Delivery firm DPD accused of ‘revenge’ sacking drivers who criticised pay cuts

The delivery firm DPD has been accused of “revenge” sackings after workers spoke out against a plan to cut thousands of pounds from their earnings, including their Christmas bonus.The company, which reported pre-tax profits of nearly £200m last year and plays a significant role in the festive rush to have gifts and parcels delivered, has even threatened to withhold money from some staff to pay for the cost of replacing them, the Guardian has learned.DPD confirmed it had dismissed workers after an estimated 1,500 self-employed drivers chose not to take on any work for a three-day period in protest at the plans.It emerged earlier this month that the company had told workers it planned to cut 65p from the rate it pays for most of its deliveries on 29 September.Drivers said the cut, which came to as much as £25 a day, and the loss of a £500 Christmas bonus, was likely to add up to more than £6,000 a year for each worker – and as much as £8,000 for those who take on a lot more deliveries over Christmas

The London consensus is a timely challenge to Trump’s isolationism | Phillip Inman

What replaces neoliberal capitalism is a question at the forefront of Donald Trump’s mind every day.The US president has never much liked those elements of the Washington consensus that celebrate free markets and liberal trade, as we have come to see in both his presidencies.Trump can happily accept the neoliberal agenda when it means privatising government agencies and commonly held assets. He is enthusiastic about deregulation and handing the private sector all the freedom it needs to exploit workers and resources to boost profits.But what Trump’s America First agenda cannot live with is tariff-free trade

Apple reports record iPhone sales as new lineup reignites worldwide demand

Apple reported its first quarterly earnings since the release of its new lineup of iPhones on Thursday, beating Wall Street analysts’ expectations. The company showed steady financial growth and a strong bottom line despite slow progress on artificial intelligence. The report comes just days after the company hit a $4tn market value for the first time.“Today, Apple is very proud to report a September quarter revenue record of $102.5 billion, including a September quarter revenue record for iPhone and an all-time revenue record for Services,” Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, said in a statement

Amazon reports strongest cloud growth since 2022 after major outage

Amazon has made its first financial disclosures since the disastrous outage suffered by its cloud computing division that brought everything from smart beds to banks offline.In spite of the global outage, Amazon Web Services has continued to grow, and this quarter reported a 20% increase in revenue year over year. Wall Street estimated that AWS would bring in $32.42bn in net sales in the third quarter, with the company reporting actual revenue of $33bn.“AWS is growing at a pace we haven’t seen since 2022,” CEO Andy Jassy said in a statement accompanying the earnings report

World Series Game 7: LA Dodgers 5-4 Toronto Blue Jays (11 innings) – as it happened

That’s all for tonight. Thanks for following along with us and be sure to check out the full game report here.“I think that game had every single thing you could possibly have,” Dodgers first baseman Freddie Freeman says. “Just an absolutely incredible game, incredible series, a grind for both teams. Back-to-backs are so hard to do and to be able to pull that off and be a part of the group that does it, it’s absolutely incredible and I’m just so happy that Clayton Kershaw is a three-time champ

LA Dodgers retain World Series after thrilling Game 7 win over Toronto Blue Jays

The Los Angeles Dodgers won their second consecutive title in stunning fashion in the early hours of Sunday morning, depriving the Toronto Blue Jays of a first World Series in 32 years in a stomach-churning, epic Game 7. Will Smith’s solo home run with two outs at the top of the 11th inning off Shane Bieber gave LA a 5-4 lead before Yoshinobu Yamamoto, pitching in relief just a day after throwing 96 pitches, got Alejandro Kirk to ground out into a World Series-ending double play, bringing a ninth title to the Dodgers organization.“Man, they’re a special group of guys,” Smith said after the game. “We just never gave up, kept fighting, pitching our asses off, hitting, taking great at-bats. Finally punched through there