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Jeff Bezos, the world’s second-richest man, is facing criticism from staff at The Washington Post following the newspaper’s decision to not endorse a candidate for president for the first time in 36 years.

The newspaper’s editorial page staff had written an endorsement of Kamala Harris for US president, but it was not published following a decision by Bezos, the Post’s owner, to change its policy on endorsements, according to an article in the paper.

The reversal of decades of policy comes less than two weeks before the presidential election, in which Harris and former president Donald Trump are running neck-and-neck, according to polls.

There were tensions between Trump and Bezos during his time in the White House. Amazon filed a lawsuit in 2019 claiming it had been denied a $10bn US defence contract because of “escalating and overt pressure” from the then president. The defence department later awarded the so-called Jedi contract to a rival bid from Microsoft.

Sir Will Lewis, The Washington Post chief executive, outlined the reasoning behind the policy change in an opinion article in which he acknowledged that it could be read as “an abdication of responsibility” but added: “We don’t see it that way.”

However, the newspaper’s guild said the decision raised concerns that “management interfered with the world of our members in editorial”. The paper had suffered subscriber cancellations as a result, it added.

This will be the first time that the Post has not endorsed a president since 1988, but Lewis wrote that the decision marked a return to the paper’s roots. He noted that the Post had not endorsed either Richard Nixon or John F Kennedy in the 1960 election, and it had also decided not to weigh in on Nixon’s re-election campaign in 1972.  

Lewis, a former executive at News Corp and The Telegraph, was appointed by Bezos last year to try to arrest mounting losses and a decline in readership.

People close to Lewis have said in the past that he is in regular contact with Bezos, and would not make big decisions without his input. Lewis, a former Financial Times reporter and editor, became the Post’s publisher in November 2023.

This summer, Lewis angered Washington Post journalists after replacing the executive editor and other staff with his former colleagues from The Wall Street Journal and The Telegraph. He faced investigations from rival newspapers — as well as his own publication — into his role in a phone hacking scandal in the UK while he was a senior executive at Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.

The turmoil at the Post came as Murdoch’s New York Post endorsed Trump for president, with a front-page headline declaring that the “choice was clear”.

The tabloid’s endorsement came a week after Trump went on Fox & Friends and called on Murdoch to stop Fox News from airing “negative commercials” that might damage his re-election campaign.

“I’m going to tell him something very simple,” Trump said. “Don’t put on negative commercials for 21 days.”

Murdoch has also had a tumultuous relationship with Trump. In texts revealed during a lawsuit by Dominion Voting Systems against Fox News, Murdoch said Trump’s insistence that the 2020 election was stolen was “a huge disservice to the country . . . Best we don’t mention his name unless essential and certainly don’t support him”. Murdoch settled the suit.

The Post’s reversal on endorsements follows a decision by Patrick Soon-Shiong, owner of the Los Angeles Times, to block an endorsement of Harris. Mariel Garza, the editorials editor, resigned in protest.  

The Associated Press reported that hours after the Post announced its endorsement decision, Trump greeted executives from Blue Origin, the space company owned by Bezos that has a $3.4bn contract with Nasa to build a spacecraft to carry astronauts to the moon and back.

FOR three months the ­people of Reeves Street have been living a nightmare – in fear of next week’s Halloween Budget.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is this weekend making final preparations for her first Autumn Statement.

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And as seven out of ten ­people say they feel worried about Wednesday’s Budget, we visited a street near Walsall that shares its name with ­Labour’s key player.

Bloxwich — one of the ­poorest districts in the West Midlands — has suffered hard times as its traditional ­engineering firms and foundries closed.

Reeves Street boasts 15 houses, a garage, a building firm, two residential care homes, a cab rank, a closed-down Indian restaurant and a local boozer.

Dave Sargent, 59, took over the street’s pub, The Hatherton Arms, three years ago and turned it into a popular ­community hub.

But he believes soaring energy costs, alcohol duties, income tax and business rate rises may finally kill off his business.

‘We’re being screwed’

Landlord Dave’s message to Rachel Reeves is: “Stop killing the pub trade — we’re under enough pressure as it is.

“It seems they want to close every little pub down. They are doing nothing for us — we’re being screwed to the ground.”

The married father-of-four, who packs in punters with karaoke, bingo and live DJ nights, says his energy costs alone are now £1,000 a month.

He also fears rises in alcohol duty will force him to increase his prices beyond the reach of punters, who have already been taxed to the hilt on their income.

Dave says: “You’ve got the cost of fuel and the tax on beers. The cost of electricity and gas is phenomenal.

“I’m paying £1,000 a month here just for electricity and we have to scrimp and scrape to make that £1,000.

“Trying to ban smoking in the pub garden was a ridiculous idea — thank goodness it looks like that is now being delayed or scrapped. It’s bad enough for landlords as it is. It’s bleak for us because we are working on a small ­margin, and if it gets to a stage when what I take at the till is below what is acceptable for the hours I’m putting in, I will have to finish.”

I never expected Labour to be as hard on everyone as they have been

Dave Sargent

On July 4, Labour’s Valerie Vaz won the Walsall and Bloxwich seat, where the Tory vote was split by Reform and an independent, Aftab Nawaz.

Dave says: “I’ve never voted for Labour and I didn’t vote at all this year because I thought they were all as bad as each other.

“But I never expected Labour to be as hard on everyone as they have been.

“It’s promises, promises — and I think it’s going to get worse over the next four years. It’s a nightmare.”

Pensioners Stephen and Julie Barnett, who own their terraced house on Reeves Street, are Tory voters who ignored the last election after becoming disillusioned with the Conservatives.

They are horrified by ­Labour’s first three months in power and fear their £300 Winter Fuel Allowance will be axed because their income takes them over the Pension Credit threshold.

If I had Rachel Reeves here now, I’d say get on to the energy suppliers and start taxing them heavily and subsidising us

Retired mechanic Stephen Barnett

They also worry that the £1,200-a-year tax bill on their combined ­public and private pensions will increase because earnings thresholds are being frozen, possibly past 2028, and the Triple Lock will push them into a higher tax band,

Ex-school worker Julie, 66, says: “I suppose they call us wealthy pensioners, but we’re not really.”

Retired mechanic Stephen, 68, says: “If I had Rachel Reeves here now, I’d say get on to the energy suppliers and start taxing them heavily and subsidising us. I left school at 15 and have worked all my life. I used to do 44 hours a week. You would think that after all those years of paying into the system, they would leave you alone. But they don’t. They still want their pound of flesh. Starmer ain’t a politician — he’s a policeman.”

Jamie Harper and wife Sue run a thriving family building firm, Alvaston Loft Conversions, from a unit in Reeves Street.

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He wants the Chancellor to stay away from hikes in income tax, VAT, company tax and National Insurance because companies and their workers just cannot afford to pay more.

Jamie, 59, who employs 15 highly skilled staff, fears Angela Rayner’s workers’ rights package will take control away from business leaders.

He continues: “It is the tax that worries me — everyone seems to be working just to pay the tax man.

“Labour always increase tax and spending — that’s what they’re about — and it looks like they are going to increase them again next week.

‘We can’t go on’

“We can’t afford it. We have only just recovered from Covid. There are all sorts of problems in the world and we can’t hope to pay for them all.”

Jamie adds: “You have got to look after your own country’s interests first.”

Taxi driver Mohammed Choudhury, 53, who lives on Reeves Street, said taxes are already so high that he has to drive his minicab from early morning until late at night.

People who work pay too much tax and there are others on benefits who get too much

Care worker Tammy Field

The dad-of-five says: “Business is not good. It’s gone down in the past few years and we’re ­paying too much in tax.

“Sometimes I can do just one job an hour and that will be a £5 fare, but after tax and ­petrol costs, I’ll maybe make £2.60. It is not enough.

“I want to tell Rachel Reeves to cut taxes — we can’t go on like this.”

Care worker Tammy Field, 37, struggles to cover the cost of feeding her four children, aged 12 to 20.

She says: “People who work pay too much tax and there are others on benefits who get too much.

“It’s hard just paying for food in the shops and gas and ­electricity.

“My eldest daughter’s going to have a baby, so we’re going to have another mouth to feed. I’m also worried about my nan and grandad. They’re going to lose their Winter Fuel Payments.

“Labour should be looking after ordinary people like us, not the ones who have all the money.”

• Additional reporting: Cyril Dixon

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“TRY taking a picture with your phone camera and zoom in,” says our guide as we crowd around a piece of chewing gum stuck on the pavement, squinting to see it better.

Sure enough, when I pinch and stretch the photo on my phone screen, I can make out a kitchen scene, with a tiny kettle and three-point plug.

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By painting on to blobs of trodden gum instead of anything more permanent, artist Ben Wilson keeps within the confines of the law here in Bristol, explains Luke, our guide.

I’m on the Blackbeard to Banksy walking tour, a street-art amble which crams in 1,000 years of history into two hours.

We go from miniature to massive as further along, Bristol’s tallest murals loom down from tower blocks on Nelson Street.

There’s the giant figure of a banker in pin-striped suit and bowler hat, pouring red paint down the side of a tower block and mother and baby, like a modern vision of the Madonna and Child, on the building next to it.

If you’re wondering how anyone got away with spray painting on this scale well, they didn’t.

These works were created with the council’s blessing as part of a street art festival in 2011.

Today the city’s colourful urban art is celebrated as a star attraction, but the authorities haven’t always seen it that way.

Drinking hole

Before he was quite so famous, Bristolian graffiti artist Banksy went under cover — quite literally — to escape the attention of council workers at their desks in the offices opposite.

He put up a scaffold and tarpaulin to stencil his 2006 work, Well Hung Lover, on to the side of a building in Frogmore Street.

In a cheeky jibe at the oblivious city officials, it shows a suited man searching out through a window, flanked by his wife, while her naked lover clings to the ledge undetected.

As well as art, our walking route also takes in historic pubs where pirates like Blackbeard once plotted, including Bristol’s oldest drinking hole, The Hatchet Inn, dating back to the 1600s or earlier.

Gruesome urban legend has it the front door is covered in the skin of hanged criminals underneath the many coats of black paint you see on it today.

Then, winding our way back towards the present day, we stop by the empty plinth from which Black Lives Matter protesters toppled the statue of slave trader Edward Colston in 2020 before dumping it in the dock.

Now you can find the bronze figure lying ingloriously on its back, still tainted with red paint at M Shed museum (free to visit).

The artistic fun doesn’t end there, though.

I check in to Mercure Bristol Grand Hotel, a Grade-II listed late-19th century building, which is a stunning landmark in its own right, with its beautifully-ornate wrought-iron and stained glass porch.

Inside, it’s bright and modern with original work by street artists.

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St Nicholas Market is around the corner and a great place to pick up gifts and grab a bite to eat from one of the enticing food stalls.

Or head to Chez Marcel on Broad Street, a few doors down from the hotel, which serves savoury and sweet crepes.

The crepe complete (ham, emmental and egg) washed down with a dry Breton cider is just as delicious as any I’ve had in France and all for less than £20.

It’s a city where you can travel the world with your taste buds and sample a different country’s cuisine at every meal.

At Sri Lankan mini-chain Coconut Tree, I try cheap and cheerful small plates including “hoppers” — bowl-shaped pancakes filled with coconut and onion relish.

And at upmarket Indian restaurant Nutmeg in Clifton, I have roast duck in a spiced creamy coconut sauce.

For cocktails, Cargo Cantina, in a harbour-side shipping container, mixes a mean Mexican margarita and Cafe Cuba in Stokes Croft has mojitos that are bursting with fresh mint.

With top-notch food and drink, pirate pubs and art around every corner, what more could you want from a city break?

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Israel launched strikes on Iran in the early hours of Saturday, hitting targets in Tehran, in the latest salvo in an escalating conflict between the regional rivals that has stoked fears of an all-out war in the Middle East.

Israel’s military offered few details about the attacks, other than describing them as “precise” and aimed at “military targets in Iran”.

“Our defensive and offensive capabilities are fully mobilised,” Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Daniel Hagari said. “We will do whatever necessary to defend the State of Israel and the people of Israel.”

The semi-official Fars News Agency, which is close to Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, reported that “several military sites in western and southwestern Tehran were targeted by Israel.”

Explosions could be heard in the capital and the western city of Karaj, with Iranians on social media describing multiple blasts that rattled the capital.

Saeed Chalanderi, chief executive of Imam Khomeini Airport City Company, said the international airport in Tehran was in a “stable situation” and that there were “no instructions to halt flights”. 

The US had pressed Israel to avoid striking Iran’s nuclear sites or oil facilities as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government prepared its response to an Iranian ballistic missile attack on the Jewish state three weeks ago.

US secretary of state Antony Blinken this week met Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials and reiterated Washington’s calls for a measured response.

The White House was notified of the strikes in advance but did not participate in the attack, a senior US administration official said.

US National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett said: “We understand that Israel is conducting targeted strikes against military targets in Iran as an exercise of self-defence and in response to Iran’s ballistic missile attack against Israel on October 1. ”

Iran launched more than 180 ballistic missiles against Israel on October 1 in what it said was a response to the Israeli assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanese militant group Hizbollah, in an air strike on Beirut.

The attack was considered far more severe than a previous Iranian assault on Israel in April that involved hundreds of missiles and drones, but it was clearly telegraphed. That was the first direct attack on Israel from Iranian soil but did limited damage and most of the projectiles were intercepted.

Israel responded with a missile strike on a military base near the Iranian city of Isfahan, and that tit-for-tat exchange was contained.

But this month’s Iranian barrage happened with little notice and was aimed at multiple targets including an intelligence base just north of Tel Aviv, Israel’s commercial hub, with Israel expected to launch a more robust response than in April.

The escalation comes as Israel is fighting on multiple fronts, with its forces still battling Hamas in Gaza and widening their offensive against Hizbollah in Lebanon.

The wave of regional hostilities between Israel and Iran and the militant groups it backs erupted after Hamas’s October 7 2023 attack.

The US earlier this month sent an advanced antimissile system, the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (Thaad) battery, to bolster Israel’s air defences ahead of its planned response.

On Thursday US Central Command said multiple F-16 fighter aircraft had arrived in the region, part of US efforts to support Israel should Iran decide to respond.

AN extra 60,000 carers will be able to claim government cash after changes expected at next week’s Budget.

Rachel Reeves is set to raise the limit people can earn before being ineligible for the carers allowance from £151 a week to £181.

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The £30 uplift will be the largest increase in the threshold since the benefit was introduced in 1976.

It is the equivalent of 16 hours a week for people on the living wage.

Carers Allowance is an £81.90 weekly bung for people looking after a severely disabled child or adult.

The current earnings cap of £151 a week after income, national insurance and expenses has been criticised as far too low.

It has seen many selfless carers unknowingly bust the limit and later told to repay large sums of their benefits.

Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall had launched a review of the overpayments scandal.

Ms Reeves will say the raised earnings cap will reduce the likelihood of carers earning over the maximum.

Helen Walker, Chief Executive of Carers UK, said: “We found 4 in 10 unpaid carers were pushed out of work because of problems with the earnings limit, plunging many into poverty.

“This new measure will help many more unpaid carers up and down the country to stay in paid work, putting much needed finances into families’ pockets.”

It comes as households on carer’s allowance continue to face substantial repayment demands after exceeding a critical weekly earnings limit.

Figures in August revealed that over 134,500 unpaid carers are collectively repaying £251million in benefit overpayments.

The Sun has previously highlighted cases where some individuals were required to repay up to £20,000 after unknowingly breaching carer’s allowance rules.

In an effort to reform the system and prevent more people from being caught out, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has initiated an independent review on the matter.

In response to the overwhelming number of repayment demands issued to claimants, the DWP’s independent review, in collaboration with the former chief executive of Disability Rights UK, aims to investigate the causes and mechanisms behind the overpayments.

It will then recommend “operational changes” to minimise the risk of future overpayments and outline how the DWP can best support those affected by overpayment issues.

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UK chancellor Rachel Reeves will seek to reassure business that big tax rises planned for next week’s Budget will not set the pattern for the rest of the parliament, as allies insist the levies will be a “one and done” hit.

Government insiders confirm that an increase in national insurance paid by employers will play a major part in Reeves’ bid to fill what the government says is a £40bn gap in the public finances.

In an effort to provide “tax certainty” for the rest of the government’s term, Reeves will set out a “corporate tax road map” alongside Wednesday’s Budget.

Officials say this will include a cap on corporation tax at 25 per cent for the rest of the parliament — a Labour manifesto commitment — and a new system of “advance clearance” for investors on tax rules for big projects.

One official said the package of tax increases would be a “one and done” operation. An ally of Reeves said the chancellor wanted to “wipe the slate clean” and give business the clarity to plan for the future.

But a policy adviser at a large business lobby group said they had been given no assurance the government would not increase taxes in future Budgets: “They have not said anything about future fiscal events.” 

Reeves could raise about £17bn from a 2 percentage point rise in employer national insurance contributions, according to HM Revenue & Customs’ “ready reckoner”.

The possible alternative of imposing NICs on employers’ pension contributions at a flat 13.8 per cent rate would raise up to £18bn a year by the end of the decade, according to the Resolution Foundation.

But this route is less favoured by Reeves’ allies. Lord David Blunkett, a former Labour minister, warned on Friday that it could lead to employers cutting pension contributions.

Under either scenario Reeves would be expected to reimburse public sector employers.

Other tax increases are planned for private equity executives and the wealthy foreign residents who have benefited from the non-dom regime that spares them from UK tax on overseas income. Capital gains tax rates are expected to rise on share sales, and inheritance loopholes used by the rich will be closed.

Next week’s road map is not expected to contain any commitments on further changes to CGT or business rates, which will disappoint some business groups.

The Budget is also set to raise funds through freezing personal income tax thresholds for longer, even though Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has promised to spare “working people” from higher taxes.

The Labour government says it needs to increase taxes to right the public finances and step up investment in infrastructure and public services.

Government insiders added that Reeves’ road map would retain the “full expensing” capital allowance regime introduced by Rishi Sunak’s Conservative administration, which seeks to provide tax breaks for investments that improve productivity.

The current system of tax credits for research and development will be maintained.

Reeves will also announce plans for a new unit within HMRC to provide investors with “advance clearance” — or help in understanding how they would be taxed on future big projects. 

One government official said the unit would give “greater certainty over existing tax rules” but ruled out preferential tax treatment for large investors. 

A senior business lobbyist said the unit could help push some big investments over the line, since “the UK tax system is seen as increasingly complicated and difficult to navigate”.

While cautioning that the move was not a “game-changer”, the lobbyist said: “Adding certainty and clarity can only be a good thing.”

A tax partner at a Big Four accounting firm said the move would make the UK more attractive to investors, since HMRC had become “quite litigious” with big companies including in some cases where they had followed the tax authority’s guidance.  

While the UK gives multinationals advance clearance in limited areas such as transfer pricing, it gives less reassurance than countries such as Australia, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. 

Reeves is set to hold consultations on the design and scope of the new service early next year. 

David Gauke, a former Tory Treasury minister who oversaw business tax road maps in 2010 and 2016, said the exercise was particularly useful for large corporates making big long-term investment decisions.

“What’s really important is not what you promise to do, but what you promise not to do,” he said. “And of course it’s only worthwhile if you stick to your promises.”