photograph: Sebastian Ng/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Sebastian Ng/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock
Playing host to two FA Cup semi-finals less than 24 hours apart, as well as more than 150,000 fans, means a busy time for staff at Wembley. We take a look at the preparations
It takes a great deal of organisation and a lot of staff, working across a variety of roles, to deliver these two huge fixtures. More than 12,000 staff worked at Wembley over the two days. Many worked both days and through the night to ensure everything was in place.
Matchday mascots wait to greet the players as they arrive at Wembley for the first of the weekend’s FA Cup semi-finals.
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© Photograph: Jack Taylor/Wembley Stadium
© Photograph: Jack Taylor/Wembley Stadium
Young Serbians are keen to celebrate the Yugoslav era, and offering tours of their country in vintage Yugos is a fun way of doing it
‘Jump in, comrade,” my driver honks and calls out the window of the smallest, boxiest car I’ve ever seen: the communist vintage Yugo. I’m setting off on a tour of Yugoslav-era Belgrade with driver Vojin Žugić from Yugoverse tours, a company in the business of cold-war nostalgia. The car is a time capsule, with its little cube headlights, cranky gear stick and cassette player. Its horn sounds delightfully cheeky, and the smell of diesel and old leather seats is strong. We trundle around the Serbian capital for half a day, taking in communism’s most striking bridges and sites, honking merrily at the many drivers who overtake us. All of them smile and wave, for the Yugo holds fond memories in this part of the world.
Driving around the hippodrome next to Ada Bridge, or under the gravity-defying arch of the experimental brutalist Genex tower, it’s easy to get caught up in Žugić’s nostalgia – even though he’s only 24. “I love the feel of the mechanics, the simple geometry,” he says of the car. We park at the tower and take the lift to the top floor at 140 metres for spectacular city views from its spaceship-like windows. When it was designed in 1977, this was architecture of an imagined socialist utopia. Though the concrete is a bit shabby up close, the tower has kept its photogenic appeal. Just like our Yugo.
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© Photograph: Camilla Bell-Davies
© Photograph: Camilla Bell-Davies
The Patrick Melrose author brings his trademark dark wit and flinty compassion to this wide-ranging sequel
Edward St Aubyn’s previous novel, 2021’s Double Blind, was something of a challenge even for his devotees. Leaving aside the usual gripe that he is never quite as compelling without the shield of his authorial alter ego Patrick Melrose, the obsessive nature of the book’s inquiry into bioethics, narcosis, psychotherapy, oncology, venture capitalism and inheritance made too heady a cocktail to be more than sipped, a few pages at a time. I struggled with it until the very last scene, a charity bash where a schizophrenic young man takes his first terrified steps in employment as a waiter and happens upon a woman who, unknown to both, is intimately related to him. Their chance encounter was intensely moving and tautly suspenseful – you felt an immediate longing to know what would befall them.
That longing is now answered in Parallel Lines, which picks up the narrative five years later and reintroduces its cast of interestingly troubled characters. Francis, a botanist pursuing a rewilding project on a Sussex country estate, has now joined an NGO in Ecuador trying to save the Amazonian rainforest. He’s also raising a son with his wife, Olivia, a writer producing a radio series on natural disasters and wondering whether Francis can resist the amorous lures of his philanthropist boss. Olivia’s best friend, Lucy, is in the throes of treatment for a brain tumour, the traumatic reverberations from which have forced her boyfriend – wild man plutocrat and drug fiend Hunter – to seek refuge with “compassion burnout” at an Italian monastery, where he’s hosted by a gentle abbot, Guido.
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© Photograph: opale.photo/eyevine
© Photograph: opale.photo/eyevine
Sweet documentary about Sean DeLear, of LA punk band Glue, who never landed a major record deal but was famous among celebrities
That’s Sean DeLear, pronounced like “chandelier”, born Anthony Robertson in 1964. You probably haven’t heard of him: DeLear was the lead singer of a band called Glue on the underground post-punk scene in Los Angeles in the 1980s and 90s. On stage, he performed in drag, singing punk songs dressed like a 1960s go-do dancer in cute little dresses. The band never landed a major record deal, and DeLear died from cancer in 2017. This sweet, scrappy documentary has been lovingly put together by his friend Markus Zizenbacher.
It’s not the first posthumous attempt at recognition for DeLear. In 2023, his teenage diary, written in 1979, was published under the title I Could Not Believe It. Extracts of this queer black memoir are read here on the voiceover – and they are glorious. Even aged 14 years old, living with his Christian parents in a conservative suburb of Los Angeles, DeLear was proudly, joyfully gay, though this was before the terror of Aids. The interviews in the film with his mum and brother, an evangelical pastor, feel a little bit thin; his family accepted his sexuality, they say, but not much else.
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© Photograph: True Story
© Photograph: True Story
A poetic new exhibition of dreamlike black and white images captures the country’s contemplative beauty, from lonely Torii gates to sprawling temple trees
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© Photograph: © Michael Kenna:Courtesy Peter Fetterman Gallery
© Photograph: © Michael Kenna:Courtesy Peter Fetterman Gallery
1,000 tonnes of dog waste hits the ground daily in the UK – how can we reduce its environmental impact? Scientists weigh up the best options, from flicking it into the undergrowth to reusing newspapers
When Laura Young got Cooper the cavapoo in 2020, she knew that single-use plastic poo bags weren’t going to cut it. “Having a dog is a lifestyle extra,” says the 28-year-old environmental scientist. “I was aware that I wanted to try not having a negative environmental impact.” But where to start? The shelves seemed to be divided into two camps: bog-standard, single-use plastic wisps, and shiny, expensive bags brandishing eco buzzwords. “I was conscious that compostable bags weren’t the solution,” says Young. “But initially that’s all I could find and so that’s what I bought.”
Often marketed as biodegradable, compostable or made from an alternative material such as cornstarch, they promise a more environmentally friendly option than single-use plastic. (Plastic poo bags, frequently made from low-density polyethylene, will sweat in landfill for thousands of years, breaking down into harmful microplastics and releasing climate-warming methane as they go.)
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© Photograph: Ilka & Franz/The Observer
© Photograph: Ilka & Franz/The Observer
Judge tells jury that Patterson is no longer accused of attempting to murder her estranged husband
The trial of Erin Patterson for allegedly murdering her in-laws by serving them a lunch laced with death cap mushrooms has started in a Victorian court.
Patterson, 50, faces three charges of murder and one charge of attempted murder relating to a beef wellington lunch she served at her house in South Gippsland in 2023.
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© Photograph: James Ross/AAP
© Photograph: James Ross/AAP
Persad-Bissesar, 73, who was prime minister from 2010-2015, remains the only woman to ever have led the twin-island Caribbean nation
Voters in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) have ousted the ruling People’s National Movement (PNM) party, electing the United National Congress’ (UNC) Kamla Persad-Bissessar as prime minister of the twin-island Caribbean nation.
The victory marks a remarkable comeback for Persad-Bissesar, 73, who previously served as prime minister from 2010-2015, and remains the only woman ever to have led the country.
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© Photograph: Andrea De Silva/Reuters
© Photograph: Andrea De Silva/Reuters
Canadian PM right candidate for the moment in success shaped more by chance than meticulous planning
Mark Carney, the economist, banker and politician, has long professed a simple article of faith when navigating through crisis: “A plan beats no plan.”
And his rapid ascent to Canada’s top job might be taken as evidence of such preparation.
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© Photograph: Carlos Osorio/Reuters
© Photograph: Carlos Osorio/Reuters
With Labour losing votes to pro-European parties, an intriguing new deep-dive makes clear that the public mood has shifted
It’s nearly nine years now since Britain lost its collective mind.
More than enough time, then, to put the Brexit referendum into perspective. Leavers have moved on to the point where only 11% of British voters still kid themselves that it’s turned out brilliantly. It’s remain politicians who had started to look strangely stuck in the past, still frightened of sounding too pro-European in case they somehow woke the monster. But joyfully – now there’s a word I haven’t typed much lately – it looks like something is finally shifting.
Gaby Hinsliff is a Guardian columnist
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© Photograph: Vuk Valcic/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Vuk Valcic/ZUMA Press Wire/REX/Shutterstock
British defence firms have reportedly warned staff not to connect their phones to Chinese-made EVs
Mobile phones and desktop computers are longstanding targets for cyber spies – but how vulnerable are electric cars?
On Monday the i newspaper claimed that British defence firms working for the UK government have warned staff against connecting or pairing their phones with Chinese-made electric cars, due to fears that Beijing could extract sensitive data from the devices.
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© Photograph: Ying Tang/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Ying Tang/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock
A simple, fragrant, restorative soup, plus a chickeny twist on the classic Indonesian-Malay aromatic ‘dry’ curry
Comfort food means different things to different people, and today’s recipes are what do it for me. Rasam is the dish I crave whenever I’m feeling under the weather, because it gives me a boost. This thin, brothy soup is considered to be very good for digestion, so in Malaysia we often serve it at the end of a meal. Rendang, meanwhile, originated in Indonesia before becoming popular across south-east Asia, and is now particularly associated with Malaysia. It is spicy, sweet and very fragrant, because it features both lemongrass and lime leaves. I learned how to cook it from my mum and auntie back at home in Seremban – Mum’s version uses fresh green chillies, but I also add some dried kashmiri chillies, to give it a darker colour and, in my opinion, a better flavour, too. As with many Malaysian recipes, it all begins by making a kari paste, which you can do well in advance, if you wish. Mum taught me to cook the meat separately from the paste, but nowadays I tend to cook them together in the same pan for ease.
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© Photograph: Matthew Hague/The Guardian. Food styling: Lucy Turnbull. Prop styling: Anna Wilkins. Food styling assistant: Chloe Glazier.
© Photograph: Matthew Hague/The Guardian. Food styling: Lucy Turnbull. Prop styling: Anna Wilkins. Food styling assistant: Chloe Glazier.
Maintaining a positive mood and eating more fruit may also help lower risk, researchers find
Drinking champagne, eating more fruit, staying slim and maintaining a positive outlook on life could help reduce the risk of a sudden cardiac arrest, the world’s first study of its kind suggests.
Millions of people worldwide die every year after experiencing a sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), when the heart stops pumping blood around the body without warning. They are caused by a dangerous abnormal heart rhythm, when the electrical system in the heart is not working properly. Without immediate treatment such as CPR, those affected will die.
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© Photograph: Andrew Boyers/Reuters
© Photograph: Andrew Boyers/Reuters
As they pass through different hands, cooking utensils can magically connect us to loved ones who are no longer with us
I have long felt that kitchen objects can have a life of their own. Even so, I found this eerie. One August day in 2020, I was going to fetch clothes out of the washing machine when suddenly a cake tin fell at my feet with a loud clang. It wasn’t just any cake tin. It was the heart-shaped tin I had used to bake my own wedding cake. I wouldn’t have thought much of it except that it was only two months since my husband had left me, out of the blue.
Nearly 23 years ago, this giant metal heart had been brand new. My husband-to-be had told me he liked fruit cake but hated glace cherries. For our wedding, I decided to bake him a rich, dark fruit cake with no cherries and chopped-up dried apricots to take their place. There are photos of us cutting the cake together looking blissfully happy. We would soon be on our way to Venice for our honeymoon.
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© Photograph: thomas-bethge/Getty Images/iStockphoto
© Photograph: thomas-bethge/Getty Images/iStockphoto
Just Stop Oil, the climate activism group behind motorway blockades, petrol station disruption and tomato soup attacks on major artworks, has disbanded after staging a final action in London this weekend. To find out why the group has decided to hang up the famous orange high-vis, Madeleine Finlay hears from our environment correspondent Damien Gayle who has been covering Just Stop Oil since its inception. He explains how policy wins and policing crackdowns combined to bring the movement to a close, and what the future of climate activism could look like in its wake
What next for climate activism now Just Stop Oil is ‘hanging up the hi-vis’?
Support the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod
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© Photograph: Gary Calton/The Guardian
© Photograph: Gary Calton/The Guardian
Billionaire appears to have been asked to pressure friend to return to China to help pursue out-of-favour official
The Chinese regime enlisted Jack Ma, the billionaire co-founder of Alibaba, in an intimidation campaign to press a businessman to help in the purge of a top official, documents seen by the Guardian suggest.
The businessman, who can be named only as “H” for fear of reprisals against his family still in China, faced a series of threats from the Chinese state, in an attempt to get him to return home from France, where he was living. They included a barrage of phone calls, the arrest of his sister, and the issuing of a red notice, an international alert, through Interpol.
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© Illustration: Guardian Design
© Illustration: Guardian Design
Exclusive: Several governments are attacking or weakening media independence, Civil Liberties Union for Europe says
Media pluralism in many EU member states is being increasingly strangled by a high concentration of ownership, even in countries with traditionally free media markets, according to a report that concludes press freedom is crumbling across the bloc.
The report, produced by the Civil Liberties Union for Europe (Liberties) based on the work of 43 human rights groups from 21 countries, said several EU governments were attacking press freedom or weakening media independence and regulation.
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© Photograph: Cecilia Fabiano/LaPresse/Rex/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Cecilia Fabiano/LaPresse/Rex/Shutterstock
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