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Important information: The value of investments can go down as well as up so you may get back less than you invest. Investors should note that the views expressed may no longer be current and may have already been acted upon. This is a third-party news feed and may not reflect Fidelity’s views.

Wednesday newspaper round-up: Inheritance tax, jobless benefits, Trump

(Sharecast News) - The Treasury is looking at ways to raise more money from inheritance tax amid growing pressure on the country's finances ahead of the autumn budget, sources have told the Guardian. Officials have been tasked with examining whether tightening rules on the gifting of money and assets could be one way of addressing a gap between revenue and spending that is estimated to reach more than £40bn. - Guardian A group of nine human rights and freedom of expression organisations have called on the culture secretary to halt RedBird Capital's proposed £500m takeover of the Telegraph and investigate the US private equity company's ties to China. The international non-governmental organisations, which include Index on Censorship, Reporters Without Borders and Article 19, have written to Lisa Nandy arguing that RedBird Capital's links with China "threaten media pluralism, transparency and information integrity in the UK". - Guardian

Donald Trump told the boss of Goldman Sachs to "focus on being a DJ" after the Wall Street bank warned that the US president's tariff campaign threatened the American economy. In a social media outburst, Mr Trump said David Solomon should "not bother running a major financial institution" as he defended his series of duties on trading partners. - Telegraph

Labour has parked over a million working-age Britons onto jobless benefits that do not require them to look for work, official figures show. The surge since Sir Keir Starmer took office means 3.7 million Britons - or almost half of those currently claiming Britain's main unemployment benefit - are now exempt from finding a job. - Telegraph

Perplexity, an artificial intelligence start-up, is reported to have made an unsolicited offer to buy Google's Chrome browser for $34.5 billion. The bid revealed on Tuesday is unusual because it is almost double Perplexity's own valuation, which is estimated to be $18 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. - The Times

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Thursday newspaper round-up: Youth employment, SpaceX, EY
(Sharecast News) - Britain is slipping down the global league table for youth employment amid a dramatic rise in worklessness that is putting a generation's future at risk, research has warned. Sounding the alarm over a worsening youth jobs crisis, the report from the accountancy firm PwC said Britain's economy was missing out on £26bn a year because of sharp regional divisions in youth joblessness. - Guardian
Wednesday newspaper round-up: UK borrowing costs, Channel 4, Anduril
(Sharecast News) - The "premium" that the UK pays to borrow money compared with its international peers may be coming to an end as markets grow more confident about the government's plans, a thinktank has suggested. The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) said that the chancellor Rachel Reeves's announcement in the autumn budget that she would be more than doubling the UK's financial headroom by 2030 from £9.9bn to £22bn had begun to assure bond markets about Labour's fiscal approach. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: household spending, British Library, Jamie Dimon, WPP
(Sharecast News) - UK households cut back on spending at the fastest pace in almost five years last month as consumers put Christmas shopping on hold, according to a leading survey. Adding to concerns that uncertainty surrounding the budget has helped dampen consumer confidence, Barclays said card spending fell 1.1% year on year in November - the largest fall since February 2021. The bank said retailers still enjoyed their busiest day of the year so far on Black Friday, with transaction volumes 62.5% higher than the average day for 2025. - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Neso, local authorities, Anglo American
(Sharecast News) - Britain's energy system operator is pulling the plug on hundreds of electricity generation projects to clear a huge backlog that is stopping "shovel-ready" schemes from connecting to the power grid. Developers will be told on Monday whether their plans will be dismissed by the National Energy System Operator (Neso) - or whether they will be prioritised to connect by either the end of the decade or 2035. - Guardian

Important information: This information is not a personal recommendation for any particular investment. If you are unsure about the suitability of an investment you should speak to one of Fidelity’s advisers or an authorised financial adviser of your choice. When you are thinking about investing in shares, it’s generally a good idea to consider holding them alongside other investments in a diversified portfolio of assets. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future returns.

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