Closing post
Time to recap….
UK businesses should be legally required to report major cyber-attacks, the boss of Marks & Spencer has suggested as he claimed two hacks involving “large British companies” had gone unreported in recent months.
In evidence to MPs about the impact of the massive cyber-attack on M&S that forced it to close down its online store for almost seven weeks, the retailer’s chair, Archie Norman, said the business was still in “rebuild mode”.
He said its key online clothing distribution centre in Castle Donington in Leicestershire was still offline, adding: “It would not be an overstatement to describe [the attack] as traumatic” and “like an out of body experience”.
German finance minister Lars Klingbeil has warned that the EU is ready to impose retaliatory measures against US goods if a “fair” deal to resolve their trade dispute can’t be reached.
The UN has warned that the Trump administration’s decision yesterday to extend a negotiating deadline for tariff rates to 1 August is prolonging the period of uncertainty and instability for countries.
Japan and South Korea have both said they will continue trade negotiations with the White House, while South Africa has queried US claims about their trade situation, following the new tariffs announced last night.
The UK’s public finances are on an unsustainable long-term trajectory, given the growing cost of state pensions and the mounting climate emergency, the Office for Budget Responsibility has warned.
Richard Hughes, who chairs the budget watchdog, said government debt would rise to 270% of GDP by 2070 – up from less than 100% today – if current policies were left unchanged.
He said:
“The UK public finances are in an unsustainable position in the long run. The UK cannot afford the array of promises that it has made to the public.”
After dropping yesterday, Wall Street is very calm in early trading after investors digested Donald Trump’s latest tariff announcements.
The Dow Jones industrial average, which tracks 30 large US companies, has slipped by 3 points to 44,402 (a teensy fall of 0.0084%).
The broader S&P 500 share index has risen by 0.087%, up 5 points at 6,235 points.
