Why an Iran war inflation shock could wreck global economic recovery

An inflation shock triggered by the US-Israel attack on Iran could wreck a fragile global economic recovery that had been expected to gain momentum this year.With oil and gas prices spiking, despite a pledge from Donald Trump to protect tankers making their way through the crucial strait of Hormuz shipping chokepoint, central bankers and economists have warned that a prolonged conflict could increase retail prices around the world and force them to rip up growth forecasts for this year.On Friday, the International Monetary Fund managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, said a 10% increase in energy prices that persists for a year would push up global inflation by 40 basis points and slow global economic growth by 0.1-0.2%

Caffè Nero says growth is ‘steady’ but coffee prices are likely to rise

Caffè Nero will continue opening new shops in the UK and overseas, but has warned coffee prices are likely to keep rising as the war in Iran and higher staffing costs feed through.The family-owned business, which has just bought the 15-store Compass Coffee based in Washington DC to convert to its main brand, is aiming to open as many as 30 UK stores and between 50 and 70 more this year across the 10 other countries it operates in.Gerry Ford, who founded Caffè Nero in 1997 and remains its majority shareholder, said the 1,151-outlet business, which employs 11,000 people around the world, was outperforming its bigger rivals Starbucks and Costa. Starbucks has been closing outlets in North America and Costa’s owner Coca-Cola recently ditched plans for a sale after losses widened and sales fell at established stores.Ford suggested those brands had expanded too rapidly and suffered from multiple management changes

The Guardian view on AI in war: the Iran conflict shows that the paradigm shift has already begun

“Never in the future will we move as slow as we are moving now,” the UN secretary-general, António Guterres, warned this week, addressing the urgent need to shape the use of artificial intelligence. The speed of technological development – as well as geopolitical turbulence – is collapsing the distinction between theoretical arguments and real world events. A political row over the US military’s AI capabilities coincides with its unprecedented use in the Iran crisis.The AI company Anthropic insisted that it could not remove safeguards preventing the Department of Defense from using its technology for domestic mass surveillance or autonomous lethal weapons. The Pentagon said it had no interest in such uses – but that such decisions should not be made by companies

Ben Affleck sells his AI postproduction startup to Netflix

Ben Affleck has sold his artificial intelligence company to Netflix in a surprise deal, saying he had been driven to embrace a technology that had initially “really scared” him.Netflix has acquired the postproduction startup InterPositive from the Oscar-winning actor, director, producer and screenwriter for an undisclosed sum.Affleck had kept InterPositive below the radar and had previously played down AI’s creative abilities. This year, he told the podcaster Joe Rogan he did not think the technology would be able to “write anything meaningful” or make films “from whole cloth”.However, in a video announcing the transaction, the Good Will Hunting and Gone Girl actor said he had moved from being scared of AI’s potential impact when he first encountered the technology to viewing it as a “really meaningful innovation”

George Russell wins Australian Grand Prix ahead of Kimi Antonelli – as it happened

Incredible drama in Melbourne, as the hometown hero Oscar Piastri, the subject of so much attention during the build-up to the race, is out of the Australian Grand Prix after crashing out in the warm-up lap.Coming out of turn four, the Australian’s car lost grip as he looked to accelerate, causing him to lose control and watch on helplessly as he went nose-first into the wall.OSCAR PIASTRI HAS CRASHED!! 😱He is OUT of the Australian Grand Prix on the way to the grid! The driver is out of the car and ok #F1 #AusGP pic.twitter.com/JeBkQeRwBkHere is Giles Richards’ race report from Albert Park

German grandmaster’s vast collection of chess memorabilia to be sold in London

A vast collection of chess memorabilia, including souvenirs from the 1972 “Match of the Century” and considered to be the largest and most important of its kind in private hands, is to be auctioned at Sotheby’s in London next month.The collection belonged to the German grandmaster Lothar Schmid, whose passion for the sport extended way beyond the board.Considered one of the foremost German chess players, Schmid is best known for being chief arbiter of the legendary 1972 World Chess Championship match in Reykjavik between Boris Spassky of the Soviet Union and the American Bobby Fischer.His score notes from the encounter, labelled the “Match of the Century”, along with those of Spassky and Fischer, as well as other souvenirs from the cold war showdown, are among the items up for auction from the collection, which contains more than 50,000 artefacts spanning several centuries.Schmid’s three children are selling the collection, which until recently was stored at the grandmaster’s sprawling house in Bamberg, southern Germany, where he died in 2013