Why is the Bank of England being cautious in delaying rate cuts?
Next and the beautiful arithmetic of long-termism | Nils Pratley
Here is an absurdly mean-minded way to view Next’s advance towards annual profits of £1bn this financial year: since the retailer achieved almost half a billion (£498m) as long ago as 2008, merely doubling over 17 years is not otherworldly. The annual compound rate of improvement works out at only 4%.But that perspective would plainly be ridiculous for at least two reasons. First, Next, like everyone else, had to deal with the long recession after the financial crash and then the pandemic; the retailing landscape was littered with the bodies of those who didn’t make it – BHS, Debenhams and more. Or look at the contrast with Marks & Spencer, which hit the £1bn mark in 2008 and has never seen it again
Next says it may close stores if £30m equal pay claim is upheld
Next said it may close stores if it loses an appeal against a landmark equal pay claim.The fashion and homeware retailer made the comments after shop workers at Next last month won a six-year legal fight for equal pay. Next is planning to challenge the decision and could have to pay more than £30m in compensation if it is unsuccessful.An employment tribunal found that its retail sales staff – who are overwhelmingly female – should be paid the same hourly rate as those working in Next’s warehouses, who are mostly men.“Inevitably, some of our stores will no longer be viable if this ruling is upheld on appeal,” the retailer said in its report to City analysts
Social media and online video firms are conducting ‘vast surveillance’ on users, FTC finds
Social media and online video companies are collecting huge troves of your personal information on and off their websites or apps and sharing it with a wide range of third-party entities, a new Federal Trade Commission (FTC) staff report on nine tech companies confirms.The FTC report published on Thursday looked at the data-gathering practices of Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube, Discord, Reddit, Amazon, Snap, TikTok and Twitter/X between January 2019 and 31 December 2020. The majority of the companies’ business models incentivized tracking how people engaged with their platforms, collecting their personal data and using it to determine what content and ads users see on their feeds, the report states.The FTC’s findings validate years of reporting on the depth and breadth of these companies’ tracking practices and call out the tech firms for “vast surveillance of users”. The agency is recommending Congress pass federal privacy regulations based on what it has documented
Google says UK risks being ‘left behind’ in AI race without more data centres
Google has said that Britain risks being left behind in the global artificial intelligence race unless the government moves quickly to build more datacentres and let tech companies use copyrighted work in their AI models.The company pointed to research showing that the UK is ranked seventh on a global AI readiness index for data and infrastructure, and called for a number of policy changes.Google’s UK managing director, Debbie Weinstein, said that the government “sees the opportunity” in AI but needs to introduce more policies boosting its deployment.“We have a lot of advantages and a lot of history of leadership in this space, but if we do not take proactive action, there is a risk that we will be left behind,” she said.AI is undergoing a global investment boom after breakthroughs in the technology led by the release of the ChatGPT chatbot, from the US company OpenAI, and other companies like Google, which has produced a powerful AI model called Gemini
Wigan retain League Leaders’ Shield with rout of depleted Salford
Wigan are no strangers to creating a slice of rugby league history and, while the backdrop was certainly different to what they have been used to, this was another night that will be etched into the record books for all the right reasons.Any doubt over whether or not Wigan would get the victory that secured a second consecutive League Leader’s Shield – they are only the second team in Super League history to achieve that feat – was in effect removed earlier in the week due to the nature of the squad Salford Red Devils announced for this game. While Wigan get a bye through the opening week of the playoffs by virtue of a top-two finish, Salford know they must contest a sudden-death game to keep their season alive next week. Instead of risking anything, the Red Devils changed their entire lineup, resting all their big names and awarding eight debuts. The outcome, with that in mind, was entirely expected
‘Joshua’s ripe for the taking’: shyness masks Dubois’ hunger for big win
Daniel Dubois and Frank Warren make an unlikely team. The dapper promoter is a tough yet garrulous 72-year-old while Dubois, a heavily muscled 27-year-old heavyweight who stands 6ft 5in, remains much more hesitant. As he prepares to fight Anthony Joshua at Wembley Stadium on Saturday night, it is striking how often Dubois turns to Warren for reassurance.When asked how he is coping with the intense media scrutiny that accompanies a fight against the far more celebrated Joshua, Dubois looks to his promoter for help: “What do you think?”There is no hesitation in Warren. “It’s business,” he says bluntly
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Australia thrash England by seven wickets: first men’s cricket one-day international – as it happened
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‘I feel every one of my Tests’: James Slipper takes long and winding road to Wallabies record | Angus Fontaine
Sean Payton’s stumbling Broncos would be innovative ... if it was still 2013