Year: 2025

Ocado’s chief executive Tim Steiner has blamed Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s tax rises for pushing up the price of groceries, warning it is “unrealistic” to expect businesses to absorb significant increases in labour costs without passing them on to consumers. Speaking after the UK’s annual inflation rate rose to 3.6% in June, Steiner said the combination of higher employer National Insurance ...

This week, XRP finally succeeded in breaking through the key neckline of $2.65, taking a decisive step after the “cup-handle pattern” was completed. This technological breakthrough not only ignited market sentiment, but also attracted a large amount of capital inflows. At the same time, DOGE, as a popular currency in the crypto market, also recorded a steady rise. In the ...

Uber has announced plans to roll out a fleet of 20,000 self-driving taxis after striking a landmark $300 million (£224 million) deal with electric vehicle maker Lucid Group, marking a major leap forward in its autonomous ride-hailing ambitions. The ride-sharing giant will begin deploying the Lucid Gravity SUVs—equipped with self-driving technology developed by robotics company Nuro—from next year. The vehicles ...

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has unveiled long-awaited plans to regulate the booming £13 billion ‘buy now, pay later’ (BNPL) sector — with proposals that could require affordability checks on even the smallest of loans. Under the new rules, which form part of a formal consultation launched on Friday, BNPL lenders would need to conduct creditworthiness assessments on loans under ...

OpenAI has launched a powerful new AI assistant feature for ChatGPT that allows users to delegate everyday tasks like browsing the web, making restaurant reservations, and shopping online—marking a major leap in AI’s ability to act, not just analyse. The new ChatGPT agent, available from this week to users on paid “pro”, “plus”, and “teams” plans, gives the chatbot autonomy ...

Entrepreneurial energy remains high across the United States, with over 5.2 million new business applications filed in 2024. A new report by financial software firm Wave has revealed a surprising picture of where startups are thriving — and many of the most successful states aren’t the usual suspects like California or New York. Wave’s study ranked all 50 US states ...

Jobs in the UK’s retail and hospitality sectors have declined at their fastest rate in recent history following Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s October budget, which increased employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs) by £25 billion. According to analysis of HMRC payroll data by The Times, employment in supermarkets, pubs, bars, and hotels has contracted sharply since the announcement, reversing a decade-long trend ...