UK

Perceptions of a high-tax UK are wide of the mark. Steve Travelguide/ShutterstockHeadlines about tax in the UK being at an all-time high abounded after the autumn budget. The current overall tax take, at 35% of GDP, is indeed a historic high for the country. And the measures announced in the budget will take it to 38% by the end of the parliament.

The dominant global financial position of the US and its currency, the dollar, is wobbling under the second Trump administration. AURA88 / ShutterstockThe US has long sat at the centre of the global financial system, with the US dollar serving as the backbone of the world economy. Private investors rely on the dollar as a store of value in times of uncertainty.

Payments group will lease 300,000 sq ft at One Canada Square after move from Paddington

In this edition: wealth and empire are inseparable from our timepieces; the women who made London the world’s divorce capital; Britain’s aristocrats have some advice for today’s billionaires; tech bros plotting breakaway cities funded by crypto