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Autotrader says average EV cost is £785 cheaper, in an important milestone in the move away from fossil fuelsBusiness live – latest updatesThe price of new battery electric cars has fallen below petrol cars in the UK for the first time ever, according to the car sales website Autotrader, in a significant milestone in Britain's transition away from fossil fuels.The average price of a new electric car listed on the website was £42,620, compared with £43,405 for a new petrol model – making the former £785 cheaper based on advertised prices after discounts. Continue reading......

Saudi's PIF undergoing 'value realization' of plan'The [Iran] war would add more pressure to priorities'Saudi Arabia has abandoned its aspirations to host the 2035 Rugby World Cup as a result of the Public Investment Fund's new financial strategy.The sports minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki al-Faisal, confirmed Saudi's interest in bidding for the tournament last year, but the Guardian has learned that the kingdom has not submitted an expression of interest to World Rugby and has no plans to do so before the bidding process closes in October. The president of Asia Rugby, Qais al-Dhalai, also talked up a joint Middle East bid from Saudi, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates last year, but that has not materialised either. Continue reading......

Store opened in 1971 in Seattle's Pike Place Market joins growing unionization campaign across the coffee chainWorkers at the historic first Starbucks store are seeking to unionize as the coffee retail giant and its union appear stalemated over their first contract.The first Starbucks store opened in 1971 in Seattle's Pike Place Market, and the store serves as a tourist site in Seattle. Continue reading......

Adult video platform to sell minority stake to increase stability after death of its founder Leonid RadvinskyBusiness live – latest updatesOnlyFans, the UK adult video platform, is in talks to sell a minority stake to a US investor that will value the business at more than $3bn (£2.2bn).The London-based company is in advanced talks to sell a stake of less than 20% to the San Francisco-based investment firm Architect Capital, according to the Financial Times. Sources familiar with the process confirmed the talks to the Guardian. Continue reading......

Scott O'Neil rejects claims LIV is close to collapse'Structural changes' afoot, chief executive saysLIV Golf chief executive Scott O'Neil admitted the nascent golf league's finances are “managed very tightly” and said structural changes are on the way that would probably mean they need to raise money, but he remained adamant the league will not fold.He was interviewed by LIV employees during the TV broadcast of the first round of the rebel tour's Mexico City leg, a day after reports that Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund was to cut its funding for the league it helped launch in 2022. Continue reading......

Firms owned by media tycoon launched action against regulator in 2022 after lottery licence awarded elsewhereThe media tycoon Richard Desmond has lost his claim for up to £1.3bn in damages from the Gambling Commission, ending a bitter dispute over the regulator's decision not to award him the 10-year licence to run the national lottery.Companies owned by the former proprietor of the Daily Express and Channel 5 launched action against the regulator in 2022, starting a tortuous legal process that saw Desmond's costs estimated to have reached £55m already by May last year. Continue reading......

With prices at the vets soaring by more than 60% since 2016, tests such as MRI scans for dogs can exceed £3,500Why does my vet charge more than a private hospital for humans? I've been quoted £1,500 for an MRI scan for my dog. When I looked at how much it would cost for a person to have the same type of scan privately, it was about £700.As technology improves, the treatments and diagnostics available for pets are getting closer to what is on offer for human patients. While we used to rely on a vet to assess what was going on inside an animal, they can now recommend hi-tech scans to see exactly what's happening. But progress costs money. Continue reading......

Santa Marta conference born out of frustration at Cop summits, where renewable progress has been stalled by major pollutersEverybody knows fossil fuels cause climate breakdown, but until recently, mention of them was all but erased from the annual UN climate summits. Last year, two weeks of discussions ended without fossil fuels being mentioned in the final outcome.Frustration with those talks led a small developing country with a large fossil fuel sector – Colombia, the largest coal and fourth biggest oil exporter in the Americas – to rewrite the rules. With co-convener the Netherlands, and support from more than 50 countries, Colombia will host a groundbreaking new global conference this month to begin the long-awaited “transition away from fossil fuels”. Continue reading......

Release of new Claude model, so far limited to US firms, will expand to British institutions in coming daysBritish banks will be given access in the next week to a powerful AI tool that was deemed too dangerous to be released to the public, as a series of senior finance figures warned over its impact.Anthropic, which has so far limited the release of the new model to a small clutch of primarily US businesses, including Amazon, Apple and Microsoft, said it would expand that to UK financial institutions in the coming days. Continue reading......

George Robertson has joined Reform and the Tories in making the case. Look welfare recipients in the face and say thatThe benefits budget is now a magic money tree. Whenever Conservatives or Faragists make wild promises – tax cuts, more police, more punishment, more bonuses for marriage – and are asked how they would pay, the answer is always “welfare”. The sums are enormous. “Only the Conservatives will cut welfare spending by £23bn and get Britain working again,” the party insists.More unexpected was the klaxon from the Labour peer George Robertson this week, demanding a cut in benefits to finance defence. “We cannot defend Britain with an ever-expanding welfare budget,” said the ex-Nato chief, wanting to pluck this juicy plum to fund defence. Good to see him slapped down sharply by the government: there is no “zero-sum game” between these two budgets, said the chancellor's deputy, James Murray.Guardian Newsroom: Can Labour come back from the brink?On Thursday 30 April, join Gaby ...

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial newsCuts to overseas aid will worsen shocks to global economy, David Miliband saysGood morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.A jump in the wheat price is adding to concern that the conflict in the Middle East will fuel food inflation this year.Global fertiliser prices have surged during critical planting periods.Fuel prices rose as much as 150% within days in some markets, driving up transport and water costs.Commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz fell by more than 90%, constraining agricultural supply chains.In Somalia, fuel spikes have doubled the cost of water in drought-affected areas.Humanitarian shipments to Sudan are being rerouted via the Cape of Good Hope, adding roughly 6,000 miles and up to three weeks to transit times.The World Food Programme estimates 45 million additional people could be pushed into acute hunger globally.10am BST: Eurozone trade data for February1.3...

Campaigners organise open letter to director demanding 'fair day's wage' for all workers at V&A museumsA row over pay has broken out at the V&A before the opening of its newest site , with thousands of people calling for it to become a living wage employer.On Saturday, V&A East will open its doors in Stratford, east London, showcasing stunning fabrics, photos and black British music. It joins a wider group of V&A museums including its original site in South Kensington, Young V&A in Bethnal Green and V&A Dundee. The V&A describes its latest opening as one of the most significant new museum projects in the UK. Continue reading......

Legally questionable confidentiality clause adopted almost word for word from demands of Microsoft and trade groupsMicrosoft and other US tech companies successfully lobbied the EU to hide the environmental toll of their datacentres, an investigation has found, with demands to block a database of green metrics from public view written almost word for word into EU rules.The secrecy provision, which the European Commission added to its proposal almost verbatim after industry lobbying in 2024, hinders scrutiny of the pollution that individual datacentres emit. It leaves researchers with just national-level summaries of their energy footprints. Continue reading......

Technology secretary plays down fears over jobs and cyber security as stake taken in British startupThe UK technology secretary has urged the country to “make AI work for Britain”, brushing off fears about its impact on jobs and cybersecurity as the government announced its first investment under a £500m sovereign AI fund. Liz Kendall said the UK had to “seize” the opportunity offered by AI despite concerns underlined this month when US startup Anthropic revealed it had developed an AI model that posed a potentially significant cyber threat. Asked how the government makes the case for embracing a technology that could disrupt jobs and now cybersecurity, Kendall said: “We have to seize this to make it work, for Britain, for our jobs, for solving the biggest challenges we face as a world.”Speaking on Thursday as the government unveiled its first investment in a UK company as part of a £500m sovereign AI fund, Kendall acknowledged “people are worried about the risks and what it means for...

The war in Iran has exposed our dependencies. Europe, including the UK, must be bold about change, so nobody can blackmail usLars Klingbeil is Germany's finance minister and vice-chancellorWars and crises are draining our economies, our sense of security and our emotional wellbeing. They are affecting our daily lives: supply chains are becoming less reliable, energy prices are soaring, and trade dependencies on fossil-fuel energy and critical minerals pose risks to national security. Tariffs, industrial overcapacities and export restrictions threaten jobs and prosperity. Taken together, all this is exposing Europe's weaknesses and vulnerabilities.At the same time, we have shown how strengthening our alliances and our economic and military capacities can increase our scope for action. Forming a united European political front is helping to safeguard the sovereignty of Greenland, for instance. And despite all the recent turmoil, Europe remains one of the most attractive places in the world to live and wor...

Spy-tech company and founder Peter Thiel should 'have their hands ripped off our NHS', say MPs MPs have queued up to demand the government scraps its £330m NHS contract with the spy-tech company Palantir, calling it “dreadful” and “shameful” in a debate on Thursday, after which the government said it was “no fan” of the US company's politics.Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs led the calls for Palantir, which also works for Donald Trump's ICE immigration crackdown and the Israeli military, to be removed as a supplier to the NHS federated data platform (FDP), with one Labour backbencher, Samantha Niblett, questioning whether it could be “trusted as a custodian of the intimate health records of tens of millions of British citizens”. Continue reading......

Exclusive: A trove of previously redacted documents was filed as part of the tech giant's anti-trust battle with the state of California. Amazon denies it engages in price-fixingHundreds of previously redacted records reveal how Amazon has put pressure on independent sellers using its platform into raising their prices on the sites of competitors such as Walmart and Target, so that Amazon can appear to have lower prices, California authorities allege.The global conglomerate became concerned even if a competitor was selling an item for as little as a penny less, according to one segment of the newly unredacted evidence. Continue reading......

Exclusive: Former UK foreign secretary says poor and rich countries alike will be hit amid humanitarian crisis sparked by Iran warCuts to overseas aid by countries including the US and the UK risk stoking global economic instability amid the humanitarian crisis resulting from the Iran war, David Miliband has said.The former British foreign secretary and head of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) said the US “abandoning” of its aid programme under Donald Trump would worsen shocks to the global economy that would impact poor and wealthy countries alike. Continue reading......

Chair's decision to not seek re-election in June 'not as a result of any disagreement', company says in SEC filingReed Hastings, the Netflix chair, is leaving the streaming service he co-founded 29 years ago as the company regains its footing after it lost its $72bn deal for Warner Bros Discovery.In a letter to investors released on Thursday, Netflix said Hastings will not stand for re-election at its annual meeting in June and plans to focus on philanthropy and other pursuits. Continue reading......

Chancellor says she is 'working through a range of options' to boost the armed forces but does not want to put up taxesRachel Reeves has warned “difficult choices” are required to increase defence spending and other budgets may have to be cut, including welfare.Under pressure for a faster rise in the military budget amid the Iran conflict and Russia's war in Ukraine, the chancellor said she was “working through a range of options” but preferred not to increase taxes or add to government borrowing. Continue reading......