Oil prices rise amid fears of US strikes on Iran – as it happened

Oil prices are on the rise as traders react to growing concerns that the US could launch military action against Iran.Both the US and Iran embark on military posturing despite trying to de-escalate a standoff over Tehran’s nuclear programme.Brent crude is up 1.55% at $71.44 a barrelWTI is up 1

Is Tim Wilson an ‘inflation nutter’? Why the new shadow treasurer’s RBA comments are making waves

There was good news on Thursday.Another solid month of jobs growth left the unemployment rate steady at 4.1% in January.The impressive resilience of Australia’s jobs market has been the positive story of the post-pandemic economy.We have come out the other side of the global health crisis and a once-in-a-generation inflationary event with a jobless rate that has tracked consistently one percentage point below where it was through the dog days of the late 2010s

US builds website that will allow Europeans to view blocked content

The US has built a portal that will allow Europeans to view blocked content including alleged hate speech and terrorism, according to Reuters.The portal, “freedom.gov”, will allow worldwide users to circumvent government controls on their content. The site features a graphic of a ghostly horse galloping above the Earth, and the motto: “Information is power. Reclaim your human right to free expression

Accenture ‘links staff promotions to use of AI tools’

Accenture has reportedly started tracking staff use of its AI tools and will take this into consideration when deciding on top promotions, as the consulting company tries to increase uptake of the technology by its workforce.The company told senior managers and associate directors that being promoted to leadership roles would require “regular adoption” of artificial intelligence, according to an internal email seen by the Financial Times.The consultancy has also begun collecting data on weekly log-ins to its AI tools by some senior staff members, the FT reports.Accenture has previously said it has trained 550,000 of its 780,000-strong workforce in generative AI, up from only 30 people in 2022, and has announced it is rolling out training to all of its employees as part of its annual $1bn (£740m) annual spend on learning.Among the tools whose use will reportedly be monitored is Accenture’s AI Refinery

‘That was fun’: Keely Hodgkinson smashes world record set on day she was born

Britain’s Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson obliterated the world indoor 800m record, which has stood since 2002, by nearly a second in a stunning performance in Liévin.Hodgkinson had made no secret that she believed the record of 1min 55.82sec, set by Slovenia’s Jolanda Ceplak on the same day Hodgkinson was born – 3 March 2002 – was there for the taking after a prep race at the British championships last week.The 23-year-old proved as good as her word as she smashed a quality field that included Ethiopia’s Olympic silver medallist Tsige Duguma and Switzerland’s European Under-23 champion Audrey Werro, to lower Ceplak’s mark after running a staggering 1:54.88

Alysa Liu wins Winter Olympics gold to end US women’s 24-year figure skating drought

20-year-old delivers near-flawless free skateKaori Sakamoto and Ami Nakai win silver and bronzeAlysa Liu completed a stunning comeback to competitive figure skating by winning the first Olympic women’s figure skating gold medal for the United States in 24 years on Thursday night.The 20-year-old from Clovis, California, who vanished from the sport nearly four years ago uncertain if she’d ever return, delivered a career-best long program to overtake Japanese rivals Kaori Sakamoto and Ami Nakai. Skating in a shimmering gold dress to Donna Summer’s MacArthur Park Suite, Liu cleanly landed all seven of her triple jumps, including three in combination, and drew a standing ovation before finishing with 226.79 points overall.“That’s what I’m fucking talking about,” Liu said as she left the ice