UK economy unexpectedly shrank in September as JLR hack hammers production output – business live

Ouch! The UK economy shrank in September, today’s GDP report shows, as the cyber-attack on Jaguar Land Rover hammered activity in the manufacturing sector.UK GDP fell by 0.1% in September, following no growth in August (revised down from a previous estimate of growth of 0.1%) and an unrevised fall of 0.1% in July

UK economy grew by just 0.1% in third quarter amid hit from JLR cyber-attack

The UK economy expanded by just 0.1% in the quarter from July to September as the crippling cyber-attack on Jaguar Land Rover hit manufacturing.The latest official figures, issued as Rachel Reeves prepares for a crunch budget on 26 November, show gross domestic product fell by 0.1% in September as car production was dragged down to a 73-year low by the fallout from the hack.The Office for National Statistics (ONS) pointed to the cyber-attack, saying: “Production fell by 2

Anthropic announces $50bn plan for datacenter construction in US

Artificial intelligence company Anthropic announced a $50bn investment in computing infrastructure on Wednesday that will include new datacenters in Texas and New York.“We’re getting closer to AI that can accelerate scientific discovery and help solve complex problems in ways that weren’t possible before,” Anthropic’s CEO, Dario Amodei, said in a press release.Building the massive information warehouses takes an average of two years in the US and requires copious amounts of energy to fuel the facilities. The company, maker of the AI chatbot Claude, popular with businesses adopting AI, said in a statement that the “scale of this investment is necessary to meet the growing demand for Claude from hundreds of thousands of businesses while keeping our research at the frontier”. Anthropic said its projects will create about 800 permanent jobs and 2,400 construction jobs

Waymo announces that its robotaxis will drive freeways for the first time

Alphabet’s Waymo said on Wednesday that it would begin offering robotaxi rides that use freeways across San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix, a first for the Google subsidiary as it steps up expansion amid global and domestic competition in the self-driving industry.Freeway rides will initially be available to early-access users, Waymo said. “When a freeway route is meaningfully faster, they can be matched with a freeway trip, providing quicker, smoother, and more efficient rides,” it said.Waymo, which already operates in parts of the San Francisco Bay Area, is also extending operations to San Jose, including Mineta San Jose international airport, the second airport in its service area after Phoenix Sky Harbor.The move comes as Tesla expands its robotaxi service with safety monitors and drivers, and Zoox – backed by Amazon – offers free robotaxi rides on and around the Las Vegas Strip

Australian restaurant chain apologises for burger curse as Oscar Piastri hopes to turn F1 season around

As Oscar Piastri desperately works to rebound from his recent Formula One woes, an Australian restaurant chain is doing its part to keep his title hopes alive.After offering free burgers for every time the Australian made the podium, Grill’d burger chain has apologised for putting a “curse” on the McLaren driver.Piastri has not finished in the top three since the promotion was relaunched five races ago, with his teammate Lando Norris taking the championship lead off him.Grill’d’s Piastri 81 Burger was first put on the menu before the Australian Grand Prix in March, with Piastri’s endorsement, after he was on the podium in Italy and was leading the championship.But since then the 24-year-old driver has crashed, collided and picked up penalty points

Sinner into last four of ATP Finals after straight-sets win over Zverev – as it happened

Jannik Sinner is through to the semi-finals of the ATP Finals with a match to spare after beating Alexander Zverev.The Wimbledon champion, on home soil in Turin, triumphed 6-4, 6-3 for a fifth straight win over the German world No 3 Zverev.Sinner ended the match with 28 winners to 14 unforced errors, having dropped just eight points on his first serve.“I felt like I was serving very well in the important moments. I tried to play the best tennis possible when it mattered,” he said