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Data shows labour market is still in a fragile position due to economic uncertainty, with few signs of recoveryBritain's jobs market is “floundering” amid weak hiring demand, with only limited signs of recovery, data has revealed.Companies remain cautious about hiring staff amid cost pressures and economic uncertainty, according to two reports released on Monday. They show the labour market continues to be in a fragile position. Continue reading......

Escalating military aggression in Middle East continues to wipe 20m barrels from market each dayGlobal oil prices have breached the $100 (£74) a barrel mark for the first time since 2022 as escalating military aggression in the Middle East continues to wipe 20m barrels of oil from the market each day.Brent crude, the international benchmark, climbed 12.2% to $104.05 a barrel as the new week's trading began in the Asia Pacific markets, the first time that market prices have soared above this key psychological threshold since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Continue reading......

Exclusive: Goldsmith and brother Ben the major investors in trkradio, which is due to go to air next monthThe former Conservative minister Zac Goldsmith is launching a new sports radio station, trkradio, in the run-up to the men's football World Cup this summer.The Track Radio Corporation is understood to have been granted a licence by Ofcom last week, with Goldsmith and his brother Ben, a financier and environmentalist, the major investors. Continue reading......

Lake, whom Trump appointed without Senate confirmation to run Voice of America parent agency, cut over 1,000 jobsA federal judge ruled Saturday that Kari Lake unlawfully led the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) for several months last year and voided mass layoffs and other actions taken during that period to dismantle the agency.The US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) is an independent federal agency that oversees the Voice of America (VOA), the US's largest and oldest international broadcaster, and provides grants to Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe and other news agencies. Continue reading......

National Gas insists storage broadly in line with levels for time of year despite disruption for tankers carrying LNGGreat Britain has only two days of natural gas after a decline in energy reserves, as more tankers carrying liquefied natural gas (LNG) are diverted from their course to Europe towards Asia because of the Iran war.Great Britain had 6,999 gigawatt hours (GWh) of natural gas stored on Saturday, according to figures from National Gas, which owns and operates the gas national transmission system. This compares with 9,105 GWh a year earlier. Continue reading......

Megawatt fast EV charging reflects a coordinated grid strategy the UK once used. Privatisation and fragmentation now make that infrastructure far harder to buildThe future of electric cars arrived this week in China. The world's biggest car seller, BYD, unveiled a new battery giving its latest electric models more than 600 miles of range. Remarkably, the Chinese motor-maker said 250 miles of range could be injected into its new batteries in just five minutes. If true, the last remaining advantages of petrol cars – long range and quick refuelling – are beginning to disappear.But such technology requires megawatt charging points. A single charger can draw as much power as a small town in Britain. BYD's system relies on chargers delivering around 1.5 megawatts of electricity – more than four times the fastest chargers in the UK. China is moving fast, planning thousands of megawatt charging stations within two years. Continue reading......

Exclusive: Plane that flew Reform leader to Maldives appears to be linked to billionaire Christopher HarborneNigel Farage's attempt to reach the Chagos Islands military base was made on a private jet that appears to be linked to Reform UK's mega-donor Christopher Harborne, it has emerged.Harborne, who has donated £12m to Reform UK, has links to two charter planes that flew Farage to the Maldives and, separately, a group of Chagossian campaigners to Sri Lanka, before they attempted to reach the archipelago by boat. Continue reading......

Long hours, lack of flexibility and last-minute scheduling driving parents, particularly mothers, from industryThe performing arts industry in the UK is “inhospitable to parents” and falling far behind other industries in supporting women who have children, according to research.The report, titled “the Motherhood penalty”, criticises the industry for failing to consider how it might adapt to better accommodate parents, with the result that many, in particular women, drop out. Continue reading......

JLP, which runs department store chain and Waitrose, to report its results for year to January on ThursdayWorkers at the John Lewis Partnership are expected to find out this week whether they will receive their first annual bonus payment in four years.The retail group, which runs the John Lewis department store chain and Waitrose supermarket business, will also reveal how it has been progressing with its transformation strategy in an update on Thursday 12 March. Continue reading......

No country in Europe is likely to be affected more than Cyprus, the nearest EU member to the Middle EastThe season has barely begun but Ayia Napa is beginning to feel the pulse. Tourists are trickling back, enjoying the Cypriot resort's sunsets, eateries and shoreline views.On the seafront, Vassilis Georgiou is busy overseeing the construction of a new ramp for the jetskis that are a highlight of his water sports business. Last year, more than 500,000 holidaymakers visited the beachside booth, snapping up tickets for the boat cruises and parasailing also on offer. Continue reading......

The US was an oligarchy well before Trump's first term. Recognizing this reality is essential to building a true democracySince Donald Trump returned to the White House, American political life has taken on a familiar rhythm. Each week brings another court ruling framed as a breaking point, another election cast as the last real one, another executive order described as the moment it all finally tips over the edge, another person murdered by a government that's finally gone too far. Democratic party fundraising emails promise to “save the Republic”. Commentators warn that the guardrails are giving way. Anxious citizens refresh their screens, waiting for the collapse of American democracy.This state of permanent panic rests on what Sigmund Freud called an illusion: a belief embraced not because it reflects reality, but because it satisfies a psychological need. The illusion in this case is that the United States still has a democracy to lose. The more unsettling truth is that Americans are not living...

Governments are having to wake up to the fact they will have to take a closer interest in supply chains for essentialsOil prices 'could breach $100 a barrel within days' amid supply disruption from Iran warDonald Trump's assault on Iran and the deadly conflict it has unleashed is grim and unprecedented – but there is a familiarity to its economic consequences: brace yourself for another price shock.From the Covid shutdown and subsequent reopening to Russian tanks rolling into Ukraine, the global economy has been rocked by one cost surge after another. Continue reading......

The CEO said he cut the company's workforce by 4,000 people – almost in half – because of gains in AI productivityMark remembers the first time he wondered whether he was teaching Block's AI tools how to do his job – and maybe even replace him. He was at his fintech company's extravagant anniversary party last September. As executives led a presentation on the productivity benefits of a new internal AI tool, Mark, who worked in the product department, discussed his worries with colleagues. While he wasn't sure what would happen in a few years, he told a co-worker sitting next to him that for now, there was no way the technology was so advanced that it could move the business forward without employees like him to help drive vision and strategy.These AI tools were not proactive. He had to tell them what to do. Block still needed him, he thought. Continue reading......

US drivers are largely insulated from higher oil prices caused by Middle East turmoil – but only to a pointAcross the US, the average cost of a gallon of regular gasoline has jumped nearly 27 cents in a week, to $3.25, and American consumers are bracing for higher prices at the gas pump as the US-Israel conflict with Iran threatens to disrupt the global oil supply.That fear has entered the White House too, where Donald Trump's chief of staff, Susie Wiles, is reportedly hunting for ideas to lower gasoline prices and officials are getting “screamed at” to bring good news, according to Politico. Continue reading......

Warning from Goldman Sachs comes as crude shipping through strait of Hormuz falls further than bank thoughtGlobal oil prices could breach the $100 (£74) a barrel mark within days, and reach $150 a barrel by the end of the month, without a solution ​to the severe disruption in crude flows through the strait ‌of Hormuz, Goldman Sachs has warned.Oil exports via the vital trade route linking the world's biggest oil producers to buyers in the global market have fallen further than the US investment bank had initially expected after the US-Israeli attack on Iran a little over a week ago. Continue reading......

From Gates to Musk and Altman, today's ultra-rich steer AI and tech, raising questions about who decides the futureWhen Bill Gates became the first modern IT mogul to reach the apex of wealth and power in 1992, the world was a very different place. Gates joined the top 10 on Forbes magazine's billionaires list alongside Japanese, German, Canadian, South Korean and Swedish billionaires, including those with family fortunes from Britain and America. A broad mix of industries was on the list: Retail and media, property management and packaging, an investment firm and a couple of industrial conglomerates. Their fortunes almost added up to $100bn – equivalent to about 0.4% of the US's GDP that year.The oligarchy has changed drastically since then. Bernard Arnault, of French luxury group LVMH, Amancio Ortega, the Spanish clothing mogul, and Warren Buffett, the US investor, were the only old-school billionaires among the top 10 in 2025. The rest largely made their money from high-tech: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos...

The closing of a cluster of leading creative venues has led to dismay and intensified fears the hubs that fostered Glasgow's celebrated arts scene are disappearingBy the time Daisy Mulholland arrived, the locks had already been changed. The Glaswegian artist, had been organising the launch event for her new art shop at the Centre for Contemporary Arts (CCA) when she got an email telling her the Sauchiehall Street venue – and cornerstone of the city's art scene since it was founded as the Third Eye Centre in 1974 – was closing with immediate effect.“The event was the following day: we had 250 tickets sold, we'd done so many rehearsals, and inside there were lighting rigs, performers' equipment, shop stock. It was truly heartbreaking,” she says. Continue reading......

It's a grim time to be in your 20s, no doubt, but don't blame it all on older people: being chopped up into ever smaller rivalries only serves the marketIntergenerational relations, or lack of them, is a subject I've been thinking about, on and off, since the financial crisis. I've read up on it, too – things such as the Institute for Fiscal Studies' report on intergenerational earnings mobility, which is wonky but full of fascinating information which needs some parsing. (Example: “While the educational attainment of ethnic minorities growing up in families eligible for free school meals is often higher than that of their white majority peers, their earnings outcomes show no such advantage.” Why not?) Another good source of data is the Office for Budgetary Responsibility's (OBR) report on intergenerational fairness – which, interestingly, is about the bluntest statement of fiscal unfairness that you can find. The OBR makes the point that “a current new-born baby would make an average net ...

Self-styled 'punk' beer company bought land in 2020, pledging to plant Scotland's 'biggest ever forest'The self-styled “punk” beer company BrewDog sold its Highland estate for a knockdown price after abandoning its efforts to plant Scotland's “biggest ever forest” there.BrewDog's co-founder James Watt claimed its Lost Forest project at Kinrara in the Cairngorms national park would cover a “staggering area” and capture tens of millions of tonnes of CO2 during its lifetime. Continue reading......

Founder of family-owned firm says it will pause acquisitions after takeover of 15 Compass Coffee stores in USCaffè Nero will continue opening new shops in the UK and overseas, but has warned coffee prices are likely to keep rising as the war in Iran and higher staffing costs feed through.The family-owned business, which has just bought the 15-store Compass Coffee based in Washington DC to convert to its main brand, is aiming to open as many as 30 UK stores and between 50 and 70 more this year across the 10 other countries it operates in. Continue reading......