Happy Monday. It happened again! Classified security information has been leaked by joggers.

LeMonde (a French newspaper) has discovered that the secret location of the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier has been leaked after an officer posted his onboard run to Strava. While I dread to think how much of a telling-off this will have resulted in, we hope the journalists at least gave a kudos.

Notable UK earnings this week: Kingfisher (KGF), Prudential (PRU), SSE (SSE).

Notable US earnings this week: Cintas (CTAS), Lululemon (LULU), Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA), Dollar Tree (DLTR).

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🏗️ Five firms share £1bn Guinness maintenance deal. Read more

🍃 Wales unleashes new deal to drive renewables. Read more

Construction industry braced for steel to get tough
Contractors, hard hats firmly on, are preparing for yet another round of wallet-wincing costs after the Government unveiled its latest grand plan to back British steel and give imports a bit of a cold shoulder.

In short: fewer foreign steel deliveries, more “buy British”, and a hefty 50% tariff if you get carried away ordering from overseas - starting this July. The aim? Boost UK steel production from about 30% of demand to a patriotic 50%, with a tidy £2.5bn helping things along.

Lovely in theory. Slightly less lovely if you’re the one footing the bill.

Industry voices are already muttering into their tea. Jonathan Clemens of the British Constructional Steelwork Association didn’t mince his words, warning that all this flag-waving could make the nuts and bolts of construction - quite literally - more expensive. This landing at a time when contractors are already juggling tight margins and prices that bounce around like a dodgy shopping trolley wheel.

Interest rates held
The Bank of England has decided to keep interest rates parked at 3.75% - not out of sheer stubbornness, but because global events have rather rudely complicated things.

The culprit? The ongoing tensions in the Middle East, which have sent energy prices climbing faster than a London rent. That, in turn, is expected to nudge inflation back up in the short term - just as things were starting to look a bit more civilised.

The Bank’s rate-setters (the ever-watchful Monetary Policy Committee) were unanimous in their decision: best to sit tight and see how things unfold rather than make any hasty moves. After all, when petrol prices start creeping up and household bills threaten to follow, it’s not exactly the moment for bold experiments.

Law & order
First up: renters are about to get a glow-up. From 1 May 2026, the Renters’ Rights Act bins Section 21 no-fault evictions, meaning landlords can’t just say “off you pop” without reason. About 11 million tenants will gain stronger protections-limits on rent hikes, better chances of keeping pets, and the quiet thrill of actual housing security. Landlords, meanwhile, must hand over an official explainer document by 31 May or risk a fine. In short: read the leaflet, know your rights, and perhaps finally unpack that emotional support houseplant.

Over in Wales, another legal scuffle has gone to the dogs. A High Court challenge against the Senedd’s decision to ban greyhound racing has been firmly told to sit and stay. The sport’s governing body argued the consultation was rushed, but judges ruled the democratic process had been followed, and courts shouldn’t meddle after the fact.

The ban, backed by animal welfare groups citing thousands of racing-related dog deaths, could come into force as early as 2027. The finish line for greyhound racing in Wales is now very much in sight.

Cash & carry on
And then there’s the small matter of £100 million and a slightly awkward international disagreement. Rwanda is taking the UK to arbitration, claiming it’s owed the cash after Britain scrapped the controversial migrant deportation scheme in 2024. That plan-dreamt up under the previous government-would have sent some asylum seekers to Rwanda for processing, at a cost of roughly £700 million… for four volunteers. A pricey pilot, one might say.

Rwanda argues it built infrastructure and prepared for arrivals, only for the UK to pull the plug without warning. Britain insists a later agreement wiped the slate clean and is defending the case accordingly. The result will hinge on who owes what-and whether “dead and buried” counts as a legal term or just particularly vivid political phrasing. So: tenants gain rights, greyhounds gain retirement, and lawyers everywhere gain billable hours.

White House asks congress for more war funds
The White House has asked Congress for an extra $200bn (£150bn) to fund the war in Iran, citing depleted ammunition and supplies after recent operations and prior aid to Ukraine. President Trump complained that generous support for Kyiv had “taken down” stockpiles, while the Pentagon bluntly told reporters “it takes money to kill bad guys” — a line that sounds less like strategy and more like bookkeeping.

The conflict has already proved costly: the Pentagon put the bill at $11.3bn in the first week and the campaign entered its fourth week at the weekend. An F‑35 forced into an emergency landing after a combat sortie over Iran — reportedly struck by suspected Iranian fire — underlined the human and hardware expense; each jet can cost up to $77m and the pilot is said to be stable as investigations continue.

This $200bn sits on top of an annual defence budget of $838.7bn and follows $188bn Congress authorised for Ukraine since February 2022, of which roughly $110bn had been spent by last December. Republicans say the figure “is not a random number”, Democrats lament the scale — pointing out, for example, a one‑year extension of health insurance subsidies would have been about $35bn — and public polls show a majority of Americans uneasy about the campaign.

Civil trial rules against Elon
In a civil trial (no prison scenes) a US jury found Elon Musk deliberately drove down Twitter’s share price in the months before his $44bn (£33bn) takeover, concluding he misled investors — though he was cleared of some other fraud claims. It’s a partial victory for the plaintiffs in a case that reads like corporate theatre with extra billionaires.

The suit was a class action lodged before the deal closed; jurors had to decide whether two tweets and comments on a May 2022 podcast amounted to intentional deception that prompted shareholders to sell. The exact damages are not yet known but are expected to run into the billions, affecting thousands of investors including large institutions.

Much of the row focused on Musk’s insistence that Twitter had underreported fake or spam accounts. He famously tweeted the takeover “cannot go forward” until the bot rate was under 5%.

Bold upgrades
Humanity is, once again, packing a bag for the Moon-snacks optional, quarantine mandatory. NASA’s Artemis II mission is now poised for an early April launch after a leaky hydrogen hiccup delayed February’s grand departure. The rocket is back on the pad in Florida, the astronauts are tucked away in pre-launch quarantine, and the plan is simple: go further into space than any human has before.

The four-person crew will orbit Earth first-like a cautious toe dip-before heading into deep space, testing navigation, life support, and whether anyone remembered to bring the celestial equivalent of a spare charger. It’s NASA’s first crewed lunar mission in over half a century and a key step toward building a future Moon-orbiting base.

Back on Earth, British scientists are performing equally impressive feats. Researchers at Great Ormond Street Hospital and UCL have successfully grown an oesophagus in a lab and implanted it into pigs

The process involves stripping donor tissue down to its structural scaffold, then repopulating it with the recipient’s own cells-effectively building a bespoke organ that the body won’t reject. The pigs recovered, developed working muscles, and swallowed normally within months. For children born with severe oesophageal defects, this could mean replacing years of complex surgeries with a single tailored transplant.

Phones, faces
Amazon, apparently undeterred by its 2014 Fire Phone flop is having another go. Its new secretive project-codenamed “Transformer”-aims to build an AI-heavy smartphone centred around Alexa, shopping, and hyper-personalisation. The ambition? A device that knows you so well it might order your takeaway before you’ve admitted defeat.

And then there’s teenage darts sensation Luke Littler, who is taking a more personal approach to the AI age-by trademarking his own face. The move is designed to stop unauthorised AI recreations of his likeness, joining a growing trend among celebrities scrambling to stay one step ahead of deepfakes and dodgy digital doubles. It may not stop every rogue image, but it sends a clear message: this face is officially taken.

Walls, trenches
Nothing says “new job energy” quite like digging a massive ditch. Chile’s freshly sworn-in president, José Antonio Kast, has wasted no time-five days in office and he’s already breaking ground, on a border barrier with Peru. The plan? A mix of trenches, fences, and surveillance along parts of a 180km frontier, all in the name of tackling illegal immigration and organised crime.

Only a modest stretch of desert has been carved up so far, but symbolically it’s doing heavy lifting. Kast calls it a “milestone”, critics might call it a trench with ambition. His rhetoric-painting Chile as under siege-helped propel him to a decisive election win, amid rising concerns over migration, particularly from Venezuela.

The parallels with Donald Trump are about as subtle as a bulldozer. Kast admires the former US president, his supporters don “Make Chile Great Again” caps, and the whole “build something large at the border” approach feels… familiar. Still, Chile isn’t the US, and while immigration has surged, it remains one of South America’s more stable nations. Whether this “border shield” becomes a fortress or just a very expensive line in the sand remains to be seen.

Tiny empires
Meanwhile, in Kenya, a crime of far smaller proportions-but surprisingly grand ambition. Authorities have charged a Chinese national and his Kenyan associate after allegedly attempting to smuggle over 2,000 live queen ants out of the country.

The pair were caught at Nairobi airport, with prosecutors alleging the insects were destined for overseas markets where ant-keeping-essentially building miniature insect empires-is a growing niche hobby.

Both men deny wrongdoing, claiming ignorance of the law. Kenyan authorities, however, are taking a dim view, warning that demand for exotic species is fuelling illegal harvesting. So there we have it: one story about building barriers to keep people out, another about sneaking ants across them.