UK petrol and diesel prices finally starting to drop – business live

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.A jump in the wheat price is adding to concern that the conflict in the Middle East will fuel food inflation this year.Chicago wheat futures are up almost 4.5% this week, heading for their biggest weekly jump since February. Concerns about dry weather in the US, and the Iran war, are both factors

Employees at first ever Starbucks store seek to unionize amid fight for contract

Workers at the historic first Starbucks store are seeking to unionize as the coffee retail giant and its union appear stalemated over their first contract.The first Starbucks store opened in 1971 in Seattle’s Pike Place Market, and the store serves as a tourist site in Seattle.Nailah Diaz, a Starbucks barista for about five years, three of those at Pike Place, said the Pike Place store can often have lines out the door, with waits up to two hours for tourists to come inside and look around.She said workers at Pike Place are tasked with greater customer service responsibilities and the significant tourist traffic can bring about issues with disruptive customers and safety.“I myself have experienced unfair treatment, favoritism, discrimination and harassment with little to no support from management, and for me, joining this fight is me making sure that no one else has to go through what I have,” said Diaz

UK’s OnlyFans tops $3bn valuation amid talks to sell stake to US investor

OnlyFans, the UK adult video platform, is in talks to sell a minority stake to a US investor that will value the business at more than $3bn (£2.2bn).The London-based company is in advanced talks to sell a stake of less than 20% to the San Francisco-based investment firm Architect Capital, according to the Financial Times. Sources familiar with the process confirmed the talks to the Guardian.OnlyFans has decided that offloading a minority stake is the best guarantee of stability for a business dealing with the death of its founder, Leonid Radvinsky

Finance leaders warn over Mythos as UK banks prepare to use powerful Anthropic AI tool

British banks will be given access in the next week to a powerful AI tool that was deemed too dangerous to be released to the public, as a series of senior finance figures warned over its impact.Anthropic, which has so far limited the release of the new model to a small clutch of primarily US businesses, including Amazon, Apple and Microsoft, said it would expand that to UK financial institutions.“That is in the very near term, in the next week,” Pip White, Anthropic’s head of UK, Ireland and northern Europe operations, said in a Bloomberg TV interview. “As you would expect, the engagement I have had from UK CEOs in the last week has been significant.”Anthropic, which is the company behind the Claude family of AI tools, has said that its latest model, Mythos, poses an unprecedented risk because of its ability to expose flaws in IT systems

Lancashire to put matches behind paywall; Hampshire v Somerset, and more: county cricket – live

A couple of notes about Lancashire’s decision to put CC games behind a paywall have landed with a thud of disgust.“Lancashire, as everyone is increasingly aware, is the worst run club in the country, in my opinion,” writes Will Unwin. “The constant desperate cash grab is depressing to see. The viewing figures for games on YouTube are not exactly spectacular but it provides a fine service for hardcore supporters and makes it easily accessible for others. The platform will be more difficult to access; currently I can flick it on my television, not something I can say about LancsTV

Scotland ready for Murrayfield ‘landmark’ against depleted but relentless England

Saturday’s Women’s Six Nations hosts hope to end 28-game losing streak against the Red Roses in front of record crowdMurrayfield usually looms over Scotland women’s home games. Its fortress walls arch over the team’s regular home at the Hive like a villain in a children’s cartoon. The two rugby stadiums are direct neighbours in Edinburgh but on Saturday Scotland are swapping one for the other and making history by hosting their first standalone match at the home of Scottish rugby against the old enemy England in the Women’s Six Nations.Almost 30,000 tickets have been sold for the game, obliterating the current attendance record for a women’s rugby game in Scotland. That record stands at 7,774 and was set in the 2024 Six Nations when the team played the Red Roses at the Hive