Premium paid over French counterparts has risen to almost £30 a megawatt hour, analysis by lobby group finds

British steelmakers have been pushed further behind European rivals on electricity costs after the US-Israeli war on Iran caused a surge in global gas prices.

The premium paid by the British industry over its French counterpart has risen to almost £30 a megawatt hour (MWh), its highest level in three years, according to analysis by the lobby group UK Steel.

‘If you’re not in the internal market, you don’t get the same protection,’ says French minister of policy designed to curb Chinese competition

France is leading a push to exclude the UK from the EU’s “Made in Europe” policy that could result in British companies losing out in the race to supply European countries with low-carbon technologies and electric cars.

The plans were raised by Andy Burnham when he met the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, on the sidelines of the UN general assembly earlier this week.

Unions, thinktanks and others say overhaul could provide investment Britain needs

Unions, thinktanks, environmental groups and charities have come together to call on ministers to boost the financial firepower of the national wealth fund to empower it to invest more in Britain and rebalance the country’s economy.

Lower energy bills, the revitalisation of the UK’s industrial heartlands and the provision of more high-quality jobs could all be unlocked by scaling up the NWF, according to a statement from organisations including the TUC, Greenpeace, WWF and the New Economics Foundation.

Turbocharging the retrofitting of homes and buildings.

Giving the public a bigger stake in critical infrastructure through taking part-ownership stakes in key projects.

Launching a targeted investment programme to bring new green industries to communities hit hardest by deindustrialisation.

Supporting a network of regional banks to funnel money into the small businesses that hold up local economies.

Free AI models that are as good as the investment-hungry US versions will disrupt global markets, and offer Britain a lesson

Almost from the moment it began, the end of the Chinese economic miracle has been much anticipated. Thick and fast, the books have come explaining how it will end badly. Overinvestment. A country wallowing in debt. The collapse of the property market. Political repression. The demand for democracy from a growing middle class. All have been put forward as reasons for the inevitable terminal crisis.

Even those impressed by the country’s rapid growth took comfort from the notion that the west would continue to dominate advanced manufacturing while China would be stuck assembling TVs. And while the wait for its much-predicted demise has gone on and on, China has become the workshop of the world.

Larry Elliott is a Guardian columnist

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Speaking on the media round this morning, the work and pensions secretary, Pat McFadden, said he expected Meta’s new protections for young people in the US to apply to the UK, but that the government was already taking action on this issue.

Meta has agreed to significant changes to its Instagram and Facebook apps in an $18bn (£13.2bn) settlement that ended a landmark lawsuit yesterday. It said it would establish safeguards for teenage users, including daily usage limits and blocks on night-time use nationwide in the US. My colleagues Blake Montgomery and Dara Kerr has more in this report:

Former tube network cleaner says tribunal vindicated his health concerns, including about asbestos, that could affect public

A London Underground worker who was unfairly sacked after whistleblowing about his concerns over exposure to asbestos and other toxic dust has said he wants all tube passengers to know about the potential hazards his case has revealed.

Micky Steeds, a former professional boxer from Aveley in Essex, started working for London Underground in 2018 cleaning up decades of dust from vents, lift shafts and inverts – confined channels underneath station platforms for cabling.

Collieries turned into retail parks, manufacturing in the doldrums. The problem is vast, but at least the PM-in-waiting sees it: and in that there is hope

In the autumn of 2005, Tony Blair gave one of his most unhinged and fascinating speeches as prime minister. “I hear people say we have to stop and debate globalisation,” he said. “You might as well debate whether autumn should follow summer.” He went on: “The character of this changing world is indifferent to tradition. Unforgiving of frailty … It has no custom and practice. It is replete with opportunities, but they only go to those swift to adapt, slow to complain, open, willing and able to change.”

In the hall, his characteristically messianic delivery ensured this argument landed, but anyone listening from one of the UK’s deindustrialised areas must have received it as yet another punch in the face. For decades, change and adaptation were what they had been living through and reeling from – but where were the rewards? Where, indeed, was any real sign of even the beginnings of the 21st-century prosperity Blair seemed to be offering?

John Harris is a Guardian columnist

Exclusive: £20bn of ‘potential’ £30bn AI investment touted by UK ministers appears to have been hypothetical

It was to be the biggest undertaking in Britain for OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. Stargate UK – a multibillion-pound UK datacentre project – would represent “a major step forward in the US-UK technology partnership”.

But the plans were paused in April, with an OpenAI spokesperson citing concerns over regulation and high energy costs.

Makerfield MP on course to be PM will argue for more decision-making in regions and communities as he sets out 10-year platform for government

Andy Burnham will pledge to deliver “good growth in every postcode” by overseeing a significant transfer of power out of Whitehall to local communities as he sets out his case for a decade as UK prime minister.

In his first major speech since winning the Makerfield byelection, Burnham will argue for decision-making to be devolved to regions and communities to drive economic growth locally, replacing the current top-down national model.

Supplier Agratas sacks its main building contractor on the government-backed project amid a budget mismatch

Jaguar Land Rover faces the risk of delays to the first deliveries of electric car batteries from a £5.2bn government-backed factory in Somerset after construction problems.

The British carmaker is planning to rely on the Agratas factory in Bridgwater, Somerset, to supply the batteries for its new electric models. Agratas and JLR are owned by the Indian industrial conglomerate Tata.

Make UK says manufacturers’ feedback shows sector at risk of collapse as it calls on Treasury to take action

• Nils Pratley: High electricity prices are killing industry

Britain’s industrial sector is at risk of collapse as thousands of companies warn that they could face bankruptcy within the next year because of high energy prices, according to an industry survey.

The manufacturers’ body Make UK said the latest feedback from its members found that many would not be able to cope for much longer with energy costs that were twice the average in continental Europe and four times higher than in the US.

Brands such as Portmeirion in Stoke welcome £120m package but seek further support to avert fresh closures

On the floor of Portmeirion’s factory in Staffordshire, staff are hard at work as clays are moulded, glazed and fired – an intricate process requiring precision and specialist skills honed over years of practice – to manufacture the company’s array of tableware.

Portmeirion, a homeware brand founded in 1960 that employs 433 people, is based in Stoke-on-Trent, at the heart of British ceramics. The centuries-old craft is so integral to the area’s identity that the six federated towns that make up the Staffordshire city are known as the Potteries.

From Brexit to fiscal rules to living costs, diagnoses multiply. Steel policy points to a missing link – the need for a strategy to rebuild

The government has raised tariffs to protect the steel industry. It also nationalised the UK’s remaining blast furnaces last year to keep them running. Both moves point to the same conclusion: the current economic model is not working. A series of interventions from Labour’s Sir Sadiq Khan and Angela Rayner as well as the Green party leader, Zack Polanski, this week suggests that an economic debate on the centre-left and left of politics is under way. The disagreement is no longer about whether there is a problem. It is where the problem lies.

Sir Sadiq, the London mayor, is right that Brexit has raised costs for businesses and households. Closer EU alignment would improve trade, investment and market access. That matters. But rejoining the EU won’t on its own rebuild the UK’s domestic capability. Ms Rayner points to a real institutional problem. If the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) understates the benefits of public investment, the state may be constraining itself unnecessarily. That matters too. However, changing the OBR model is not a strategy.

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Mike Hawes casts doubt on Labour’s plan to double production by 2035, as Starmer visits China with carmaker delegation

A target of building 1.3m cars a year is likely to be missed unless a large new UK factory is built in the coming years, an industry group has said, as Keir Starmer prepares to hold trade talks in China.

Labour aims to have 1.3m vehicles rolling off production lines by 2035, a central ambition of its industrial strategy. That would nearly double the 764,715 cars and vans made in 2025, according to new data from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

Brussels confirms Christmas carve-out from green levies will not happen, leading to Brexit-style requirements

UK manufacturers are to be hit with mountains of Brexit-style paperwork in January on £7bn worth of exports to the EU after the government failed to secure an expected exemption from new green taxes.

The UK had hoped to secure a carve-out by Christmas on the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM), but EU commissioners have confirmed this is not going to happen.