Valentine’s Day proves a gift for UK retailers, as consumers hold back on big-ticket items

Jewellery purchases linked to 14 February give lift to otherwise lacklustre month, British Retail Consortium says

Wall Street suffers ‘ugly’ sell-off amid US recession fears, as Musk’s Tesla falls 50% from all–time high – as it happened

New York stock market posts heavy losses, as investors have a ‘wake-up call’ about risks of recession under Donald Trump

Ontario sets 25% surcharge on energy exports to US to counter Trump tariffs

Premier Doug Ford says province ‘won’t back down’ until US president retracts duties on Canada

Risk of ‘Trumpcession’ rising, economists say, as global markets fall

Donald Trump’s brinkmanship and stop-start approach to tariffs rattle investors

More support for people in ill health to stay in work ‘could save UK £1bn’

Commission for Healthier Working Lives warns against cutting benefits and calls for proactive route for 8m affected

‘If you fall into the dialogue of the far right, the far right wins’: Spain’s deputy PM on the need for workers’ rights

Yolanda Díaz Pérez’s leftwing government has championed employment reform similar to Labour’s proposals – and she tells British business there is nothing to fear

Firms hold back on hiring amid ‘significant cost rises’, surveys say

KPMG/REC report shows decline in people being placed in roles continues, while unemployment is rising, says BDO

EU must brace for impact of Trump wrecking ball on global trading system

UK appears to be out of US eyeline for now but it would not be immune to slowdown triggered by rising tariffs

‘The pandemic reinforced existing inequalities – it was a magnifying glass’: how Covid changed Britain

More government borrowing, more abandoned pets, more sourdough baking. Our panel looks at the ramifications of the pandemic on education, health, arts and life in the UK

‘Military Keynesianism’? Reeves faces British defence dilemma after EU spending surge

Even Berlin and Brussels are bending fiscal rules in the face of Russia’s threat. Will the chancellor still stick to hers?

Five years on: Britons among hardest hit by Covid fallout

Life expectancy, homelessness and young people’s mental health were among the areas where Britain performed poorly despite spending more than other countries

Buy British: it will help defend the UK against Trump

UK manufacturing is unloved and underinvested – but the defence industry is more essential than ever in a changing political age

How Trump’s dizzying jerks and jolts on tariffs are ‘freezing’ US business

As the US president warns of a ‘a little short-term interruption’, businesses are struggling to make decisions amid heightened uncertainty

Justice department opens investigation into soaring US egg prices – report

Officials said to be looking at whether producers have conspired to increase prices or have held back supply

Crypto giant Tether CEO on cooperating with Trump administration: ‘We’ve never been shady’

Paolo Ardoino – head of the world’s most traded cryptocurrency, which is backed by Trump aide Howard Lutnick – claims Tether is benefiting the US