Live Events(You can now subscribe to our(You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channelLondon: The International Cricket Council ICC ) is ready to sanction four-day Tests for smaller nations in the 2027-29 World Test Championship cycle but India, Australia and England can still play the traditional five-day matches , according a report here.The move to reduce matches by one day would be a significant change and can help smaller nations to play more Tests and longer series. "During discussions last week at the WTC final at Lord's, the ICC chair, Jay Shah , is understood to have expressed his support for four-day Tests, with a view to sanctioning them in time for the 2027-29 WTC cycle," a report in "The Guardian' newspaper said. "England, Australia and India would still be permitted to schedule five-Test series of five-day matches for the Ashes, the Border-Gavaskar Trophy and the newly named Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy, the first iteration of which begins with the first Test between England and India at Headingley on Friday. "The ICC first sanctioned four-day Tests for bilateral contests in 2017. ""In four-day Tests the playing hours are extended to mandate a minimum of 98 overs per day rather than 90 overs to mitigate the time lost," it said.

Live EventsThe UK government is reviewing its recent move to impose inheritance tax on global assets of non-domiciled residents , following a wave of departures among high-net-worth individuals and lobbying from the City of London . According to one City financier familiar with Reeves’ stance, the government is seeking a way to “backtrack without backtracking” on the inheritance tax changes . Another City executive said, “There will most likely be some tweaks to inheritance tax to stop the non-dom exodus.”The abolition of the non-dom tax regime and the closure of offshore trust loopholes have already triggered relocations to lower-tax destinations such as the UAE, Italy, and Switzerland. Alongside the non-dom issue, the removal of VAT exemptions for private school fees and inheritance tax amendments have raised alarm among financial professionals. Legal experts have flagged this as a fresh cause for business owners to leave the UK.

OPINIONAs someone who spent nearly 30 years at the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), I learned time and time again that environmental policy is a science, not an art. That’s why, as state lawmakers look to reform and strengthen our recycling system, a legislative proposal to conduct a statewide recycling needs assessment (A.4902/S.3815) is exactly the kind of smart, Jersey-first approach we need. Maryland, for example, launched a similar statewide recycling needs assessment before crafting its EPR legislation this year. The statewide recycling needs assessment puts us on the right path. I urge all state lawmakers to support the recycling needs assessment bill and get this done the right way.

Bidders for the bank could include NatWest, Barclays and Santander UK (Gareth Fuller/PA)The lender posted pre-tax profits of £101.3 million for the first quarter, up from £53.4 million a year ago. The Financial Times reported that potential bidders for TSB could include Barclays, NatWest, Santander UK and HSBC. The potential disposal comes as Sabadell seeks to rebuff a potential hostile takeover by Spanish rival BBVA. The potential sale of TSB is the latest in a flurry of recent dealmaking moves in the UK banking sector. Meanwhile, Santander has reported pushed back bids from NatWest and Barclays to buy its UK retail bank.

The ethnicity and nationality of all suspects in child sexual abuse and exploitation cases in Britain will be recorded by the police under new mandatory reporting rules, the British home secretary told Parliament on Monday. The requirement was one of the recommendations of a government-commissioned review into a decades-long scandal in Britain involving so-called grooming gangs. The term refers to the sexual exploitation of young girls by groups of men in several towns and cities, which first came to widespread public attention in the early 2010s. Most of the perpetrators in the largest criminal prosecutions so far have been of Pakistani heritage. She added that while “a lot of attention” had been given to the issue of grooming gangs and “reviews, inquiries and reports have made recommendations,” they had not been acted on forcefully enough, and victims had been repeatedly failed.

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy noticeParts of the UK are set for a week of high temperatures and summer sun as an area of high pressure heads to Britain from the Azores. London and the south of England will see temperatures soar to around 29 degrees on Thursday (19 June). In the north of England, temperatures will stay in the mid 20s, while Scotland will see highs of around 22 degrees. “From mid-week onwards is when we start to see that high pressure building in more confidently across the UK.

Mr. Starmer, standing next to Mr. Trump, called the agreement “really important” and added, “This is a very good day.”In a brief statement, the White House said that the Commerce Department will still need to set a quota for the volume of British steel that can enter the country tariff-free under the agreement the countries reached in May. Mr. Trump had raised tariffs on all foreign steel products to 50 percent earlier this month. Asked by a reporter on Monday if U.S. tariffs on British steel would go to zero, Mr. Trump responded, “We’re going to let you have that information in a little while.”When an agreement between Mr. Trump and Mr. Starmer was first announced in May, it was short on details and left many topics to be negotiated. At the time, the countries did not say when those provisions would go into effect. That includes the U.S. response to digital service taxes levied by the U.K. government against American tech firms, as well as other tariffs Mr. Trump expects to impose on products like pharmaceuticals.

Live Events(You can now subscribe to our(You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channelChelsea defeated Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC) 2-0 on Monday, June 16, 2025, in their opening group game of the FIFA Club World Cup at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. The victory for the London club was powered by goals from Pedro Neto and Enzo Fernandez. Neto opened the scoring for Chelsea, netting the first goal before halftime. The second goal came from Fernandez late in the second half, which sealed the match for the team.LAFC qualified for the tournament via a one-off play-in game in May 2025. Fernandez took a first touch and finished from close range past former Tottenham goalkeeper Hugo Lloris.

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By JILL LAWLESS, Associated PressKANANASKIS, Alberta (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Monday that they had signed a trade deal that will slash tariffs on U.K. auto and aerospace industry imports — but they are still discussing how to handle steel production. Trump said “the U.K. is very well protected,” from tariffs. But Monday’s agreement fully covers only British cars and aerospace materials, with more work to come on steel. That framework didn’t immediately take effect, leaving British businesses uncertain about whether the U.K. could be exposed to any surprise hikes from Trump. British businesses, and the U.K. government, were then blindsided earlier this month when Trump doubled metals tariffs on countries around the world to 50%.

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“Q” will be the new “C,” and that’s the least history-making part of the British government’s announcement on Sunday that it had named Blaise Metreweli as the chief of the Special Intelligence Service. Ms. Metreweli will be the first female chief of the spy agency, known as MI6, in its 116-year history. By tradition, the only publicly identified official in MI6 is the chief. For the head of a spy agency, Mr. Moore was an uncharacteristically public figure. Ms. Metreweli, by contrast, has spent her entire career in intelligence and has virtually no public profile.