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UK pubs bar Labour MPs over Budget, U.S. seizes tanker near Venezuela, Nestlé’s bars aren’t legally chocolate, EV ranges meet real-road math, and Trump consults Europe on Ukraine as Kyiv finalizes plan
UK pubs post No Labour MPs signs in revolt over Budget
Award winning publican Andy Lennox and roughly 50 pubs have put up No Labour MPs signs after the government’s latest Budget pumped up business rates and property linked taxes on already fragile venues. Landlords say they tried everything, letters, meetings, even hand delivering a plea to No. 11, only to watch taxes rise while ministers boast about cuts. It is a pressure tactic, not a barroom ban, meant to force MPs to carry the message back to the Chancellor. Without relief, they warn a winter wave of closures is on tap. Translation, you cannot call it a tax cut if the bill goes up, unless you think a pint half empty is actually overflowing.
U.S. seizes oil tanker near Venezuela as tensions with Maduro climb
President Donald Trump said American forces captured a sanctioned tanker off Venezuela, calling it the largest ever seized. The move lands amid an expanded U.S. military footprint in the region and follows lethal strikes on suspected narcotics trafficking vessels in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. The signal to Caracas is not subtle, part counter narcotics, part power projection. Serious stakes here, less chest thumping, more consequences.
Nestlé’s recipe shuffle leaves two bars legally not chocolate
Toffee Crisp and Blue Riband have been reformulated with more vegetable fat, dropping them below the UK’s legal thresholds for milk chocolate. Packages now tout a smooth milk chocolate flavour coating, which is corporate for chocolate ish. Nestlé blames surging cocoa costs and insists the tweaks were carefully tested, the same soothing phrase companies use right before more changes. It fits the broader skimpflation trend, where pricey ingredients quietly retreat. Cocoa prices are spiking on poor harvests and drought, so yes, the planet is overheating and your chocolate is now chocolate adjacent. Sweet.
New data model makes EV range estimates match real roads, not lab dreams
Researchers ditched lab only simulations and tiny datasets, feeding in real world factors like climate, road conditions, and vehicle types. The payoff, range predictions that track closer to what drivers actually see, trimming range anxiety and the dashboard’s habit of promising a cross country trip on a commuter charge. Actual progress that helps normal people, imagine that.
Trump consults European leaders on Ukraine talks as Kyiv finalizes plan
President Trump spoke with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer while London coordinated with France’s Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Friedrich Merz, backing a push for a just, lasting peace. Washington is refining a proposal critics say tilts toward Moscow. President Zelenskyy said Ukraine is finalizing a 20 point framework, with U.S. security guarantees and an economic plan for reconstruction. He repeated that Ukraine will not cede territory, while Trump argued Russia has the upper hand and pressed Kyiv to play ball, saying he wants the killing to stop. Talks continued as Zelenskyy met Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Jared Kushner, and BlackRock’s Larry Fink on recovery and investment. Lofty words, hard realities, and a war that does not care about anybody’s press release.
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