Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

The UK has ended years of uncertainty over the future of its nuclear industry by pledging £11.5bn of new state funding for the Sizewell C project in Suffolk, taking the total taxpayer investment in the site to £17.8bn. 

Chancellor Rachel Reeves will announce the record public investment in nuclear energy on Tuesday, telling attendees at the GMB Congress that she is ending “years of delay” over Sizewell, which will support the creation of 10,000 jobs. 

Although Reeves has had to make tough decisions in the government’s spending review on day-to-day departmental budgets, she was able to find the extra billions for Sizewell C through a change to her fiscal rules. This has made £113bn available for extra capital spending across government, funded by borrowing.

The move marks a return to significant state funding for nuclear energy after the UK chose the private sector to finance and build its last project, Hinkley Point C in Somerset, which is heavily delayed and over budget. The previous record public investment in nuclear energy was £2bn for the Sizewell B plant in 1987, or £7bn in today’s prices. 

The UK government already has a partnership with French state-owned energy group EDF, which has kept a 15 per cent stake in Sizewell C. The pair are now seeking financial commitments from several other investors before they can sign off a “final investment decision”, expected next month during an Anglo-French summit in London. 

The chancellor will promise £14.2bn of taxpayer funding for the 3.2 gigawatt plant over the current parliament, including a £2.7bn commitment she previously made in the autumn Budget. The Treasury had already committed £3.6bn over the past two years.

EDF has said the final investment decision will depend on securing private investment and on whether it can make its expected return on capital, but Simone Rossi, the company’s UK chief executive, said the project would benefit the UK’s “energy security and economic growth”. 

Private investors expected to bid for stakes in Sizewell C include Canadian pension fund CDPQ, Amber Infrastructure Partners, Brookfield Asset Management, pension fund USS, Schroders Greencoat, Equitix, Centrica and insurer Rothesay. The total cost of the project could be close to £40bn by the time it is built, industry figures believe.

Ministers are encouraging the development of new nuclear power stations in the UK to provide future supplies of “baseload” electricity to balance the more intermittent supply of solar and wind power. 

But no new nuclear plant has opened in the UK since 1995 and most of the existing ageing fleet — apart from Sizewell B — is set to be phased out by the early 2030s. 

State-owned Great British Nuclear will soon announce the outcome of its competition to choose a company to start building a fleet of “small modular reactors”.  

The government said it would also invest more than £2.5bn in nuclear fusion over five years in what it called a “record investment” in the nascent technology. Melanie Windridge, head of advisory group Fusion Energy Insights, praised the government for recognising the “economic value of developing fusion in this country”. The sum is slightly less than the US is spending on fusion and one-third of China’s annual investment on the technology.

Additional reporting by Tom Wilson

The Trump administration is mobilizing 700 Marines based out of Twentynine Palms, Calif., for Los Angeles, the scene of protests against immigration enforcement operations, a defense official has confirmed with NPR.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, says the 2^nd Battalion, 7^th Marines is expected to operate in a “support role.”

Northern Command is expected to release more details on the deployment Thursday morning.

Another U.S. official confirmed the news, noting the mobilization was not an invocation of the Insurrection Act.

The move came the same day California sued the Trump administration over the deployment of National Guard troops in Los Angeles.

In their lawsuit, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and state Attorney General Rob Bonta said Trump’s activation of the Guard violated the 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution because Newsom did not ask for the troops.

Trump on Truth social said Los Angeles would be “completely obliterated” without his deployment of the Guard.

Over the weekend, the White House said that active duty armed forces could be used to “augment and support the protection of Federal functions and property,” the same missions the Guard is performing.

The administration has in total deployed 2,000 Guard personnel to the city.
 

Stay informed with free updates

Simply sign up to the Chinese economy myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.

China’s consumer prices remained in deflation for the fourth straight month and producer prices fell at their fastest pace in nearly two years, piling pressure on policymakers as they try to boost domestic demand and negotiate trade tensions with the US.

The country’s consumer price index fell 0.1 per cent year on year in May, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday. Producer prices, which reflect the cost of goods at the factory gate, dropped 3.3 per cent, the fastest rate of decline since July 2023.

US-China trade tensions have weighed on the economic backdrop in a country already grappling with a prolonged property slowdown. Talks between US and Chinese representatives are expected to take place in London later on Monday, after a telephone call between US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping last week.

Inflation data in China has for years been close to deflationary territory, raising concerns over consumer confidence and adding to calls for more stimulus from Beijing.

The People’s Bank of China last month announced cuts to key lending rates as part of a steady easing that has also seen mortgage rates reduced to support the housing sector.

There has also been intense competition in mainland industries especially in the automotive sector, which has seen a wave of recent price cuts amid a battle for market share.

Zichun Huang, China economist at Capital Economics, noted core inflation, which excludes food and energy, rose 0.6 per cent, its highest level in almost a year, but added that “persistent overcapacity will keep China in deflation both this year and next”.