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Local government secretary writes to town halls warning them against 'part-time work for full-time pay'The secretary for local government has written to all councils to warn that adopting a four-day week for staff puts them at risk of being declared a failing authority, according to reports.Twenty-five councils have discussed a four-day week policy and one, South Cambridgeshire district council, has already moved to the pattern. Continue reading......

The Populist by Nikolay Kononov traces science protege's rise to tech visionary and free speech defenderTech visionary, Kremlin dissident, FSB agent, free speech absolutist, health guru. These are just some of the labels admirers and critics have attached to Pavel Durov over the past decade.The Russian-born tech entrepreneur founded Russia's version of Facebook before going on to create the messaging app Telegram, launch a cryptocurrency ecosystem and amass a multibillion-dollar fortune, all while clashing repeatedly with authorities in Russia and beyond. Continue reading......

Traders on Clevedon's Hill Road say they fear the proposals could hasten the decline of independent retail as councils across Britain look to raise income by forcing shoppers to pay to parkThe shop windows are decked out in their festive finery, there are carols on the stereos and the tills are ringing. The independent stores, cafes and restaurants lining Hill Road in the Somerset seaside town of Clevedon are hoping to take advantage of the crucial pre-Christmas period.The street's colourful shops, along with the town's Victorian pier, are among Clevedon's best-known landmarks, making Hill Road popular with locals and visitors. It even stood in for the high street in the ITV drama Broadchurch. Continue reading......

The chaos is undeniable, but where else are you going to get a pair of jeans and a pistachio-cream panettone cake for such a reasonable price?'Oh it's a mess!” my mum says, shaking her head. “It's like a jumble sale.” I'm fresh from a trip to TK Maxx, and all I'm getting is negativity. A couple of days later I'm watching Educating Yorkshire when it happens again: one of the teachers tells his pupils to tidy up, lest their classroom look like one of its stores.Quite frankly, I'm sick of the slander. Sure, I've been in some branches that do look like a tornado has just blown through them. But, these days, they're few and far between. My local TK Maxx, in a nice enough London suburb, is tidy and organised – so much so that when I hid a pair of Good American jeans the other day to “have a think” and then circled back for them, they had already been moved.Hannah J Davies is a freelance culture writer and editor Continue reading......

Denise Coates's gambling empire reports turnover of £4bn in year to March 2025, up from £3.7bnDenise Coates, the billionaire boss of Bet365, a self-described “ultimate gambler” and Britain's highest-paid woman, took home at least £280m in pay and dividends in 2025 despite a slump in pre-tax profits.Coates's Stoke-based gambling empire recorded turnover of £4bn in the year to March 2025, up from £3.7bn the year before. Pre-tax profits fell to £349m from £627m in the previous year. Continue reading......

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial newsTesla's sales didn't fall everywhere last month, though.The Norwegian market was a bright spot – Tesla's sales in Norway rose 34.6% in November year-to-date, led by the mass market crossover Model Y. Continue reading......

Beijing's push to dominate technology through state-backed industrial policy is reshaping global trade and could devastate European industryEmmanuel Macron came back from China in early December empty-handed. The French president's appeal to his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, to help stop the war in Ukraine was never going to gain traction given Beijing's unqualified support for Russia.Urging Xi to address China's surging trade surplus, the result of the country's economic and industrial policies, predictably also fell on closed ears. Continue reading......

The US economy is pumped up on tech-bro vanity. The inevitable correction must prompt a global conversation about intelligent machines, regulation and riskIf AI did not change your life in 2025, next year it will. That is one of few forecasts that can be made with confidence in unpredictable times. This is not an invitation to believe the hype about what the technology can do today, or may one day achieve. The hype doesn't need your credence. It is puffed up enough on Silicon Valley finance to distort the global economy and fuel geopolitical rivalries, shaping your world regardless of whether the most fanciful claims about AI capability are ever realised.ChatGPT was launched just over three years ago and became the fastest-growing consumer app in history. Now it has about 800m weekly users. Its parent company, OpenAI, is valued at about $500bn. Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO, has negotiated an intricate and, to some eyes, suspiciously opaque network of deals with other players in the sector to build the infrastr...

Michael Robinson says the planned changes to the qualifications body will erode our capacity to train skilled workers when our country needs them mostThe changes at City & Guilds that your article describes are concerning (City & Guilds to shrink UK workforce amid £22m cost-cutting drive, 14 December). For decades, City & Guilds has helped young people and adults get the skills they need to build their lives. That legacy now feels like it's hanging by a thread due to the reported £22m cost-cutting drive.What's just as worrying is the apparent shift from a nonprofit mindset to a profit-driven one. If education becomes just another business, there's always a risk that profit comes before impact. For many learners – especially those with few other options – vocational training is their path forward. If prices rise or support is cut, it will hit these people hardest. Continue reading......

Game developer, who was also involved in Medal of Honor and Titanfall, was killed in a car crashVince Zampella, the co-creator of the Call of Duty video game series, has died aged 55.The head of the video game developer Respawn Entertainment and the co-founder of Infinity Ward was killed in a car crash in California, NBC Los Angeles reported. Continue reading......

Move is part of a long-awaited Labour strategy including outlawing hen cages and ending puppy farmingBoiling lobsters while they are alive and conscious will be banned as part of a government strategy to improve animal welfare in England.Government ministers say that “live boiling is not an acceptable killing method” for crustaceans and alternative guidance will be published. Continue reading......

Food and Drug Administration's approval hands drugmaker Novo Nordisk an edge in the race to market an obesity pillUS regulators on Monday gave the green light to a pill version of the blockbuster weight-loss drug Wegovy, the first daily oral medication to treat obesity.The US Food and Drug Administration's approval handed drugmaker Novo Nordisk an edge over rival Eli Lilly in the race to market an obesity pill. Lilly's oral drug, orforglipron, is still under review. Continue reading......

Scheme members will also receive lump sums averaging £5,500 after government hands over £2.3bn reserveSome former mineworkers who are receiving a £100-a-week boost to their pensions after a hard-fought battle say they will now no longer need to worry about money.The Guardian had reported that people were “dying in abject poverty” and unable to “afford to bury themselves” after the government raided billions from their pensions. Continue reading......

Document casts doubt on postal service claims it was unaware of bugs that could cause accounting shortfallsThe Post Office made a confidential deal with Fujitsu 19 years ago to fix errors in post office operators' accounts, a document has revealed.The document casts doubt on claims made by the postal service that they were not aware of bugs that could cause accounting shortfalls. Continue reading......

It's all there: more apprenticeships, more rights for workers and renters – and most of all, a focus on children. What a shame Labour wavers about saying soWarning. This column contains good news, when it is an (un)truth widely acknowledged that only grim stories attract public attention. News must be something someone somewhere doesn't want printed, says the old maxim. Well, battalions of interests want to suppress good news: the overwhelmingly Tory or Reform UK press and antisocial media sites don't want any stories to surface that might do credit to a Labour government.Among this deluge of disinformation and malevolence, when asked, a sour and disengaged electorate struggles to think of anything good this government has done. True, the prime minister and his cabinet are partly to blame for failing to tell their story, paint their picture, draw us a map of where they are going and why. They too often do good by stealth, afraid of what the right and business might say if they dare trumpet the strong...

While the country's capital is loosening regulations, the Catalan city is strengthening social housing. Their outcomes will affect all our futuresIn Spain, two cities face the same crisis, but are responding in fundamentally different ways. Over the past decade, the cost of housing in Madrid and Barcelona has soared – with rents rising by about 60% and sale prices by 90% – leaving young people, working families and retired people struggling to stay in their homes or even find one.Yet, while one city is betting everything on construction and giving free rein to big investors, the other is cautiously trying to steer the housing market towards the public good, despite political and institutional constraints.Jaime Palomera is a researcher on housing and inequality, author of The Hijacking of Housing, and co-founder of the Barcelona Urban Research Institute (IDRA) and the Tenants' Union Continue reading......

Wes Streeting's wish for deeper trade relations to help fight against Farage is shared by growing number of MPsWhen Keir Starmer stood on the Labour conference stage in 2018 and defied Jeremy Corbyn to call for a second Brexit referendum with remain as an option, it put him in pole position to become the next Labour leader.Starmer must now feel a sense of deja vu watching Wes Streeting, the most out-and-out pretender for the leadership, follow a similar playbook. In an interview over the weekend, the health secretary strayed from the official government line to call for “a deeper trading relationship” with the EU. Continue reading......

Labour urged to accelerate reset with Brussels as many exporters struggling to trade in the EU after Brexit dealKeir Starmer's government has been told a closer EU trade deal is a “strategic necessity” for companies in Britain as growing numbers of exporters find it tougher to do business under the UK's post-Brexit agreement.Calling on Labour to accelerate its reset with Brussels, the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) said the UK's existing trade and cooperation agreement (TCA) was failing to help them grow their sales in the EU. Continue reading......

Fake job adverts and promises of quick money are drawing thousands into type of money launderingCriminals are increasingly recruiting young people on social media to become “money mules”, with official figures showing that cases are rising sharply.“Money muling” is a type of money laundering in which criminals move stolen or fraudulent money via an intermediary, who receives it in their bank account before transferring it to another, obtaining a commission along the way. Continue reading......

3 March update aims to give 'stability and certainty' after criticism over leaks before November budgetRachel Reeves has set a date of 3 March for an early spring statement, as Labour attempts to draw a line under a year of tax speculation blamed by business leaders for damaging Britain's economy.Announcing a date to prioritise “stability and certainty”, the Treasury said the chancellor had asked the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) to prepare forecasts for the economy and public finances. Continue reading......