Specsavers pays £12m dividend to parent company after jump in earnings

The U.S. federal debt hit a record $40 trillion this week. The debt has doubled since 2017, and just paying interest on the accumulated debt now costs the government more than $1 trillion a year.

Latest profit warning is particularly disappointing in a World Cup year, which should have given the business a sporty buzz JD Sports cuts £50m from profit forecast as cost of living pressures hit trainer sales It was a slower quarter for “high-heat footwear product”, said JD Sports. It didn’t mean it was struggling to shift sandals during a heatwave. Rather, it was referring coyly to the big global trainer brands’ failure to come up with hot new designs. When Nike and Adidas, reckoned by City analysts to account for slightly more than half JD’s sales, are on tepid form, the self-styled “king of trainers” retailer usually is as well. The low-heat grumble will be familiar to JD’s shareholders. So, too, the one about “incremental cost of living pressures”, especially in the US. And the phrase “a promotional market” has appeared so often in the company’s updates in the past couple of years that it would be easier to tell us when discounting isn’t dominant...

While President Trump has declared that the two countries effectively have a deal, they remain apart on several key issues.