How much is your car tax going up this year? Vehicle excise duty hiked by as much as £200 for some motors
Most drivers are set to see their annual costs rise to £200 a year from 1 April, though some face paying astronomical levies of up to £5,690.
Volvo Shifts Polestar 3 Production Entirely To the US
Polestar and Volvo are ending Polestar 3 production in Chengdu, China, and consolidating all output of the electric SUV at Volvo's plant in South Carolina. "The move to consolidate global Polestar 3 production in Charleston help[s] generate efficiencies for both companies, whilst also underscoring our confidence in the plant and the role it plays in our manufacturing footprint," said Hakan Samuelsson, chief executive of Volvo Cars. "The U.S. is a very important market for Volvo Cars, both to support our growth ambitions as well as a strategic production site to meet regional and export demands." Ars Technica reports: Volvo had a challenging 2025, with sales falling by 7 percent. Meanwhile, Polestar, which was spun out from the Swedish OEM's performance arm into a standalone startup in 2017, had a rather good 2025, seeing a 34 percent increase in sales. So increasing the proportion of Polestar 3s to come out of South Carolina seems sensible. And as we learned last September, the midsize electric Volvo EX60 will also go into production at the South Carolina site later this year, and then we'll see a still-unnamed hybrid Volvo in 2030.
The two companies also announced today that Volvo agreed to extend part of a shareholder loan it made to Polestar and will convert the rest into Polestar shares. Polestar will still owe Volvo $661 million, due at the end of 2031, and another $274 million will become Polestar stock now, with a further $65 million in the second quarter of the year. Since December, Polestar has also raised $1 billion through three equity financing investments.
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Trump vows to crush 'legendary' mail-in voting despite doing so himself just this month
President Donald Trump signed an executive order cracking down on mail-in voting - despite casting his own postal ballot just last week.
Italy's World Cup curse continues with penalty nightmare against Bosnia as four-time winners miss out on third successive finals
TOM COLLOMOSSE: The four-times world champions have failed to qualify for a third consecutive World Cup - a source of utter shame for one of the game's traditional powerhouses.
LAURA CRAIK: Forget about Louboutins... the Devil wears comfy shoes on the red carpet! (And so do others of a certain age)
To quote her character in the 2006 film, Miranda Priestley, florals for spring might not be groundbreaking, but bunions for spring? Never a good look.
Oracle Cuts Thousands of Jobs Across Sales, Engineering, Security
bobthesungeek76036 shares a report from the Register: Oracle laid off thousands of employees on Tuesday as it ramps spending on AI infrastructure projects internally and with major technology partners. The layoffs were carried out via email, according to copies of the message viewed by Business Insider. The email told affected workers they would be terminated immediately and to provide a personal email for follow-up.
The cuts echo a TD Cowen forecast earlier this year, when the investment bank questioned how Oracle would finance its expanding AI datacenter buildout and suggested headcount reductions could reach 20,000 to 30,000. It is not clear how many employees were notified on Tuesday, but one screenshot that purports to show the number of internal Slack users showed a drop of 10,000 overnight.
[...] Oracle employs about 162,000 people, with 58,000 of those in the US and approximately 104,000 internationally. If the rumored cuts of 30,000 are correct, it would amount to 18 percent of the company's workforce. According to posts from Oracle workers on LinkedIn, the cuts were spread through multiple departments around the country, with employees in Kansas, Tennessee, and Texas taking to social media to say they were among those chopped. "This news didn't seem to affect stock price," adds bobthesungeek76036. "ORCL is up 6% for the day."
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Record 106,810 cancer patients waited more than 62 days to start urgent treatment last year
More than four in five trusts (83 per cent) missed the key target of treating 85 per cent of patients within this time frame.
The $2 Billion Nvidia Deal With Marvell Is About A Lot More Than NVLink Fusion
APRIL 1: As the Moon forms a bond with liberating Uranus on April Fools' Day, one sign should trust their heart, says JEMIMA CAINER, while another must embrace resolution
It may be April Fools' Day but today is no joke. The Moon begins in discerning Virgo, forms a bond with liberating Uranus, before moving into Libra.
Carey Mulligan is supported by her husband Marcus Mumford as she says she feels 'extraordinary' after being awarded with a CBE by King Charles
The BAFTA-winning actress, 40, said she felt 'extraordinary' after being made a Commander Of The British Empire for services to drama.
Thomas Tuchel is running out of time to work his magic - his England side are still groping around in the dark for a formula and they are nowhere near World Cup contenders after this lethargic display, writes OLIVER HOLT
OLIVER HOLT AT WEMBLEY: It was not a fond farewell. England did not take their leave of Wembley wreathed in laurels and serenaded with hosannas, put it that way.
Mark Ronson jokes that his career is 'drying up' and that his Love Story star wife Grace Gummer is 'now more famous than him' as he returns to the studio
The British DJ, 50, took to his Instagram on Monday with a hilarious clip of himself looking sombre.
Alarms on my brand new Citroen go off for no good reason - but the dealer won't fix it: SALLY SORTS IT
I bought a new Citroen C3 in April 2025, but within a week the car developed issues. The alarm kept going off for no reason, usually in the middle of the night..
Top Brussels Official Urges Europeans To Work From Home, Drive Less As Energy Crisis Deepens
A top EU official is urging Europeans to work from home, drive less, and cut air travel as the bloc braces for a prolonged energy crisis triggered by the Gulf conflict. The European Commission is also pushing member states to accelerate renewables and other energy-security measures as oil and gas disruptions continue. Politico reports: In a speech with echoes of the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, EU energy chief Dan Jorgensen said Europe was facing a "very serious situation" with no clear end in sight. "Even if ... peace is here tomorrow, still we will not go back to normal in the foreseeable future," he said, following an extraordinary meeting of the EU's 27 energy ministers on Tuesday to discuss the crisis. "The more you can do to save oil, especially diesel, especially jet fuel, the better we are off," Jorgensen said, confirming an earlier report by POLITICO that Brussels wanted Europeans to travel less.
He urged member countries to follow the advice of the International Energy Agency, which he said included "work from home where possible, reduce highway speed limits by ten kilometers [an hour], encourage public transport, alternate private car access ... increase car sharing and adopt efficient driving practices." Longer term, he urged EU countries to double down on building more renewables, saying "this must be the time we finally turn the tide and truly become energy independent."
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God Save The King BOOED by Wales fans before Northern Ireland friendly in Cardiff
As both teams lined up for the national anthems ahead of the fixture at the Cardiff City Stadium, Wales fans began booing as God Save the King was played for Northern Ireland.
Labour hands France another £2million a week to police the Channel - despite Paris refusing to accept targets to stop the boats
Shabana Mahmood has signed off a £16 million cheque for a two-month extension to the current deal with Paris, which subsidises French beach patrols.
Enterprising boy, 17, makes fortune buying abandoned storage lockers and selling their contents - including lost Man Ray painting
New Jersey native Michael Haskell, 17, has an unusual hobby for a high schooler: he buys abandoned storage units and sells their contents for thousands of dollars.
Hollywood sees Scotland as all about 'unemployment, drug abuse, alcohol abuse and domestic abuse', says film star
It was one of the biggest movies to come out of Scotland. But now it would seem that the film industry views Scotland as a scene from Danny Boyle's blockbuster hit Trainspotting.
Confused German shepherd dumped on hot street by cruel owner before loyally waiting in vain for them to return
A truck took off after bystanders watched a man dump his German shepherd and its belongings to the side of a road in Austin Texas on Monday.
Frozen bodies of two pest control workers were found at chicken factory after gas leak, court told
The frozen bodies of Neil Moon, 49, and Jonathan Collins, 34, were found in a narrow passageway at Banham Poultry in Norfolk on October 4, 2018.