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Don't-shop Wednesday | Saved by the dog | Farage/Braverman birthday | Double-barrelled surname | Spelling testPerhaps the boss of Waitrose should leave his ivory tower and spend an extended period on the shop floor to experience the life of a shop worker and see the shoplifting epidemic that is happening day in and day out. He may then reach boiling point one day and react out of character. Perhaps a “Don't-shop Wednesday” at Waitrose, in support of Walker Smith (Waitrose employee sacked after stopping shoplifter from taking Easter eggs, 5 April), might have some effect and reach top executives.Roy WilsonHarrow, London• The heartwarming column on how Beau the labrador saved his master's life after he suffered cardiac arrest on a beach (The pet I'll never forget, 6 April) reminded me of when we got our new collie. Arriving home, my husband went on ahead to open the house door and didn't see that I had tripped and landed face down on our lane. The dog ran back and sat on guard unti...

Mónica Joyce Moniz on the origins of marmalade. Plus letters from Tony Batcup and Mark de BrunnerAs a Portuguese-British citizen, I feel it is my duty to add to your explainer article (Keir Starmalade, anyone? Will marmalade really have to be rebranded in UK?, 4 April) and explain where the word marmalade originated from. Marmalade comes from the fruit marmelo (quince). And marmalade was and is quince jam in Portugal. This jam began to be exported to England at the end of the 15th century. Only in the 17th century did the English start to apply the word marmalade to orange jam. As with many quintessential British things like tea, the English adopted it and made it their own. I like this story because my two countries are represented.Mónica Joyce MonizWyton, Cambridgeshire• Your article about the alleged rebranding of marmalade made me smile – it has always been incorrectly named. As it comes from Citrus x aurantium, and not Citrus x sinensis, it should be known as bitter orange marmalade – perhaps...

These companies now own everything from nurseries to care homes, squeezing vital services for profit while we foot the billIt was the free croissants that gave it away. And the Scandinavian-style furniture. And the tasteful pastel walls. It was different from other nurseries I'd viewed: marginally more expensive, the aesthetic equivalent of a WeWork for toddlers. I was eight months pregnant, on a tour of various nurseries in south-east London for my daughter. At the time, I didn't realise that this wasn't just a nursery, but a prototype for an immense experiment that is quietly playing out across Britain.The nursery I visited is backed by private equity, a surreptitious and tremendously powerful realm of finance that now has its hands on just about everything. Private equity funds and related asset managers own water companies, apartment blocks, student accommodation, care homes, children's homes, funeral parlours and more. The titans of this industry have perfected a cradle-to-grave model of investme...

Elon Musk's company filed confidentially for an IPO last week – but SpaceX itself is a bizarre agglomerationHello, and welcome to TechScape. I'm your host, Blake Montgomery, US tech editor at the Guardian, writing to you as I listen to George Handel's Messiah for Easter.Apple at 50 quiz: top sellers, turkeys and turtlenecksFifty years of sexing up tech: Apple's epic hits – and missesMacBook Neo review: the budget Apple laptop powered by an iPhone chipI wrote a novel using AI. Writers must accept artificial intelligence – but we are as valuable as everI have always seen myself as 'progressive' – but with AI it's time to hit the brakesDon't blame AI for the Iran school bombingIs the UK falling out of love with social media?'System malfunction' causes robotaxis to stall in the middle of the road in ChinaOpenAI, parent firm of ChatGPT, closes $122bn funding round amid AI boom Continue reading......

Police investigating as former worker is suspected of having designed program to avoid security checksA former worker at Meta is under criminal investigation on suspicion of downloading about 30,000 private Facebook images.He was employed by the social media company when it is believed he designed a program to be able to access the pictures while avoiding internal security checks. Continue reading......

Decision to cap rate at 6% from September is unlikely to defuse row over crippling cost of debtFull story: UK caps interest rate on student loansThe government has announced a small concession for millions of university graduates with “plan 2” student loans.However, the decision to cap the interest rate charged at 6% from September is unlikely to defuse the row over the crippling cost of degree course debts. Continue reading......

Oil prices seesaw and stock markets on edge amid Donald Trump's deadline for Iran to reopen strait of Hormuz Business live – latest updatesThe oil and ‌gas crisis triggered by the blockade of the strait of Hormuz is “more serious than the ones in 1973, ​1979 and 2022 together”, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) has said, as Donald Trump's deadline for Iran to reopen the waterway approached on Tuesday.Fatih Birol, the executive director of the IEA, told ⁠Le Figaro newspaper that the impact of the Middle East conflict on the oil market was larger than the combined force of the twin oil shocks of the 1970s and the fallout from Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Continue reading......

Analysis shows they are reliant on market investors such as hedge funds, which contributed $4tn last yearBusiness live – latest updatesEmerging economies are at greater risk of higher interest rates and currency shocks as a result of the Iran war because of increased reliance on market investors such as hedge funds, the International Monetary Fund has warned.The IMF's analysis shows that a cumulative $4tn flowed into emerging markets last year from outside the formal banking sector – including from hedge funds and investment funds. Continue reading......

Elon Musk's aerospace to AI company will host summer event to try to convince buyers it is worth $2 trillionBusiness live – latest updatesSpaceX will kick off the marketing for its highly anticipated stock exchange debut by hosting an event in June for 1,500 retail investors, as executives set out to convince buyers that the aerospace-to-artificial-intelligence group should be valued at $2 trillion.In an unusual move, the company has earmarked a large portion of its shares – potentially up to 30% – for non-professional, non-institutional investors, banking on the popularity of its chief executive, Elon Musk, to help it raise $75bn (about £56bn) in what is expected to be the largest public offering in history. Continue reading......

Glass Lewis, which advises some of world's biggest investors, says AGM exclusion raises transparency issuesBusiness live – latest updatesBP shareholders should vote against its new chair over his decision to exclude a climate resolution from the company's next annual meeting, a major proxy adviser has recommended.Glass Lewis has advised investors to vote against Albert Manifold, who has been in his post for just six months. Continue reading......

Bank to submit planning application shortly after securing deal on 265m-high London Docklands buildingBusiness live – latest updatesJP Morgan Chase has reached agreement with London City airport to build one of Europe's tallest office towers in the east of the capital.The £3bn tower is poised to be the tallest in the Canary Wharf financial district, after JP Morgan, one of Wall Street's biggest banks, secured approval from the airport. Continue reading......

Scale AI gig workers describe desperation of using people's personal profiles and copyrighted work to train AITens of thousands of people have been paid by a company part-owned by Meta to train AI by combing Instagram accounts, harvesting copyrighted work and transcribing pornographic soundtracks, the Guardian can reveal.Scale AI, 49%-controlled by Mark Zuckerberg's social media empire, has recruited experts across fields such as medicine, physics and economics – putatively to refine top-level artificial intelligence systems through a platform called Outlier. “Become the expert that AI learns from,” it says on its site, advertising flexible work for people with strong credentials. Continue reading......

Richard Walker, Iceland's chair, says Walker Smith is 'welcome to a job with us' as public fundraiser hits £7,500Keir Starmer's cost of living tsar, who is the chair of Iceland, has offered a job to a worker who was sacked from Waitrose after trying to stop a shoplifter.Waitrose faced public outcry over its treatment of Walker Smith, who was fired two days after he stopped the shoplifter taking items from the Easter egg display, including Lindt chocolate bunnies. Continue reading......

Eighty-five countries have sought a roadmap to phasing out fossil fuels. A conference this month offers hope they could uniteThis article is published as part of the global journalism collaboration Covering Climate NowThe Iran war is also a climate war. Beyond its terrible human costs, the war's disruptions of oil, gas, fertilizer and other shipments is another reminder of the risks inherent in basing the world economy on fossil fuels. The war's jets, missiles and aircraft carriers, and the tankers, refineries and buildings they blow up, represent millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions that further imperil a climate system that is already “very close” to a point of no return, scientists say, after which runaway global warming could not be stopped. Nevertheless, petrostate leaders around the world continue doing their utmost to stave off a desperately needed course correction.Now, a little noticed ray of hope may be peeking over the horizon.Mark Hertsgaard and Kyle Pope are co-founders of the g...

Billionaire claims world's biggest music company has suffered due to postponement of US listingBusiness live – latest updatesBillionaire Bill Ackman's hedge fund has offered to buy Universal Music Group (UMG) in a deal that values the world's biggest music company at more than €50bn (£44bn).Pershing Square, the New-York based hedge fund, has offered to buy the business, which is home to artists including Taylor Swift and Elton John, in a cash and stock deal. Continue reading......

CBI figures showing surprise jump in financial sector's growth will be welcome news for Rachel ReevesBritain's financial services companies have reported a strong recovery in activity at the start of the year, in a surprise boost to the government after a gloomy end to 2025.Banks, insurers and investment managers said their businesses were growing, with a positive balance of nearly two-thirds noting an expansion, according to a long-running survey by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), a lobby group. That contrasted with the negative balance of 38% in December, despite the start of the US-Israel war on Iran. Continue reading......

Government should look at ways to help as firms are paying disproportionate bills, says MakeUKBritish manufacturers have said they will have to pay an extra £940m a year in business rates because of changes by Rachel Reeves that come into effect this month.Manufacturers face a disproportionate business rates bill because they often have large factory floors, according to analysis by MakeUK, an industry lobby group. It said that factories accounted for a fifth of England and Wales's property by rateable value, despite manufacturers only accounting for a 10th of economic output. Continue reading......

With the UAE under fire from Iranian missies, wealthy investors are turning to Italy's flat-tax havenJust over a month ago, Dubai was the obvious destination for wealthy Britons in search of a new home. Few cities allow you to earn vast sums tax-free and spend them across any number of luxury hotels, restaurants and shops.But as the United Arab Emirates comes under Iranian fire, Dubai's reputation – in part created by emigrant influencers – as a haven for the global elite is eroding. Super-rich UK nationals are now looking for a route back to Europe; and Milan, the financial centre of Italy, is climbing to the top of the list. Continue reading......

An expletive-ridden post on social media shamed the office of the US president. Its substantive message, if acted on, would be a war crimeArticle 52 of the first additional protocol to the Geneva conventions prohibits attacks on civilian targets. It is on those grounds that the international criminal court has issued arrest warrants for Russian military officers and officials responsible for attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure. Such assaults, and the missiles rained on Ukrainian cities and towns in order to terrify and demoralise, constitute war crimes. Exactly the same would apply to the United States, should Donald Trump's threats to bomb Iran back to the “stone age” this week be carried out.Such basic tenets of international law bear repeating at a time when Mr Trump and his defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, appear to speak as if from within a bloodthirsty fever dream. Glorying repulsively in his capacity to order death and destruction from the Pentagon, Mr Hegseth, an Evangelical Chri...

AI experts say we're living in an experiment that may fundamentally change the model of workSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxHundreds of thousands of tech workers are facing a harsh reality. Their well-paying jobs are no longer safe. Now that artificial intelligence (AI) is here, their futures don't look as bright as they did a decade ago.As US tech companies have ramped up investments in AI, they've slashed a staggering number of jobs. Microsoft cut 15,000 workers last year. Amazon laid off 30,000 employees in the last six months. Financial-services company Block eliminated more than 4,000 people, or 40% of its workforce, in February. Meta laid off more than 1,000 in the last six months, and, according to a Reuters report, may cut 20% of all employees in the near future. Just this week, the software giant Oracle laid off thousands of workers. Smaller players like Pinterest and Atlassian also made recent cuts, culling about 15% and 10% of their workforces, re...