Budget eve, Canadian tariffs and a bank called cheap

Healey's first Budget comes into view

The British weekend belonged to the Budget. On Saturday evening the Guardian reported that John Healey's first Budget will include a large devolution package, presented as a measure to boost growth. The paper's piece set Mr Healey's name beside that of Andy Burnham, which places the Manchester figure close to the plans.

The BBC carried three previews of its own. One, published shortly before three on Sunday morning, reported that the Budget will include £1bn for social and affordable housing. A second set out four ways Labour could raise money without raising income tax. The headline frames income tax as the line the government is expected to hold. The third, which appeared at 06:21, argued that there is no more fat to trim for the 'squeezed middle'.

That last phrase points to households with little left to give up.

Two further BBC pieces sat at the edges of the Budget story. One was a report from Rosebank, described as an oil field at the centre of a political storm, with an account of life on the installation itself. The other asked how the UK state pension compares with arrangements in other countries. Neither carried a figure in its headline. The pension comparison was published just after midnight on Saturday, some hours before the Guardian's devolution report appeared.

Tariff relief with an electoral calendar

The White House has lifted tariffs on some Canadian goods. The BBC set the decision against the approach of the midterm elections. The Guardian was more direct, describing the move as a bid by Donald Trump to boost Susan Collins in Maine, whom the paper called embattled. Neither headline specified which goods are affected, and this note will not guess. The Guardian's account was published late on Friday, the BBC's shortly after midnight.

On Wall Street, the Wall Street Journal published a Sunday piece arguing that the current earnings boom is heavily reliant on just a handful of stocks. The headline does not name them.

Two individual companies drew harder coverage. The Journal reported that JetBlue's creditors have hired advisers as the airline's shares and bonds sank. The story ran on the paper's bankruptcy desk, and its address refers to creditors meeting with a restructuring adviser. Separately, the paper said holders of Moderna should brace for more whiplash, a description of continued volatility in the drugmaker's shares rather than any single event.

The Journal's consumer finance coverage turned to premium credit cards. It described a cat-and-mouse game between the card firms and so-called points junkies, the customers who work rewards programmes hardest. That piece was timed for midnight on Sunday.

Barclays, Manchester and property abroad

This is Money reported on Saturday that Barclays is on bid alert after being dubbed 'the cheapest bank in the world'. The label is attributed in the headline, not adopted by this note. The report set it against the bank's cost-cutting drive and job cuts. No bidder is named in the headline.

The Guardian published two linked pieces on Manchester at six on Sunday morning. The first reported that ownership of land in the city by Emirati-linked firms is up 39% in ten years. The second, a longer interactive feature, examined how the United Arab Emirates changed the face of what the paper called Andy Burnham's Manchester. Its title quotes a remark: 'That's the way the city works.' Read beside the same paper's devolution report, Manchester sits in two of the weekend's Guardian stories at once, one about Whitehall money and one about Gulf money.

Further east, the South China Morning Post asked what comes next for Hong Kong developers in mainland China. A companion piece reported that Sri Lanka's property boom has given Chinese developers hope, while noting that familiar risks linger. Both were published on Sunday morning, Hong Kong time.

Land and buildings, from Manchester to Colombo, carried most of the weekend's reporting on capital crossing borders.