Tuesday newspaper round-up: Electric cars, supermarkets, HS2, oil prices, Fed protests

Hopes for the mainstream adoption of electric cars have been punctured by figures revealing a fall of more than 11 per cent in the sale of zero-emission vehicles to private buyers. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders has said that motorists are holding back from the switch because of continued uncertainty about whether a government ban on petrol and diesel cars will be enforced, the cost of electric vehicles, the cutting of financial incentives, and fears about the lack of a public recharging network. - The Times

Farmers are being forced to leave food “rotting in the field” because they can’t get a fair deal from supermarkets, a group of celebrity chefs including Rick Stein and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall has warned. In an open letter, farmers, food producers and celebrities accuse Britain’s biggest supermarkets of “imbalanced, short term and wasteful” practices that have left British farmers scrambling to stay afloat. - Telegraph

Northern leaders have called on Downing Street to honour promises to build the HS2 high-speed rail line, as ministers repeatedly refused to confirm to MPs whether it would run to Manchester. Doubts over the future of the multibillion-pound HS2 project are growing after the junior transport minister Richard Holden dodged multiple questions in the Commons. - Guardian

Oil prices could soon top $100 a barrel, analysts have warned, as a steep rally continues on the back of Saudi Arabian and Russian production curbs. The price of Brent crude, the global benchmark, rose by almost 1 per cent to close in on $95 per barrel yesterday, its highest since November. - The Times

A GB News programme hosted by two married Conservative MPs broke impartiality rules by failing to represent “an appropriately wide range”, Ofcom has ruled. The TV channel was found to be in breach of the broadcasting code for the third time this year over a show featuring an interview with Chancellor Jeremy Hunt. Ofcom said Esther McVey and Philip Davies, two sitting Conservatives who present a Saturday morning show, failed to properly scrutinise the Chancellor when he was interviewed ahead of the Budget in March. - Telegraph

One day after the largest climate march since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, hundreds of climate activists blockaded the Federal Reserve Bank in New York to call for an end to funding for coal, oil and gas, with police making scores of arrests. “Fossil fuel companies … wouldn’t be able to operate without money, and that money is coming primarily from Wall Street,” Alicé Nascimento, environmental campaigns director at New York Communities for Change, said hours before she was arrested. - Guardian