Next and the beautiful arithmetic of long-termism | Nils Pratley

Here is an absurdly mean-minded way to view Next’s advance towards annual profits of £1bn this financial year: since the retailer achieved almost half a billion (£498m) as long ago as 2008, merely doubling over 17 years is not otherworldly. The annual compound rate of improvement works out at only 4%.But that perspective would plainly be ridiculous for at least two reasons. First, Next, like everyone else, had to deal with the long recession after the financial crash and then the pandemic; the retailing landscape was littered with the bodies of those who didn’t make it – BHS, Debenhams and more. Or look at the contrast with Marks & Spencer, which hit the £1bn mark in 2008 and has never seen it again

Next says it may close stores if £30m equal pay claim is upheld

Next said it may close stores if it loses an appeal against a landmark equal pay claim.The fashion and homeware retailer made the comments after shop workers at Next last month won a six-year legal fight for equal pay. Next is planning to challenge the decision and could have to pay more than £30m in compensation if it is unsuccessful.An employment tribunal found that its retail sales staff – who are overwhelmingly female – should be paid the same hourly rate as those working in Next’s warehouses, who are mostly men.“Inevitably, some of our stores will no longer be viable if this ruling is upheld on appeal,” the retailer said in its report to City analysts

Google says UK risks being ‘left behind’ in AI race without more data centres

Google has said that Britain risks being left behind in the global artificial intelligence race unless the government moves quickly to build more datacentres and let tech companies use copyrighted work in their AI models.The company pointed to research showing that the UK is ranked seventh on a global AI readiness index for data and infrastructure, and called for a number of policy changes.Google’s UK managing director, Debbie Weinstein, said that the government “sees the opportunity” in AI but needs to introduce more policies boosting its deployment.“We have a lot of advantages and a lot of history of leadership in this space, but if we do not take proactive action, there is a risk that we will be left behind,” she said.AI is undergoing a global investment boom after breakthroughs in the technology led by the release of the ChatGPT chatbot, from the US company OpenAI, and other companies like Google, which has produced a powerful AI model called Gemini

Brazil top judge accuses X of ‘willful’ circumvention of court-ordered block

In the latest round of the dispute between Elon Musk and Brazil’s top court, a senior judge has accused X of a “willful, illegal and persistent” effort to circumvent a court-ordered block – and imposed a fine of R$5m ($921,676) for each day the social network remains online.The social media platform formerly known as Twitter, which has been banned by court order since 30 August, on Wednesday became accessible to many users in Brazil after an update that used cloud services offered by third parties, such as Cloudflare, Fastly and Edgeuno.This allowed some Brazilian users to access X without the need for a VPN – which is also prohibited in the country.Late on Wednesday, X described its reappearance in Brazil as an “inadvertent and temporary service restoration to Brazilian users”.But the influential supreme court justice Alexandre de Moraes – who ordered the original ban as part of an attempt to crack down on anti-democratic, far-right voices – on Thursday described the move as a deliberate attempt “to circumvent the court’s blocking order”

Surrey on verge of title as Kent relegated: county cricket – as it happened

Surrey are on the verge of a third successive County Championship title after beating Durham within three days at the Oval, and then sitting back to watch their challengers, Somerset, falter at Old Trafford.Dan Worrall’s two wickets in the first over of the day doomed Durham’s innings barely before it had breathed, and he finished with four wickets, as did Sam Curran. Only Emilio Gay’s 48 prevented an innings defeat for Durham, but Rory Burns and Dom Sibley quickly reached the 25 needed, to tick off Surrey’s sixth home win of the season. They will be champions on Friday if Somerset, six down, fail to score the 189 more they need to beat Lancashire and take the title race into the final round.In Manchester it was Luke Wells who all but crushed Somerset’s dreams under his big boots, first with an excellent counterattacking 130 to take Lancashire almost out of reach, then with two crucial wickets, one of them in the last over of the day when Kasey Aldridge was brilliantly caught off a quicker ball by Matty Hurst, ending a stoical 49-run sixth-wicket stand with James Rew

Return of relegation adds intrigue for Premiership as stats back Bath for glory | Robert Kitson

A stiff opening six weeks for last year’s losing finalists will test title mettle as Saracens start life without Owen FarrellAccurately predicting the winner of the Premiership grows less simple by the year. The stats do not lie: in the past five years there have been five different champions of England and no one will be too shocked if that sequence stretches to six in June. Say what you like about the battle-scarred competition but it keeps everyone on their toes.This time around it promises to be even more cut-throat, given there is now renewed scope for additional fun and games at the bottom of the ladder. Relegation – or at least a playoff – will be back in the mixer if the Championship’s top team satisfy the slightly less draconian restrictions around stadium capacity