Late-November budget may affect Christmas shopping, says Aldi boss

The UK boss of Aldi has warned that the late November timing of the budget could hit consumer spending in the all-important run-up to Christmas.Giles Hurley, the UK chief executive of Aldi in the UK & Ireland, said that the uncertainty over the measures that the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, will take to address a fiscal hole in the government’s finances could affect festive season spending decisions by consumers.“There is no doubt the budget does create a bit of uncertainty,” he said. “If you ask customers across the length and breadth of the country they would say that inflationary pressures are persistent. Inflationary challenges are just tremendously challenging

Car seats being sold online in UK that risk lives of children, Which? finds

Unregulated children’s car seats are being sold by leading online retailers in the UK, a Which? investigation has found.The consumer group discovered products for sale on platforms including eBay, Shein, Wish, Little Dreams and ManoMano that did not carry the orange certification labels showing compliance with regulation. Without these markings, parents cannot be sure the seats have been tested to the legal standard.Which? said the car seats were putting children’s lives at risk. Many were priced between £12

Musk’s Grok AI bot falsely suggests police misrepresented footage of far-right rally in London

The Metropolitan police has had to counter false suggestions by the artificial intelligence on Elon Musk’s X platform that the force passed off footage from 2020 as being from Saturday’s far-right rally in the city.The claim by the chatbot Grok was in answer to an X user’s query about where and when footage of police clashing with crowds was filmed.Grok, which has had a track record of giving false and misleading answers, replied: “This footage appears to be from an anti-lockdown protest in London’s Trafalgar Square on 26 September 2020, during clashes between demonstrators and police over Covid restrictions.”The answer was quickly picked up and amplified by X users, including the Daily Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson, who tweeted: “This was my suspicion,” before asking: “Did the Met claim footage of clashes in summer 2020 took place yesterday?”The Met responded to her by saying that the footage was filmed on Saturday shortly before 3pm at the junction of Whitehall and Horse Guards Avenue.“It is quite obviously not Trafalgar Square as is suggested in the AI response you have referenced, but for the avoidance of further doubt we have provided a labelled comparison to confirm the location,” the force added

Elon Musk calls for dissolution of parliament at far-right rally in London

Elon Musk has called for a “dissolution of parliament” and a “change of government” in the UK while addressing a crowd attending a “unite the kingdom” rally in London, organised by the far-right activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known as Tommy Robinson.Musk, the owner of X, who dialled in via a video link and spoke to Robinson while thousands watched and listened, also railed against the “woke mind virus” and told the crowd that “violence is coming” and that “you either fight back or you die”.He said: “I really think that there’s got to be a change of government in Britain. You can’t – we don’t have another four years, or whenever the next election is, it’s too long.“Something’s got to be done

Cycling teams could boycott races involving Israel-Premier Tech after Vuelta chaos

World Tour cycling teams may refuse to race against Israel-Premier Tech following the multiple protests during the Vuelta a España that exploded into street violence in central Madrid on Sunday.Sources within rival teams have expressed their dismay to the Guardian at the refusal of the team to withdraw from the Vuelta and the lack of protection from the International Cycling Union (UCI) for their own commercial and sporting interests.Michal Kwiatkowski of Ineos Grenadiers, the former world road race champion, was among those to publicly criticise the UCI for their lack of action during the Vuelta. He posted on social media: “If the UCI and the responsible bodies couldn’t make the right decisions early enough, then long-term, it’s very bad for cycling that the protesters managed to get what they wanted.“From now on, it’s clear that a cycling race can be used as an effective stage for protests and next time it will only get worse, because someone allowed it to happen and looked the other way

Simbu snatches world marathon gold from Petros in historic photo finish

One of the most dramatic finales in marathon history ended with one athlete at these Tokyo World Athletics Championships diving for the line, another unsure of the result, and Seiko’s photo-finish machine being called into emergency action.And after 26.2 miles, and more than two hours of sweat and brutal toil, the print confirmed that Tanzania’s Alphonce Simbu had pipped Germany’s Amanal Petros in a sprint finish.Incredibly the gap between the two men – 0.03sec – was tighter than both the men’s and women’s 100m finals