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Posted by Graeme Wearden

https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2025/dec/02/ai-valuations-risk-financial-stability-bank-of-england-stock-markets-house-prices-business-live-news-updates

Equity valuations in the US are close to the most stretched they have been since the dot-com bubble, warns Bank of England in Financial Stability Report

The Bank of England is planning to ease capital rules for high street banks for the first time in a decade, marking the latest attempt to loosen regulations designed to protect the UK economy in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

The central bank has proposed lowering capital requirements related to risk weighted assets, by one percentage point to about 13%, reducing the amount lenders must hold in reserve. The move is designed to make it easier to lend to households and businesses.

The results of the 2025 Bank Capital Stress Test demonstrate that the UK banking system is able to continue to support the economy even if economic and financial conditions turn out to be materially worse than expected. This underscores the role of financial stability as a pre-condition for sustainable growth.

UK-focused banks – Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide Building Society, NatWest Group and Santander UK Group Holdings plc were most affected by the UK macroeconomic stress, driven by higher interest rates, inflation, unemployment and house price falls.

Internationally-diversified banks – Barclays plc, HSBC Holdings plc and Standard Chartered plc faced additional pressures from global downturns and traded risk shocks in markets such as Hong Kong, China, the US and Europe.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2025/dec/02/ai-valuations-risk-financial-stability-bank-of-england-stock-markets-house-prices-business-live-news-updates

Posted by Pratinav Anil

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/dec/02/best-history-politics-books-2025-simon-hart-owen-hatherley-emily-callaci

The revolutionary spirit in politics and architecture; histories of free speech and civil war; plus how the Tories fell apart and Starmer won

We live in a hyper-political yet curiously unrevolutionary age, one of hashtags rather than barricades. Perhaps that’s why so many writers this year have looked wistfully back to a time when strongly held convictions still made waves in the real world.

In The Revolutionists (Bodley Head), Jason Burke revisits the 1970s, when it seemed the future of the Middle East might end up red instead of green – communist rather than Islamist. It’s a geopolitical period piece: louche men with corduroy jackets and sideburns, women with theories and submachine guns. Many were in it less for the Marxism than for the sheer mayhem. Reading about the hijackings and kidnappings they orchestrated makes today’s orange-paint protests seem quaint by comparison.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/dec/02/best-history-politics-books-2025-simon-hart-owen-hatherley-emily-callaci

Posted by Margaret Sullivan

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/dec/02/white-house-media-bias-tracker-gimmick

The site isn’t exposing misleading reporting – it’s revealing the bubble Trump increasingly inhabits

Donald Trump has used the mainstream press as a punching bag for many years, but in recent weeks his jabs have become even more frequent – and more ill-tempered.

He threatened to sue the BBC for $1bn last month over the editing of a documentary that aired more than a year ago. He called one White House reporter “piggy”, and told another – the well-regarded Mary Bruce of ABC News – that she was a “terrible person and a terrible reporter”. He called a New York Times reporter “ugly, both inside and out”.

Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/dec/02/white-house-media-bias-tracker-gimmick

Posted by Guardian sport

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/dec/02/robin-smith-former-england-cricketer-dies-aged-62

• Batter made more than 4,000 runs for England

• Smith spent more than 20 years at Hampshire

The former England cricketer Robin Smith has died at the age of 62 with his family and former county Hampshire saying they were devastated by his loss.

Smith played 62 Tests and 71 one-day internationals for England between 1988 and 1996 and was a resolute middle-order bulwark for the side during often difficult times for the team. He particularly excelled against pace, making his highest Test score of 175 against the fearsome West Indies attack at Antigua in 1994.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/dec/02/robin-smith-former-england-cricketer-dies-aged-62

Posted by Helena Horton Environment reporter

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/dec/02/homes-in-tunbridge-wells-without-water-for-days-after-wrong-chemicals-added

Elderly people unable to reach water stations set up by South East Water after treatment site closed

Thousands of homes have been without water for four days in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, after South East Water accidentally added the wrong chemicals to the tap water supply.

Schools across the area have been shut for two days, and residents have been filling buckets with rainwater to flush toilets. Cats, dogs and guinea pigs have been given Evian to drink as the people of Tunbridge Wells wait for their water to be switched back on. Currently, 18,000 homes are without water.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/dec/02/homes-in-tunbridge-wells-without-water-for-days-after-wrong-chemicals-added

Posted by Jakub Krupa (now); Yohannes Lowe and Adam Fulton (earlier)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/dec/02/ukraine-war-live-trump-peace-deal-witkoff-to-meet-putin

US-led peace push comes as Kyiv says fighting is continuing over important hub

• US-Russia talks may pile pressure on Kyiv to make concessions, says EU foreign policy chief

• See all our Ukraine war coverage

In parallel to Witkoff’s meeting in Moscow, we will also follow Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s first visit to Ireland.

He has arrived in Dublin last night, and has a busy schedule today, paying a brief visit to the country’s new president Catherine Connolly, before meeting with key government figures including the taisoeach, Micheál Martin, and addressing both chambers of the Irish parliament in the afternoon.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/dec/02/ukraine-war-live-trump-peace-deal-witkoff-to-meet-putin

Posted by Bettina Perut, Iván Osnovikoff, Harri Grace, Paul King, Ekaterina Ochagavia and Lindsay Poulton

https://www.theguardian.com/society/video/2025/dec/02/life-invisible-the-fight-against-superbugs-starts-in-the-driest-place-on-earth

Cristina Dorador is on an urgent mission in the world’s highest desert, the Atacama in Chile. As the rise of drug-resistant superbugs kills millions per year, Cristina has made it her mission to uncover new, life-saving antibiotics in the stunning salt flats she has studied since she was 14. Against the magnificent backdrop of endless plains, microscopic discoveries lead her team of scientists to question how critically lithium mining is damaging the delicate ecosystem and impacting Indigenous communities

https://www.theguardian.com/society/video/2025/dec/02/life-invisible-the-fight-against-superbugs-starts-in-the-driest-place-on-earth

Posted by Rich Laverty

https://www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactive/2025/dec/01/the-100-best-female-footballers-in-the-world-2025

Olivia Smith, Aggie Beever-Jones and Vicky López make our list for the first time as we continue our countdown to the year’s best players

• Meet the judges | 2024 list | 2023 list | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018

• Subscribe to Moving the Goalposts, our free newsletter

https://www.theguardian.com/football/ng-interactive/2025/dec/01/the-100-best-female-footballers-in-the-world-2025

Posted by Jakub Krupa (now); Yohannes Lowe and Adam Fulton (earlier)

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/dec/02/ukraine-war-live-trump-peace-deal-witkoff-to-meet-putin

US-led peace push comes as Kyiv says fighting is continuing over important hub

• US-Russia talks may pile pressure on Kyiv to make concessions, says EU foreign policy chief

• See all our Ukraine war coverage

In parallel to Witkoff’s meeting in Moscow, we will also follow Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s first visit to Ireland.

He has arrived in Dublin last night, and has a busy schedule today, paying a brief visit to the country’s new president Catherine Connolly, before meeting with key government figures including the taisoeach, Micheál Martin, and addressing both chambers of the Irish parliament in the afternoon.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/dec/02/ukraine-war-live-trump-peace-deal-witkoff-to-meet-putin

Posted by Graeme Wearden

https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2025/dec/02/ai-valuations-risk-financial-stability-bank-of-england-stock-markets-house-prices-business-live-news-updates

Equity valuations in the US are close to the most stretched they have been since the dot-com bubble, warns Bank of England in Financial Stability Report

The Bank of England is planning to ease capital rules for high street banks for the first time in a decade, marking the latest attempt to loosen regulations designed to protect the UK economy in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.

The central bank has proposed lowering capital requirements related to risk weighted assets, by one percentage point to about 13%, reducing the amount lenders must hold in reserve. The move is designed to make it easier to lend to households and businesses.

The results of the 2025 Bank Capital Stress Test demonstrate that the UK banking system is able to continue to support the economy even if economic and financial conditions turn out to be materially worse than expected. This underscores the role of financial stability as a pre-condition for sustainable growth.

UK-focused banks – Lloyds Banking Group, Nationwide Building Society, NatWest Group and Santander UK Group Holdings plc were most affected by the UK macroeconomic stress, driven by higher interest rates, inflation, unemployment and house price falls.

Internationally-diversified banks – Barclays plc, HSBC Holdings plc and Standard Chartered plc faced additional pressures from global downturns and traded risk shocks in markets such as Hong Kong, China, the US and Europe.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2025/dec/02/ai-valuations-risk-financial-stability-bank-of-england-stock-markets-house-prices-business-live-news-updates