B&Q owner holds firm – but others might struggle if a ‘softening’ retail market turns soggy

Just what an embattled chancellor needs on the eve of a tax-raising budget: a leading retailer upping its profits forecast and singing about the joys of the UK economy.Unfortunately, only the first bit is true. Kingfisher, owner of B&Q and Screwfix (and similar businesses in France and Poland), raised its profit expectations for its current financial year from £480m-£540m to £540m-£570m.But it definitely didn’t ooze confidence in the UK outlook. Rather, Kingfisher noted “softening market conditions” and added: “We continue to be mindful of inflation, uncertainty ahead of the autumn budget and the softening labour market

UK sugar tax to be extended to more soft drinks and milkshakes; markets rally ahead of the budget – as it happened

Britain will end the exemption for pre-packaged milkshakes and milky coffees from an existing tax on sugary drinks from January 2028, the health department has announced.The sugar tax, also known as the soft drink industry levy (SDIL), is a tax on pre-packaged drinks such as those sold in cans and cartons in supermarkets.It was introduced by the Conservative government in 2016 to help drive down obesity, particularly among children.The Health Department has announced that:the government will reduce the current lower threshold at which SDIL applies from 5g of total sugars per 100ml to 4.5g of total sugars per 100mlthe government will remove the current exemption for milk-based drinks with added sugar

Europe loosens reins on AI – and US takes them off

Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, writing to you from an American grocery store, where I’m planning my Thanksgiving pies.In tech, the European Union is deregulating artificial intelligence; the United States is going even further. The AI bubble has not popped, thanks to Nvidia’s astronomical quarterly earnings, but fears persist. And Meta has avoided a breakup for a similar reason as Google

Macquarie Dictionary announces ‘AI slop’ as its word of the year, beating out Ozempic face

AI slop is here, it’s ubiquitous, it’s being used by the US president, Donald Trump, and now, it’s the word of the year.The Macquarie Dictionary dubbed the term the epitome of 2025 linguistics, with a committee of word experts saying the outcome embodies the word of the year’s general theme of reflecting “a major aspect of society or societal change throughout the year”.“We understand now in 2025 what we mean by slop – AI generated slop, which lacks meaningful content or use,” the committee said in a statement announcing its decision.“While in recent years we’ve learnt to become search engineers to find meaningful information, we now need to become prompt engineers in order to wade through the AI slop. Slop in this sense will be a robust addition to English for years to come

England can’t change now: Bazball approach must be seen through to its conclusion | Taha Hashim

Travis Head’s latest masterpiece is three days old, the postmortems are complete and England supporters have done their pained vox pops in Australia. And somehow we’re still more than a week out from the second Ashes Test. It’s a hefty gap bound to be filled by rage, moving from the defeat in Perth to the preparation for a pink‑ball affair in Brisbane.England’s first-stringers could pass the time with a day‑night knockabout against a prime minister’s XI in Canberra. Instead, as planned, it will be a Lions side that plays this weekend, joined by Josh Tongue, Matt Potts and Jacob Bethell, unused squad members in Perth

England have no plans to reward Borthwick with new deal despite winning run

The Rugby Football Union has no plans to begin talks with Steve ­Borthwick over extending his ­contract beyond 2027 “for the ­foreseeable future” despite England’s 11-match winning streak and autumn clean sweep.Borthwick’s contract runs until the end of 2027 but with England halfway through the current World Cup cycle and currently third in the world ­rankings, the RFU chief ­executive, Bill Sweeney, has no immediate intention of discussing an extension in a sea change from the union’s ­previous approach.During his tenure, Sweeney has made it a priority to improve England’s succession planning, appointing Nigel Redman as team performance director, but the chief executive has raised the prospect of Borthwick heading into the 2027 World Cup unclear if he will continue beyond the competition.Indeed, with a little more than 18 months and only 17 matches before England begin World Cup preparations, Sweeney is in no rush to tie Borthwick down.Borthwick’s predecessor, Eddie Jones, was appointed in late 2015 through to the 2019 World Cup but in January 2018 his contract was extended through to 2021 by the then chief executive, Steve Brown