Author: Press Room

Relocating the South Sydney-Dolphins fixture outside the path of Cyclone Alfred was the right thing to do, Rabbitohs coach Wayne Bennett says.Bennett has backed the NRL’s decision to move the Friday fixture from Brisbane’s Suncorp Stadium to CommBank Stadium in Parramatta instead of calling the match off entirely.The NRL’s decision has been met with some resistance from the Dolphins camp, with trio Kodi Nikorima, Mark Nicholls and Kenny Bromwich opting against flying out with the team to Sydney on Wednesday evening.The trio were concerned about the welfare of family members being left behind, given their homes are in the firing…

France is willing to discuss extending the protection afforded by its nuclear arsenal to its European allies, President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday, as the continent scrambles to fend off heightened Russian aggression and diminishing American support.France and Britain are the only two countries in Europe with their own nuclear weapons; only France is in the European Union. Russia and the United States are also nuclear powers.“Our nuclear deterrent protects us — it is comprehensive, sovereign and French through and through,” Mr. Macron said in a televised address that was mostly devoted to the war in Ukraine and Europe’s safety.…

An appeals court in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday removed the head of a federal watchdog agency in the latest twist in a legal fight over President Trump’s authority to fire the special counsel. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia sided with the Trump administration in allowing the immediate removal of Hampton Dellinger as head of the Office of Special Counsel while the court battle continues. Dellinger is likely to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Dellinger sued Mr. Trump last month after he was fired even though the law says special counsels can be removed by…

The U.S. Capitol Police said the chief of staff to Speaker Mike Johnson was arrested for drunken driving on Tuesday night after the top aide backed his car into a parked Capitol Police vehicle.The arrest came soon after President Trump, with Mr. Johnson presiding behind him, finished delivering his first address to a joint session of Congress since returning to office.“A driver backed into a parked vehicle last night around 11:40 p.m.,” a Capitol Police spokesman said in a statement. “We responded and arrested them for D.U.I.”Mr. Johnson’s office confirmed on Wednesday that Hayden Haynes, the speaker’s chief of staff,…

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency says it’s seen an increase in complaints about items mislabelled as products of Canada or missing information about their country of origin. The federal organization enforcing labelling standards on food products told The Canadian Press in an email late Tuesday that the rash of complaints have come in the last few months, when Canadians were increasingly supporting local businesses to fend off threatened tariffs from the U.S.The CFIA is still reviewing the complaints it has received related to such labels and says it’s “too early” to tell if there has been non-compliance.The spike was no…

South Africa is preparing a new trade offer to present to President Trump, hoping to appeal to his transactional approach to foreign policy and ease boiling tensions with Washington, a spokesman for South Africa’s president said this week.The spokesman, Vincent Magwenya, said in an interview that South African officials are anticipating Mr. Trump will call for an end to the African Growth and Opportunity Act, a decades-old trade agreement that has been an economic boon to the 32 African nations that it includes.The act allows billions of dollars worth of goods — from produce to cars — from sub-Saharan Africa…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Jes Staley, the former Barclays chief executive fighting to clear his name over ties to Jeffrey Epstein, once protested to a senior colleague that he never would have introduced his family to a convicted paedophile, a court has heard.Sasha Wiggins, who was Staley’s chief of staff at the British bank and now leads Barclays’ private bank and wealth management, told the tribunal on Wednesday that Staley had once asked her: “Why would I have introduced my wife and daughters to Mr Epstein…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Billionaire Izzy Englander is exploring opening up the ownership of his $76bn hedge fund Millennium Management to its top executives for the first time, in the latest step to prepare it for life beyond its founder.  Englander, 77, has kept sole ownership of New York-based Millennium for its 36-year history.It is still working out how to structure a distribution of equity to its key people, according to people familiar with the situation. But the move is intended to incentivise Millennium’s top ranks…

Check out the companies making headlines in after-hours trading: Marvell Technology — Shares of the semiconductor solutions provider plunged about 13%. In the fiscal fourth quarter, Marvell reported adjusted earnings of 60 cents per share on revenue of $1.82 billion, while analysts polled by LSEG forecast earnings of 59 cents per share on revenue of $1.80 billion. The company also offered guidance for the first quarter that was just slightly higher than estimates. Shares of chipmakers Broadcom and Micron Technology also slid in sympathy. Zscaler — Shares of the cloud security company jumped 4% on the back of its strong…

Jack Daniel’s maker Brown-Forman’s chief executive Lawson Whiting says Canadian provinces taking American liquor off store shelves was “worse than a tariff” and a “disproportionate response” to levies imposed by the Trump administration.Several Canadian provinces have taken US liquor off store shelves as part of retaliatory measures against President Donald Trump’s tariffs.“I mean, that’s worse than a tariff, because it’s literally taking your sales away, (and) completely removing our products from the shelves,” Mr Whiting said on a post-earnings call.Canada on Tuesday also imposed 25 per cent tariffs on goods imported from the US, including wine, spirits, and beer.Mr Whiting,…