Deliveroo accused of paying drivers below agreed minimum of £12 an hour

Deliveroo has been accused of ­paying drivers below a minimum pay floor the company agreed earlier this year as part of the first-ever union ­agreement to cover earnings in the gig economy.Analysis carried out by Rodeo, an app that helps gig economy workers track their payments, showed that of 531 food orders completed in the past four months, 278 fell below the rate of £12 an hour agreed with the GMB union in May.Martin Wills, an Exeter-based driver working for the company since 2021, asked Rodeo to ­examine his delivery records because he felt he was not being paid fairly by Deliveroo, which heralded its first-ever profit last month of £1m for the first six months of 2024.“Deliveroo has gained lots of positive PR [from the deal] but I found 48% of my orders were below the pay floor. I’m fed up with big companies breaking their promises to working-class people and I’m determined they should be held accountable,” he said

Body Shop’s remaining UK stores saved after rescue deal agreed

The Body Shop has been rescued from administration by a consortium led by the British cosmetics tycoon Mike Jatania in a deal that will keep the ethical beauty brand’s remaining 113 UK stores trading.Auréa, the growth capital firm founded by Jatania and former UBS, Credit Suisse and Merrill Lynch executive Paul Raphael, said it had bought all the Body Shop International’s assets, which include its UK stores and control of outposts in Australia and North America for an undisclosed sum.It is understood the new owners, who finalised a deal late on Friday, do not plan to close any of the UK stores currently operating, which employ more than 1,300 people.A spokesperson for Auréa said: “We believe that the stores are an important part of the brand’s connection to its customers. We will naturally monitor the footprint of the estate to make sure that we are optimising performance through that connection

Telegram to drop ‘people nearby’ feature and improve moderation

The chief executive of Telegram, Pavel Durov, has announced the messaging app will improve moderation on the platform and has removed some features that have been used for illegal activity.The app’s founder unveiled the changes on Friday hours after calling his arrest by the French authorities last month “misguided”. Durov has since been charged with allegedly allowing criminal activity on the app.In a post on X, he said the messaging app was “committed to turn moderation on Telegram from an area of criticism into one of praise”.The changes announced by Durov included removing the app’s “people nearby” feature, which he said had “issues with bots and scammers”, and replacing it with “businesses nearby”, featuring legitimate businesses; and disabling media uploads on the app’s blogging tool, Telegraph, which Durov said was being “misused by anonymous actors”

Google using anti-competitive tactics in UK ad market, claims watchdog

The UK competition watchdog has accused Google of anti-competitive behaviour in the market for buying and selling ads on websites, in a move that follows similar investigations in the US and the EU.The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it had found that Google has “abused its dominant position” in online advertising to the detriment of thousands of UK publishers and advertisers.The CMA said the vast majority of publishers and advertisers used Google’s ad tech services to bid for and sell advertising space, but the search company prevented rivals from offering competitive alternatives.The regulator has focused on Google’s role in three areas: its ownership of two tools for buying advertising space; its operation of an ad platform for publishers that allows them to manage their advertising space online; and its control of an ad exchange, AdX, that brings together advertisers and publishers, akin to matching buyers and sellers in a stock exchange.“The CMA is concerned that Google is actively using its dominance in this sector to preference its own services,” said the watchdog

USA prove too strong for Great Britain in men’s wheelchair basketball final

There was to be no dream finish for Great Britain, just a series of what ifs and maybes, as perennial champions the USA kept completed the threepeat in men’s wheelchair basketball.After achieving their greatest success in the event since 1996 by reaching the final, victory proved a step too far for captain Phil Pratt and his team, who flickered in moments but left themselves too much to do even as they attempted their customary fourth-quarter charge.For the USA, led by the dominant player on the court, Steve Serio, who scored 24 points and made 10 rebounds in the game, there was a sense that they had the British where they wanted them throughout. While the size of their lead ebbed and flowed, it remained intact from start to finish and a four-point gap – 73-69 –at the end was probably as good as Britain could have hoped for.“It’s tough,” said Pratt after the match

Wallabies humiliated in heavy defeat as Argentina pile on record-breaking score

The Wallabies have fallen to a humiliating Rugby Championship defeat against Argentina, giving up the most points in their history in a shock 67-27 loss in Santa Fe. Despite leading 20-3 early, a second half implosion saw Australia leak 64 points to Los Pumas and sink to a defeat that, while not quite rivalling their 53–8 to South Africa in Johannesburg in 2009, will nonetheless leave new coach Joe Schmidt fuming.Rueing the loss of key front-rowers Angus Bell and Taniela Tupou in the second half, Schmidt admitted his side “fell off a cliff” as the Argentinians ran in nine hot tries, showing the slick play that shocked New Zealand in the TRC’s opening round. A heavy reckoning must now follow as a shattered Wallabies squad tries to pick up the pieces before the Bledisloe Cup series against New Zealand starts on 21 September.The 40-point shellacking is all the more remarkable for Australia’s early dominance