Bank of England to make ‘finely balanced decision’ on whether to cut interest rates at midday – business live

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.It may not quite be on a knife-edge, but today’s Bank of England decision on interest rates is providing plenty of uncertainty for the markets to chew on.At noon, the Bank’s monetary policy committee will reveal its latest decision on interest rates, which are currently set at 4%.And while the odds are in favour of a hold, the money markets last night indicated there is a one in three chance that base rate will be cut to 3.75% today

Pollution from Ineos’s Antwerp plastic plant ‘will cause more deaths than jobs created’

The deaths from pollution caused by Europe’s biggest plastic plant, which is being built in Antwerp, will outstrip the number of permanent jobs it will create, lawyers will argue in a court challenge issued on Thursday.In documents submitted to the court, research suggests the air pollution from Ineos’s €4bn petrochemical plant would cause 410 deaths once operational, compared with the 300 permanent jobs the company says will be created.Lawyers, community members and financial experts are taking court action in Belgium’s council for permit disputes to stop the plastics facility.The chemical plant would transform ethane from fracked US shale gas into ethylene – the raw material used to make plastic – in a process called “cracking”. The plant, called Project One, is designed to turbocharge European plastic production

Amazon sues AI startup over browser’s automated shopping and buying feature

Amazon sued a prominent artificial intelligence startup on Tuesday over a shopping feature in the company’s browser, which can automate placing orders for users. Amazon accused Perplexity AI of covertly accessing customer accounts and disguising AI activity as human browsing.“Perplexity’s misconduct must end,” Amazon’s lawyers wrote. “Perplexity is not allowed to go where it has been expressly told it cannot; that Perplexity’s trespass involves code rather than a lockpick makes it no less unlawful.”Perplexity, which has grown rapidly amid the boom in AI assistants, has previously rejected the US shopping company’s claims, accusing Amazon of using its market dominance to stifle competition

Google plans to put datacentres in space to meet demand for AI

Google is hatching plans to put artificial intelligence datacentres into space, with its first trial equipment sent into orbit in early 2027.Its scientists and engineers believe tightly packed constellations of about 80 solar-powered satellites could be arranged in orbit about 400 miles above the Earth’s surface equipped with the powerful processors required to meet rising demand for AI.Prices of space launches are falling so quickly that by the middle of the 2030s the running costs of a space-based datacentre could be comparable to one on Earth, according to Google research released on Tuesday.Using satellites could also minimise the impact on the land and water resources needed to cool existing datacentres.Once in orbit, the datacentres would be powered by solar panels that can be up to eight times more productive than those on Earth

Australia v India: fourth men’s Twenty20 international – live

Shubman Gill, Abhishek Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Tilak Varma, Axar Patel, Shivam Dube, Jitesh Sharma (wk), Washington Sundar, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah.Don’t break up a winning combination. India are unchanged from the side that won the third game in the series in Hobart.Mitchell Marsh (capt), Matt Short, Josh Inglis (wk), Tim David, Josh Philippe, Marcus Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell, Xavier Bartlett, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Adam Zampa.Four changes for Australia as Travis Head and Sean Abbott leave the squad to prepare for the Ashes

WTA Finals tennis: Anisimova sends Swiatek out; Rybakina beats Alexandrova – as it happened

Amanda Anisimova fought past Iga Swiatek 6-7(3) 6-4 6-2 in a winner-takes-all match at the WTA Finals on Wednesday to join Elena Rybakina in the semi-finals and stay in the hunt for a first crown on her debut in the season-ending championship.The stage was set for the highly-anticipated clash between the pair after Swiatek routed Anisimova 6-0, 6-0 to lift her maiden Wimbledon crown in July, before the American gained revenge in the US Open quarter-finals in September.Following a fierce start to their latest meeting and 12 straight holds of serve, Poland’s Swiatek raised her level to seize control of the first set in the tiebreak, clinching it when Anisimova struck a forehand long.The war of attrition continued in the second set, before Anisimova ramped up the intensity on her forehand and earned the first break of the match in the 10th game to force a decider at the King Saud University Sports Arena.With confidence flowing, Anisimova carved out another break to surge 3-1 ahead in the third set and shift the pressure onto world No 2 Swiatek, and the resilient 24-year-old stayed firm from there and completed her comeback victory