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Criminals using artificial intelligence tools to take over mobile, bank and online shopping accounts, says CifasCriminals are increasingly exploiting AI technology to take over people's mobile, banking and online shopping accounts, the UK's leading anti-fraud body has warned.Last year, a record number of scams were reported to the national fraud database, fuelled by AI, which allows for large-scale deception on “industrialised” levels, according to Cifas, the fraud prevention organisation. Continue reading......

It is hard to believe that attacks which started on 28 February can have had such a huge impact on oil that must have already been in the country, says Graham JudgeHilary Osborne (UK households that use heating oil face 'frightening' surge in bills over Iran war, 10 March) highlights that rural households are facing huge rises in the price of something that is a necessity.Sadly, not all the rises can be laid at the door of Donald Trump and his foolish war. Some of the increases are simply down to unashamed profiteering. On 2 March (48 hours after the war started) I had to pay 86.6p per litre of oil. This was 10p higher than the price on Friday 27 February. Continue reading......

Corporate employees said Amazon's race to roll out AI is leading to surveillance, slop and 'more work for everyone'.When Dina, a software developer based in New York, joined Amazon two years ago, her job was to write code. Now, it's mostly fixing what artificial intelligence breaks.The internal AI tool she's expected to use, called Kiro, frequently hallucinates and generates flawed code, she says. Then she has to dig through and correct the sloppy code it creates, or just revert all changes and start again. She says it feels like “trying to AI my way out of a problem that AI caused”. Continue reading......

Unite union began all-out strike more than a year ago and city remains without full waste collection serviceIt has been more than a year since Birmingham's bin workers began their all-out strike that has left residents without a fully functioning waste collection service – and there is still no end in sight.The strikes have attracted global media attention as pictures emerged of towering waste and overflowing bins on the streets of the UK's second largest city. Continue reading......

On the 250th anniversary of The Wealth of Nations, the Scottish philospher is still invoked by the right. Yet he worried about inequality, monopoly and the power of wealthThis week 250 years ago, Adam Smith published An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations – and invented economics. The anniversary has been marked by opinion columns, new books and academic conferences. How different it was 50 years ago. The 1976 bicentenary produced the definitive scholarly edition and helped cast Smith as the father of free-market economics. This was an easy sell during the 1970s slow collapse of the postwar economic order. Smith was useful as a symbolic figure for the revival of free-market ideas. Yet the truth is more complicated.Milton Friedman, a Nobel laureate, recruited Smith as the patron saint of neoliberal economics in his 1980 book and television series Free to Choose – a manifesto that anticipated Reaganism in the US. He reduced Smith to two claims: that a voluntary exchange bene...

Payment for Inditex founder, the world's 15 richest person, tops last year's dividend of €3.1bnThe billionaire founder of Zara is to receive a company record €3.23bn (£2.8bn) dividend this year from the world's biggest fashion retailer.Amancio Ortega, who still controls 59% of Spain's Inditex and whose daughter Marta Ortega Pérez is now chair, will receive half his dividend in May and half in November – as will other shareholders. Continue reading......

Journal reported that cryptocurrency exchange shut down internal investigation into transactions with network funding terror groupsSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxThe US government is investigating Binance over allegations that Iran used the crypto exchange to evade sanctions and illegally move funds, according to a Wall Street Journal report published Wednesday.Binance has denied these claims and even sued the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday for defamation. Continue reading......

Company also launches tools to spot scammers as Thai police arrest 21 peopleMeta disabled more than 150,000 accounts and Thai police arrested 21 people in a sweeping international crackdown on south-east Asian criminal scam centers that targeted people around the world, the social media company said Wednesday.The operation was led by Thailand's Royal Thai police anti-cyber scam center, alongside the FBI and the US justice department's scam center strike force, with Meta investigators acting on intelligence shared in real time by law enforcement. Continue reading......

Tens of thousands of residents and tourists have left UAE since the US and Israel started bombing Iran two weeks ago, leaving beach bars, malls and hotels eerily emptyIn the playground of the rich, nobody wanted this war. For decades, Dubai built itself up as a sanctuary of unadulterated consumerism visited by tourists the world over.But now, the city in the United Arab Emirates faces an existential threat, as the war between the US and Israel and Iran has shaken the foundations of the “Dubai dream” that so many foreigners had bought into. Continue reading......

Group lodged application in 2021 but had to overcome accounting issues and reputational concernsRevolut can finally launch as a fully-fledged UK bank after a five-year wait for regulatory approval.The fintech said it has received the all-clear from the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) for a full banking licence, allowing it to offer accounts for retail and business customers. Continue reading......

Maritime insurer fends off criticism over cancelled policies and sharp price risesMiddle East crisis – live updatesThere is a price for everything: even the cost of insuring a ship travelling through the strait of Hormuz.Donald Trump's proposals for the US to provide political risk insurance for seaborne trade in the Gulf might have given the impression a lack of cover was the reason why traffic through the key waterway has almost halted. Continue reading......

Members agree unanimously to release about 400m barrels amid market volatility caused by Iran warBusiness live – latest updatesMiddle East crisis live – latest updatesThe International Energy Agency has ordered the largest release of government oil reserves in its history to help calm the oil price shock triggered by the US-Israeli attacks on Iran.The world's energy watchdog said its 32 members had agreed unanimously to release about 400m barrels of emergency crude, a third of the group's total government stockpiles and more than double the IEA's previous biggest release. Continue reading......

Content creators claim they've escaped the 9 to 5, yet as Louis Theroux's new show reveals, they are mere serfs to algorithms and audiences Who wouldn't want to be an influencer? You're famous and maybe even rich, just for doing what you'd be doing anyway: working out at the gym, hanging out with your mates and mucking about on the internet. You get paid to say what you think (or are at least sent free stuff), and no one's telling you what to do. Surely only a sucker would do anything else.At least that is the influencing dream, and many young men are buying into it. “Content creator” has for years been cited as the most desirable career by generation Z and now gen Alpha. The preferred platforms might have changed over time, with streaming on Twitch and Kick now supplanting posting on Instagram and YouTube, but the aspiration remains the same: to escape the drudgery of a desk job. Continue reading......

Business lobby groups say 'taking the risk' of employing less-experienced workers is being avoidedBritish companies are struggling to afford to hire young people after a long period of rising costs that have hit profit margins and derailed recruitment plans, business leaders have said.Rising labour costs including increases to the minimum wage and employer's national insurance by the government have put young people at the back of the queue when employers consider recruitment, business lobby groups have told MPs. Continue reading......

Due to the volatile cocoa market, companies like Hershey are using replacement ingredients such as sugar, oil, milk and nutsJust before Valentine's Day, Brad Reese bought a bag of Reese's Unwrapped Peanut Butter Creme Mini Hearts from his local convenience store in West Palm Beach, Florida. It was a brand-new product, released especially for the holiday, tagline: “We'll never break your heart.”Reese is a Reese's aficionado who makes a point of trying everything the company produces. This isn't a coincidence: he's one of the Reeses, a grandson of HB Reese, the former Hershey dairy farmer who invented the peanut butter cup in 1928. Although he's never worked for Reese's or Hershey, which acquired the peanut butter cup company in 1963, Reese considers himself a custodian of HB's legacy. He also takes an avid interest in the Hershey company and its leadership. Continue reading......

Some US taxpayers are refusing to pay the federal government amid ICE surges, the war with Iran and more“I'm not paying my federal income taxes this year,” Rachel Cohen declared in a recent Instagram video that received more than 140,000 likes.The 31-year-old lawyer in Chicago plans to put the $8,800 she owes the federal government in a high-yield savings account instead. She doesn't want to fund wars in Iran and Gaza or immigration agents detaining her neighbors, she said. Continue reading......

Despite rare act of multilateralism, there is no guarantee the IEA's release of 400m barrels from reserves will depress pricesIEA poised to call for largest ever release of stockpiled oil to reduce priceHow the Iran conflict could affect energy prices – video explainerWhen the global economy was still in the grip of the devastating 1970s oil crises, exposing the chokehold exerted by a few important oil states, the International Energy Agency (IEA) was created, in the hope of limiting future shocks.Almost half a century on, the IEA's 32 members have drawn up plans to hit the emergency button, for only the fifth time in its history. Continue reading......

Effect of war on prices not reflected in data, as Trump says only 'fools' would think oil price shocks would be significantSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxUS inflation stayed flat at 2.4% in February, according to government data released Wednesday that provides a snapshot of the US economy before it was thrown into a tailspin by the US-Israel conflict with Iran.The levelling comes after prices swung last year, reaching a four-year low in April before shooting back up in September. In late fall, inflation crept down again, reaching 2.4% in January. Continue reading......

Chancellor does not rule out ditching fuel duty rise but tells MPs it is too early to gauge if consumers need extra helpBusiness live – latest updatesRachel Reeves has refused to rule out ditching a planned fuel duty increase in September, as she promised “nothing is off the table” to help consumers with rising energy costs amid the Iran conflict.The chancellor told MPs on the Treasury select committee that options for “targeted support as well as broader measures” were being explored, although cautioned that it remained “too early” to be sure emergency help was required. Continue reading......

German carmaker has struggled with rising competition in China, a key market for European luxury brandsPorsche is to cut more jobs after profits were largely cancelled out by a costly writedown on reversing its electric car strategy, as the luxury manufacturer also battled a prolonged sales slump in China.The German carmaker appointed a new chief executive, Michael Leiters, on 1 January, after four profit warnings last year that also contributed to it tumbling out of Germany's DAX stock index. Continue reading......