UK house prices are growing at their fastest annual rate for nearly two years as borrowing costs continue to fall on expectations that the Bank of England will keep cutting interest rates, Nationwide has said. The building society said prices grew by 3.2% in September compared with the same month last year, well above the…

The number of UK estate agents declaring insolvency has jumped by almost a third with nearly 300 businesses going bust in the last year. The figures underline the gloom around Britain’s property market, with the fewest home sales recorded for more than a decade hitting estate agent income. According to figures from the Insolvency Service,…

BT has received £105m as an upfront prepayment for the sale of surplus copper cables from its old network which it is replacing in a £15bn rollout of high-speed full-fibre broadband to 25m homes in one of the UK’s biggest private national infrastructure programmes. The telecoms company has struck a deal with a recycling company…

Earlier this month, an unusual prize ceremony got under way. Five Nobel laureates gathered at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, not to receive further accolades themselves, but to present the Ig Nobel prizes. Now in their 34th year, these are awarded to researchers whose discoveries “make people laugh, then think”. One winner was Saul Justin…

Cows may belch methane into the atmosphere at alarming rates, but new data shows they may play an important role in renewing farm soil. Research by the Soil Association Exchange shows that farms with a mixture of arable crops and livestock have about a third more carbon stored within their soil than those with only…

Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark, #22, drives to the basket against Atlanta Dream guard Destanni Henderson, #33, during a WNBA preseason game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana, on May 9, 2024. Brian Spurlock | Icon Sportswire | Getty Images The Women’s National Basketball Association’s viewership and attendance boomed during the 2024 season, as the…

We’ve had South Korean pop, film, fashion and food, and now the latest trend is K-beauty, with sales of Korean skincare brands taking off in the UK as consumers are seduced by products that promise to conjure a radiant complexion. Britons are cutting back in other areas, but they are still chasing what the beauty…

Harland & Wolff, the Belfast-based shipbuilder that produced the Titanic, has collapsed into administration. The company has appointed administrators from Teneo to oversee the process after failing to find new funding to stay afloat. So far only the parent company, Harland & Wolff Group Holdings plc, is in administration, and its shipyard subsidiaries are continuing…

A fall in US inflation expected to pave the way for further cuts in interest rates pushed stock markets to record highs on Friday. Ending a week of gains that began when the Chinese authorities approved a huge economic stimulus package, the S&P 500 index of major US companies soared above 5,750 to register a…

Keir Starmer has pushed back against Elon Musk’s jibes at the UK for “releasing paedophiles” after the billionaire was not invited to the government’s investment summit, saying other business leaders do not share his negative view of Britain. The prime minister said a representative of Musk’s SpaceX had been invited to the summit, due to…