Sofina Begum and Aminur Rahman had ‘blatant disregard’ for tenants of property where man was killed, says judge

The landlords of a “grossly overcrowded” east London flat where a man died after an ebike battery started a fire have been fined almost £100,000 after pleading guilty to nine housing law breaches.

The judge, the recorder Emma Smith, said the landlords showed “blatant disregard for the law and for the occupants” of the property, when she sentenced them at Snaresbrook crown court on Thursday.

Flight controllers struggle to confirm status of Intuitive Machines’ probe in firm’s second lunar landing in just over a year

The Athena robotic spacecraft touched down on the lunar surface on Thursday in the second moon landing for the US space company Intuitive Machines in little more than a year.

An as-yet undiagnosed problem following its descent, however, left the craft at “an incorrect attitude”, with mission managers telling an afternoon press conference that they were unable to predict to what extent the operation of Athena and its various payloads will be affected.

Bank says it has fixed mobile and telephone service outages after people unable to make payments

Santander has fixed the problems affecting its banking services after many customers were left unable to access their accounts.

The bank apologised for any “inconvenience caused” and said no customers would “be left out of pocket” as a result of the outages.

Treasury secretary Scott Bessent defends the new administration’s aggressive trade strategy

Buying cheap products is “not the essence of the American dream”, Donald Trump’s top economic official has declared, amid warnings that the US president’s trade wars risk increasing prices.

The US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, defended the new administration’s aggressive trade strategy on Thursday, two days after it imposed sweeping tariffs on Canada and Mexico and hiked duties on China.

Head-spinning speed of events leaves EU adapting at pace while trying to infer Trump’s possible geo-strategic aims

• Europe live – latest updates

With a mixture of regret, laced with incredulity, European leaders gathered in Brussels to marshal their forces for a power struggle not with Russia, but with the US.

Even now, of course at the 11th hour, most of Europe hopes this coming battle of wills can be averted and the Trump administration can still be persuaded that forcing Ukraine to the negotiating table, disarmed and blinded, will not be the US’s long-term strategic interest.

Ministers frustrated by failure to agree terms with Russian oligarch and court case may be only way to break impasse

UK ministers are preparing to take Roman Abramovich to court in a final attempt to free up more than £2bn from the sale of Chelsea FC to spend as aid in Ukraine, the Guardian has learned.

Officials say ministers have become increasingly frustrated by the failure to reach an agreement with the Russian oligarch about how the money should be spent and are now ready to fight him in the courts.