New name but same old struggles for Boohoo

“Debenhams is back,” proclaimed the online retailing group formerly known as Boohoo. Unfortunately, its fast-fashion brands – not just Boohoo itself but also Pretty Little Thing and MAN – haven’t gone away. All are struggling badly.Since the latter collection still represents three-quarters of group revenues, new chief executive Dan Finley’s upbeat talk about an exciting future feels more than a little premature. The main market-moving news in the strategy rejig and trading update was another downgrade to the City’s profit expectations alongside a thumping £40m charge for writing down surplus stock at what are now badged as the “youth brands”

Peter Starbuck obituary

My friend Peter Starbuck, who has died aged 88, was an expert on Peter Drucker, the father of modern management.Peter wrote six books and more than 90 papers on Drucker, and was an honorary member of the Peter Drucker Society Europe, whose president, Richard Straub, would always say to researchers: “If in doubt, ask Peter Starbuck.”He came to Drucker’s work in the mid-1970s while running a building firm he had co-founded. Enamoured with Drucker’s theories on management, he used them in his own business and later, once the company had been sold, studied Drucker’s ideas more deeply for a PhD at the Open University, setting himself up as an authority on the subject.Peter was born in Birmingham to Herbert, an aircraft engineer, and Gladys (nee Gittings), a housewife

The making of Elon Musk: how did his childhood in apartheid South Africa shape him?

The billionaire and now Trump adviser grew up amid the collapse of white rule, attending an all-white school and then a more liberal oneWith an imposing double-winged redbrick main building, and school songs lifted directly from Harrow’s songbook, Pretoria boys high school is every inch the South African mirror of the English private schools it was founded in 1901 to imitate.Elon Musk, who has rapidly become one of the most powerful people in US politics, spent his final school years in the 1980s as a day pupil on the lush, tree-filled campus in South Africa’s capital, close to his father’s large detached home in Waterkloof, a wealthy Pretoria suburb shaded by purple jacaranda blossoms in spring.South Africa was rocked by uprisings as apartheid entered its dying years. In 1984, black townships across the country revolted. By 1986, the white minority government had imposed a state of emergency

Skype shutdown surfaces sweet memories: ‘I proposed marriage’

Microsoft announced on the last day of February that it would sunset Skype. By the time the death knell tolled, the video chatting software that once revolutionized communications had become a ghost of its former self. Experts chimed in with half-hearted eulogies for the platform that Microsoft spent years neglecting, yet few were surprised, and even fewer shed tears.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link

Golden Ace wins most dramatic Champion Hurdle in living memory

Amid falling crowds, increasing numbers of odds-on shots and a relentless stream of winners from the Willie Mullins yard, it has been a popular theory in recent years that the Cheltenham festival was becoming a little too … predictable. But it was debunked in the space of four chaotic minutes of extraordinary drama on Tuesday.Jeremy Scott’s mare Golden Ace, at 25-1, emerged as one of the most unexpected of all Champion Hurdle winners, at the end of a race in which both Constitution Hill and State Man – the champions in 2023 and 2024 respectively – were fallers.A much-anticipated renewal of hurdling’s championship event, with Constitution Hill’s 10-race unbeaten record on the line as he attempted to seize back his crown, followed a predictable script to the fifth flight, with Constitution Hill, the odds-on favourite, settled in third behind his main market rival, Brighterdaysahead. But his proud, perfect record was gone in an instant a few seconds later, as the favourite clipped the top of the hurdle and tipped over

Cheltenham festival: Golden Ace claims shock Champion Hurdle – as it happened

Time to sign off; I’ll leave you with Sean Ingle’s view from Cheltenham on day one. Thanks for joining me, and see you again tomorrow.1.20 Kopek Des Bordes (P Townend, W Mullins) 4-6F 2.00 Jango Baie (N de Boinville, N Henderson) 5-12