Co-op marking commonly stolen items with forensic spray to track reselling

Co-op is secretly marking commonly stolen items including alcohol and laundry detergents with invisible “forensic spray” to track them, in the latest crackdown on shoplifting as a new law on retail crime kicks in.The supermarket aims to use the technique across the country having tested it in Manchester and London since last year.The spray, whichhelps the Co-op identify where stolen items are being resold and report it to the police, contains a unique forensic code for a particular location where the items were sold, which also include sweets. Police can then identify which Co-op store the items originated from when investigating physical shops or online stores suspected of reselling stolen goods.Police forces have used similar tactics to track down stolen bikes and valuables, and protect domestic abuse victims

Another RBA rate rise won’t fix inflation – it will just smash households already hit by soaring fuel costs | Greg Jericho

With the release of the March inflation figures on Tuesday showing a big jump, the likelihood of a rate rise next week has become all but certain. Admittedly it was all but certain before the release of the figures, because the Reserve Bank is determined to smash households even though the cause of inflation is overwhelmingly due to international events.A month ago I noted of the February inflation figures that they were out of date the moment they were released given they did not take into account the impact of the rise in prices from the war on Iran.And so it has come to pass. In the month of March alone, inflation rose 1

Reliance on Chinese green tech poses ‘serious’ risk for Europe, experts say

Europe is “sleepwalking” into a series of economic and national security problems because of an over-reliance on Chinese green technology, according to experts.A report co-authored by Michael Collins, a former deputy head of national security strategy at the UK Cabinet Office, described the risks of depending on China for green tech as “serious”.“Europe risks sleepwalking into a series of economic and geopolitical national security problems because of over-reliance on Chinese low-carbon technology,” he said.The report said Europe was heavily dependent on Chinese green technology, with China supplying 98% of the continent’s solar panels; 88% of imports of lithium-ion batteries, which are used in smartphones, electric vehicles and large-scale energy storage; and 61% of imports of inverters, which integrate renewable energy with a power grid. Chinese EV brands are also increasingly popular across Europe

Barclay family avoids bankruptcy after deal with HSBC over £143m debt

The former owners of the Telegraph have avoided bankruptcy after reaching an 11th-hour agreement with HSBC over more than £140m in overdue debts.At a high court hearing on Tuesday, a lawyer for Europe’s biggest bank said it was seeking to dismiss the petitions against Aidan and Howard Barclay, whose family lost control of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph in 2023 over £1.16bn of unpaid debts owed to Lloyds Bank.HSBC filed bankruptcy petitions against the brothers last year amid large debts owed by the Logistics Group, the parent company of the Barclay family’s brands Yodel and ArrowXL.The bank was owed £143

UK refineries asked to maximise jet fuel production amid supply fears

British refineries have been asked to maximise jet fuel supply as part of government contingency planning, amid growing fears the Iran war will force planes to be grounded.The energy minister Michael Shanks said the government is closely monitoring UK jet fuel stocks and working with airlines, airports, fuel suppliers and other governments, as carriers face rocketing fuel costs as a result of the conflict.Normal flows of fossil fuels from the Gulf have effectively been at a standstill since the war broke out, after the de facto closure of the important shipping channel, the strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and gas flows.“UK airlines typically buy fuel months in advance, and aviation fuel suppliers hold bunkered stocks. The UK imports jet fuel supplies from a range of countries not reliant on the strait, including the United States,” wrote Shanks in a ministerial statement

UK firms in ‘critical financial stress’ jump by a third as costs rise, report finds

The number of UK businesses in “critical financial distress” has risen by more than a third over the past year, as companies contend with a “slew of increased taxes” and the impact of the Middle East conflict.Hospitality and leisure firms have been faring particularly badly because of shaky consumer confidence, and rising taxes and staff costs, according to research by the restructuring company BTG.It said the number of firms in financial distress had risen by 36.9% in the first three months of this year, compared with the same period in 2025. Its research showed 62,193 companies were affected, up from 45,416 the previous year

AstraZeneca makes surprise U-turn with £300m pharma investment in UK

Britain’s biggest drugmaker AstraZeneca has said it will invest £300m in the UK in a surprise U-turn after pausing large-scale projects last year.The drugmaker had pulled back investments in Britain after becoming disillusioned with the business environment, including the availability of new medicines on the NHS and drug pricing.On Wednesday it said it would invest in two existing locations, unfreezing a paused £200m expansion in Cambridge and pouring £100m into its Macclesfield site.Keir Starmer announced the investment in the House of Commons, saying it would protect jobs.AstraZeneca will complete the construction of an office building on its Cambridge campus, near its headquarters, called the Disc

Lloyds takes £151m hit from Iran war as it forecasts rise in UK unemployment

Lloyds has said that the economic fallout from the Middle East conflict could cost it £151m amid rising unemployment and inflation and a slowdown in the housing market.The FTSE 100 group, whose brands include Lloyds Bank, Halifax and Bank of Scotland, issued a downbeat economic forecast that it said reflected the stagflationary consequences – the double hit of rising inflation at the same time as slower economic growth – for the UK and global economies.Overall, Lloyds expects its base case for UK gross domestic product growth to be only 0.5% this year, lower than the 0.8% forecast by the International Monetary Fund earlier this month

Inflation jumps to 4.6% in Australia as Iran war fuel shock begins to bite

Inflation jumped to 4.6% in the year to March, from 3.7% the month before, in what the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, warned was the start of an Iran war-linked fuel shock that will ripple through the economy over coming months.With consumer prices now growing at their fastest pace in two and a half years, financial markets and experts are betting the Reserve Bank will hike interest rates for a third straight meeting next Tuesday as officials struggle to manage the nightmare scenario of containing inflation even as growth is expected to slow sharply.The treasurer ahead of next month’s budget said “inflation is likely to peak higher than this”, even as he reassured Australians that the economy was well placed to navigate the fallout from the war

UK faces £35bn hit and risk of recession this year over impact of Iran war, thinktank warns

Britain is facing a £35bn economic hit and the risk of a recession this year as the fallout from the Iran war adds to the pressure on Keir Starmer’s government, a leading thinktank has warned.The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (Niesr) said that even under a best-case scenario the UK economy would grow at a much slower pace this year and next because of the Middle East conflict.With households facing a rise in energy costs linked to the Iran war, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has said that “nothing is off the table” as the government considers options to provide a targeted and temporary support package.However, Britain’s oldest independent economic research institute said the government faced a multibillion-pound hole in the public finances amid a worsening inflation shock that would make it harder for Reeves to respond.David Aikman, the Niesr director, said: “This is a serious blow to the government’s mission to get the UK economy growing again

How the UAE’s decision to leave Opec could recast the Middle East

The United Arab Emirates’ decision to walk out of Opec is a political as much as business decision, and will reignite the simmering rows between the UAE and Saudi Arabia – which had been covered up by their shared anger with Iran over its attacks on the Gulf states since the start of the US-Israel war on Tehran.In the short term, leaving the oil producing cartel it joined in 1967 gives the UAE the freedom to respond quickly to a long-term prospect of constrained supplies, and to maximise profit. But it is a decision the UAE has considered before, as UAE and Saudi tensions over production quotas have been longstanding.But the timing and unilateral nature of the UAE decision shows how other intra-Gulf disputes over how to respond to the Iran war could recast the Middle East.The defection is, of course, a blow to Saudi Arabia’s prestige, since it positions the UAE as the Gulf state closest to Donald Trump, a long-term critic of Opec, and weakens the Saudis’ ability to manage the price of oil

Another shadow banking hit – but otherwise, Barclays looks fine

The Barclays boss CS Venkatakrishnan, having seen the bank hit in the space of six months by two high-profile blow-ups in the world of shadow banking, is pledging to take more care. “We are constraining lending to certain structured finance counterparties who operate more vulnerable business models and cannot convince us of the quality and independence of their financial controls,” he said.There’s an obvious response to that vow of greater vigilance: what were you doing previously? Wouldn’t it have been a good idea in the first place not to lend to high-risk outfits with unconvincing financial controls – for example, those with large mortgage exposures but small audit firms? There was, in other words, a sense in the chief executive’s comments of stable doors being shut rather too late.But here’s the other point about Barclays’ twin embarrassments: they are significant but not enormous in the grand scheme. The impairment charge in Tuesday’s first-quarter numbers for Market Financial Solutions (MFS), which collapsed in February amid allegations of fraud, was £228m

A pasta bake and a sumac salad: Sami Tamimi’s prep-ahead sharing recipes

My ideal way of entertaining is completely fuss-free, with everything prepared ahead of time so I can enjoy being with my guests rather than worrying about cooking. I like to put big, generous dishes in the middle of the table, such as this one-tray chicken, pasta and chickpea bake, alongside a fresh salad, so everyone can serve themselves and share a simple, delicious meal.This is a comforting and flavourful dish that brings together tender chicken, hearty chickpeas and perfectly cooked pasta in a rich, pungent sauce. It’s a simple yet satisfying meal that’s ideal for busy weeknights or casual family meals. Everything cooks together in the oven, and the flavours blend beautifully while keeping prep and washing-up to a minimum

The truth about cooking oils: 14 essential facts for healthier, cheaper meals

From avocado to hemp, extra virgin olive and rapeseed, the shops are packed with various oils. But what is worth spending money on? And are any of them actually better for you? The world of cooking oils is confusing. I keep spotting new ones on supermarket shelves, trumpeting their health claims. Cold-pressed avocado oil, extra virgin macadamia oil, organic coconut oil, premium hemp seed oil … Even familiar oils are mired in controversy. Is it OK to cook with olive oil? Should you avoid seed oils? Meanwhile, prices keep rising – earlier this month, Walter Zanre, the CEO of Filippo Berio UK, said supermarkets were “taking the mickey” out of customers over olive oil pricing

The surprising boom in blouge wine: ‘It’s for 5pm, in the sun’

Twenty years ago, a winery could do well selling one white and two reds, says Konrad Pixner, a northern Italian winemaker who set up his vineyard, Domaine de L’Accent, in Languedoc, France, in 2019. But today, importers and bars always ask: “Do you have something new?” So up in the hills, surrounded by deep gorges and limestone plateaus, Pixner is constantly experimenting.After a good harvest in 2023, Pixner walked into the shed he shares with other winemakers at 4am to find that his biggest vat of white wine, pressed from carignan blanc grapes, had overflowed during fermentation. He had run out of space, so he quickly “pumped the white juice into the tank where whole bunches of carignan noir were,” he says, and left them to ferment for 10 days together. In contrast to rosé, made from red grapes left for a short time with their skins on before being pressed, he created “blouge” – a light, fresh wine blended from white and red grapes that’s best served chilled

How to make the perfect custard creams – recipe | Felicity Cloake's How to make the perfect …

Prue Leith reckons the custard cream is “arguably Britain’s most iconic biscuit” – and, certainly, we’ve been dunking this fern-patterned treat in our tea for well over a century, with early advertisements for this “delicious biscuit” placing it, perhaps aspirationally, in the “fancy” category. By 1920, Bermondsey baking behemoth Peek Frean could confidently declare the custard cream “far and away the most popular of all the cream sandwich biscuits”, a status only slightly dented by the time I was at school about seven decades later, when it sat just below its contemporary, the chocolate bourbon, in the playtime snack ratings.Despite my love of both custard and cookies, however, I’ve always found this particular custard-flavoured product a bit sugary and dull. As historian Lizzie Collingham explains in her magisterial book, The Biscuit: The History of a Very British Indulgence, it combines two early industrial foodstuffs, namely custard powder and machine-made biscuits, and though they may have been created in a factory, I think they’re much better made at home.Let’s be honest, the biscuit isn’t really the point of the packet variety – as children, we’d prise them open to scrape out the sugary filling, like bears sucking honey from a split log – but when you bake them yourself, it can be

Impala, London W1: ‘Shamelessly, brilliantly too much’ – restaurant review | Grace Dent on restaurants

Impala is like no restaurant I’ve ever been to, yet it somehow has echoes of almost all of themLate last month, Impala drove into Soho already flaming hot in the hype stakes: this was a sizzling booking to brag about even before executive chef and co-founder Meedu Saad had turned on the stoves. Impala, after all, is a Super 8 restaurant, the group that has, among others, Tomos Parry’s Brat in Shoreditch, which has been constantly, unfalteringly brilliant since 2018. It also runs Parry’s second baby, Mountain, which is likewise wonderful; sometimes weird, yes, but always wonderful. Long before that, back in 2016, they opened Kiln, the famed live-fire Thai counter hangout that cheffy boys in beanies have tried and failed to emulate all over Britain, while Super 8’s beginnings were with the boundary-pushing and much-loved Smoking Goat. That is nothing less than a litany of solid-gold bangers, and now they’ve unleashed Impala by Saad, the former head chef at Kiln

Ifrah F Ahmed’s debut cookbook is a love letter to Somali cuisine, history and people

On a video call from Brooklyn, between stops on her book tour, Ifrah F Ahmed is drinking ginger-root tea. The smell transports her to her childhood kitchen, where her mother often baked aromatic cardamom cake.“That’s a core childhood memory for me,” she said.For Ahmed, food isn’t just about sustenance. It is memory, inheritance and, perhaps most importantly, a record: “Somali history on a plate,” as she puts it

Lure of being a social media chef means youngsters forgoing classic training, Michelin star cook warns

Scroll through your timeline of choice and it won’t be long until you land on a video posted by a social media chef trying to send their recipes viral.Such is the popularity of cooking videos that everyone from Michelin star masters to self-taught beginners like Brooklyn Beckham are setting up tripods on their kitchen counters to capture the perfect cut, cuisson or crust on their culinary creations.But the lure of social media could, according to some industry figures,be causing young cooks forgo the formal training of a catering college.Will Murray, who worked at the double Michelin-starred restaurant Dinner by Heston before opening his own critically acclaimed venue, Fallow, said social media cooking videos sometimes stretch the boundaries of what is possible.“Social media has helped people get into cooking

Disco hit: Penne alla vodka, popular in New York 80s clubs, is now a menu staple

Despite most traditional Italians considering it sacrilegious, penne alla vodka is quickly becoming one of the most in-demand Italian dishes.Previously popular in suburban Italo-American restaurants during the 80s, the dish is now enjoying a widespread resurgence that is being driven by several factors including nostalgia and social media.Featuring a tomato and cream base with a splash of vodka, the silky smooth sauce sits somewhere between coral and carrot on the colour wheel. The Guardian’s Rome-based food writer Rachel Roddy describes it as “luxurious and a bit racy”.Dara Klein, a chef and founder of Tiella Trattoria in London, says the dish “hits lots of comforting notes”, comparing it to a slightly more grownup take on the Italian childhood favourite pasta al pomodoro which is “eaten from day dot”

Benjamina Ebuehi’s recipe for orange, grapefruit and bay jelly | The sweet spot

You’re never too old for jelly, and I think we should all be eating more of it. Unmoulding a jelly and immediately giving it a good wobble is by far the best bit, and makes me giggle every time. Infusing the mixture with fresh bay leaves brings a grownup feel and gentle, earthy notes. While jelly and ice-cream is a classic combination, I love this just with some lightly whipped, unsweetened cream.Prep 5 min Cook 20 min Infuse 30 min+ Chill 4 hr+ Serves 6Neutral oil for greasing220ml freshly squeezed red grapefruit juice (from about 2 grapefruit)700ml fresh orange juice (from about 8-10 oranges)4 fresh bay leaves120g caster sugar11 gelatine leaves (I use Dr Oetker platinum grade leaf gelatine) 200ml double creamLightly grease the insides of a 1 litre jelly mould with a little neutral oil – you can skip this step if you’re serving the jelly straight from a dish or bowl

‘As intense as perfume’: which eaux de vie are worth trying?

Nearly every European country has its own fruit brandy. Some are a bit agricultural so here’s a taste of the bestThe Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.“I’ve had people burst into tears tasting these – it takes them straight back to a moment in their past

​Folded​, whipped or baked into something golden, ricotta ​i​s brilliant and adaptable

My record for making ricotta and lemon ring cake is three minutes and 42 seconds. That doesn’t include heating the oven or baking, or finding a recipe, which is in my head. It does include getting out the utensils (bowl, spatula, grater, scale, ring tin) and the ingredients (ricotta, olive oil, flour, sugar, baking powder, eggs, lemons), then speed-mixing everything in one bowl, scraping the batter into the tin and getting the tin in the oven via a discus throw. The timer is stopped as the oven door is closed. This is not relaxing cooking, it is entertaining cooking

Rachel Roddy’s recipe for almond and lemon spiced treacle tart | A kitchen in Rome

It wasn’t that dessert trolleys were banned in Italy during Covid, but guidelines from the Instituto Superiore di Sanità (national institute of health) were so (necessarily) rigorous around these “potential vehicles of the virus” that most places banished them to storerooms. Happily, many restaurants have since retrieved them from their long stay, so they glide or rattle between tables once more, or sit parked in an admirable position. This isn’t my first time mentioning the dessert trolley at La Torricella here in Testaccio, having written about its fabulous puff pastry and cream millefoglie in the past. But another dessert that might catch your eye as you enter the restaurant and look right at the cloth-covered trolley parked under the bar is what owner Augusto refers to as torta medievale, because of its spiced almond and dried fruit filling. It’s an unassuming but extremely good thing