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Richard Harvey and Joy Webb respond to an article by George Monbiot on the fragility of the global food system in light of the Iran warAlthough I agree with George Monbiot's analysis of the serious risks that we face from a breakdown in the UK food supply chain, there are two important points we need to recognise (We're letting big corporations gamble with our lives. Act now, or the food could run out, 25 March). First, we must seek to increase food production on UK farms because this has been falling for several decades.Food self-sufficiency in the UK fell from 78% in 1984 to 62% in 2024. The decline is largely due to the loss of farmland to non-farming use: buildings, roads and railways, conservation and wildlife schemes, solar farms and recreation. We need to plan for a scenario where imported food may not be readily available. Continue reading......

It's likely, but it also could be a boon for a new generation of entrepreneurs willing to take over established operationsWant to buy my business? It's been very profitable. I've run it for more than 25 years. But no, you don't want to buy it. Like most small businesses in this country, there's really nothing of value here.According to the Small Business Administration, there are approximately 33m small businesses in the US. But fewer than 7m actually employ people. The rest comprise freelancers, side gigs and independent contractors. I'm sure many of these people are making a living. But are they building assets? A brand? Probably not. If that “business owner” suddenly disappears, their business disappears with them. No one wants to buy a business like that. There's no value. Continue reading......

Exclusive: Pubs, restaurants and hotels warn of mounting pressure days before rates rises and higher wage bills take effectOne in five hospitality businesses fear collapse in the next 12 months, according to an industry-wide survey that comes days before rises in tax and employment costs kick in.From Wednesday, many pub, restaurant and hotel companies face the prospect of a higher bill for business rates paid to their local authority, while an increase in minimum wage thresholds takes effect on the same day. Continue reading......

US release of horror novel Shy Girl cancelled and UK book discontinued after suspected AI use, as publishers feel 'cold shiver'Recently, the literary agent Kate Nash started noticing that the submission letters she was receiving from authors were becoming more thorough – albeit also more formulaic.“I took it as a rise in diligence,” she said. “I thought it was a good thing.” Continue reading......

Brent crude jumps 51% since start of March and gold suffers fifth-largest monthly fall in 50 yearsMiddle East crisis – latest updatesThe Brent crude oil price is on track for its biggest monthly gain on record in March after the Iran war caused mayhem in the markets.Brent crude, the international benchmark, has climbed by 51% since the start of March, LSEG data shows, beating the previous monthly record of 46% in September 1990 after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, leading to the first Gulf war. Continue reading......

Rachel Reeves boasts of the £23bn she has built up against her fiscal rules but now she – or any future steward of the economy – has little space to manoeuvreIt is with no pleasure that I must report a depressing domestic byproduct of the war in the Middle East: headroom chat is back.Of course, shifts in investors' appetite for gilts – UK government bonds – are trivial, in the context of the bloodshed in Iran and beyond. Continue reading......

Aggressive strategy and loss in the trial highlight a problem for tech firms: a widespread distrust of social media companiesWhen Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, sought to defend itself in the landmark social media addiction lawsuit alleging its products caused personal injury to a young user, it went on the offensive. The mental health problems that the 20-year-old known as KGM suffered since she was a child were not the result of exposure to harm on Instagram, Meta's lawyers and public relations team argued, but instead linked to her mother's parenting and her offline social problems.In a bench memo filed before the trial began, lawyers for Meta quoted excerpts from KGM's teenage text messages, personal writings and social media posts complaining about her mother. They combed through therapy notes and called on doctors to testify to examples of personal conflict. Throughout the proceedings, Meta's communications team sent reporters repeated updates from the trial and quotes from ...

Warner Bros-owned brand's late arrival to British TV prompts deals for viewers as battle for subscribers heats upThe launch of HBO Max into the increasingly crowded UK television market last week has prompted deals for consumers as former rivals team up amid a slowdown in subscriber growth.The Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) streaming service hopes a competitive price for direct sign-ups and deals bundling the service through Sky will make it a must-have and not an also-ran, in a British TV ecosystem upended by Netflix 14 years ago. Continue reading......

Ban on junk food adverts has cut advertising spend and prompted a debate over the policy's impactThe UK will have its first Easter without the traditional barrage of TV ads for chocolate eggs and hot cross buns as the ban on junk food advertising makes the sweetest tradition of the year a sugar-free viewing experience.New regulations, which came into force at the beginning of the year, prohibit products high in fat, sugar and salt from appearing in TV ads before 9pm, as part of efforts to tackle rising childhood obesity. Continue reading......

Exclusive: critics warn Reform UK use of trade policy would increase food costs amid cost-of-living crisisNigel Farage's farming adviser has called for a doubling of wheat prices by using trade policy, which critics have said would hike food costs during a cost-of-living crisis.Arable farmer and campaigner Clive Bailye has been appointed as a farming and land use adviser for Reform UK. Bailye owns the website The Farming Forum, a social network for farmers, and helped organise the large-scale protests against the Labour government's introduction of inheritance tax for farmed land. Continue reading......

Examining the packaging is key to avoiding illegal and potentially harmful devices, as millions are seized each yearYou buy a vape from a shop on the high street. Nothing looks unusual but after charging the unit and using it for a few days, you notice it is getting hotter and hotter.The vape is a fake and one of the thousands on sale illegally in shops around the UK. By not installing a simple circuit to prevent overheating, the manufacturers have saved a couple of pence but risk it catching fire. Continue reading......

Leonid Radvinsky's widow has been left with a crucial role in deciding what happens to the business that made her husband a billionaireYekaterina Chudnovsky, online biographies say, is a mother-of-four who “enjoys spending time with her family and teaching them the importance of giving back and helping others”. They add that Ukrainian-born Chudnovsky, known as Katie, finds sanctuary in walks on the beach.In interviews, Chudnovsky has spoken warmly about her commitment to philanthropy, her dedication to support cancer research and her work as a lawyer for an unnamed global technology firm. Pornography is never mentioned. Continue reading......

There's a system that creates and condones these toxic restaurant environments – and too often it's rewarded by institutions such as MichelinLauren Joseph is a writer and chefThe fine-dining world has been closely watching the fallout at Noma since chefs spoke out about the physical violence and emotional abuse that the head chef, René Redzepi, subjected them to at his Copenhagen restaurant. There were protests in Los Angeles before a four-month pop-up of the restaurant opened there this month, and Redzepi, in an Instagram video in which he failed to fully assign himself blame (“I'm sorry everyone is in this situation,” he begins), then announced that he has stepped away from the business. The LA pop-up, however, remains and the question lingers: will this be the reckoning an ultra-pressured group of restaurants has long avoided?It depends on whether we allow ourselves to be distracted by Redzepi and what comes next. I hope every chef who was allegedly intimidated, punched and threatened gets th...

Thieves made a break for 413,793 units of the company's new F1 line bars which could cause shortage before EasterA large shipment of KitKat candy bars was stolen while in transit to distributors, a major candy crime right before the Easter holiday that could cause shortages for customers.The truck carrying 413,793 units of a “new chocolate range”, about 12 tons of chocolate bars, was pilfered while driving through Europe on 26 March, Agence France-Presse reported. Continue reading......

Treasury department said Financial Times article about Scott Bessent's views on Fed oversight was 'manufactured' The US treasury department demanded on Friday that the Financial Times (FT) retract a report on treasury secretary Scott Bessent's views on the Federal Reserve, accusing the newspaper of publishing “false claims” in a formal complaint escalated to the outlet's parent company, Nikkei Inc.The email from treasury officials, addressed to senior editors at the FT and Nikkei, disputed multiple claims in the story and criticized the headline as misrepresenting the underlying reporting. Continue reading......

Competition watchdog will launch cost comparison website and has ordered vets to cap written prescription pricesThe UK's competition watchdog has ordered vets to cap written prescription fees at £21, and practices will have to publish price lists in a crackdown on rising fees.The Competition and Markets Authority also said a costcomparison website would be introduced to increase competition and drive down costs. Continue reading......

More than one in eight of all those born between 1997 and 2012 don't believe retirement will even be an optionMehjabin, 23, is a supply teacher who lives with her parents in London. She does not know whether she will ever be able to stop working.She works for a teaching agency, and for a full week she could typically earn about £650. However, sometimes she only gets two or three days a week. Continue reading......

When did care homes come to be seen as recession-proof investments? And who pays the price?On a spring morning in 1987, a 30-year-old man named Robert Kilgour pulled up beside a row of foamy cherry trees in the town of Kirkcaldy, on Scotland's east coast, to visit an old hotel. The building was four storeys of blackened Victorian sandstone. Kilgour was a big man, a voluble Scot with a knack for storytelling. He already owned a hotel in Edinburgh but wanted to branch into property development and was planning to turn this old place, Station Court, into apartments. A few months after he completed the purchase, however, the Scottish government scrapped a grant for developers that he had been counting on. He had just sunk most of his personal savings into a useless building in a sodden, post-industrial town. He urgently needed a new idea.Care homes weren't so different from hotels, Kilgour thought. And the beauty was, their elderly residents were unlikely to get drunk, steal the soap dispensers or invite se...

More use of two-way charging will earn money for owners and could avoid the need to expand North Sea oil drillingThe Iran war has sent petrol and diesel prices to their highest levels in years, sparked warnings of fuel rationing across Europe and triggered calls for Britain to drill more North Sea oil and gas. But analysis suggests the UK is looking for solutions in the wrong places – and that one of them is sitting on people's driveways or parked in the street.If more drivers switched electric vehicles, Britain would sharply reduce its petrol and diesel consumption, with every car charged from the grid rather than the pump extending the country's fuel reserves – and experts say the potential impact goes far beyond that. If more drivers switched to electric vehicles, Britain could sharply reduce its petrol and diesel consumption. Every car charged from the grid rather than the pump extends the country's fuel reserves – and experts say the potential impact goes far beyond that. Continue reading......

From 6 April, low-income families can claim universal credit payments for all children living in the householdThe two-child benefit policy has been described as a “cap on childhood” and as it comes to an end, Claire* hopes to throw a birthday party for her son.It is a celebration most children may take for granted, but Claire and her partner run out of money at the end of every month, skipping meals so that their three children can eat. Her son, now in his final year at primary school, has never had a party. Continue reading......