It’s time we asked: what is the cost not just to the budget, but to society, when the richest are helped to get richer?

The question ‘how do we pay for it’ only seems to come up when the government spends money on things that help low and middle-income earners

German parliament in race against time to sign off on new defence fund

Friedrich Merz, expected to be next chancellor, has spoken of urgent need for ramped-up defence, but ‘blocking minority’ could form in future Bundestag

Bitcoin slides below $90,000 amid crypto selloff; Tesla sales slide across Europe; UK defence stocks jump – as it happened

Bitcoin has tumbled below $90,000 to hit the lowest since mid-November, as rising volatility hits crypto market

Labour losing support fastest among voters worried over finances, study finds

Poverty charity urges Keir Starmer to focus on living standards instead of culture wars and immigration

Apple cheers Trump with $500bn US investment plan; more losses on Wall Street – as it happened

Apple has pledged to spend $500bn in US investments in the next four years, including a giant factory in Texas for artificial intelligence servers.

‘I feel trapped’: how home ownership has become a nightmare for many Americans

Scores in the US say they’re grappling with raised mortgage and loan interest rates and exploding insurance premiums

Britain’s net zero economy is booming, CBI says

Green sector growing at triple the rate of the UK economy, providing high-wage jobs and increasing energy security

Consumers don’t have a debt problem. The US government does

US consumer debt is high and rising but 16 cents on every dollar spent by the government is now going to interest

Labour’s revolution of local government will be seismic but won’t be straightforward

Bucket-loads of political capital and cash will be used to reconfigure English councils’ two-tier set-up, but the benefits could be huge

How UK and EU could find more money for defence without spooking the markets

There is political agreement that Britain and Europe need to increase military spending. But in straitened times, how can it be done?

Do you want to buy a British kettle? Go whistle

As China’s cheap prices continue to dominate western markets, attempts to revive or invent UK brands has never been tougher

Oil workers ‘could strike’ to protect jobs in green transition; Trump tariffs hit US economic growth – as it happened

Sharon Graham, the Unite general secretary, says direct action is being considered to save UK jobs

Neoliberalism is dead. So why haven’t Australia’s leaders got the message?

Until centre-left parties can escape the mental prison built by decades of soft neoliberalism, it is what we are likely to get

Willingness to ease off ‘debt brake’ may decide the German election

Rule dating from 2009 that limits borrowing looks vulnerable as main political parties promise to revive stalled economy

Elon Musk rebuffs claims that Tesla could invest in Nissan

Japanese carmaker’s shares rise almost 10% after reports that a group wants US EV firm to put in money