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Readers respond to a letter by the GB News co-owner, in which he argued that calling for an end to fossil fuels is impracticalLast week I was among 120-plus Christian leaders who, in an open letter covered by the Guardian, challenged Sir Paul Marshall – a professing Christian, hedge fund manager and owner or part-owner of prominent media properties, including GB News – about climate misinformation on his news channel (Church leaders criticise Christian owner of GB News over channel's climate attacks, 26 March). The letter also called for transparency regarding any financial interests in fossil fuels that Sir Paul may have, as well as transparency from GB News presenters and guests.However, rather than address calls for transparency related to any financial interests in fossil fuels, Sir Paul has now written to the Guardian, claiming that the “net zero consensus is crumbling” (Letters, 30 March). Continue reading......

PM also criticises business figures and opponents of changes, many of which come into force on Monday• Workers, pensioners and children: all better off. Ignore the critics – we really are standing up for working people Keir Starmer has used a series of new workers rights that come into force on Monday to attack the Green party, saying a vote for Labour's rivals puts such progress on sick pay, parental leave and zero-hours contracts at risk.The prime minister also took a swipe at business figures and opponents of what he described as the biggest strengthening of workers' rights in a generation, dismissing “vested interests” who had warned against them. Continue reading......

Members reportedly agree rise of 206,000 barrels a day in May but move symbolic with strait of Hormuz effectively closedMiddle East crisis – live updatesIranian drones struck Kuwait's oil infrastructure on Sunday, causing “severe material damage” that threatened to further disrupt oil supplies already hit by the US and Israel's war with Tehran.It came hours before members of the Opec+ group that represents major global oil suppliers gathered to discuss how to bolster output despite Iran's effective closure of the crucial strait of Hormuz shipping route. Continue reading......

Day-one rights to statutory sick pay and paternity leave begin on Monday, and that fits the pattern. From my own life, I know people's anxieties, and I will respondStarmer attacks Greens, saying vote for Labour rivals puts new workers' rights at riskThis week 27 years ago, a Labour government introduced the minimum wage. At the time, the voices of the status quo lined up against it, but Labour made a choice: to stand up for working people. My government is doing the same.On Monday, the biggest strengthening of workers' rights in a generation comes into force. For the first time, workers gain day-one rights to statutory sick pay and paternity leave. No one should be forced to choose between their health and their wages, or miss those first precious days with their child because of insecurity at work.Keir Starmer is the UK prime minister Continue reading......

Ultra-low rates turned the yen into easy cash for bankers. But the carry trade now binds global markets to decisions in TokyoIn 2015, Clyde Prestowitz's book Japan Restored imagined a Japanese century emerging from upheavals such as an Israeli attack on Iran. While conflict now grips the Middle East, there are few indications of the revolutionary change the former US national security official foresaw. But in one crucial respect this already is a Japanese century – thanks to the yen's role as easy money for global finance.The Bank of Japan's loose monetary policy has turned the yen into the world's cheapest and most reliable funding currency. By suppressing yields on public debt to keep Japan's domestic economy afloat, the BoJ effectively created a publicly subsidised funding pipeline for bankers. They can make a quick buck by borrowing cheaply in yen and investing in higher-return assets, such as US equities. The “yen carry trade” surged after the pandemic, with speculators...

Buzzy workplace trends all point to the same thing: avoiding work while still collecting a paycheckThere's another hot trend in the workplace – microshifting, and it's about to revolutionize the workday by breaking the traditional 9-to-5 into short, flexible and non-linear bursts of activity rather than a continuous 8-hour stretch. Microshifting allows for a better work-life balance. Why not do a yoga class or pop to the shops during work hours? I mean, what is “work” anyway?Like bare minimum Mondays, where workers recuperating from weekend hangovers allow themselves to accomplish the least amount the day after, or coffee badging, which involves taking the time out of the workday to protest an employer's in-office requirements by driving into the office, swiping your badge, having a coffee, then taking more time out of the workday to drive back home, it used to have another name, as the Guardian noted earlier this year: “Taking the piss.” Continue reading......

Jeffrey Stephen Wigand revealed how tobacco companies targeted children; now he sees similar marketing by big techA key whistleblower in the tobacco industry's landmark trials of the 1990s has been watching big tech's recent court battles closely. Jeffrey Stephen Wigand, a biochemist who helped reveal how tobacco companies targeted children and hid just how addictive cigarettes were, has been struck with a feeling of familiarity. Last week's verdict in a major social media trial that Meta and YouTube deliberately designed addictive products has only strengthened comparisons to the legal crackdown on big tobacco. Wigand sees it, too. His first thought, as he learned about the litigation in California, was that social media companies, through their advertisements, were trying to addict children – much like the tobacco industry did.A Los Angeles jury found Meta and YouTube to be negligent last week. Plaintiffs' lawyers relied heavily on internal documents and correspondence to demonstrate that company ...

Exclusive: Animal welfare charities 'bitterly disappointed' that Labour plans to backtrack on manifesto commitmentsThe government is to break a manifesto commitment to ban foie gras imports, and has declined to stop fur imports, after the EU made these red lines in its discussions for a trade deal.Animal welfare charities say they are “bitterly disappointed” that ministers are failing to use powers granted by Brexit to restrict the import of these “cruel” items. Continue reading......

Letters to US agency raise concerns over tech firms' plans to use reflective satellites and expand numbers in low Earth orbitProposals to deploy reflective mirrors and up to 1m more satellites in low Earth orbit could have far-reaching consequences for human health and ecosystems, leading sleep and circadian rhythm researchers have said.Presidents of four international scientific societies representing about 2,500 researchers from more than 30 countries are among those who have raised concerns in letters to the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Continue reading......

Move comes after Keir Starmer says decision to book rapper who wrote song titled Heil Hitler is 'deeply concerning'Pepsi has said it is withdrawing its sponsorship of a UK music festival that is due to be headlined by Kanye West after Keir Starmer joined criticism of the event.The musician is understood to have not yet made an application to come to Britain and could be blocked under powers allowing the authorities to do so if his presence is deemed not conducive to the public good. Continue reading......

The energy crisis sparked by the war is making some countries consider ramping up their use of dirty fuelsNot two months in office, as the price of west Texas crude approached $14 a barrel, President Jimmy Carter donned a cardigan to speak candidly about his strategy to face the permanent energy shortage he saw in the nation's future.His “fireside chat” is mostly remembered for asking Americans to lower the thermostat to 65F in the daytime and 55F at night, an idea that didn't go down too well in the bitter winter of 1977. Continue reading......

Average traditional funeral now costs £4,623, up 1.3% since January, says report from Pure CremationThe war in Iran is pushing up the cost of living in the UK but it is also driving up the “cost of dying” as higher gas prices feed through to funerals.A report has found the average cost of a funeral in Britain is running ahead of inflation, with the war seemingly partly to blame as it has pushed up the price of gas used in crematoriums. Continue reading......

Industry with business model not yet firmly established and investments financed by huge debts is particularly at riskDonald Trump's most immediate concern in demanding Iran reopen the strait of Hormuz may be rocketing US gasoline prices, but if the conflict drags on, higher energy costs will be felt far beyond the pumps.Systemically higher power prices and fractured supply chains will squeeze industries and consumers worldwide. For the US, one consequence might be to threaten the fragile economics of the AI boom. Continue reading......

Nine clubs yet to secure front-of-shirt commercial dealsSeveral may begin the campaign without a shirt sponsorNine Premier League clubs have yet to secure front-of-shirt commercial deals for next season and 12 have not signed contracts, leading to increasing concerns that several may begin the campaign without a shirt sponsor.The imminent ban on shirt advertising from gambling companies is having a significant impact on all clubs' commercial returns, other than those in the big six, with an executive at one club telling the Guardian that the collective loss of income from shirt deals could be as high as £80m next season. Continue reading......

Ofcom data points to more passive consumption amid changes to apps and fears about mental health and past postsPosting significant events in your life, from birthdays to weddings and promotions, is a social media staple. But Jenny, like many other Britons recently, has hesitated over contributing to the infinite scroll.“I wouldn't have even posted my wedding really,” she says. “But I had to because … There's like an etiquette. Nobody else can post your wedding until you've posted. So my friends were like: 'Please post, it's been like a week.'” Continue reading......

After forgetting the nibbles, refusing my costume requests and emailing GCHQ, 'Gaskell' did at least get us to show upTwo weeks ago, an AI bot invited me to a party it was organising in Manchester. It then promptly lied to dozens of potential sponsors that I'd agreed to cover the event, and misled me into believing there would be food.Despite all this, it was a pretty good night. Continue reading......

Under outgoing mayor Anne Hidalgo, the French capital added bike lanes, cut traffic and reclaimed public space, but not without resistanceWhen Corentin Roudaut moved to Paris 10 years ago, he was too scared to cycle. The IT developer had biked everywhere as a student in Rennes but felt overwhelmed by the bustling French capital. Cars were everywhere. Cyclists had almost no protection.But once authorities carved out space for a segregated bike lane on Boulevard Voltaire near his home in the 11th arrondissement, Roudaut returned to the two-wheel commute and did not look back. He now volunteers with Paris en Selle, a cycling campaign group, and has watched with wonder as the city has shaken off its car-centric reputation. Continue reading......

As the Middle East is drawn into war, expats and influencers are under pressure to only share the positive side of the UAE. In reality many are at risk of being put behind bars, and often find the UK government has little interest in helping them get outA four-metre barbed-wire fence runs through the desert at the UAE‑Omani border. In the early hours of 17 February 2021, Albert Douglas, 58, a British businessman, was creeping along it, looking for a way through. Douglas, who cuts a slight figure, wears spectacles and has a broad, earnest smile, never expected things to come to this. He'd been forced to abandon his home on Dubai's Palm Jumeirah, the tree-shaped archipelago lined with upmarket residences, and go into hiding. Usually he'd be driving around in a Rolls-Royce, now he was in a pickup truck, being chauffeured by people smugglers. They'd transported him to the edge of the Al Ain border, which neighbours Oman, in the dead of the night. It was incredible, really, how fast the li...

Shirine Khoury-Haq and other managers did not receive annual bonus after damaging cyber-attack in 2025The former boss of the Co-op collected almost £2m before her sudden departure last month despite a difficult year when the retailer was pushed into the red by a damaging cyber hack.Shirine Khoury-Haq's total annual pay package amounted to £1.9m in 2025, including a £165,000 “rewarding growth” bonus that was approved by the mutual's board despite falling sales and the slide to an underlying loss of £125m. Continue reading......

Hamburg shop set up in tribute to aspiring pastry chef becomes 'happy' pilgrimage site for grieving parents Johanna Orth was a fun-loving, determined little girl and later a purpose-driven young woman who revelled in making a creative mess in the kitchen. Her parents, Inka and Ralph, chuckle quietly as they remember the stacks of batter-covered bowls, spatulas and whisks repeatedly left in the sink.With time, Johanna's cakes and pastries grew more sophisticated and elaborate, guided by her grandmother, Marlies, who was also a talented baker. Marlies' own ambition of opening a cafe one day had been thwarted by the demands of motherhood and postwar Germany's rigid gender roles. Continue reading......