Tuesday newspaper round-up: Budget, Trump, Afren, Restaurant Group
Philip Hammond will allow the government’s spending deficit to rise next year as he seeks to pay for the first round of extra NHS spending and a series of measures that will “bring an end to the era of austerity”. The chancellor sanctioned a rise from 1.2% to 1.4% in the annual deficit between this year and 2019/20 as he sought to honour promises made by the prime minister to boost spending on health, local authority housing and a freeze on fuel duty. - Guardian
Donald Trump is to deploy more than 5,200 troops to the border with Mexicoin what a rights organisation described as an abuse of the military to “further his anti-immigrant agenda of fear and division”. The announcement, just days before the midterm elections, came as Mexico also cracked down on migrants attempting to cross its own porous southern border. - Guardian
The world’s biggest businesses pumped an extra £3.5bn into research and development in the UK this year, as global spending growth hit a decade-high. Pharmaceuticals giants GSK and Astrazeneca were the biggest investors, with R&D spending of £6bn and £5.4bn, according to the report from PwC, followed by Fiat Chrysler’s £3.9bn and Rolls-Royce’s £1.1bn. – Telegraph
They called themselves the 'A-Team', but instead of breaking out of a maximum-security prison the oil barons who ran Afren have been handed lengthy prison sentences. Former chief executive Osman Shahenshah and chief operating officer Shahid Ullah, who ran the oil and gas giant until shortly before its collapse in 2015, will be jailed for a maximum of six and five years respectively. The total combined sentences amounted to 30 years, but will be served concurrently. – Telegraph
The company behind the Frankie & Benny’s and Chiquito restaurant brands is in advanced talks over an audacious £600 million swoop on the Wagamama chain. The Times has learnt that The Restaurant Group is the preferred bidder after a sale process launched in June by Goldman Sachs on behalf of Duke Street and Hutton Collins, the Asian noodle bar chain’s private equity backers. – The Times
Competition authorities are considering an investigation into the monopoly that the owner of British Airways has engineered on the route between Dublin and London City airport. Aer Lingus, BA’s sister carrier in the International Airlines Group stable, took over the operation of Cityjet services to Dublin on Sunday, running services on the route in its own colours. – The Times