Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has softened his sceptical views on the future of stablecoins in the UK, saying it would be wrong to dismiss the cryptocurrency “as a matter of principle”. Writing in the Financial Times, Bailey recognised their potential for “innovation in payments systems”, but warned that the new technology “must still answer old central banking questions”.

What are stablecoins?
Stablecoin is a form of cryptocurrency, the digital currencies operated by private companies or individuals rather than central banks – currently unregulated in the UK. The most popular and well-known stablecoin is Tether (USDT), with other leading stablecoins including USD Coin (USDC-USD) and Stasis Euro (EURS-USD).

Unlike cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, which are detached from financial institutions, stablecoins are “pegged” to tangible assets such as US dollars, the British pound or gold prices. They are designed to hold a steady value, only rarely dipping above or below a designated ratio; so a perfectly effective stablecoin pegged to the US dollar would consistently be worth $1.

Why is the UK government interested?
Stablecoins bypass traditional currency conversions and facilitate “more predictable” and “lower-cost” payments internationally, making them a popular option, said Yahoo Finance. The market for this category of cryptocurrency is already valued at $200 billion (£148 billion) globally. With London responsible for 40% of foreign exchange turnover, the prospect of formal UK participation in stablecoins is an attractive one.

What are the concerns?
Stablecoins can be risky, even when pegged to tangible assets. If a stablecoin strays too far from its target value and this cannot be corrected, it can be “depegged”. And if stablecoins are left unregulated, central banks could be caught in the crossfire.

Should a stablecoin crash, the fallout could trigger “fire sales” – rapid sales at significantly low prices – to establish an equilibrium, said Bloomberg. Conversely, if stablecoins “prove their worth”, allowing users to exchange and store vast sums of money, the “monetary monopoly” of the banks would be undermined.

As with other cryptocurrencies, an unregulated system can also be exploited for illegal activity. Trading is “anonymous, fast and cheap”, making stablecoins ideal for scams and money laundering.

Britain’s film and TV industries have been enjoying a golden age as American studios flock to these shores – but now Donald Trump has sprung a plot twist. If the president follows through on his threat this week to impose 100% tariffs on films made outside the US, the UK’s “Brollywood” boom may be in for an unhappy ending.

‘More Hollywood than Hollywood’
London has become “more Hollywood than Hollywood”, with “state-of-the-art shooting facilities” in and around the capital “running at full capacity”, said The Hollywood Reporter. Marvel has relocated its operations from Atlanta, Georgia, to Buckinghamshire’s Pinewood Studios, which is under a long-term lease to Disney. The forthcoming Spider-Man movie, as well as the next two Avengers movies, are being filmed there.

A “competitive and well-developed tax-incentive system” has been crucial to this success, City A.M. said. The UK’s Audio-Visual Expenditure Credit provides tax relief of up to 25.5% on qualifying expenditure, which has “translated into significant cost savings” on large-scale productions for major US-based studios and streamers.

The UK also has an established and experienced workforce and, crucially, it’s cheaper for US production companies, partly because studios aren’t required to “subsidise workers’ medical expenses”, said Screen Rant.

Sending shivers
As Brollywood booms, “Tinseltown has lost much of its lustre”, said The Hollywood Reporter. Once the “global hub of film, wealth and glamour”, Los Angeles has “become a casualty of the worldwide production plunge”: the number of US shoots was down by about 40% in the second quarter of 2024 compared with the same period in 2022.

Trump has warned that Hollywood is facing a “very fast death” due to competition from international movie-making hubs, including Canada. But his threat to wield his “preferred economic weapon” – tariffs – is sending a "shiver” through the UK’s film industry, said The New York Times. Although how Trump would implement tariffs on international productions is unclear, the resulting uncertainty could “wipe out” the UK gains made since the pandemic and the US screenwriters’ strike.

The worry about hefty tariffs is “really disempowering” and “destablising”, Marcus Ryder, chief executive of the Film and TV Charity, told the paper. “Even a short-term tariff could have a long-term devastating effect on the workforce.”

Taylor Swift fans gather at Melbourne’s Astor Theatre to listen to and celebrate the singer’s new album. “The Life of a Showgirl” was already Spotify’s most pre-saved album record ever when it dropped this morning, breaking the record set last year by her “The Tortured Poets Department”.

William West / AFP / Getty Images

Cumbria: Kemlyn, Caldbeck, Wigton
This pretty cottage is nestled in an idyllic location within the Lake District National Park. Main suite, 3 further beds, 2 baths, kitchen, 2 receps, garden, parking. £435,000; Finest Properties

Isle of Wight: Gaggerhill Cottage, Brighstone
A quaint Grade II 17th century cottage. 4 beds, 2 baths, kitchen/breakfast room, 3 receps, garden. £465,000; Spence Willard

Gloucestershire: Tythebarn Cottage, Ebrington
A delightful thatched stone cottage in a picturesque Cotswold village. 2 beds, family bath, kitchen, recep, garden. £375,000; Jackson-Stops

Cornwall: Toy Cottage, Gunwalloe
A chocolate-box cottage just 600 yards from the beach. 2 beds, family bath, kitchen, 2 receps, garden, annexe, garage. £425,000; Rohrs & Rowe 

This is the snarling face of the police that women like me fear
Patsy Stevenson in The Independent
“Since my arrest at the Sarah Everard vigil, I have often been asked whether policing has changed for the better,” writes Patsy Stevenson. “My answer is always no.” This week’s BBC “Panorama” documentary revealed the kind of “reprehensible behaviour” by Met Police officers that campaigners and “survivors of police brutality” have been “shouting” about. But our accounts were “dismissed as exaggeration” or “isolated incidents”, rather than exposing a “culture that is rotten to the core”.

If climate rollback is all the Tories have, then they’re in big trouble
Hugo Gye in The i Paper
Kemi Badenoch is finally sharing “the ideas she will offer to the public at the next general election” but, so far, they “are falling short”, writes Hugo Gye. The Tory leader has made ditching net zero targets a “signature policy” but isn’t “proposing to abandon the fight against climate change wholesale”. Her half-in, half-out approach will “alienate” voters concerned about the environment, while the “real global warming sceptics will have no reason to abandon Nigel Farage”.


Have we passed peak social media?
John Burn-Murdoch in the Financial Times
September 2025 could one day be seen as the point at which social media began “accelerating its transition from the place to be seen” to a “gaudy backwater”, writes John Burn-Murdoch. Time spent on platforms has “gone into steady decline” as they’ve evolved from places where we “swapped updates with friends and family” to reservoirs of “ultra-processed content”. If this “enshittification” is making users “pivot to healthier uses of their time”, it’s “no bad thing”.