Taking the biscuit: consumers spend more but get less as chocolate prices rise by 15%

Whether it’s a favourite bar, biscuit or indulgent hot drink, feeding a chocolate habit costs more than it used to.The price of the chocolate on shop shelves climbed by 15.4% in the year to August, according to the latest cost of living snapshot.Although other price moves meant overall UK inflation was unchanged at 3.8% last month, chocolate was a big riser

Ben & Jerry’s co-founder quits, accusing Unilever of silencing social mission

The Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Jerry Greenfield has stepped away from the ice-cream brand after nearly 50 years, claiming it has lost its independence and accusing its parent company, Unilever, of having “silenced” its social mission.Greenfield said in a letter posted by his co-founder, Ben Cohen, that he could no longer “in good conscience” remain an employee of a business that he argued had been muzzled by the UK-listed Unilever, despite an agreement protecting its social mission when it was taken over in 2000.“It is profoundly disappointing to come to the conclusion that that independence, the very basis of our sale to Unilever, is gone,” he said. “If the company couldn’t stand up for the things we believed, then it wasn’t worth being a company at all.”Greenfield, who along with Cohen has no control over operations but had remained an employee to help maintain its founding social mission, called it one of the “hardest and most painful decisions” he had ever made

Temu’s UK operation doubles revenues and pre-tax profits

The UK operation of the Chinese online marketplace Temu doubled revenues and pre-tax profits last year, as British consumers snapped up products offered by the super-budget retailer.Temu UK reported revenues of $63.3m (£46.4m) last year, almost double the $32m in 2023, while pre-tax profits similarly surged from $2m to $3.9m, accounts show

Memes and nihilistic in-jokes: the online world of Charlie Kirk’s alleged killer

On the day that 22-year-old Tyler Robinson shot and killed rightwing activist Charlie Kirk, prosecutors say, he texted his roommate to confess what he’d done. While appearing to admit to the murder and describe how he was planning to retrieve his gun, he pivoted to mention why he had carved messages into the ammunition.“Remember how I was engraving bullets? The fuckin messages are mostly a big meme,” Robinson texted, according to authorities.Robinson’s shooting of Kirk has put the spotlight on the intersection of political violence and an increasingly nihilistic online world that promotes misinformation and extremism. It’s a confluence that raises fundamental questions about how internet culture influences both extremist attacks and how we understand them, at a time when some of the biggest online spaces are increasingly more divisive and less moderated

Geelong gave my grandfather more disappointment than fulfilment. For me it is the opposite | Dean Sherr

My grandfather was a stoic man. Settling in the western Victorian town of Ballarat upon arrival as a child from a small town in Ukraine, he took up interest in the nearest VFL club, Geelong. Thus began a lifelong affinity with the Cats he would pass down to his four sons and eight grandchildren.Battle-hardened by a modest upbringing, the loss of his mother at an early age and the mental scars of his service in Kokoda, football became a comforting escape from everyday life. Too frail to get to games himself, his lounge room and pay TV were always open to watch games, where most weekends, I would join him

World Athletics Championships 2025: Nader pips Wightman to 1500m world gold after Kerr injury – as it happened

Jake Wightman was leading for most of the end but Isaac Nader, of Portugal, saw the gap and pushed himself on the line from the outside. Reynold Cheruiyot wins the bronze.Neil Gourley finishes tenth and Josh Kerr ends the race last.Here’s a report on that stunning men’s 1500m final.And our report on Katie Moon’s third pole vault crown …That wraps up today’s action, but tomorrow there’s Sydney McLaughlin in the women’s 400m hurdles final, the men’s javelin medals will be decided … and Keely Hodgkinson returns to the global stage, as she begins her hunt for a first world championship gold in the women’s 800m