Americans are feeling the pain of the affordability crisis: ‘There’s not any wiggle room’

Frozen dinners were useful when no one was home to cook. A fancy cheese or apple roll felt like a family treat. But not any more. “We can’t afford to do those little luxuries any more because they’re just too expensive to feed five with,” says Cat Hill. “There’s not any wiggle room

Rachel Reeves, please, let’s make budgets boring again | Heather Stewart

Rachel Reeves should put us all out of our misery this Wednesday with a tax-and-spend statement bold enough to make future budgets boring again.Ask any economist or policy wonk and they’ll tell you the buildup to this year’s budget has been among the most drawn-out and chaotic they can remember.Treasury insiders are adamant they have maintained the same “Labour values” throughout and that Reeves first scribbled down her top three priorities – the NHS, the cost of living and the public debt – as long ago as July.But the combination of volatile bond markets, pass-or-fail fiscal rules, and Reeves’s decision to leave herself with less than £10bn of headroom against them, has led to months of uncertainty and indecision.It is not meant to be like this: aside from the agenda-setting first budget that follows a general election victory, and outside economic crises (though goodness knows we have had plenty), budgets should be reassuringly dull

Bro boost: women say their LinkedIn traffic increases if they pretend to be men

Do your LinkedIn followers consider you a “thought leader”? Do hordes of commenters applaud your tips on how to “scale” your startup? Do recruiters slide into your DMs to “explore potential synergies”?If not, it could be because you’re not a man.Dozens of women joined a collective LinkedIn experiment this week after a series of viral posts suggested that, for some, changing their gender to “male” boosted their visibility on the network.Others rewrote their profiles to be, as they put it, “bro-coded” – inserting action-oriented online business buzzwords such as “drive”, “transform” and “accelerate”. Anecdotally, their visibility also increased.The uptick in engagement has led some to speculate that an in-built sexism in LinkedIn’s algorithm means that men who speak in online business jargon are more visible on its platform

Leading law firm cuts London back-office staff as it embraces AI

The law firm Clifford Chance is reducing the number of business services staff at its London base by 10%, with the increased use of artificial intelligence a factor behind the decision.The head of PwC has also indicated that AI may lead to fewer workers being hired at the accountancy and consulting group.Clifford Chance, one of the largest international law firms, is making about 50 roles redundant in areas such as finance, HR and IT with role changes for up to 35 other jobs, according to the Financial Times, which first reported the cuts.Greater use of AI and reduced demand for some business services are behind the cuts, the FT report said, as well as more work being done at offices outside Clifford Chance’s main UK-US operations, in countries such as Poland and India.A spokesperson for Clifford Chance said: “In line with our strategy to strengthen our operations, we can confirm we are proposing changes to some of our London-based business professional functions

NFL Week 12: Chiefs hit back to beat Colts in overtime, Lions tame Giants and Packers crush Vikings

What a finish. Double overtime madness. The final scores and records now the dust has settled.(6-5) Baltimore Ravens 23-10 New York Jets (2-9)(8-3) Chicago Bears 31-28 Pittsburgh Steelers (6-5)(3-8) Cincinnati Bengals 20-26 New England Patriots (10-2)(7-4) Detroit Lions 34-27 New York Giants (2-10)(7-3-1) Green Bay Packers 23-6 Minnesota Vikings (4-7)(6-5) Kansas City Chiefs 23-20 Indianapolis Colts (8-3)(1-10) Tennessee Titans 24-30 Seattle Seahawks (8-3)That was an incredible comeback from Kansas City. The defense just completely shut the Colts out in the second half

Contepomi accuses ‘bully’ Curry of reckless tackle and shoving Argentina coach

Tom Curry found himself at the centre of a storm after England’s win against Argentina, as Felipe Contepomi accused the flanker not only of a “reckless” tackle on Juan Cruz Mallía but of shoving him, the Pumas’ coach, in the tunnel afterwards. Mallía, the full-back, was forced off late on with what is thought to be an anterior cruciate ligament injury, which meant Argentina, who had used all their replacements, had to finish the match with 14 men.“How old is he?” said Contepomi of Curry. “Twenty-seven? And strong. And I am 48 and he comes and just [shoves me]