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Tag: U.K.

  • Will the Justice Department Even Try to Hold Epstein’s World Accountable?

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    The DoJ apparently has better things to do.
    Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

    The United States Department of Justice is getting lapped by both Congress and the British authorities on follow-up investigations around the Epstein files. There’s no excuse for either. As British police arrest astonishingly powerful men for their dealings with Jeffrey Epstein and the U.S. House of Representatives tries to force titans of finance and politics to answer tough questions, our Justice Department lags far behind. It’s not even clear the DoJ is doing anything at all.

    Over in the U.K., law-enforcement officials have arrested former prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and former ambassador to the U.S. Peter Mandelson. (Technically, both have been arrested but not yet formally charged, under a wrinkle in British legal procedure.) The putative defendants reportedly face potential charges of “misconduct in public office” for allegedly providing confidential government documents, including sensitive financial information about investment opportunities, to Epstein. (British authorities have accused neither man of participation in Epstein’s child sex-trafficking ring.)

    The British case is based in part on emails contained in the U.S. Justice Department’s own Epstein files, which were released less than a month ago. In a matter of weeks, British police investigated and arrested a former prince (Andrew) and a lord (Mandelson); have subjected both men, and others around them, to extensive questioning; and have conducted searches at properties associated with the subjects. Meanwhile, the most memorable step taken by our Justice Department since the release of the files was Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s public-service announcement that “the American people need to understand that it isn’t a crime to party with Mr. Epstein.”

    The contrast extends to the tone at the top. King Charles — an actual monarch who wears a literal crown and carries a scepter to work — has told British investigators (in American parlance) to do what you gotta do. Or, in the proper King’s English: “What now follows is the full, fair and proper process by which this issue is investigated in the appropriate manner and by the appropriate authorities. In this, as I have said before, they have our full and wholehearted support and cooperation. Let me state clearly: The law must take its course.” Other heads of state should follow the king’s hands-off example — in a case against his own brother Andrew, no less.

    Our own president isn’t quite of the same mind. He has long dismissed the Epstein case as a hoax, though it’s unclear what exactly he claims is fake. And he recently urged the American public to just get over it already. “I think it’s time now for the country to maybe get onto something else, like health care,” Trump responded when asked about the Epstein matter.

    The DoJ has dutifully adopted Trump’s recommended approach: myopia blended with dissembling and a pinch of proactive excuse-making. As Blanche explained earlier this month, “There’s a lot of correspondence. There’s a lot of emails. There’s a lot of photographs. But that doesn’t allow us necessarily to prosecute somebody.” Not exactly the tenacious prosecutorial posture Blanche and I learned during our concurrent early days at the Southern District of New York. But hey, if our Justice Department isn’t going to make meaningful use of its own Epstein files, at least others will.

    And then there’s Congress, which has taken a flawed but aggressive approach to its Epstein investigation. While a bipartisan (but mostly Democratic) coalition of lawmakers forced passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the Republican-led House Oversight Committee has pressed forward with a series of aggressive subpoenas for testimony. Yes, the subpoenas are largely for political show, and no, the House has not extracted any damning admissions — but it’s putting powerful people on the spot and making them face meaningful questioning under oath.

    Last week, billionaire Les Wexner — whose name the DoJ originally redacted from a document listing him as an unindicted “co-conspirator” but then unredacted after Representative Thomas Massie publicly called out the redaction — faced five hours of questioning from the Oversight Committee. Wexner, a close associate of Epstein’s, claimed no knowledge of his friend’s criminality. Wexner also denied allegations that he had sexually abused Virginia Giuffre, who testified in 2016 that, as a minor, she had been trafficked to have sex with Wexner multiple times. (She died by suicide in 2025.)

    The beauty of being a federal prosecutor is you don’t have to take a blanket denial as the final word, even from an arrogant billionaire. People disclaim wrongdoing all the time. Sometimes they’re telling the truth; other times they aren’t. So ordinarily, given the lead provided by Congress, DoJ prosecutors may take Wexner’s testimony and subject it to rigorous testing — talk to other witnesses, examine emails and texts, check out phone, financial, and travel records. Yet we’ve seen no indication of DoJ doing any such thing.

    This week, the Clintons take their turn at the Oversight Committee’s deposition table. After a prolonged back-and-forth during which they played themselves into a strategic corner, the former First Couple relented and agreed to testify under the looming threat of a contempt-of-Congress charge supported by some bipartisan votes.

    The Hillary Clinton subpoena was an obvious stretch by a congressional committee seeking to drag in a boldface name. She had nothing to do with Epstein; the best that Republican committee chair James Comer could do in defense of the subpoena was to note that — brace yourself — Clinton had hired Ghislaine Maxwell’s nephew to work on her 2008 presidential campaign and later at State. Yes, that’s the headliner. Clinton proceeded to tear the committee a new one with her opening statement on Thursday and, predictably, nothing of relevant substance came of her testimony.

    But Bill Clinton will have to squirm when he answers questions today. The committee surely will confront the former president — a frequent flier on Epstein’s private jet — with photographs that show him partying with Epstein (not a crime, remember, per the deputy AG); swimming in a pool with Maxwell and a female whose identity has been redacted, and reclining in a hot tub at night, hands behind his head, along with a female whose image has been blacked out.

    Meanwhile, we’ve seen no sign that the Justice Department has subpoenaed or otherwise sought to interview Wexner or Clinton or any other powerful Epstein associate — and certainly not the most powerful of all former Epstein pals, Trump himself. (Notably, even the aggressive House Oversight Committee hasn’t sought testimony from the current president.)

    The DoJ’s apparent inaction is particularly galling given that prosecutors hold far more potent investigative tools than Congress does. Prosecutors have the vast resources of the Justice Department and FBI at their disposal, while Congress must make do with minimal investigative staff. Prosecutors can obtain search warrants and wiretaps, while Congress can’t. And prosecutorial subpoenas generally can be broader in scope than congressional subpoenas and are enforced more rigorously by the courts.

    The Justice Department has been flailing for months now to justify its inactivity. Back in July 2025, top DoJ officials released a memo declaring that, after an exhaustive review of over 300 gigabytes of information, “We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”

    Since then, the Justice Department has offered mixed messages (at best) about its ongoing investigative efforts. And while prosecutors could be moving stealthily behind the scenes, entirely undetectable to the public — I’m dubious, but it’s possible — we’ve seen zero public indication of actual in-the-field enforcement activity: no search warrants, no subpoenas, no interviews with key players, no arrests.

    Meanwhile, the British authorities and Congress forge ahead. It’s an embarrassing moment for our Justice Department’s leadership and a telling indictment of its own stubborn — and perhaps purposeful — indifference.


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    Elie Honig

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  • European nations say Alexei Navalny was poisoned by the Kremlin with dart frog toxin

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    Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned by the Kremlin with a rare and lethal toxin found in the skin of poison dart frogs, five European countries said Saturday.The foreign ministries of the U.K., France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands said analysis of samples taken from Navalny’s body “conclusively confirmed the presence of epibatidine.” It is a neurotoxin found in the skin of dart frogs in South America that is not found naturally in Russia, they said.The countries said in a joint statement that “Russia had the means, motive and opportunity to administer this poison.” They said they were reporting Russia to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for a breach of the Chemical Weapons Convention.They made the announcement as Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, attended the Munich Security Conference in Germany, as the second anniversary of Navalny’s death approaches.Navalny, who crusaded against official corruption and staged massive anti-Kremlin protests as President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest foe, died in an Arctic penal colony on Feb. 16, 2024. He was serving a 19-year sentence that he believed to be politically motivated.“Russia saw Navalny as a threat,” British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said. “By using this form of poison, the Russian state demonstrated the despicable tools it has at its disposal and the overwhelming fear it has of political opposition.”Navalny’s widow said last year that two independent labs had found that her husband was poisoned shortly before he died. Navalnaya has repeatedly blamed Putin for Navalny’s death, something Russian officials have vehemently denied.Navalnaya said Saturday that she had been “certain from the first day” that her husband had been poisoned, “but now there is proof.”“Putin killed Alexei with chemical weapon,” she wrote on social network X, calling Putin “a murderer” who “must be held accountable.”Russian authorities said that the politician became ill after a walk and died from natural causes.Epibatidine is found naturally in dart frogs in the wild, and can also be manufactured in a lab, which European scientists suspect was the case with the substance used on Navalny. It works on the body in a similar way to nerve agents, causing shortness of breath, convulsions, seizures, a slowed heart rate and, ultimately, death.Navalny was the target of an earlier poisoning with a nerve agent in 2020 in an attack he blamed on the Kremlin, which always denied involvement. His family and allies fought to have him flown to Germany for treatment and recovery. Five months later, he returned to Russia, where he was immediately arrested and imprisoned for the last three years of his life.The U.K. has accused Russia of repeatedly flouting international bans on chemical and biological weapons. It has accused the Kremlin of carrying out a 2018 attack in the English city of Salisbury that targeted a former Russian intelligence officer, Sergei Skripal, with the nerve agent Novichok. A British inquiry concluded that the attack “must have been authorized at the highest level, by President Putin.”The Kremlin has denied involvement.

    LONDON —

    Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was poisoned by the Kremlin with a rare and lethal toxin found in the skin of poison dart frogs, five European countries said Saturday.

    The foreign ministries of the U.K., France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands said analysis of samples taken from Navalny’s body “conclusively confirmed the presence of epibatidine.” It is a neurotoxin found in the skin of dart frogs in South America that is not found naturally in Russia, they said.

    The countries said in a joint statement that “Russia had the means, motive and opportunity to administer this poison.” They said they were reporting Russia to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for a breach of the Chemical Weapons Convention.

    They made the announcement as Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, attended the Munich Security Conference in Germany, as the second anniversary of Navalny’s death approaches.

    Navalny, who crusaded against official corruption and staged massive anti-Kremlin protests as President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest foe, died in an Arctic penal colony on Feb. 16, 2024. He was serving a 19-year sentence that he believed to be politically motivated.

    “Russia saw Navalny as a threat,” British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said. “By using this form of poison, the Russian state demonstrated the despicable tools it has at its disposal and the overwhelming fear it has of political opposition.”

    Navalny’s widow said last year that two independent labs had found that her husband was poisoned shortly before he died. Navalnaya has repeatedly blamed Putin for Navalny’s death, something Russian officials have vehemently denied.

    Navalnaya said Saturday that she had been “certain from the first day” that her husband had been poisoned, “but now there is proof.”

    “Putin killed Alexei with chemical weapon,” she wrote on social network X, calling Putin “a murderer” who “must be held accountable.”

    Russian authorities said that the politician became ill after a walk and died from natural causes.

    Epibatidine is found naturally in dart frogs in the wild, and can also be manufactured in a lab, which European scientists suspect was the case with the substance used on Navalny. It works on the body in a similar way to nerve agents, causing shortness of breath, convulsions, seizures, a slowed heart rate and, ultimately, death.

    Navalny was the target of an earlier poisoning with a nerve agent in 2020 in an attack he blamed on the Kremlin, which always denied involvement. His family and allies fought to have him flown to Germany for treatment and recovery. Five months later, he returned to Russia, where he was immediately arrested and imprisoned for the last three years of his life.

    The U.K. has accused Russia of repeatedly flouting international bans on chemical and biological weapons. It has accused the Kremlin of carrying out a 2018 attack in the English city of Salisbury that targeted a former Russian intelligence officer, Sergei Skripal, with the nerve agent Novichok. A British inquiry concluded that the attack “must have been authorized at the highest level, by President Putin.”

    The Kremlin has denied involvement.

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  • Google DeepMind agrees to sweeping research collaboration with the U.K. government | Fortune

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    AI lab GoogleDeepMind announced a major new partnership with the U.K. government Wednesday, pledging to accelerate breakthroughs in materials science and clean energy, including nuclear fusion, as well as conducting joint research on the societal impacts of AI and on ways to make AI decision-making more interpretable and safer.

    As part of the partnership, Google DeepMind said it would open its first automated research laboratory in the U.K. in 2026. That lab will focus on discovering advanced materials including superconductors that can carry electricity with zero resistance. The facility will be fully integrated with Google’s Gemini AI models. Gemini will serve as a kind of scientific brain for the lab, which will also use robotics to synthesize and characterize hundreds of materials per day, significantly accelerating the timeline for transformative discoveries.

    The company will also work with the U.K. government and other U.K.-based scientists on trying to make breakthroughs in nuclear fusion, potentially paving the way for cheaper, cleaner energy. Fusion reactions should produce abundant power while producing little to no nuclear waste, but such reactions have proved to be very difficult to sustain or scale up.

    Additionally, Google DeepMind is expanding its research alliance with the government-run U.K. AI Security Institute to explore methods for discovering how large language models and other complex neural network-based AI models arrive at decisions. The partnership will also involve joint research into the societal impacts of AI, such as the effect AI deployment is likely to have on the labor market and the impact increased use of AI chatbots may have on mental health.

    British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement that the partnership would “make sure we harness developments in AI for public good so that everyone feels the benefits.”

    “That means using AI to tackle everyday challenges like cutting energy bills thanks to cheaper, greener energy and making our public services more efficient so that taxpayers’ money is spent on what matters most to people,” Starmer said.

    Google DeepMind cofounder and CEO Demis Hassabis said in a statement that AI has “incredible potential to drive a new era of scientific discovery and improve everyday life.”

    As part of the partnership, British scientists will receive priority access to Google DeepMind’s advanced AI tools, including AlphaGenome for DNA sequencing; AlphaEvolve for designing algorithms; DeepMind’s WeatherNext weather forecasting models; and its new AI co-scientist, a multi-agent system that acts as a virtual research collaborator.

    DeepMind was founded in London in 2010 and is still headquartered there; it was acquired by Google in 2014.

    Gemini’s U.K. footprint expands

    The collaboration also includes potential development of AI systems for education and government services. Google DeepMind will explore creating a version of Gemini tailored to England’s national curriculum to help teachers reduce administrative workloads. A pilot program in Northern Ireland showed that Gemini helped save teachers an average of 10 hours per week, according to the U.K. government.

    For public services, the U.K. government’s AI Incubator team is trialing Extract, a Gemini-powered tool that converts old planning documents into digital data in 40 seconds, compared to the current two-hour process.

    The expanded research partnership with the U.K. AI Security Institute will focus on three areas, the government and DeepMind said: developing techniques to monitor AI systems’ so-called “chain of thought”—the reasoning steps an AI model takes to arrive at an answer; studying the social and emotional impacts of AI systems; and exploring how AI will affect employment.

    U.K. AISI currently tests the safety of frontier AI models, including those from Google DeepMind and a number of other AI labs, under voluntary agreements. But the new research collaboration could potentially raise concerns about whether the U.K. AISI will remain objective in its testing of its now-partner’s models.

    In response to a question on this from Fortune, William Isaac, principal scientist and director of responsibility at Google DeepMind, did not directly address the issue of how the partnership might affect the U.K. AISI’s objectivity. But he said the new research agreement puts in place “a separate kind of relationship from other points of interaction.” He also said the new partnership was focused on “question on the horizon” rather than present models, and that the researchers would publish the results of their work for anyone to review.

    Isaac said there is no financial or commercial exchange as part of the research partnership, with both sides contributing people and research resources.

    “We’re excited to announce that we’re going to be deepening our partnership with the U.K. AISI to really focus on exploring, really the frontier research questions that we believe are going to be important for ensuring that we have safe and responsible development,” he said.

    He said the partnership will produce publicly accessible research focused on foundational questions—such as how AI impacts jobs or how talking to chatbots effects mental health—rather than policy-specific recommendations, though the findings could influence how businesses and policymakers think about AI and how to regulate it.

    “We want the research to be meaningful and provide insights,” Isaac said.

    Isaac described the U.K. AISI as “the crown jewel of all of the safety institutes” globally and said deepening the partnership “sends a really strong signal” about the importance of engaging responsibly as AI systems become more widely adopted.

    The partnership also includes expanded collaboration on AI-enhanced approaches to cybersecurity. This will include the U.K. government exploring the sue of tools like Big Sleep, an AI agent developed by Google that autonomously hunts for previously unknown “Zero Day” cybersecurity exploits, and CodeMender, another AI agent that can search for and then automatically patch security vulnerabilities in open source software.

    British Technology Secretary Liz Kendall is visiting San Francisco this week to further the U.K.-U.S. Tech Prosperity Deal, which was agreed to during U.S. President Trump’s state visit to the U.K. in September. In November alone, the British government said the pact helped secure more than $32.4 billion of private investment committed to the U.K tech sector.

    The Google-U.K. partnership builds on a £5 billion ($6.7 billion) investment commitment from Google made earlier this year to support U.K. AI infrastructure and research, and to help modernize government IT systems.

    The British government also said collaboration supports its AI Opportunities Action Plan and its £137 million AI for Science Strategy, which aims to position the UK as a global leader in AI-driven research.

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    Jeremy Kahn

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  • Opinion | Suspicious Drones Over Europe

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    Has the West absorbed the right lessons from Ukraine’s war with Russia? For the unsettling answer, look at what’s buzzing mysteriously in the skies above Europe’s cities. Drones were spotted this month in France, loitering around a gunpowder plant and a train station where tanks are located. Others were seen recently near a Belgian military base, a port, and a nuclear power plant.

    Belgium’s defense minister told the press the drones near military bases were “definitely for spying.” The provenance of other suspicious drones is less clear. Yet whatever their source, they’re a security threat. The Netherlands suspended flights in Eindhoven Saturday after a drone sighting, and similar episodes have unfolded this month at airports in Sweden, Germany, Belgium and Denmark.

    Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

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    The Editorial Board

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  • Opinion | How’s Life in That New Palestinian State?

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    I have a few questions for the foreign governments that approved “ A Palestinian State for Hamas” (Review & Outlook, Sept. 23). What is its capital city? Can Christians and Jews freely practice their religion there? Can women divorce, own property, vote, run for office, get abortions? Will elections be regularly held? Will gay marriage be allowed? Finally, do all citizens of the “state” have the right to kidnap, rape, torture and murder Jews?

    The Jewish people are celebrating the New Year of 5786—many of them, living in the state their foes want to wipe off the map. Meanwhile, Hamas refuses to release hostages kidnapped almost two years ago. Useful idiots in the U.K., Australia, France and elsewhere reward them for their intransigence. Recognition of this supposed state is an affront to decency, morality and common sense.

    Copyright ©2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8

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  • Trump heads to a UK state visit where trade and tech talks will mix with royal pomp

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    President Donald Trump will arrive in the United Kingdom on Tuesday for a state visit during which the British government hopes a multibillion-dollar technology deal will show the trans-Atlantic bond remains strong despite differences over Ukraine, the Middle East and the future of the Western alliance.State visits in Britain blend 21st-century diplomacy with royal pageantry. Trump’s two-day trip comes complete with horse-drawn carriages, military honor guards and a glittering banquet inside a 1,000-year-old castle — all tailored to a president with a fondness for gilded splendor.King Charles III will host Trump at Windsor Castle on Wednesday before talks the next day with Prime Minister Keir Starmer at Chequers, the British leader’s rural retreat.Starmer’s office said the visit will demonstrate that “the U.K.-U.S. relationship is the strongest in the world, built on 250 years of history” — after that awkward rupture in 1776 — and bound by shared values of “belief in the rule of law and open markets.” There was no mention of Trump’s market-crimping fondness for sweeping tariffs.The White House expects the two countries will strengthen their relationship during the trip and celebrate the upcoming 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, according to a senior White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. It was unclear how the U.K. was planning to mark that chapter in their shared history.“The trip to the U.K. is going to be incredible,” Trump told reporters Sunday. He said Windsor Castle is “supposed to be amazing” and added: “It’s going to be very exciting.”Trump’s second state visitTrump is the first U.S. president to get a second state visit to the U.K.The unprecedented nature of the invitation, along with the expectation of lavish pomp and pageantry, holds dual appeal to Trump. The president has glowingly praised the king’s late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, and spoken about how his own Scotland-born mother loved the queen and the monarchy.Trump, as he left the White House on Tuesday, noted that during his past state visit he was hosted at Buckingham Palace.“I don’t want to say one is better than the other, but they say Windsor Castle is the ultimate,” Trump said.He also called the king “an elegant gentleman” and said “he represents the country so well.”The president is also royally flattered by exceptional attention and has embraced the grandeur of his office in his second term. He has adorned the normally more austere Oval Office with gold accents, is constructing an expansive ballroom at the White House and has sought to refurbish other Washington buildings to his liking.Foreign officials have shown they’re attuned to his tastes. During a visit to the Middle East this year, leaders of Saudi Arabia and Qatar didn’t just roll out a red carpet but dispatched fighter jets to escort Trump’s plane.Starmer has already shown he’s adept at charming Trump. Visiting Washington in February, he noted the president’s Oval Office decorating choices and decision to display a bust of Winston Churchill. During Trump’s private trip to Scotland in July, Starmer visited and praised Trump’s golf courses.Efforts to woo the president make some members of Starmer’s Labour Party uneasy, and Trump will not address Parliament during his visit, like French President Emmanuel Macron did in July. Lawmakers will be on their annual autumn recess, sparing the government an awkward decision.The itinerary in Windsor and at Chequers, both well outside London, also keeps Trump away from a planned mass protest against his visit.“This visit is really important to Keir Starmer to show that he’s a statesman,” said Leslie Vinjamuri, president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. “But it’s such a double-edged sword, because he’s going to be a statesman alongside a U.S. president that is not popular in Europe.”Troubles for StarmerPreparations for the visit have been ruffled by political turmoil in Starmer’s center-left government. Last week, Starmer sacked Britain’s ambassador to Washington, Peter Mandelson, over his past friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.Mandelson had good relations with the Trump administration and played a key role in securing a U.K.-U.S. trade agreement in May. His firing has put Epstein back in British headlines as Trump tries to swerve questions about his own relationship with the disgraced financier.Mandelson’s exit came just a week after Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner quit over a tax error on a home purchase. A senior Starmer aide, Paul Ovenden quit Monday over tasteless text messages he sent years ago. Fourteen months after winning a landslide election victory, Starmer’s position at the helm of the Labour Party is fragile and his poll ratings are in the dumps.But he has found a somewhat unexpected supporter in Trump, who has said Starmer is a friend, despite being “slightly more liberal than I am.”Starmer’s government has cultivated that warmth and tried to use it to get favorable trade terms with the U.S., the U.K.’s largest single economic partner, accounting for 18% of total British trade.The May trade agreement reduces U.S. tariffs on Britain’s key auto and aerospace industries. But a final deal has not been reached over other sectors, including pharmaceuticals, steel and aluminum.As he left the White House on Tuesday, Trump said U.K. officials wanted to continue trade negotiations during his visit.“They’d like to see if they can get a little bit better deal, so we’ll talk to them” he said.Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are expected to be among the business leaders in the U.S. delegation. Trump and Starmer are set to sign a technology partnership – which Mandelson was key to striking – accompanied by major investments in nuclear power, life sciences and Artificial Intelligence data centers.The leaders are also expected to sign nuclear energy deals, expand cooperation on defense technology and explore ways to bolster ties between their financial hubs, according to the White House official.Ukraine on the agendaStarmer has also tried to use his influence to maintain U.S. support for Ukraine, with limited results. Trump has expressed frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin but has not made good on threats to impose new sanctions on Russia for shunning peace negotiations.Last week’s Russian drone incursion into NATO member Poland drew strong condemnation from European NATO allies, and pledges of more planes and troops for the bloc’s eastern flank. Trump played down the incident’s severity, musing that it “ could have been a mistake.”Starmer also departs from Trump over Israel’s war in Gaza, and has said the U.K. will formally recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations later this month.Vinjamuri said Starmer “has kept the United States speaking the right language” on Ukraine, but has had little impact on Trump’s actions.“On China, on India, on Israel and Gaza and Hamas, and on Vladimir Putin – on the really big important things – the U.K. hasn’t had a huge amount of influence,” she said.

    LONDON —

    President Donald Trump will arrive in the United Kingdom on Tuesday for a state visit during which the British government hopes a multibillion-dollar technology deal will show the trans-Atlantic bond remains strong despite differences over Ukraine, the Middle East and the future of the Western alliance.

    State visits in Britain blend 21st-century diplomacy with royal pageantry. Trump’s two-day trip comes complete with horse-drawn carriages, military honor guards and a glittering banquet inside a 1,000-year-old castle — all tailored to a president with a fondness for gilded splendor.

    King Charles III will host Trump at Windsor Castle on Wednesday before talks the next day with Prime Minister Keir Starmer at Chequers, the British leader’s rural retreat.

    Starmer’s office said the visit will demonstrate that “the U.K.-U.S. relationship is the strongest in the world, built on 250 years of history” — after that awkward rupture in 1776 — and bound by shared values of “belief in the rule of law and open markets.” There was no mention of Trump’s market-crimping fondness for sweeping tariffs.

    The White House expects the two countries will strengthen their relationship during the trip and celebrate the upcoming 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States, according to a senior White House official who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. It was unclear how the U.K. was planning to mark that chapter in their shared history.

    “The trip to the U.K. is going to be incredible,” Trump told reporters Sunday. He said Windsor Castle is “supposed to be amazing” and added: “It’s going to be very exciting.”

    Trump’s second state visit

    Trump is the first U.S. president to get a second state visit to the U.K.

    The unprecedented nature of the invitation, along with the expectation of lavish pomp and pageantry, holds dual appeal to Trump. The president has glowingly praised the king’s late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, and spoken about how his own Scotland-born mother loved the queen and the monarchy.

    Trump, as he left the White House on Tuesday, noted that during his past state visit he was hosted at Buckingham Palace.

    “I don’t want to say one is better than the other, but they say Windsor Castle is the ultimate,” Trump said.

    He also called the king “an elegant gentleman” and said “he represents the country so well.”

    The president is also royally flattered by exceptional attention and has embraced the grandeur of his office in his second term. He has adorned the normally more austere Oval Office with gold accents, is constructing an expansive ballroom at the White House and has sought to refurbish other Washington buildings to his liking.

    Foreign officials have shown they’re attuned to his tastes. During a visit to the Middle East this year, leaders of Saudi Arabia and Qatar didn’t just roll out a red carpet but dispatched fighter jets to escort Trump’s plane.

    Starmer has already shown he’s adept at charming Trump. Visiting Washington in February, he noted the president’s Oval Office decorating choices and decision to display a bust of Winston Churchill. During Trump’s private trip to Scotland in July, Starmer visited and praised Trump’s golf courses.

    Efforts to woo the president make some members of Starmer’s Labour Party uneasy, and Trump will not address Parliament during his visit, like French President Emmanuel Macron did in July. Lawmakers will be on their annual autumn recess, sparing the government an awkward decision.

    The itinerary in Windsor and at Chequers, both well outside London, also keeps Trump away from a planned mass protest against his visit.

    “This visit is really important to Keir Starmer to show that he’s a statesman,” said Leslie Vinjamuri, president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. “But it’s such a double-edged sword, because he’s going to be a statesman alongside a U.S. president that is not popular in Europe.”

    Troubles for Starmer

    Preparations for the visit have been ruffled by political turmoil in Starmer’s center-left government. Last week, Starmer sacked Britain’s ambassador to Washington, Peter Mandelson, over his past friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

    Mandelson had good relations with the Trump administration and played a key role in securing a U.K.-U.S. trade agreement in May. His firing has put Epstein back in British headlines as Trump tries to swerve questions about his own relationship with the disgraced financier.

    Mandelson’s exit came just a week after Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner quit over a tax error on a home purchase. A senior Starmer aide, Paul Ovenden quit Monday over tasteless text messages he sent years ago. Fourteen months after winning a landslide election victory, Starmer’s position at the helm of the Labour Party is fragile and his poll ratings are in the dumps.

    But he has found a somewhat unexpected supporter in Trump, who has said Starmer is a friend, despite being “slightly more liberal than I am.”

    Starmer’s government has cultivated that warmth and tried to use it to get favorable trade terms with the U.S., the U.K.’s largest single economic partner, accounting for 18% of total British trade.

    The May trade agreement reduces U.S. tariffs on Britain’s key auto and aerospace industries. But a final deal has not been reached over other sectors, including pharmaceuticals, steel and aluminum.

    As he left the White House on Tuesday, Trump said U.K. officials wanted to continue trade negotiations during his visit.

    “They’d like to see if they can get a little bit better deal, so we’ll talk to them” he said.

    Nvidia chief executive Jensen Huang and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman are expected to be among the business leaders in the U.S. delegation. Trump and Starmer are set to sign a technology partnership – which Mandelson was key to striking – accompanied by major investments in nuclear power, life sciences and Artificial Intelligence data centers.

    The leaders are also expected to sign nuclear energy deals, expand cooperation on defense technology and explore ways to bolster ties between their financial hubs, according to the White House official.

    Ukraine on the agenda

    Starmer has also tried to use his influence to maintain U.S. support for Ukraine, with limited results. Trump has expressed frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin but has not made good on threats to impose new sanctions on Russia for shunning peace negotiations.

    Last week’s Russian drone incursion into NATO member Poland drew strong condemnation from European NATO allies, and pledges of more planes and troops for the bloc’s eastern flank. Trump played down the incident’s severity, musing that it “ could have been a mistake.”

    Starmer also departs from Trump over Israel’s war in Gaza, and has said the U.K. will formally recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations later this month.

    Vinjamuri said Starmer “has kept the United States speaking the right language” on Ukraine, but has had little impact on Trump’s actions.

    “On China, on India, on Israel and Gaza and Hamas, and on Vladimir Putin – on the really big important things – the U.K. hasn’t had a huge amount of influence,” she said.

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  • Third Space’s CEO follows an 80/20 rule for eating out, competes in triathlons at 54-years-old and has made startup investments he regrets

    Third Space’s CEO follows an 80/20 rule for eating out, competes in triathlons at 54-years-old and has made startup investments he regrets

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    What would you do if you had a six-figure salary? Perhaps you’d never cook another meal again or indulge in a monthly Thai massage and a Soho House membership to unwind from the stress that comes with being at your A game.

    Here at The Good Life you don’t have to imagine what life at the top looks like anymore: Get real-life inspiration for how the most successful live their lives.

    Today Fortune meets Colin Waggett, the CEO of London’s hottest high-end gym, Third Space—perhaps better known as the spot where David Beckham and Prince Harry have worked out. Britain’s answer to Equinox has taken London’s luxury gym market by storm.

    Despite only opening its first club in 2001 and having a hefty price tag of £220-to-£250 a month, Third Space is rapidly growing a loyal fan base of millennials. This is thanks, in part, to its Instagramable interiors and classes (hello, hot yoga). 

    35,000+

    Number of Third Space members.

    But also, Waggett’s extensive industry experience: He was Fitness First’s CEO for over seven years before launching his own boutique gym, Psycle, which was acquired in 2014 for an undisclosed amount. 

    Under his helm, Third Space has quadrupled in size when it comes to revenue and membership size. Last year, it secured an £88.5 million cash injection to help the brand scale up à la Equinox which has over 40 fancy fitness clubs across the pond. Although Third Space has only just opened its 11th club, it’s already too tight a squeeze for its 35,000-plus members and several sites are now operating a waiting list. With high-end gyms seriously en vogue, Waggett’s is personally on the lookout for new locations.

    The finances

    Fortune: What has been the best investment you’ve ever bought?

    My investment in Third Space. I can’t tell you how much – but it is a great business.

    The worst?  

    I’ve done a handful of investments in startups that have gone bust…

    Third Space set within the 23-acre Wood Wharf district:

    Third Space in Wood Wharf.

    Courtesy of Third Space

    Courtesy of Third Space

    Courtesy of Third Space

    Do you carry a wallet?

    Not since Covid. Apple Pay all the way.

    What personal finance advice would you give your 20-year-old self?  

    Save a bit regularly, but back yourself. I’d rather invest in a business I know, understand and am involved in, than a fund that invests in businesses I know nothing about, paying fees to someone I’ve never met.

    What’s the one subscription you can’t live without? 

    Strava – can I have two? And Spotify.

    Garmin Marq smartwatches during the 2024 CES event in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024. The event typically doubles as a preview of how tech giants and startups will market their wares in the coming year and if early announcements are any indication, AI-branded products will become the new "smart" gadgets of 2024. Photographer: Bridget Bennett/Bloomberg via Getty Images
    Colin’s go-to watch is from American-Swiss company, Garmin.

    Bridget Bennett—Bloomberg/Getty Images

    Where’s your go-to watch from? 

    Garmin.

    What’s your go-to work wardrobe?

    Paul Smith, LuluLemon, Eton, Vulpine.

    DETROIT, MICHIGAN, UNITED STATES - 2022/02/07: Lululemon logo seen at one of their Stores in downtown Detroit. (Photo by Stephen Zenner/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
    When it comes to work attire, Lululemon is a favorite for Third Space CEO.

    Stephen Zenner—SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images

    If you have children, what do your childcare arrangements look like? 

    My kids are 21 and 18, so they can now pick me up from the pub when I need them to.

    The necessities

    How do you commute to work? 

    I take the train from Winchester — it provides a very productive hour each way of reading, writing and thinking.

    Save a bit regularly, but back yourself. I’d rather invest in a business I know, understand and am involved in, than a fund that invests in businesses I know nothing about, paying fees to someone I’ve never met.

    How do you get your daily coffee fix?  

    I love my Sage espresso coffee machine — homemade is the best. One of my colleagues is a total coffee nut, so he makes sure we pick the best coffee shops wherever we are in London. The office favourite is Hideaway Coffee House on Brewer Street in Soho. 

    A Sage The Oracle coffee machine, taken on May 12, 2017. (Photo by Joseph Branston/T3 Magazine/Future via Getty Images)
    Waggett usually gets his daily coffee fix at home, using his Sage espresso coffee machine.

    Joseph Branston—T3 Magazine/Future/Getty Images

    Do you have lunch al desko?    

    Often, yes. We have our own food business called Natural Fitness Food, or NFF for short, which is super healthy, macro controlled, fresh and delicious. My current favourite is the Hot Smoked Salmon which has 38g of protein.

    How often in a week do you dine out versus cook at home? 

    We eat in 5 nights and eat out 2. I am lucky my wife is a fantastic cook, and I tend to cook one night at the weekend. 

    The treats

    How do you unwind from the top job? 

    I work out a lot at our clubs (obviously!) and ride my bike through the Hampshire countryside or through the Mountain ranges of Europe when I get the chance. I also play golf and compete in the odd triathlon. And, of course, spending time with family, friends and wine.

    View of the Harbour and Across the Bay
    Colin and his family have a house on the North Coast of Cornwall, which backs onto dunes, the sea and surf.

    Deejpilot via Getty

    What’s the best bonus treat you’ve bought yourself? 

    I always need another bike. My latest is the Pinarello F12. 

    Take us on holiday with you, what’s next on your vacation list?

    3 or 4 ski trips, some downhill, some touring, and heli (off-trail, where the skier reaches the top of the mountain by helicopter) if I’m lucky. All my family and friends are ski nuts. I tend to also go on a cycling trip with friends to some mountains somewhere. We have a house on the North Coast of Cornwall to escape to, which backs onto dunes, the sea and surf — I’ll get in the water every day and walk or run the cliff tops with the family and the dog. And then somewhere interesting or hot. Last year it was Sumba and Komodo in Indonesia, this year Croatia. How many is that? Not enough!

    Here at The Good Life you don’t have to imagine what life at the top looks like anymore: Get real-life inspiration for how the most successful live life. Dive into our other ‘The Good Life’ profiles.

    Fortune wants to hear from European leaders on what their “Good Life” looks like. Get in touch: orianna.royle@fortune.com.

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    Orianna Rosa Royle

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  • Political podcasting is the hottest career right now

    Political podcasting is the hottest career right now

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    The 2024 General Election marked a milestone for political podcasts in the U.K.

    Once a niche on the fringes of mainstream media, political podcasts have now come of age. They’ve spurred best-selling book launches, sold-out shows and for the first time, broken into mainstream TV, putting these stars of new media front-and-center during one of the biggest media moments of the year.

    The country’s swathe of newly minted political podcasters became some of the most important of the campaign, relaunching their careers and cementing their position as entrepreneurs in their own right.

    Former political heavyweights like Alastair Campbell, Rory Stewart, Ed Balls, George Osbourne and some of the BBC’s former top talent all took a leading role in the election coverage on the country’s major television networks, blazing the trail for a new world of podcasting that’s taking on the mainstream media.

    The Rest is Politics 

    At first glance, the pairing of Former Conservative Cabinet Minister Rory Stewart and Tony Blair’s Labour Communications Chief Alastair Campbell might appear like an odd couple, but in the space of just two short years, their show has blossomed into the U.K.’s most popular politics podcast. 

    ‘The Rest is Politics’ hosted by Alastair Campbell and Rory Stewart.

    HENRY NICHOLLS/AFP via Getty Images

    The Rest is Politics lifts the lid on the secrets of Westminster, and in their own words offers  “…an insider’s view on politics at home and abroad, while bringing back the lost art of disagreeing agreeably”. In January 2023, the duo added Leading, a weekly interview series with some of the world’s biggest names in politics.

    And in April 2024, the podcast expanded across the Atlantic, launching The Rest is Politics USA, creating another unlikely couple with political heavyweights Anthony Scaramucci (former White House press secretary for Donald Trump) and Katty Kay (formerly BBC World News Anchor).

    Rory Stewart
    Former Conservative Cabinet Minister, Rory Stewart. Stewart co-hosts ‘The Rest is Politics’ with Campbell.

    Lorne Thomson/Getty Images

    Stewart and Campbell are published by Goalhanger podcasts, which is now one of the U.K.’s largest independent podcast networks with a reported 17.5 million downloads each month. 

    Goalhanger was founded by football pundit and former England footballer Gary Linekar, and the company has grown a roster of successful podcasts including The Rest is Football, Empire, and Match of the Day Top 10.

    Alastair Campbell, host of Britain's podcast,The Rest Is Politics.
    Tony Blair’s Labour Communications Chief, Alastair Campbell.

    Euan Cherry/Getty Images

    Financial information on Goalhanger is limited, but company accounts show its “current assets” more than tripled to £842,936 ($1.08 million) last year. 

    20,000

    The number of sold-out live shows.

    The company’s revenue-sharing model means when their podcasters win, Goalhanger wins too. That makes Stewart and Campbell one of its most-prized assets.

    The Rest is Politics has grown into a sizable media franchise in its own right, boasting premium memberships and live shows across the U.K., selling out arenas as large as the O2 Arena in London with 20,000 seats. 

    Stewart and Campbell have both rebooted their careers, spanning bestseller book deals and presenting gigs, including coveted slots on Channel 4 TV’s overnight coverage of the 2024 General Election, marking a significant transition from new media to mass media television.

    Unsurprisingly, revenues from advertising, subscriptions, and live shows like their O2 performance have beefed up the pair’s bank accounts as well. Speaking to the Times of London last year, Stewart said: “It’s extraordinary. It’s good money. I’d say it’s Championship footballer money.” Championship footballers, playing in the second tier of the English football league, routinely earn thousands of pounds a month.

    The News Agents 

    Stewart and Campbell were joined on Channel 4 for the U.K.’s election night coverage by Emily Maitlis, formerly one of the BBC’s biggest stars, known for her 2019 interview with Prince Andrew, the disgraced Duke of York with links to Jeffrey Epstein.

    Maitlis is now best-known as one-third of The News Agents, the arch-rival to The Rest is Politics, which it has continued to battle at the top of the charts since the podcast launched in August 2022. 

    The News Agents features two other superstar heavyweight presenters alongside Maitlis, including her former BBC Newsnight colleague Lewis Goodall and BBC News’ North America correspondent Jon Sopel. Published by radio and advertising giant Global, poaching some of the BBC’s biggest talent at the time of launch was seen as a significant milestone in the meteoric rise of podcasting in the U.K.

    The News Agents's Emily Maitlis (holding the trophy) with Jon Sopel (M) and Lewis Goodall (R).
    The News Agents’s Emily Maitlis (holding the trophy) with Jon Sopel (M) and Lewis Goodall (R).

    Jordan Pettitt/PA Images via Getty Images

    Freed from the strict reporting constraints of the BBC, The News Agents gained rapid popularity by, for the first time, allowing listeners to hear what seasoned journalists Maitlis, Goodall and Sopel really think. Publishing episodes every weekday, the show has seen commercial success since its launch, attracting launch sponsorship from BT and a recently extended deal with HSBC UK.

    Mirroring their arch-rival The Rest is Politics, in June 2023 former BBC North America editor Jon Sopel and Emily Maitlis launched a weekly spinoff called The News Agents USA. The spin-off attracted international attention after a recorded spat with Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene went viral, after telling Maitlis she was a “conspiracy theorist” and “why don’t you f**k off, how about that?” In a brilliantly British retort, Maitlis responded “Thanks, thank you very much”.

    Full Disclosure

    Award-winning presenter and best-selling author James O’Brien also has broadcasting roots from the BBC’s Newsnight TV show and has gone on to become one of British radio’s biggest political presenters.

    Mid-morning presenter James O'Brien
    O’Brien has grown a reputation as one of Britain’s toughest interviewers and harshest critics of Brexit.

    Victoria Jones/PA Images via Getty Images

    LBC radio (part of the Global Media group, which also publishes The News Agents) has become his full-time home since 2004, where he’s grown a reputation as one of Britain’s toughest interviewers and harshest critics of Brexit. Known as a divisive figure on the political scene, O’Brien has been described both as “liberal firebrand” and a “thundering, sanctimonious bore”.

    4,000,000

    The number of viewers tuning into O’Brien’s rants.

    His team has skillfully used social video on platforms including Twitter (X), Facebook and YouTube, to amplify his epic rants, which have sometimes lasted over 10 minutes long and reached up to 4 million views. LBC has spurned three podcasts from his on-air radio shows, including James O’Brien, The Whole Show, James O’Brien’s Mystery Hour, and The Best of James O’Brien.

    In March 2019, O’Brien launched Full Disclosure into the podcasting world, featuring hour-long interviews with leaders from the worlds of politics, entertainment, and news. The long-form, in-depth format has become a standout success and a contrast to a media world dominated by short soundbites and clips for social media.

    Global’s bet on podcasting with heavyweights like James O’Brien and The News Agents has helped it become a billion-dollar revenue company. Turnover last year surpassed £806 million ($1.03 billion), company accounts show, helping it net £138 million ($176 million) in profits.

    Political Currency

    Continuing the earlier theme of unlikely pairings, Political Currency brings together former Labour Cabinet Minister Ed Balls and former Conservative Chancellor George Osborne for a fascinating look into the murky worlds of politics and economics.

    Production house Persophonica produces the show, and also is the company behind rival show The News Agents and Dua Lipa: At Your Service, one of the world’s most listened-to entertainment podcasts. 

    2023

    The year ‘Political Currency’ was launched.

    Described as former ‘frenemies’, Osborne and Balls launched the podcast in September 2023, and quickly rose to the top of the podcast charts across the U.K. At the time of launch, one writer quipped that Political Currency has an ironic name “a resource of which these men are utterly spent”. 

    The hosts:

    Former British politician, George Osborne and politician to presenter to podcaster, Ed Balls.
    Former British politician, George Osborne (L) and politician to presenter to podcaster, Ed Balls.

    Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

    Osborne and Balls have perhaps had the last laugh, as like their rivals Rory Stewart and Alastair Campbell from The Rest is Politics and Emily Maitlis from The News Agents, the pair broke through to the mainstream media this election, both featuring as guest co-hosts for ITV News’ coverage of the 2024 election.

    The Political Party

    Launched in 2013 by impressionist and writer Matt Forde, The Political Party is one of Britain’s most established political podcasts.

    Matt Forde
    Forde is known as one of Britain’s best impressionists and is known for making his guests on the show burst into laughter with his hilarious, realistic impressions of well-known figures including former Prime Minister Boris Jonhson and former President Donald Trump.

    Venla Shalin/Redferns

    Like its rival The Rest is Politics, Forde’s venture into podcasting has grown into a serious media business in its own right, with live recordings in theaters selling out often months in advance. To date, the series has featured 70 sold-out shows over the past seven years.

    Uniquely, the show’s format blends political parody and comedic impressions alongside in-depth interviews with some of the biggest names in politics, including former Prime Minister Tony Blair and former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who now acts as President of Global Affairs at Meta.

    70

    The number of sold-out shows the series has featured.

    Forde is known as one of Britain’s best impressionists and is known for making his guests on the show burst into laughter with his hilarious, realistic impressions of well-known figures including former Prime Minister Boris Jonhson and former President Donald Trump.

    For the 2024 General Election, Forde started an ambitious project to interview a candidate from as many of the U.K.’s 650 constituencies as possible. At the time of writing, across 24 episodes during the campaign, impressively he interviewed 133 candidates in total, offering an insight into behind-the-scenes campaigning across the country.

    “I will find a way to hit 650,” he said in his last episode before the election on July 4. “….I think I’m going to interview every MP before the next election and give myself a bit more time”.

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    Alex Wood Morton, Ryan Hogg

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  • Rishi Sunak awaits a multimillion-dollar payday after losing his $177,000 PM gig

    Rishi Sunak awaits a multimillion-dollar payday after losing his $177,000 PM gig

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    It’s official. Rishi Sunak is no longer the U.K. Prime Minister. His long and winding road to the Number 10 exit door has felt inevitable since he took over from the economically disastrous, short-lived Liz Truss government in the autumn of 2022.  

    But 44-year-old Sunak—reportedly found riding off into the Californian sunset on his Peloton before results landed—is more likely to be licking his lips at the future that awaits him than stewing over what could have been with another five years in office.

    That’s because Sunak, a man who is technically richer than the King of England and has a past as a high-flying London banker, can prepare for a few more lucrative perks as he steps away from a life of service. 

    Sunak’s millions

    As prime minister, Sunak was entitled to a salary of £80,000, in addition to his £91,346 salary as a member of parliament for his Richmond and Northallerton constituency. Tax records show that last year, he took home £139,000 ($177,000) from those roles.

    His pay packet for leading the U.K. is a meager sum compared to what he got used to before entering politics and even his other forms of income while he held the job. Sunak made nearly £1.8 million in capital gains last year and paid a total of £500,000 in tax.

    Sunak worked as a successful banker for years, starting at Goldman Sachs before achieving an MBA and returning to the lucrative hedge fund space. 

    According to an analysis by efinancialcareers, Sunak probably only earned less than £100,000 in his first three years out of university.

    While working at the hedge fund TCI between 2006 and 2009 in his mid-20s, Sunak became a multimillionaire after he and his colleagues shared a £100 million pot after a lucrative bet in the buildup to the global financial crisis. 

    The hedge fund took an activist position in the Dutch bank ABN Amro in 2007, forcing its sale to the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), which resulted in a £555.9 million profit. However, that acquisition saddled the Scottish bank with debt, leading to a £45.5 billion government bailout.

    While Sunak’s biggest riches will probably come after he eventually resigns as an MP, there are several new income avenues he can eventually look forward to.

    Evidence suggests that if Sunak returns to the finance world after he leaves politics, he will be in high demand. 

    Sunak’s fellow former chancellor George Osbourne has minted fresh millions through city advisory roles with groups including Blackrock and Robey Warshaw, in addition to his time editing London’s Evening Standard newspaper.  

    Or, he could take a cautious lesson from David Cameron. The man who served as PM between 2010 and 2016 landed himself in hot water over his role in the collapsed finance group Greensill Capital.

    Cameron reportedly got $10 million from Greensill to lobby the government on behalf of the company, but his spokesperson disputed that figure. 

    Speaking engagements

    The easiest mileage for Sunak’s bank account after leaving office will likely see him harness his years of training as a public speaker.

    Tony Blair, the ninth-longest running PM of all time, set a marker after he retired, reportedly commanding £1 million in 2012 from his engagements. His Tory successors have been keen to follow that trend.

    In the year between stepping down as prime minister and resigning as an MP, the mercurial Boris Johnson bagged millions of dollars from extracurricular activities as he settled into post-leadership life.

    Documents from May 2023 show Johnson was paid around £3.5 million for speaking engagements after stepping down as PM. He also received a £510,000 advance on a book deal. Theresa May, Johnson’s predecessor, has also enjoyed the speaking circuit since quitting as PM in 2019.

    Family wealth

    What is unique for Sunak among his contemporaries, however, is that the PM never needs to work again.

    Sunak and his wife, Akshata Murty, are worth a combined £651 million ($830 million), according to the latest Sunday Times Rich List, making him richer than King Charles. 

    The vast majority of that wealth comes from Murty’s holdings in the Indian IT company Infosys, which her billionaire father co-founded.

    Murty’s wealth was a hot point of contention during Sunak’s premiership owing to her “non-dom” status, which meant she didn’t pay tax on income from shares in the foreign-owned Infosys. Murty vowed to pay U.K. tax on this after a media storm.

    Sunak will remain an MP until he decides otherwise, like Boris Johnson or David Cameron before him. 

    But when he does go, the man who led the Tories to their worst defeat in nearly two centuries will quickly be absorbed into a multimillion-dollar corporate cushion shared by most of his former allies.

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    Ryan Hogg

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  • Women are now less likely to be in top earning 1% of U.K. finance and professional services jobs than before the pandemic

    Women are now less likely to be in top earning 1% of U.K. finance and professional services jobs than before the pandemic

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    Women in the U.K. are four times less likely than men to be among the top 1% of earners in financial and professional services, according to analysis by the London School of Economics. And despite decades of efforts to narrow the gender gap in pay and career progression, it’s gotten slightly bigger since before the pandemic.

    In brief

    Women occupy 19.4% of the top 1% highest finance and professional services roles, down slightly from the three year pre-Covid average of 19.7%. 

    However, while still far from equal, women’s share of the top 10% of positions was higher, at 28.3%, and has shown signs of progress, increasing by 2.5 percentage points over the period.  

    The LSE analysis, which drew on the U.K.’s main survey of economic activity, the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS), from January 2017 to June 2023, also found some rebalancing in terms of seniority. Women now comprise 37% of senior managers and directors in professional services and finance, roughly the same as the percentage of female full-time employees.

    Why hasn’t gender equality improved more?

    The persistent gender seniority gap, which widens as you get closer to the top of the career ladder, suggests corporate efforts to narrow it—with all the well-documented benefits it brings of access to talent and more diverse thinking—have been insufficient. 

    The reasons behind it are complex, including a significant career penalty for mothers but not for fathers, bias—whether blatant or unconscious—and wider societal factors that disadvantage women’s careers, such as a higher average burden of household chores, and child and elder care responsibilities. 

    These factors have proven stubborn over many years, so in a way the question to ask is why would they have improved, in the absence of major changes in attitudes or behaviours?

    Indeed, the COVID-19 pandemic may have set back gender equality, as layoffs disproportionately affected women, while businesses have a tendency to defund diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs when trading conditions are tough. In the U.S., this has been compounded by a conservative backlash against affirmative action, often through legal means.  

    “We are going backwards, but I am not surprised. For progress to be made there needs to be a bigger shift towards recognizing that diversity is good for business. There also needs to be significant investment in upskilling managers to become inclusive leaders recognizing that leading diverse teams is a skill. Without it, I will be giving the same quote 10 years from now,” said Dr Grace Lordan, founding director of The Inclusion Initiative at LSE and associate professor in its Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science.

    Hybrid working may have been expected to favor working mothers, but there is evidence that people who work remotely suffer a career disadvantage compared with those who come into the office, while return-to-office orders have started pushing moms out of the workplace. 

    What’s next?

    The trend towards more equal gender representation in mid-senior roles and among the top 10% of earners is encouraging, particularly coming in relatively male-dominated sectors like finance and professional services. 

    It would be reasonable to expect knock-on effects on the most senior and well-paid roles in the coming decade, simply because more women will have had the experience necessary to be considered. 

    However, the trend persists that women’s chances of progression decrease with every level of seniority. Until that dynamic changes, the gap will remain considerable. 

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    Adam Gale

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  • Easter is around the corner—but the real hunt for Brits this time will be to find cheap chocolates amid eye-watering inflation as high as 62.5%

    Easter is around the corner—but the real hunt for Brits this time will be to find cheap chocolates amid eye-watering inflation as high as 62.5%

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    Well, it’s nearly that time of year once again. Except this year, people may have to brace themselves for a different type of hunt—finding good deals on overpriced chocolate eggs.

    A new survey by consumer group Which? found the prices of Easter eggs—a central fixture of the holiday—have soared to eye-watering levels. 

    Across popular brands in the U.K., the price of chocolate is up about 50% (or more) compared to just a year ago.

    Take the iconic Lindt Five Gold Bunny Milk Chocolate, for instance. It’s almost 56% more expensive this year at Asda compared to 2023, while the Cadbury Mini Eggs Large Pouch is 46% pricier in Ocado. The worst example, per Which? data, was the Maltesers Truffles Luxury East Egg, which saw a 62.5% year-over-year price increase at Waitrose.  

    Easter bunny chocolate wrapped in gold and placed on a table
    Lindt “Gold Bunny” chocolate.

    Annette Riedl—picture alliance/Getty Images

    Based on Which? analysis, chocolate inflation stands at 12.6% compared to last year—far outpacing the average 5.6% inflation in the food and drink departments at supermarkets. 

    Some of the chocolates have also gotten smaller, ringing “shrinkflation” bells. For instance, Which? found that Terrys Chocolate Orange Easter egg with Mini Eggs have shrunk from 230g to 200g in the last year.

    “We have been trying to find ways to absorb the rising costs of raw materials and operations, as we know the increase in the cost of living has impacted both consumers and businesses across the U.K.,” Mars Wringley U.K., which makes Maltesers, told Fortune in a statement.

    “Reducing the size of some of our products, whilst raising prices, is not a decision we have taken lightly but it is necessary for shoppers to still be able to enjoy their favourite Easter eggs without compromising on quality or taste.”

    For its survey, Which? compared the prices of chocolates between February 2023 and 2024 across mainstream supermarkets in the U.K., excluding multibuys and loyalty program deals.

    Inflation has been a major concern in the minds of U.K. consumers—but eggflation offers a new twist to the tale. In recent times, cocoa prices have skyrocketed due to unfavorable weather conditions and low yield. Cocoa futures, a measure of the key ingredient’s future value, have gone up 40% just since Valentine’s Day last month. They touched a 65-year high of $5,798 per metric tonne in February. That ultimately impacts the price of chocolates you see in stores today, and marks a continuation of the elevated prices seen last Easter. 

    The likes of Lindt have remarked about passing on an uptick in costs to customers through price increases—a strategy that several other food and beverage brands have resorted to. It’s a sharp reversal from COVID-19 times, when chocolatiers were offering big discounts to lure more consumers.    

    A spokesperson at Lindt & Sprüngli told Fortune that the company has made “concerted effort to compensate for these increased costs through manufacturing efficiencies, cost savings and a forward-looking purchasing strategy.” The raw material costs have resulted have forced it “to increase prices for our customers and in our direct business.”

    Ferrero declined to comment, and representatives at Cadbury and Terrys were contacted for comment.

    On the bright side, U.K. inflation has been easing. Earlier this week, it slipped to 3.4% compared to 4% in January, yet, higher than the 2% Bank of England target. Big supermarket chains, such as Aldi, have tried to keep prices low on their part. Waitrose told Which? that the prices at its stores were already lower than the prices in the consumer group’s report.   

    Could this mean less-crazy Easter egg prices next year? That’s a mystery we’ll have to wait another year to unwrap. 

    Subscribe to the new Fortune CEO Weekly Europe newsletter to get corner office insights on the biggest business stories in Europe. Sign up for free.

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    Prarthana Prakash

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  • British banks scramble after a Big Lebowski-inspired ‘Dudeist priest’ in Northern Ireland filed hundreds of false documents

    British banks scramble after a Big Lebowski-inspired ‘Dudeist priest’ in Northern Ireland filed hundreds of false documents

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    Bosses at some of the U.K.’s largest banks faced confusion and chaos after discovering hundreds of fake documents relating to their financial assets, filed by an ordained “Dudeist priest” in Northern Ireland.

    The alarm was raised by banking trade association UK Finance, which wrote to its members earlier this year warning that over 800 false loan documents relating to 190 of the country’s largest companies, including The Bank of Scotland, estate agent Knight Frank and private equity giant Macquarie, had been filed with Companies House.

    According to The Times of London, the falsified documents marked each company’s loans as being repaid or “fully satisfied” despite all the charges still being outstanding.

    While the mass filings at the start of the year could easily have been part of a complex state-sponsored cyberattack or fraud on an industrial scale, they were, in fact, the actions of just one man. 

    The individual in question is an unnamed meditation and acupuncture practitioner from Northern Ireland who identifies as a so-called Dudeist priest. Dudeism is a religious movement inspired by the Coen brothers’ 1998 movie The Big Lebowski, which advocates the practices followed by the film’s main character, Jeffrey “the Dude” Lebowski. The movement likens itself to Chinese Taoism with its “take it easy manifesto.” 

    The movie’s plot centers around the laid-back Lebowski who gets ensnared in a kidnapping conspiracy involving a millionaire who shares Lebowski’s name. 

    In an interview with The Times, the man, whose identity the outlet didn’t reveal, stated that he had made the filings as he believed the businesses concerned owed him money.

    Fortune reviewed the list of companies shared by UK Finance that were impacted by the false dismissal of charges. Some of the banks tied to the unsatisfied charges include HSBC, NatWest, CBRE and Royal Bank of Canada. 

    The incident places further scrutiny on Companies House, an agency of the UK government that maintains the register of companies.

    Companies House has been heavily criticized in recent years as the publisher of often incorrect or misleading data about U.K. companies, a powerful tool used by bogus companies, fake directorships and money launderers to hide their true intentions.

    Things are starting to change, with new powers granted to the agency last year under the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act, which allows Companies House to finally start scrutinizing the data submitted to it. However, a surge in demand for its services means concerns surrounding its operations impact many companies and individuals—and therefore, are essential to address.

    “We have taken steps to block the account that is linked with these transactions and, using new powers available to us, have removed all the related filings,” a Companies House spokesperson told Fortune in a statement. “We are contacting the companies concerned and have launched an urgent review of our processes. We continue to work with law enforcement partners where appropriate.”

    Northern Ireland’s Dudeist priest

    The issues surrounding false filings have largely been resolved now—but ironically, the person behind it didn’t have a clear rationale for pursuing the companies that he did. 

    Speaking to The Times, the man said: “I didn’t know anything about it [the filings] until I was reading it and then I was sending things away all at once.

    “When I found something new I’d sink into it a bit too much and then I would get a bit scattered. I think if I spread it out and read it slowly and took my time maybe things would have been different, but that’s not what happened, unfortunately.”

    All the false filings have now been removed from the Companies House website, with a “rectified” statement prefixed. For instance, Companies House’s record on Nero Coffee Roasting Limited said: “Rectified The material was formerly considered to form part of the register but is no longer considered by the registrar to do so.”

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    Prarthana Prakash

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  • Study Shows Evidence that CBD-Infused Tampons Are Effective for Treating Menstrual Pain | High Times

    Study Shows Evidence that CBD-Infused Tampons Are Effective for Treating Menstrual Pain | High Times

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    A new study published in the Journal of Endometriosis and Uterine Disorders recently examined the efficacy of CBD tampons as a method of treating severe menstrual cramps and associated pain.

    In “Efficacy and usability of a cannabidiol-infused tampon for the relief of primary dysmenorrhea,” researchers found evidence that CBD-infused tampons “achieved statistically significant pain reduction” and that such tampons offer “fewer side effects than anti-inflammatories, while producing a similar pain-relieving effect.” The study was published on Dec. 19 but will be published in the March 2024 issue of Journal of Endometriosis and Uterine Disorders.

    The study team included five researchers from Anne’s Day Ltd. in the United Kingdom (described as a natural sciences and engineering development company), and one representative from the Institute for Medical Research in Bulgaria. Lead author Valentina Milanova is also CEO and founder of Daye, which puts a focus on conducting its own research to provide to its consumers. Daye sells a wide variety of tampons, pads, and claims to be the first company to make CBD-infused tampons.

    “The findings indicate the potential of CBD-infused tampons as a promising option for managing menstrual pain,” the researchers wrote in their joint conclusion. “Further research and exploration of this innovative product can contribute to the management of primary dysmenorrhea.” According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, primary dysmenorrhea is another term to describe cramping pain brought on by menstrual periods, which affect anywhere between 50%-95% of menstruating individuals.

    The study explores how the human body’s CB1 and CB2 receptors are present throughout uterine tissue, which makes cannabinoids in that area easy to administer and feel relief.

    A total of 114 participants (18-45 years of age) in the study were either presented with a CBD-infused tampon, or a regular tampon, and were interviewed about their various levels of pain, “including vaginal irritation, sensitisation, systemic toxicity, material-mediated pyrogenicity, and potential toxic shock syndrome risk.” The study took place over the course of three months.

    The results show that 37%-40% saw improvements with vaginal dryness, and 37%-40% said they experienced “improvements in mood or overall well-being.” Overall, over 80% described the product they tried as “satisfactory or enjoyable.”

    While positive, the researchers admitted that the study sample size is small, and should they revisit the topic again, they would improve their scope of study by recording pain data from both before and after participants have applied their CBD-infused or normal tampon. Additionally, they said that more research should be conducted in order to determine the efficacy of CBD-infused tampons further. “Future clinical research recommendations would include understanding the effectiveness of using CBD tampons against menstrual pain,” researchers concluded. “To further investigate the effects of CBD on pain, a metabolomics study to evaluate pain serum biomarkers or to assess the levels of CBD and painkillers in blood samples would be recommended.”

    Daye also features an article about CBD and explores what is currently known about CBD for period care and treatment. “CBD is often considered as a more natural and holistic approach to pain relief as opposed to taking opioids or traditional pain medication,” Dr. Semiya Aziz told Daye. “CBD is also generally considered to have lower risks and fewer side effects compared to traditional pain medication. There are promising results regarding CBD’s role in pain management, however, there is plenty more work that needs to be done in this field before it can be considered as an alternative option for traditional pain relief.”

    Numerous other studies have been published on the topic of cannabis as a treatment alternative for other medications. Earlier this summer, the University of Alberta completed research on its review of middle aged women in Canada. It found that out of 1,485 participants, 499 said that they currently use cannabis, and 978 said they have used it in the past. “Of the 499 current cannabis users, over 75% were using cannabis for medical purposes. Most common reasons for current use were sleep (65%), anxiety (45%) and muscle/joint achiness (33%),” researchers explained. “In current users, 74% indicated that cannabis was helpful for symptoms. Current cannabis users were more likely to report experiencing menopause symptoms compared with non-users. History of smoking and general health status were associated with current cannabis use.”

    A study published in the Journal of Cannabis Research, entitled “The holistic effects of medical cannabis compared to opioids on pain experience in Finnish patients with chronic pain,” found that opioids and cannabis are “equally efficacious” at reducing pain. The sample size of the study included 201 chronic pain participants, with 40 who use medical cannabis and 161 who use opioids to treat their pain symptoms. Of the two groups, 45% of medical cannabis consumers say they also have used opioids to treat their pain, while only 4.3% of the opioid consumers have tried using medical cannabis as an alternative treatment. Additionally, the medical cannabis group were more relaxed, slept better, and had improved moods. “The results of the present study underline that the psychoactive effects of [medical cannabis] can be therapeutically positive and have beneficial effects on mood and functioning,” the study authors concluded. “However, this conclusion would require more robust testing, ideally in randomized controlled trials.”

    Even celebrities such as Hulk Hogan have come out in favor of supporting cannabis as a way to replace both opioids as well as alcohol.

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    Nicole Potter

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  • McDonald’s has received 400 harassment complaints from its workers in the last 4 months—and its U.K. boss calls it ‘truly horrific’

    McDonald’s has received 400 harassment complaints from its workers in the last 4 months—and its U.K. boss calls it ‘truly horrific’

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    McDonald’s is sprinkled all across the U.K. and employs thousands of Brits in its locations—and this week, concerns about the safety of those workers came to a head.  

    The boss of McDonald’s in the U.K. said that the company has received over 400 complaints of sexual harassment in four months—sometimes up to two a week—during a Business and Trade Select Committee meeting on Tuesday.

    Alistair Macrow, who runs McDonald’s U.K. & Ireland, told MPs that the experiences of some of the fast food chain’s workers were “truly horrific” and “very hard to listen to.”

    “These cases… are absolutely horrendous. What I would like to be clear about is that we will tackle them and make sure that we do everything we can to eradicate them from the business,” Macrow said. 

    The U.K. chief’s statement comes after an initial investigation by the BBC in July shed light on McDonald’s staff who were routinely harassed, bullied or sexually assaulted while at work. The report said that over 100 current and recent workers had allegedly been on the receiving end of such behaviors, following which the company kicked off an investigation. At the time, McDonald’s apologized and said it had “fallen short.”

    So far, the company has investigated 157 of the 407 cases of varying nature, Macrow told MPs. Some of those resulted in terminations while others led to disciplinary action. Of the sexual harassment cases, it’s unclear if the workers reported them to the police.      

    ​​”I am absolutely determined to root out any of these behaviours, identify individuals who are responsible for them and make sure that they are eradicated from our business,” Macrow said. 

    McDonald’s has over 170,000 workers across its 1,450 restaurants in the U.K.—89% of those locations are franchises, Macrow said. 

    Workers of the 21st Century

    Complaints about harassment or forms of abuse had been cropping up for several years, Ian Hodson, the national president at the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union, told the Business and Trade Select Committee on Tuesday. He was first alerted of the growing number of claims five years ago, and said the group had spoken to workers across its London stores.

    “We need to make sure that this is the opportunity to make employers accountable for protecting people when they go to work,” Hodson said. “In the 21st century in the U.K., it should not happen. When a global corporation, the second biggest employer in the world, which makes billions and billions of pounds, can’t protect their workforce, it’s awful.”

    The BBC’s investigation has spurred more McDonald’s workers to pursue legal action through law firm Leigh Day last week. 

    McDonald’s didn’t immediately return Fortune’s request for comment.

    Subscribe to the new Fortune CEO Weekly Europe newsletter to get corner office insights on the biggest business stories in Europe. Sign up before it launches Nov. 29.

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    Prarthana Prakash

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  • Judge ‘surprised’ after Prince Harry a no-show in court on 1st day of U.K. tabloid case – National | Globalnews.ca

    Judge ‘surprised’ after Prince Harry a no-show in court on 1st day of U.K. tabloid case – National | Globalnews.ca

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    Prince Harry’s highly anticipated showdown against the publisher of the Daily Mirror kicked off Monday without him present in court — and the judge was not happy.

    Harry’s lawyer said the Duke of Sussex would be unavailable to testify following opening statements because he’d taken a flight from Los Angeles after the birthday of his 2-year-old daughter, Lilibet, on Sunday.

    “I’m a little surprised,” Justice Timothy Fancourt said, noting he had directed Harry to be in court for the first day of his case.

    Mirror Group Newspaper’s lawyer, Andrew Green, said he was “deeply troubled” by Harry’s absence on the trial’s opening day. They accused Harry of “wasting time” in the court case, as reported by the BBC.

    Green added that it was “absolutely extraordinary” Harry was “not available for day one of his own trial.”

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    The case against Mirror Group is the first of the prince’s several lawsuits against the media to go to trial, and one of three alleging tabloid publishers unlawfully snooped on him in their cutthroat competition for scoops on the royal family.

    Harry’s lawyer, David Sherborne, said phone hacking and forms of unlawful information gathering were carried out on such a widespread scale, it was implausible the publisher’s newspapers used a private investigator to dig up dirt on the prince only once, which is what they have admitted.

    “The ends justify the means for the defendant,” Sherborne said.

    Stories about Harry were big sellers for the newspapers, and some 2,500 articles had covered all facets of his life – from his illnesses at school to ups and downs with girlfriends, Sherborne said.

    “There was no time in his life when he was safe from these activities,” Sherborne said. “Nothing was sacrosanct or out of bounds.”

    Mirror Group has said it used documents, public statements and sources to legally report on the prince.

    But Sherborne said it was not hard to infer that Mirror journalists used the same techniques on Harry — eavesdropping on voicemails and hiring private eyes to snoop — as they did on others.

    Harry had been scheduled to testify Tuesday, but his lawyer was told last week the duke should attend Monday’s proceedings in London’s High Court in case the opening statements concluded before the end of the day.

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    When he enters the witness box, Harry, 38, will be the first member of the British royal family in more than a century to testify in court. He is expected to describe his anguish and anger over being hounded by the media throughout his life, and its impact on those around him.

    He has blamed paparazzi for causing the car crash that killed his mother, Princess Diana, and said harassment and intrusion by the U.K. press, including allegedly racist articles, led him and his wife, Meghan, to flee to the U.S. in 2020 and leave royal life behind.

    The articles at issue in the trial date back to his 12th birthday, in 1996, when the Mirror reported Harry was feeling “badly” about the divorce of his mother and father, now King Charles III.

    Harry said in court documents that ongoing tabloid reports made him wonder whom he could trust as he feared friends and associates were betraying him by leaking information to the newspapers. His circle of friends grew smaller, and he suffered “huge bouts of depression and paranoia.” Relationships fell apart as the women in his life – and even their family members – were “dragged into the chaos.”

    He says he later discovered that the source wasn’t disloyal friends but aggressive journalists and the private investigators they hired to eavesdrop on voicemails and track him to locations as remote as Argentina and an island off Mozambique.

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    Mirror Group Newspapers said it didn’t hack Harry’s phone and its articles were based on legitimate reporting techniques. The publisher admitted and apologized for hiring a private eye to dig up dirt on one of Harry’s nights out at a bar, but the resulting 2004 article headlined “Sex on the beach with Harry” is not among the 33 in question at trial.

    Trending Now

    Phone hacking that involved guessing or obtaining security codes to listen in on celebrities’ cell phone voice messages was widespread at British tabloids in the early years of this century. It became an existential crisis for the industry after the revelation in 2011 that the News of the World had hacked the phone of a slain 13-year-old girl.

    Owner Rupert Murdoch shut down the paper and several of his executives faced criminal trials.

    Mirror Group has paid more than 100 million pounds ($125 million) to settle hundreds of unlawful information-gathering claims, and printed an apology to phone hacking victims in 2015. But it denies executives – including Piers Morgan, who was editor of the Daily Mirror editor between 1995 and 2004 — knew about hacking.

    Harry’s fury at the U.K. press — and sometimes at his own royal relatives for what he sees as their collusion with the media — runs through his memoir, Spare, and interviews conducted by Oprah Winfrey and others. His claims will face a tough audience in court when he is cross-examined by Mirror Group’s lawyer.

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    Click to play video: 'Key takeaways from Prince Harry’s explosive memoir ‘Spare’'


    Key takeaways from Prince Harry’s explosive memoir ‘Spare’


    The opening statements mark the second phase of a trial in which Harry and three others have accused the Mirror of phone hacking and unlawful information gathering.

    In the first part, Sherborne, who represents Harry and the other claimants, including two actors from the soap opera Coronation Street, said the unlawful acts were “widespread and habitual” at the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People, and carried out on “an industrial scale.”

    Two judges — including Fancourt — are in the process of deciding whether Harry’s two other phone hacking cases will proceed to trial.

    Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers, publisher of The Sun, and Associated Newspapers Ltd., which owns the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday, have argued the cases should be thrown out because Harry failed to file the lawsuits within a six-year deadline of discovering the alleged wrongdoing.

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    Harry’s lawyer has argued that he and other claimants should be granted an exception to the time limit, because the publishers lied and deceived to hide the illegal actions.

    — With files from Global News’ Sarah Do Couto

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  • BFI Inclusion Chief To Spearhead New Film And TV Anti-Bullying Body

    BFI Inclusion Chief To Spearhead New Film And TV Anti-Bullying Body

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    The U.K.’s new anti-bullying body for film and TV – The Independent Stands Authority (ISA) – has appointed its interim CEO in the BFI’s current director of culture and inclusion, Jen Smith.

    The new organization has confirmed financial support from major U.K. broadcasters in the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, as well as Sky.

    The specific remit of the entity will be formalized and announced for a planned 2024 launch with an eye to also widening the reach of its authority by also overseeing other industries such as music, theater, fashion, and advertising.

    Smith, who is seconded at ISA until a permanent CEO has been found, said that the organization will “have the power to lead investigations and will do so without fear or favor.”

    Smith has been on a trajectory to do more in this area for some time now. As recently as last year she helped head an action list with BAFTA and several other companies across media and entertainment to help prevent racism, bullying, and harassment in the workplace.

    “For too long the creative industries have failed to provide an independent place for people to report experiences of poor behavior, bullying and harassment,” Smith said. “The establishment of the ISA will be transformative in helping address this void. We know we are standing on the shoulders of many who have made significant efforts to drive positive change to improve our workplace culture and will continue to build on this courageous leadership.”

    Brandy Ferrer, CEO of Pathfinder Strategies, an organization set up for consultancy on HR-related matters for companies as well as ethics and leadership stated that it’s “certainly needed” in the industry in the wake of multiple and consistent scandals being revealed.

    “If there’s any industry that needed a body like this it would be the entertainment industry,” she said. “Hearing the horrific stories about Harvey Weinstein and others showed that there has been a lack of fear in being accountable for executives and high-level talent, as well as a clear lack in the understanding of professionalism in a work environment.”

    “It’s very easy to work in the entertainment industry and to feel that the rules of an office don’t apply because of work on sets or stage and the creative nature of the sector. The ISA will help make sure that the rules apply to everyone irrespective of standing, stature, or circumstance.”

    The other element that Ferrer opined on was leadership. Commenting that Pathfinder teaches that leadership often comes from the top and trickles down, and that leadership must be strong and have a zero-tolerance policy for bullying in all forms whilst fostering a healthy environment.

    “Accountability is key. When something gets off track, before looking around for someone or something to blame, take a look at yourself. Ask yourself, ‘was I clear on expectations?’, ‘Did I do a good job supporting this person on this project?’ ‘Did I ask questions to check for understanding?’ ‘What could I have done better or differently for a different outcome?’

    “We’re all humans. Not one of us is perfect. Not one of us is infallible. Have grace with yourself. Have grace with others.”

    “Great leadership equals managing the work positively and empowering people to make the right decisions.”

    On the task that the ISA has to accomplish in helping to fix the issues the industry has, Ferrer concluded that it’s not just putting out fires and holding people accountable, but also fire prevention and teaching people the right way to do things.

    “These were the circumstances I was dealing with when I quit my corporate job and founded Pathfinder Strategies. I witnessed first-hand the impact of great leadership and healthy cultures. I loved going to work, the people I worked with were hard-working and goal-focused, I had a hand in innovating products and processes, and I got to shine and grow and advance in my career. I also experienced ineffective leaders and toxic cultures. Working in environments full of suspicion, lacking communication and accountability, which ultimately led to subpar outputs.”

    She added: “I knew cultivating healthy cultures and great leaders did not have to be a big expensive undertaking, but rather could be addressed incrementally with guidance, support and practice.”

    Founded in partnership with the BFI, BAFTA, Time’s Up U.K. and its chair Heather Rabbatts, the ISA hopes to answer the persistent call for a body to help prevent conduct breaches throughout the world of entertainment.

    Rabbatts said of Smith that she had been, “so important in leading the work on the prevention of harassment and bullying with industry partners over recent years.”

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    Josh Wilson, Contributor

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