From The Friend to Taskmaster: your complete entertainment guide for the week ahead
Indie brewers kept out of UK bars and pubs by multinationals, study finds
Global beer corporations are using their financial muscle to elbow smaller competitors off the bar, according to research that found independent breweries have been shut out of most of their local pubs.The number of breweries in the UK that are not owned by a larger business or multinational is already in decline, falling by 100 last year to 1,715, according to figures released earlier this year by the Society of Independent Brewers and Associates (Siba).In its annual independent beer report, parts of which have been shared with the Guardian, the trade body for British indie brewers said tough conditions were exacerbated by difficulty selling to local pubs.Siba members told a survey that 60% of the pubs within 40 miles were inaccessible to them, choking off potential sources of revenue and reducing choice for consumers thirsty for more interesting options at the bar.They blamed conditions imposed by large breweries and some pub chains, including financial agreements that impose conditions on what beers pubs can sell
Vodafone whistleblowers warned executives about plight of high street store staff
Whistleblowers warned a series of senior Vodafone executives – including the current chief executive, Margherita Della Valle – that scores of its franchised store owners faced financial ruin about two years before a high court claim accused the company of “unjustly enriching” itself.Vodafone employees made repeated complaints to their superiors about the company slashing commissions paid to the small businesses running the company’s high street retail network, according to a string of current and former Vodafone employees. The cost-cutting tactics resulted in a group of 62 of about 150 Vodafone franchise operators filing a £120m-plus legal claim last December.The telecoms company, which is valued at about £17bn on the London Stock Exchange, has said: “We refute the [legal] claims but will be fully engaging in [a mediation] process with a view to resolving this commercial dispute.”However, the emergence of warnings to senior management reveals for the first time how some of the mobile operator’s own staff appeared to support the franchisees over their own employer
Meta faces Ghana lawsuits over impact of extreme content on moderators
Meta is facing a second set of lawsuits in Africa over the psychological distress experienced by content moderators employed to take down disturbing social media content including depictions of murders, extreme violence and child sexual abuse.Lawyers are gearing up for court action against a company contracted by Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, after meeting moderators at a facility in Ghana that is understood to employ about 150 people.Moderators working for Majorel in Accra claim they have suffered from depression, anxiety, insomnia and substance abuse as a direct consequence of the work they do checking extreme content.The allegedly gruelling conditions endured by workers in Ghana are revealed in a joint investigation by the Guardian and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism.It comes after more than 140 Facebook content moderators in Kenya were diagnosed with severe post-traumatic stress disorder caused by exposure to graphic social media content
Microsoft says everyone will be a boss in the future – of AI employees
Microsoft has good news for anyone with corner office ambitions. In the future we’re all going to be bosses – of AI employees.The tech company is predicting the rise of a new kind of business, called a “frontier firm”, where ultimately a human worker directs autonomous artificial intelligence agents to carry out tasks.Everyone, according to Microsoft, will become an agent boss.“As agents increasingly join the workforce, we’ll see the rise of the agent boss: someone who builds, delegates to and manages agents to amplify their impact and take control of their career in the age of AI,” wrote Jared Spataro, a Microsoft executive, in a blogpost this week
London Marathon 2025: Tigst Assefa and Sabastian Sawe win elite races – as it happened
Righto! That, my friends, is us. Thanks for your company and comments, and enjoy the rest of the weekend. Peace out.Deborah from Belfast has just told us that “London is the friendliest place”. Runners’ buzz is for real!My goodness we’re spoiling you today
‘The secret is trusting the process’: Sawe wins London Marathon as Assefa digs in
On one of the hottest days in London marathon history, it was a novice over 26.2 miles who played it coolest of all. As temperatures climbed towards 20c, almost everyone in the elite men’s field – including Eliud Kipchoge, the greatest ever, and the Olympic champion Tamirat Tola – slowed at the 30km drinks station to grab their bottles and quench their thirst.But one athlete, the 30-year-old Kenyan Sabastian Sawe, decided water could wait and in only his second marathon he summoned a kick so devastating that he left everyone else floundering within seconds. “I saw that I had an opportunity to push and I did,” Sawe said after crossing the line in 2hr 2min 27sec, the second quickest time in London marathon history
US food delivery app DoorDash offers to buy UK rival Deliveroo for $3.6bn
Trade war fears hammer US consumer expectations; FTSE 100 in longest winning run since 2019 – as it happened
Stunned resignation and foreboding: a week in Trump’s shadow at IMF
Reeves holds ‘positive and upbeat’ trade talks with Bessent
Marks & Spencer pauses online orders as firm struggles with cyber-attack fallout
Vinterior: meet the boss who quit finance to set up a thriving vintage furniture site