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Dutch government's move pauses dispute that threatened car production around the worldNexperia row shows how China is weaponising EU relationshipBusiness live – latest updatesThe Netherlands has suspended its seizure of the Chinese-owned chipmaker at the heart of a bitter six-week battle between the EU and Beijing that threatened to halt car production at sites around the world.The Dutch minister of economic affairs, Vincent Karremans, said in a statement on Wednesday that the government would suspend its 30 September decision to take supervisory control of Nexperia as a gesture of “goodwill” to Beijing. Continue reading......

Organisers claimed proposed ban on reselling tickets for more than face value would dent investment in complex, says reportBusiness live – latest updatesWimbledon will be given an exemption from the clampdown on ticket resales for its “debenture” tickets, according to a report, in what would be a victory for the organisers of the annual tennis tournament.The championship organisers, the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC), had previously said that ministers' proposed ban on reselling tickets for more than face value would prevent it from being able to reinvest debenture proceeds in maintenance of the complex, the Financial Times reported. Continue reading......

Beijing reimposes 2023 ban, citing Japan PM's comment that military would respond to Chinese attack on islandChina has suspended imports of Japanese seafood again, as the fallout over the Japanese prime minister's comments about Taiwan continues to escalate in one of worst bilateral disputes in years.The ban was first reported by the Japanese outlets Kyodo News and NHK on Wednesday, and appeared to be confirmed by China's foreign ministry, which said there was “no market for Japanese seafood in the current climate”. Continue reading......

Almost £600m was wiped off company's market value when blunder was discovered in AugustBusiness live – latest updatesWH Smith's chief executive has stepped down with immediate effect, after a review found accounting failures in its North American division, prompting the retailer to slash its profit outlook.Nearly £600m was wiped off the company's market value when the blunder emerged in August. Shares took a 42% one-day plunge from which they have not yet recovered, leaving the travel shop chain reeling shortly after the sale of its high street business, which has been rebranded as TGJones by its new owners. Continue reading......

Rachel Reeves hints there will be budget measures to push down prices and Bank of England is likely to actUK inflation eases to 3.6% before crunch budgetBusiness live – latest updatesAfter three months on a high plateau, inflation is beginning to ease again. The drop from 3.8% to 3.6% in the October consumer prices index sets the UK on a downward path that reduces the pressure on shoppers, businesses and the government.Never mind that City economists had expected a fall last month. It appears to be a turning point back towards normality after a topsy-turvy year that everyone wants to put behind them. Continue reading......

Chancellor Rachel Reeves will be keeping a close eye on inflation data ahead of her autumn budget, due next Wednesday.Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.Inflation in the UK is forecast to have dipped to an annual rate of 3.6% in October from 3.8% in September, according to City economists, in a move that could give chancellor Rachel Reeves a leg-up ahead of next week's crucial budget.Having reared its ugly head once more in 2025, inflation likely peaked in September when transport costs exerted upward pressure on headline CPI.The disinflation process remains intact, in our view.7am GMT: UK CPI inflation for October9.30am GMT: ONS house price and rents data10am GMT: Eurozone inflation (final reading) for October1.30pm GMT: US Housing starts7pm GMT: US Federal Reserve publishes the minutes from the October FOMC meeting Continue reading......

Analysis of new-builds in Birmingham suggests all-electric homes not only use less energy but vary in peak usageSome of the first homes in the UK designed to meet new building standards put less pressure on the electricity grid than expected, a study has found.The all-electric properties in Handsworth, Birmingham, have heat pumps, which use electricity to provide heat rather than oil or gas. Continue reading......

Challenge to Meta could have forced it to spin off Instagram and WhatsApp, but judge ruled company did not hold social networking monopolyMeta defeated a major challenge to its business on Tuesday when a US judge ruled that the company does not hold a monopoly in social networking.The case, brought by the US Federal Trade Commission, could have forced the tech giant to spin off Instagram and WhatsApp, with the former FTC chair accusing the company of operating a “buy or bury” scheme against nascent competitors. The tech giant bought WhatsApp for $19bn in 2014. Losing either the image-based social network, which generates an estimated half of Meta's revenue, or the world's most popular messaging app could have done existential damage to Meta's empire. Continue reading......

Trains between Oxford and Milton Keynes put back to 2026 partly due to dispute, Chiltern Railways saysThe start of passenger services on the new East West Rail line will be delayed until at least 2026 with no start date confirmed, the operator has said, partly due to a row over guards on the trains.Passenger trains were supposed to come into service between Oxford and Milton Keynes this autumn, the first stage on the new railway along the Oxford-Cambridge arc where the government hopes for rapid economic growth. Continue reading......

The Neoliner Origin set off on its inaugural two-week voyage from France to the US with the aim of revolutionising the notoriously dirty shipping industryIt is 8pm on a Saturday evening and eight of us are sitting at a table onboard a ship, holding on to our plates of spaghetti carbonara as our chairs slide back and forth. Michel Péry, the dinner's host, downplays the weather as a “tempête de journalistes” – something sailors would not categorise as a storm, but which drama-seeking journalists might refer to as such to entertain their readers.But after a white-knuckle night in our cabins with winds reaching 74mph or force 12 – officially a hurricane – Péry has to admit it was not just a “journalists' storm”, but the real deal. Continue reading......

Delivery company struggling to convince US chain Kroger, its most important customer, of the virtues of automationThat's quite a stock market journey: from 180p at listing 15 years ago to the mighty heights of £29 during the locked-down Covid year of 2020 and now – oh dear – all the way back down to 180p. Welcome to Ocado, which looked like the future of grocery retailing once upon a time but now seems to be struggling to convince its most important customer of the virtues of robots and automation.There is no positive gloss to put on news that Kroger, the US supermarket chain, is closing three of its eight warehouses that use Ocado's technology. Kroger was the client that put a rocket under the UK group's share price in the first place in 2018 by signing a partnership deal. If Ocado could prove the worth of its kit in the world's largest consumer market, went the bulls' argument, valuation doubts would disappear. Continue reading......

Amazon's Zoox will give free rides in parts of the city in attempt to counter Waymo's early lead in self-driving taxisAmazon's Zoox is launching its robotaxi service in San Francisco, offering free rides through parts of the city as it accelerates its attempt to challenge Waymo's early lead in the race to transport passengers in self-driving vehicles.The expansion, announced on Tuesday, will be confined to a few major San Francisco neighborhoods and limited to people who signed up on a waiting list to ride in Zoox's gondola-shaped robotaxis, which have no steering wheel. The San Francisco launch comes less than three months after the Amazon-owned robotaxi company launched its first ride-hailing service along the Las Vegas strip. Continue reading......

Trade union leaders and senior Labour figures say the Lords looks 'undemocratic and firmly against the interest of working people'Dozens of hereditary peers - including the Duke of Wellington, landed aristocrats and millionaire business chiefs – have been criticised for battling to unpick Labour's plans to boost workers' rights.In a fresh setback for the government, the Lords voted to support a string of Conservative-backed amendments to the employment rights bill late on Monday for the third time running. Continue reading......

Buy now, pay later firm says pay has risen by 60% with staff numbers mostly cut by attrition and tech investmentKlarna has claimed that AI-related savings have allowed the buy now, pay later company to increase staff salaries by nearly 60%, but hinted it could slash more jobs after nearly halving its workforce over the past three years.Chief executive Sebastian Siemiatkowski said headcount had dropped from 5,527 to 2,907 since 2022, mostly as a result of natural attrition, with departing staff replaced by technology rather than by new staff members. Continue reading......

If the promise of a better private rental sector is to be realised, councils will need new staff as well as stricter rulesTenants need rights. Apart from food and water, shelter is the most basic human need and relevant to almost everyone all the time – unlike, say, healthcare, which most people do not use on a daily basis. A rebalancing of the law towards renters and away from landlords, which the government has done in its Renters' Rights Act, was sorely needed. Failures and abuses of power have been ignored for too long.With no-fault evictions outlawed from next May, and tougher oversight from a new ombudsman to follow, life should be about to get better for England's 4.6m households in the private rental sector. But will it? Troubling analysis by the Guardian shows that two-thirds of councils in England have not prosecuted a single landlord in the past three years, while nearly half didn't issue any fines either. Over the same period, fewer than 2% of complaints led to enforcement of any kind. Ju...

The bitcoin collapse lifts the lid on a society without opportunity, where risk is privatised and rightwingers sell illusions of freedom while ordinary punters bear lossesThe crypto crash has come again. And it is as brutal as ever. In barely six weeks, more than $1.2tn has evaporated from cryptocurrencies' market capitalisation. The sell-off has sent bitcoin back to levels last seen in April. The world's largest cryptocurrency briefly fell below $90,000 this week, shedding almost a third of its value since its October peak.The key to understanding crypto is that it has no “value” in any economic sense. It generates no income, commands no productive capacity and pays no dividends. Unlike state money, it is not backed by a tax base or a fiscal authority. What props up its price is not cashflow but expectation: the hope that someone else will validate today's valuation tomorrow. When sentiment turns sour or people pull their money out, there is nothing to break cryptocurrencies' fall. Prices don't ...

'Politically realistic' for UK to make financial contribution so it can access European single market, Irish minister saysThe UK must pay into the EU budget for future participation in the European single market, it has been confirmed, in what could become a major test for the post-Brexit reset.Ireland's Europe minister, Thomas Byrne, said EU member states had decided the UK should make a financial contribution for closer ties: “Ireland wants to see Britain getting the benefit of closer engagement with the European Union. Continue reading......

Norwegian software group looks to ex-Worldpay boss Sir Ron Kalifa as it weighs up blockbuster flotation in either London or Stockholm Visma, one of Europe's biggest software companies, has approached a leading City grandee to become its chair if it goes ahead with a blockbuster €20bn (£17.6bn) listing in London next spring.Sir Ron Kalifa, former boss of payments group Worldpay and a director of the Bank of England, is considered the leading candidate for the potential role after a round of interviews in recent weeks, the Guardian understands. Continue reading......

Online grocer had a deal with Kroger to build 20 customer fulfilment centres but three of the sites are to closeThe value of online grocer Ocado has fallen sharply after Kroger, it's major partner in the US, announced the closure of three warehouses using the UK company's high-tech equipment.Ocado signed a deal to build 20 automated warehouses – known as customer fulfilment centres – for Kroger, the US's fourth largest retailer, in 2018. Eight of those facilities are currently operating with two more planned for next year. The deal was seen as a major part of Ocado's plan to sell its online grocery delivery technology internationally. Continue reading......

Bitcoin price at lowest level since April while FTSE 100 falls as Google boss warns there is 'irrationality' in AI boomBusiness live – latest updatesMore than $1tn (£760bn) has been wiped off the value of the cryptocurrency market in the past six weeks amid fears of a tech bubble and fading expectations for a US rate cut next month.Tracking more than 18,500 coins, the value of the crypto market has fallen by a quarter since a high in early October, according to the data company CoinGecko. Continue reading......