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Message erroneously said affected employees in the US, Canada and Costa Rica had already been informedBusiness live – latest updatesAmazon has told workers of a fresh round of global job cuts in an email that appears to have been sent in error.Workers at Amazon Web Services (AWS) received a meeting invitation from a top executive on Tuesday for the following day – subsequently cancelled – that also contained a draft email. Continue reading......

Cisco chief executive says technology 'will be bigger than the internet' but current market is probably a bubble; dollar selling intensifies, gold climbs through $5,200 an ounce to new record highGood morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.The artificial intelligence (AI) will create winners but there will be “carnage along the way,” the boss of a US technology company has warned.It shows there's a crisis of confidence in the US dollar. It would appear that while the Trump administration sticks with its erratic trade, foreign and economic policy, this weakness could persist.2.45pm GMT: Bank of Canada interest rate decision (no change expected)7pm GMT: US Federal Reserve interest rate decision (no change expected)7.30pm GMT: Fed press conference Continue reading......

In the Caribbean and Latin America, the lived reality of these measures – presented in the language of diplomacy – is starkAcross borders, cultures and faiths, most ordinary people want the same things: the ability to earn a living, put a roof over their heads, feed their families and watch their children grow up with a future. These are not radical ideas, but they are today routinely sacrificed on the altar of geopolitics.When power and profit take precedence, governments abandon the everyday realities of those they claim to protect and serve, especially when domination of another country's resources, markets or political direction is at stake. Continue reading......

'No light at the end of the tunnel for consumers' as 2025 figure is 50% higher than previous year, says Citizens AdviceRoyal Mail has been criticised for offering an “unacceptable” performance over the crucial Christmas period after it failed to deliver letters and cards on time to about 16 million people, Citizens Advice found.The consumer watchdog, which carried out research into Christmas deliveries, said that figure was 50% higher than in 2024, and the highest level over the festive period in five years, excluding when Royal Mail was hit by strike action in the run-up to Christmas four years ago. Continue reading......

Popularity of EVs in country is part of global trend of emerging markets spurning fossil fuel cars at surprising speedsWhen Berke Astarcıoğlu bought a BMW i3 in 2016, he was one of just 44 people in a country of 80 million to buy a battery electric vehicle (BEV) that year. By the time he bought a Tesla in 2023, BEVs were no longer a complete oddity in Turkey, making up 7% of new car sales.Fast-forward two years and electric cars are selling so fast that Turkey has caught up with the EU in its rate of adoption. Its market is now the fourth largest in Europe, behind Germany, the UK and France. Continue reading......

Filing by New Mexico's attorney general includes Meta staff emails objecting to AI companion policyMark Zuckerberg, Meta's chief executive, approved allowing minors to access artificial intelligence chatbot companions that safety staffers warned were capable of sexual interactions, according to internal Meta documents filed in a New Mexico state court case and made public on Monday.The lawsuit – brought by the state's attorney general, Raul Torrez, and scheduled for trial next month – alleges Meta “failed to stem the tide of damaging sexual material and sexual propositions delivered to children” on Facebook and Instagram. Continue reading......

Advertising Standards Authority says firm advised by George Osborne 'trivialised risks of cryptocurrency'A cryptocurrency company advised by George Osborne has been banned from showing a set of adverts that suggested using its services could be a solution to the cost of living crisis.Coinbase, which appointed the former Conservative chancellor to chair its global advisory council last year, has been told by the UK's advertising watchdog that its adverts were “irresponsible” and “trivialised the risks of cryptocurrency”. Continue reading......

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......