Wednesday newspaper round-up: John Lewis, British American Tobacco, Shein/Temu

(Sharecast News) - John Lewis is to spend £20m on a revamp of its Glasgow store in the city centre's Buchanan Galleries in a vote of confidence in the shopping mall not long ago scheduled for demolition. It is the largest cash injection within a wider plan to spend £50m this financial year on refreshing its shops, with department stores in Reading, Cambridge, Leicester and Liverpool all earmarked for an upgrade. - Guardian British taxpayers are subsidising the energy bills of French households - with the payments expected to surge under Sir Keir Starmer's EU reset deal. France can buy cheap wind power from the UK that is subsidised by British taxpayers, because of "wasteful" rules that allow suppliers to sell surplus energy abroad. Octopus, Britain's biggest gas and electricity supplier, estimates that the problem will cost between £16bn from 2030 to 2050, or £770m a year on ­average. - Telegraph

Rachel Reeves has refused to rule out tax rises as pressure mounts to find billions of pounds more for defence. At an event with bond investors on Tuesday, the Chancellor said she planned to achieve an uplift in defence spending by cutting other budgets. However, she declined to rule out further tax rises. Asked whether she could avoid putting up taxes this year, Ms Reeves said: "I very much hope so." - Telegraph

British American Tobacco's US business donated $18 million to a Trump-aligned campaign group before a relaxation of restrictions on flavoured vapes and nicotine pouches by the administration. Reynolds American has donated $8 million to Maga Inc since last year, via a subsidiary RAI Services Company, analysis of Federal Election Commission data shows. It included $5 million in April, shortly before the reforms, and followed $10 million of donations from the tobacco group in the 2024 presidential election cycle. - The Times

Ministers are considering whether parts of a clampdown on low-value imports used by Shein and Temu could be introduced sooner after lobbying from British retailers. The government said last year that reforms to the so-called de minimis regime, which allows goods worth less than £135 to be imported into the UK without customs duties, would not be fully implemented until 2029 due to the complexity of building a new customs system. - The Times