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Multiple small-business indexes show an uptick in optimism as well as an easing of cost pressures and uncertaintyRegardless of all the challenges they face, small businesses have been doing pretty well in this country across the board. Don't believe me? Take a look at some of the latest numbers.For more than 50 years, the National Federation of Independent Businesses (NFIB) has published a monthly report of small-business economic trends, based on a random sample of the organization's approximately 300,000 member firms. This survey is one of the longest and most consistent of any I follow, using the same questionnaire since 1973. So where do things stand? Continue reading......

Survey reveals 'mismatched AI expectations' between views of employers and staff over impact on careersMore than a quarter (27%) of UK workers are worried their jobs could disappear in the next five years as a result of AI, according to a survey of thousands of employees.Two-thirds (66%) of UK employers reported having invested in AI in the past 12 months, according to the international recruitment company Randstad's annual review of the world of work, while more than half (56%) of workers said more companies were encouraging the use of AI tools in the workplace. Continue reading......

Some residents say they are facing financial ruin as government's long-awaited law changes stall“I don't say this lightly, but I feel traumatised by this,” said Sarah*, a leaseholder who owns a one-bedroom flat in Moseley, south Birmingham. “Every time I open the front door to my house I'm expecting some frightening letter with lots of zeros on it. It has ruined my life, to be honest.”Sarah works full-time as a school teacher, but has been forced to take up a second job to pay the spiralling bills from the management company of her building. Continue reading......

Altman's campaigning for his company coincides with its use of enormous present resources to serve an imagined futureSam Altman has claimed over the years that the advancement of AI could solve climate change, cure cancer, create a benevolent superintelligence beyond human comprehension, provide a tutor for every student, take over nearly half of the tasks in the economy and create what he calls “universal extreme wealth”.In order to bring about his utopian future, Altman is demanding enormous resources from the present. As CEO of OpenAI, the world's most valuable privately owned company, he has in recent months announced plans for $1tn of investment into datacenters and struck multibillion-dollar deals with several chipmakers. If completed, the datacenters are expected to use more power than entire European nations. OpenAI is pushing an aggressive expansion – encroaching on industries like e-commerce, healthcare and entertainment – while increasingly integrating its products into government, un...

Tech could lose its social acceptance unless it makes people's lives better – and trade unions want an urgent conversation “Who wouldn't want a robot to watch over your kids?” Elon Musk asked Davos delegates last week, as he looked forward with enthusiasm to a world with “more robots than people”.Not me, thanks: children need the human connection – the love – that gives life meaning. Continue reading......

Critics say banks will be able to avoid tax on compensation payouts to victims of £11bn loans scandalThe City minister, Lucy Rigby, has been accused of snubbing taxpayers after she appeared to brush off concerns about a £2bn tax loophole benefiting big banks caught up in the car loans scandal.Rigby was urged to intervene by a member of the parliamentary Treasury committee after it emerged that lenders including Barclays, Lloyds and Santander could sidestep rules designed to ensure banks pay tax on compensation linked to corporate misconduct. Continue reading......

Eco programme turned into a national scandal – but experts worry £15bn plan will prioritise green energy over insulatingNo homeowner wants to be faced with a hefty bill for household repairs – and when those charges are the result of botched insulation under a UK government-run scheme, individual misfortune turns to national scandal.That has been the experience of tens of thousands of households after what MPs have condemned as the “catastrophic failure” of the energy company obligation (Eco) insulation programme run by the last Conservative government, the results of which have only recently been uncovered. Continue reading......

Activists say the retailer has met with clergy but not spoken out against ICE or safeguarded employees and customersWhile thousands of protesters marched through downtown Minneapolis on Friday to demand that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents leave the city, a smaller group of activists set their sights on a specific destination: the downtown headquarters of national retailer Target.Dozens of clergy members and their supporters planted themselves in the atrium of the store. “Say it loud and say it clear, immigrants are welcome here,” the group chanted. “Something 'bout this isn't right – why does Target work for ICE?” Continue reading......

US legal cannabis industry seeks new ways to incorporate weed into meals after a tough year for business in 2025Food and stoner culture have always gone together, but these days chefs and cannabis professionals are working together to find thoughtful, new ways to incorporate weed into meals.For National Hot Pastrami Day on 14 January, a celebrated Jewish deli in Chicago teamed up with a local Illinois dispensary to give customers free pastrami sandwiches garnished with cannabis-infused mustard. Continue reading......

Conservative majority appears eager to hand president greater power – with one exception: the US central bankDonald Trump has tried his usual tactics when it comes to getting the US Federal Reserve to lower interest rates: bully when persuasion doesn't work, and then fire when bullying doesn't work.In an unprecedented assault on the central bank, the president has called the Fed chair, Jerome Powell, “stupid” and threatened to fire him for not cutting interest rates as quickly as Trump would like. Most recently, the justice department instigated a criminal investigation against Powell for testimony he gave about renovations at the Fed's headquarters. Even so, the Fed has not budged. Continue reading......

Change being considered amid global glut driven by supplies from China along with a rise in protectionism The UK is expected to reduce the amount of foreign steel it allows in tariff-free, as the government looks to protect its domestic industry amid a global glut and a rise in protectionism.Ministers are considering changing the quota system that allows a quantity of the metal to be imported before imposing a 25% levy on anything above that level. Continue reading......

Number of households complaining rises to 16,000 in 2025, with Southern Water the biggest targetComplaints about water companies in England and Wales to an independent monitor surged by more than 50% last year, as customers bristled at steep bill increases.More than 16,000 complaints were lodged in 2025 with the Consumer Council for Water (CCW), a government-sponsored body that represents customers' interests. Continue reading......

Electric van sales are behind government targets, but those fleets that have switched are seeing a real differenceSwinging a fully laden electric van around a training centre in Bishop's Stortford feels easy, with instant acceleration that belies the racks of heavy equipment in the back. Perhaps too easy, as the sudden shriek of its proximity sensor suggests the Guardian was a whisker away from a bill for some new paintwork.The van in question belongs to Openreach, BT's fibre broadband subsidiary. It is one of 6,000 electric vans out of 23,400 in Britain's second-largest commercial fleet – and a further 1,000 are expected to be added by March. Continue reading......

Amid the tumult of the WEF in Davos this week, some investors are leading the way by ditching US government bondsThere is a way to file for divorce from Donald Trump and Europe needs to grab the opportunity.To the public it will look as if nothing has changed. But behind the scenes the EU and the UK could close the joint bank account and cut up the credit cards, or at least set in motion a form of financial separation that limits the power of a controlling former partner. Continue reading......

To win votes, Trump can afford to face up to corporate power – to deliver his promised 1.5m homes, Starmer can'tIn an incredibly polarised society, there are fewer and fewer things that seem to unite both sides of the aisle in the US political system. Yet it turns out that an objection to Wall Street's grand heist of single-family homes has done just that.We might expect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Elizabeth Warren to rail against the incursion of institutional investors into residential real estate markets, causing rent prices to jump and effectively locking millions of households out of home ownership. However, I admit I was surprised to see JD Vance and Marjorie Taylor Greene striking a similar note. But I was completely dumbfounded to see the real estate tycoon and Wall Street darling Donald Trump sing from the same hymn sheet.Adam Almeida is a writer and researcher living in London Continue reading......

Attempt to reclaim alleged unpaid debts comes months after 25-year relationship with cinema chain came to an endCoca-Cola is taking legal action against Vue after the cinema chain switched to arch-rival PepsiCo as its supplier for soft drinks in Europe.Vue, which operates more than 90 cinemas across the UK and Ireland, put the contract up for tender last year. Continue reading......

Partnership with tech giant speaks to push to engage younger fans but also has wider strategic goals in mindIn this World Cup year, Fifa has come out of the blocks quickly. In the past few weeks any number of initiatives have been announced or activated, from a data partnership with Opta to facilitate more betting, to the Fifa Pass for speeding up visa applications for the US this summer, to the unveiling of the official Lego World Cup trophy. Among the ever-expanding list is an intriguing deal with TikTok, a partnership that will give digital creators front-row seats at the 104-match tournament.In Fifa language its partnership with the short-form video platform will make “the most inclusive event in football history … even more accessible”. According to TikTok's global head of content, James Stafford, it will bring fans “closer to the action in ways they can't get anywhere else”. It plans to do so by granting an unspecified number of online personalities behind-the-scenes access, giving them ...

Politicians call for more infrastructure funding amid anger that county is seen as 'holiday playground'Accessed by a steep, winding lane, the tiny settlement of Cucurrian in the far-west of Cornwall feels remote at the best of times. But over the last two weeks, the people who live here have felt even more isolated after they were left without a way of communicating with the outside world as a result of Storm Goretti.“I think people feel let down, angry, failed,” said Mark Pugh, an audiobook producer, who has spent more hours than he would care to tot up carefully picking his way out of Cucurrian and sitting in his car in a layby to find a mobile signal good enough to work from. “This storm has shown that Cornwall isn't resilient enough. A lot is promised, but not enough is delivered.” Continue reading......

Brooklyn's Instagram bombshell tested decades of image control, revealing how fame, PR and power collide behind the scenesOn a personal level, it's all extremely sad. A once close family ripped apart by feuding and bitterness. A much-loved son blocking all contact with his parents and siblings.From another perspective, however, for those who have followed the movements of David and Victoria Beckham in their 30 years in the (carefully curated) spotlight, the public falling out this week of Britain's alternative royal family has been a car crash from which it is hard to look away. Continue reading......

Hobbycraft removes product from sale after parent sent samples to a lab for testing but declines to issue a recallBottles of children's play sand have been withdrawn from shelves by the craft retailer Hobbycraft after a parent discovered they were contaminated with asbestos.The parent, who did not wish to be named, raised the alarm after her children played with the sand at a party. Continue reading......