Oil price jumps and markets slide after Trump warning to Iran
Posted on Thursday April 02, 2026

Brent crude rises 8% as US president vows to hit Iran ‘extremely hard’ over coming weeks

• Business live – latest updates

Oil prices have soared after Donald Trump vowed in a televised speech to hit Iran “extremely hard” over the coming weeks, knocking hopes of a near-term end to the conflict in the Middle East.

Brent crude prices jumped by as much as 8% on Thursday to $109.74 a barrel, reversing Wednesday’s drop when hopes of a de-escalation in the Iran war pushed the international benchmark below the $100-a-barrel mark at one point.

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Blue Owl Capital limits withdrawals after investors try to redeem $5.4bn
Posted on Thursday April 02, 2026

Private credit investment firm’s move is latest sign of crumbling confidence in unregulated lending market

A major private credit investment firm, Blue Owl Capital, has imposed a cap on withdrawals after investors tried to pull $5.4bn from two key funds, in the latest sign of crumbling confidence in the unregulated lending market.

The New York-headquartered firm released filings on Thursday that showed a surge in redemption requests, with investors asking to take back 21.9% of the cash stored in Blue Owl’s $20bn (£15bn) Credit Income Corp fund between January and March. Meanwhile, investors requested 40.7% of funds from its $3bn tech lending fund.

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Drivers told to look for cheapest fuel ahead of ‘busiest Easter on UK roads since 2022’
Posted on Thursday April 02, 2026

Bank holiday traffic predicted to peak on Thursday, as petrol and diesel prices surge from fallout of Iran war

• Business live – latest updates

UK drivers are being urged to look for the cheapest petrol and “to fill up as usual” as travellers prepare to make 21.7m journeys on what is expected to be the busiest Easter on the roads in four years.

The average price of a litre of unleaded petrol rose by 20p in March, from 132.83p on the 1st to 152.83p on the 31st, raising concerns about the cost of filling up for Easter journeys. The higher fuel prices have been triggered by rising oil prices as a result of the US-Israel war against Iran.

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‘If he’d stayed on the golf course, we’d be in a better place’: experts on Trump’s tariffs, one year on
Posted on Thursday April 02, 2026

Last April, the president unleashed a tidal wave of tariffs on ‘liberation day’. Analysts say the policy has failed, even by the Trump administration’s own terms

Before Donald Trump declared “liberation day” on 2 April 2025 and shocked the world by raising import tariffs on nearly every country the US did business with, he had spent almost three months causing chaos in Washington.

The wholesale slashing of government jobs under Doge (the “department of government efficiency”) and the defunding of US aid agencies had shown White House watchers that the US president was in a hurry to upset institutions he considered profligate or useless.

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Goodbye mrbrightside416: Google allows users to alter quirky Gmail addresses
Posted on Thursday April 02, 2026

Those in US given chance to have more professional usernames without losing access to account

Did your McLovin!1976!@gmail.com email address seem funny at the time but less so now you are applying for dozens of jobs?

Google has said it is giving US users a chance to appear more professional by letting them change their Google account username – whatever appears before @gmail.com in an email address – without losing access to their account.

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UK social media users less active on tech platforms due to rise of video apps
Posted on Wednesday April 01, 2026

Ofcom research shows people also concerned old posts could affect personal or professional life

Social media users in the UK are becoming less active on tech platforms due to the rise of video apps and fears that posts could come back to haunt them, according to the communications watchdog.

Ofcom said just under half of adult social media users (49%) now post, share or comment compared with 61% in 2024. The proportion exploring new websites has also fallen, from 70% to 56%.

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Tottenham head coach Roberto De Zerbi apologises for past comments on Mason Greenwood
Posted on Thursday April 02, 2026

• ‘I didn’t meant to take a stance,’ says Spurs head coach

• Fan groups had opposed De Zerbi’s appointment

The new Tottenham head coach, Roberto De Zerbi, has apologised for his past comments on Marseille forward Mason Greenwood and insisted he would never intentionally downplay the issue of violence against women.

Spurs turned to De Zerbi after interim head coach Igor Tudor was sacked on Sunday with the Premier League outfit in 17th position and only one point above the bottom three after a disastrous campaign.

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Bodycam footage shows Tiger Woods’s shock after crash: ‘I’m being arrested?’
Posted on Thursday April 02, 2026

• Golfer has pled not guilty to DUI charges

• Hydrocodone pills found in pocket after arrest

Bodycam footage of Tiger Woods’s arrest for DUI shows the golfer looking surprised when he was handcuffed by police officers at the scene of a vehicle crash last week.

“I do believe your normal faculties are impaired, and you’re under an unknown substance, so at this time you’re under arrest for DUI,” Martin County Sheriff’s deputy Tatiana Levenar told Woods after officers conducted a series of field sobriety exercises on the 50-year-old.

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