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Proposals would require clearer pricing and transparency as CMA finds fees have risen at nearly twice rate of inflationThe biggest shake-up of the UK veterinary sector for 60 years should push down costs for pet owners by requiring practices to make their pricing clearer, the government has said.Ministers have announced a package of measures after an investigation into reported high prices found problems in the vet sector could be costing UK households at least £1bn over five years. Continue reading......

Experts say business with China is always a double-edged sword let alone when its overheated economy can offer only marginal gainsStarmer vows to remain 'clear-eyed' over national security as he flies to ChinaKeir Starmer's trip to China is billed as an attempt to revitalise diplomatic relations but eight years after Theresa May paved the way for a never-materialised “ambitious” post-Brexit deal, the prospect of the prime minister landing any meaningful trade deal is slim, experts have warned.The visit to Beijing, involving a delegation of British companies led by Starmer, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, and the business secretary, Peter Kyle, is the first since May's 2018 visit, and will revolve around joint trade and investment efforts. Continue reading......

Critics say government concealing true cost of deal 'despite being forced to admit financial burden will grow year on year'Ministers are under growing pressure to end the “secrecy” around the UK's deal with the US over the cost of medicines, which critics claim is “a Trump shakedown of the NHS”.MPs from Labour and several opposition parties want the government to publish its impact assessment of the agreement it reached last month with Donald Trump's administration. Continue reading......

First of two 1,600-tonne boring machines drilling the 4.5 miles from Old Oak Common station switched on in LondonMinisters have pledged that a redeveloped Euston HS2 station will be big enough to “serve the nation” as tunnelling began for the last miles of high-speed railway into central London.Excavating the 4.5-mile tunnels from Old Oak Common in west London is expected to take between 12 and 18 months – although details of the terminus, and how it will be funded, are yet to be revealed. Continue reading......

A new Joseph Rowntree report underlines the corrosive impact of years of anti-welfare rhetoric. A reframing of the debate is urgently neededThe Joseph Rowntree Foundation's latest report on poverty in the UK, published this week, should be read first and foremost as an indictment of all Conservative governments between 2010 and 2024. During almost a decade and a half of Tory rule, the JRF estimates that no progress at all was made in reducing overall levels of relative hardship. No surprise perhaps. Through wide-ranging, ideologically driven welfare cuts, ministers actively sought to make life harder, not easier, for many of the least well-off.The grim legacy of that approach is that in 2023-24 – the last dataset available – about one in five people were in relative poverty, defined as less than 60% of median income. But it also turns out that 6.8 million people were struggling to survive on far, far less than that, having effectively been economically cut adrift. Some 3.8 million people experie...

Craft retailer says there is 'risk to health' after some vials in Giant Box of Craft set contained fibrous tremolite asbestosHobbycraft has issued a full recall of children's coloured play sand after confirming some bottles contained asbestos, presenting “a risk to health”.The Guardian revealed at the weekend that the craft retailer had stopped selling the kit after being alerted to the risk but had stopped short of alerting customers who had already bought the item. Continue reading......

The package being offered is not insignificant but the hospitality sector is still in troubleWill the chancellor's inevitable U-turn on business rates for pubs be enough to quieten the developing riot behind the taps? Possibly, a bit. After two months of damaging headlines, Rachel Reeves has granted pubs a 15% discount on bills, worth £1,650 on average in the next tax year, then a two-year freeze in real terms, with the promise of a change in methodology in time for the next revaluation in 2029. Live music venues get the same deal. The package is not insignificant, especially as it was the year-three escalation in bills that was causing the most angst.Yet it would be a mistake to think the government's troubles on business rates end there. First, and most significantly, the rest of the hospitality industry got nothing extra in Tuesday's announcement beyond a similar pledge to rethink valuation methods for hotels in future. Continue reading......

Insurance practices in an age of climate volatility raise troubling questions about home ownership and housing affordability – the bedrock of the American middle classFor a few frenetic days last January, after losing their midcentury ranch home to the wildfires that ravaged Los Angeles, Jessica and Matt Conkle thought they could see a glimmer of hope.Their insurance company, State Farm, had sent emergency response teams to Altadena, where they lived, and they filed a claim right away. It wasn't long before they received a check that covered four months of living expenses. Continue reading......

Campaigners decry ties with 'Trump-supporting' tech firms after funding is accepted to develop state AI systemsUK politics live – latest updatesMinisters have accepted $1m from Meta, the US tech and social media company, to build AI systems for defence, national security and transport, sparking warnings about the UK government's “alarmingly close relationship with Trump-supporting US tech giants”.The money from Mark Zuckerberg's company will be used to pay experts to “develop cutting-edge AI solutions … to support national security and defence teams”, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) announced on Tuesday. Continue reading......

Tech chiefs waxed poetic about AI to delegates at Davos. Plus, the 'human' drama of AI startups and why Tesla is thriving in TexasHello, and welcome to TechScape. This week's edition is a team effort: my colleague Heather Stewart reports on the plans for AI's world domination at Davos; I examine how huge investments have followed AI companies with little to their names but drama and dreams; and Nick Robins-Early spotlights how lax regulation of autonomous driving in Texas allowed Tesla to thrive. Continue reading......

Dario Amodei questions if human systems are ready to handle the 'almost unimaginable power' that is 'potentially imminent'Business live – latest updatesQuarter of Britons fear losing jobs to AI in next five yearsHumanity is entering a phase of artificial intelligence development that will “test who we are as a species”, the boss of leading AI startup Anthropic has said, arguing that the world needs to “wake up” to the risks.Dario Amodei, co-founder and chief executive of the company behind the hit chatbot Claude, voiced his fears in a 19,000-word essay entitled “the adolescence of technology”. Continue reading......

Delivery firm aims to overcome 'choice overload' using voice assistant in its UK app, with global rollout plannedBusiness live – latest updatesIn the beginning, collecting a takeaway was the epitome of a lazy night in. Then delivery apps saved some more energy. Now, consumers can skip even bothering to read the menu as AI takes over the job of choosing the perfect evening meal.Just Eat is rolling out an AI voice assistant that lets customers discuss what they might be interested in eating, and then offers personalised recommendations. Continue reading......

Deal expected to ease access for European cars and wine, in return for Indian exports of textiles, gems and pharmaceuticalsEurope live – latest updatesBusiness live – latest updatesIndia and the EU have finalised a landmark free trade agreement, which the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, hailed as the “mother of all deals”.The agreement comes after almost two decades of on-off negotiations between India and the EU, which vastly accelerated in the past six months and were finally concluded late on Monday night. Continue reading......

Wide-ranging deal will cut tariffs to zero over seven years as Modi hails 'largest free trade agreement' in India's historyIf you are after a detailed “fact sheet” on the deal, the EU's document is here.It says the agreement will save up to €4bn per year in duties on European products and pointedly says it is the biggest trade opening India has given to any trade partner (hello UK).“For example, tariffs on cars will gradually go down from 110% to 10% with a quota of 250,000 vehicles a year. High tariffs of up to 44% on machinery, 22% on chemicals and 11% on pharmaceuticals will be mostly eliminated.” Continue reading......

Sales at Elon Musk's carmaker plummet nearly 38% in 2025 as it loses ground to China's BYD; gold continues to riseGood morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.Sales of new cars in the European Union rose by 1.8% last year, with electric cars making up a bigger share of the market, while Tesla sales plummeted as it lost ground to China's BYD. Continue reading......

Rachel Reeves to announce temporary cap in England and Wales, but not help for wider hospitality sectorRachel Reeves is poised to unveil a support package worth about £100m annually for pubs, after being warned of widespread closures and job losses after the announcement of controversial changes to business rates.The chancellor is expected to announce the relief package on Tuesday, after officials admitted that they had not foreseen the total financial impact of the rates shake-up in England and Wales announced in the budget in late November. Continue reading......

Keir Starmer says move is 'good news for homeowners' in TikTok video announcing changeGround rents are to be capped at £250 a year for leaseholders in England and Wales, Keir Starmer has announced, as his government unveiled proposals to ban leaseholds for new flats.New leasehold flats will be banned and existing leaseholders will get the right to switch to commonhold in an attempt to give homeowners greater control over their properties, under proposals to be put out to consultation. Continue reading......

US president says tariffs on automobiles, lumber and pharmaceuticals will rise to 25%, accusing Seoul of not living up to a trade deal struck last yearDonald Trump has said he is raising tariffs on South Korean goods including automobiles, lumber and pharmaceuticals, accusing the country of not living up to a trade deal struck last year and briefly sending shares in Korean carmakers tumbling.In a post on social media, the US president said the tariffs paid on South Korean exports into America would rise from 15% to 25% because the “Korean Legislature hasn't enacted our Historic Trade Agreement, which is their prerogative”. Continue reading......

Innocent people are being frozen out of basic banking services – and it all traces back to reforms rushed through after 9/11Hamish Wilson lives a few miles away from me, in a cosy farmhouse in the damp hills of mid Wales. He makes good coffee, tells great stories and is an excellent host. Every summer, dozens of Somali guests visit Wilson's farm as part of a wonderfully wholesome project set up to celebrate their nation's culture, and to honour his father's second world war service with a Somali comrade-in-arms.Inadvertently, however, the project has revealed something else: a deep unfairness in today's global financial system that not only threatens to ruin the Somalis' holidays, but also excludes marginalised communities from global banking services on a huge scale. Continue reading......

Newsom launched a review of the platform, despite TikTok saying a systems failure was responsible for the issueCalifornia governor Gavin Newsom has accused TikTok of suppressing content critical of president Donald Trump, as he launched a review of the platform's content moderation practices to determine if they violated state law, even as the platform blamed a systems failure for the issues.The step comes after TikTok's Chinese owner, ByteDance, said last week it had finalised a deal to set up a majority US-owned joint venture that will secure US data, to avoid a US ban on the short video app used by more than 200 million Americans. Continue reading......