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Payment of 2% at employee-owned partnership follows sales increase to £13.4bnThe owner of John Lewis and Waitrose has paid an annual bonus to workers for the first time in four years after underlying profits rose by 6%.The retail group's employees – which it calls partners – will receive a 2% bonus after it recorded an increase in sales and profits. Continue reading......

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial newsOil price tops $100 again as Iran strikes economic targets across Middle EastThe war has also prompted Goldman Sachs to push back its forecast for US Federal Reserve's rate cutsIt now expects quarter-point reductions in September and December, having previousl forecast cuts would start in June. Continue reading......

Layoffs to affect 10% of workforce amid Australian company's restructuring plan to push into artificial intelligence and enterprise salesSoftware giant Atlassian has announced it is laying off about 10% of its workforce, or roughly 1,600 positions, and replacing its chief technology officer as it restructures to invest further in artificial intelligence.More than 900 affected positions were involved in software research and development, a spokesperson said. Most of Atlassian's employees work in software engineering and design, accounting for over 50% of its 13,813 full-time workforce in June 2025. Continue reading......

Danish IT supplier Netcompany is new title sponsorTeam to be renamed and have a new kitJim Ratcliffe's Ineos Grenadiers cycling team will be renamed and rebranded with a new lead sponsor and kit before the start of this year's Tour de France in Barcelona on 4 July.The Guardian understands that while Ratcliffe and the Ineos head of sport, Dave Brailsford, will retain ownership and management of the British team, the new title sponsor will be the Danish IT supplier Netcompany. Continue reading......

From fuel caps to four-day work weeks, the Middle East conflict has left the world's top crude oil importing region desperate to shore up suppliesDonald Trump has scrambled in recent days to reassure the world that the economic impact of his war on Iran can be contained.Sure, one of the most important waterways in global trade has, in effect, been shut for almost two weeks – but it might reopen before long. In the meantime, US oil-related sanctions on “some countries” will be lifted. And besides, the entire conflict could be over soon. Continue reading......

Vast release of emergency crude reserves fails to quell mounting fears around energy supply crunch, rattling global marketsOil prices again topped $100 per barrel on Thursday as widespread Iranian attacks on Middle Eastern energy facilities overshadowed a vast release of government reserves.As Donald Trump vowed to “finish the job” and press ahead with the US-Israel war on Iran, the country's regime stepped up retaliatory strikes on economic targets across the region. Continue reading......

Chief executive and chairman of ICI in the 1990s who oversaw the creation of the pharmaceutical company Zeneca Ronnie Hampel was a businessman's businessman, a major force in the reshaping of ICI, Britain's largest manufacturing company, in the 1990s and in the birth of the pharmaceutical company Zeneca (now part of AstraZeneca), as well as a powerful influence on other company boards.He was exceptionally well-connected. His place at the heart of the UK business establishment as chairman of ICI – from 1995 to 1999 – was highlighted by his regular golfing four which included the then cabinet secretary, the chairman of BP and the permanent secretary of the Treasury. Continue reading......

Administration opens new trade investigation into manufacturing in foreign countriesThe Trump administration on Wednesday opened a new trade investigation into manufacturing in foreign countries – an effort that comes after the supreme court struck down Donald Trump's previous use of tariffs by declaring an economic emergency.The US president and his team have made clear that they're seeking to replace the hundreds of billions of dollars in lost revenues after the supreme court's February ruling by using different laws to establish new tariffs . Continue reading......

René Redzepi also steps down from non-profit board after accusations of both physical and psychological abuseRené Redzepi, the head chef and co-founder of Noma, announced Wednesday he was resigning from his internationally acclaimed Copenhagen restaurant following allegations that he had physically abused his staff.Redzepi had been facing protests in Los Angeles before a four-month pop-up that launched this week. His resignation comes after the New York Times detailed shocking allegations of physical and psychological abuse, including claims that he “punched employees in the face, jabbed them with kitchen implements and slammed them against walls”. Continue reading......

Exclusive: Oil at $100 a barrel means higher prices in the EU and UK, making savings for those with electric vehicles even greater, analysts sayEuropean drivers face paying an extra €220 (£190) a year at the pumps because of the surge in oil prices caused by the war in Iran, analysts have warned. In the UK, a separate estimate puts the cost at an extra £140.A sustained oil price of $100 a barrel, the level seen on Monday, would mean motorists in the EU paying €55bn more over a year, researchers at the Transport & Environment (T&E) thinktank estimated. That is the equivalent of an average of €220 for each driver, with higher-mileage drivers facing even bigger hikes. The assessment was made by comparing data from 2022, when Russia's invasion of Ukraine pushed the oil price to the $100 mark, with data from 2017-2019. Continue reading......

Influential Treasury committee chair Meg Hillier says review follows growing concern over graduate debtUK firms struggling to hire young people amid cost pressures, MPs toldYoung adults in the UK face a “perfect storm” of economic challenges, the head of the influential Treasury select committee has warned as it launches an inquiry into student loans.The cross-party committee's investigation comes as the government considers ways to ease the burden on graduates, amid a growing backlash about high interest rates and hefty repayments, including among Labour MPs. Continue reading......

Criminals using artificial intelligence tools to take over mobile, bank and online shopping accounts, says CifasCriminals are increasingly exploiting AI technology to take over people's mobile, banking and online shopping accounts, the UK's leading anti-fraud body has warned.Last year, a record number of scams were reported to the national fraud database, fuelled by AI, which allows for large-scale deception on “industrialised” levels, according to Cifas, the fraud prevention organisation. Continue reading......

It is hard to believe that attacks which started on 28 February can have had such a huge impact on oil that must have already been in the country, says Graham JudgeHilary Osborne (UK households that use heating oil face 'frightening' surge in bills over Iran war, 10 March) highlights that rural households are facing huge rises in the price of something that is a necessity.Sadly, not all the rises can be laid at the door of Donald Trump and his foolish war. Some of the increases are simply down to unashamed profiteering. On 2 March (48 hours after the war started) I had to pay 86.6p per litre of oil. This was 10p higher than the price on Friday 27 February. Continue reading......

Corporate employees said Amazon's race to roll out AI is leading to surveillance, slop and 'more work for everyone'.When Dina, a software developer based in New York, joined Amazon two years ago, her job was to write code. Now, it's mostly fixing what artificial intelligence breaks.The internal AI tool she's expected to use, called Kiro, frequently hallucinates and generates flawed code, she says. Then she has to dig through and correct the sloppy code it creates, or just revert all changes and start again. She says it feels like “trying to AI my way out of a problem that AI caused”. Continue reading......

Unite union began all-out strike more than a year ago and city remains without full waste collection serviceIt has been more than a year since Birmingham's bin workers began their all-out strike that has left residents without a fully functioning waste collection service – and there is still no end in sight.The strikes have attracted global media attention as pictures emerged of towering waste and overflowing bins on the streets of the UK's second largest city. Continue reading......

On the 250th anniversary of The Wealth of Nations, the Scottish philospher is still invoked by the right. Yet he worried about inequality, monopoly and the power of wealthThis week 250 years ago, Adam Smith published An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations – and invented economics. The anniversary has been marked by opinion columns, new books and academic conferences. How different it was 50 years ago. The 1976 bicentenary produced the definitive scholarly edition and helped cast Smith as the father of free-market economics. This was an easy sell during the 1970s slow collapse of the postwar economic order. Smith was useful as a symbolic figure for the revival of free-market ideas. Yet the truth is more complicated.Milton Friedman, a Nobel laureate, recruited Smith as the patron saint of neoliberal economics in his 1980 book and television series Free to Choose – a manifesto that anticipated Reaganism in the US. He reduced Smith to two claims: that a voluntary exchange bene...

Payment for Inditex founder, the world's 15 richest person, tops last year's dividend of €3.1bnThe billionaire founder of Zara is to receive a company record €3.23bn (£2.8bn) dividend this year from the world's biggest fashion retailer.Amancio Ortega, who still controls 59% of Spain's Inditex and whose daughter Marta Ortega Pérez is now chair, will receive half his dividend in May and half in November – as will other shareholders. Continue reading......

Journal reported that cryptocurrency exchange shut down internal investigation into transactions with network funding terror groupsSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxThe US government is investigating Binance over allegations that Iran used the crypto exchange to evade sanctions and illegally move funds, according to a Wall Street Journal report published Wednesday.Binance has denied these claims and even sued the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday for defamation. Continue reading......

Company also launches tools to spot scammers as Thai police arrest 21 peopleMeta disabled more than 150,000 accounts and Thai police arrested 21 people in a sweeping international crackdown on south-east Asian criminal scam centers that targeted people around the world, the social media company said Wednesday.The operation was led by Thailand's Royal Thai police anti-cyber scam center, alongside the FBI and the US justice department's scam center strike force, with Meta investigators acting on intelligence shared in real time by law enforcement. Continue reading......

Tens of thousands of residents and tourists have left UAE since the US and Israel started bombing Iran two weeks ago, leaving beach bars, malls and hotels eerily emptyIn the playground of the rich, nobody wanted this war. For decades, Dubai built itself up as a sanctuary of unadulterated consumerism visited by tourists the world over.But now, the city in the United Arab Emirates faces an existential threat, as the war between the US and Israel and Iran has shaken the foundations of the “Dubai dream” that so many foreigners had bought into. Continue reading......