Category Archives: Business

Iran strikes Kuwait’s oil infrastructure before Opec+ supply talks

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Members reportedly agree a rise of 206,000 barrels a day in May, but move symbolic while strait of Hormuz is effectively closed

Iranian drones have struck Kuwait’s oil infrastructure, causing “severe material damage” that threatens to further disrupt oil supplies already hit by the US-Israel war on Iran.

The drone strikes on Sunday came hours before members of the Opec+ group of major global oil suppliers gathered to discuss how to bolster output despite Iran’s effective closure of the strait of Hormuz shipping route.

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Labour to back down on foie gras and fur bans to ease EU trade deal

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Exclusive: Animal welfare charities ‘bitterly disappointed’ UK government plans to backtrack on manifesto promises

  • This article contains an image of a duck being force-fed that some readers may find upsetting

The UK government is to break a manifesto commitment to ban foie gras imports, and has declined to stop fur imports, after the EU made these red lines in its discussions for a trade deal.

Animal welfare charities say they are “bitterly disappointed” that ministers are failing to use powers granted by Brexit to restrict the import of these “cruel” items.

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Waitrose employee sacked after stopping shoplifter from taking Easter eggs

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Walker Smith, 54, who worked for retailer for 17 years, says he grabbed bag from thief before they escaped

A Waitrose employee of 17 years has described his devastation after being sacked for stopping a shoplifter who had ransacked a display of Lindt Gold Bunny Easter eggs.

Walker Smith, a shop assistant at a branch of Waitrose in Clapham Junction, south London, was going about his normal duties when a customer stopped him. “They told me someone had filled up a Waitrose bag with the eggs,” he said.

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Biometric checks stalled again for cross-Channel travellers

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Fears of Easter chaos over scaling up of new EU border system are eased, with no facial IDs for Eurotunnel and Eurostar passengers

Passengers crossing the Channel from the UK to France will not face new biometric checks in the coming weeks, despite an imminent deadline for the complete implementation of the EU’s entry-exit system (EES), ports say.

Airlines and airports across Europe have feared chaos over the Easter holidays.

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‘Over the top and fun:’ TGI Fridays boss insists time is right for a UK revival

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Ray Blanchette admits he may be a ‘little crazy’ as he outlines chain’s hopes of building 1,000 outlets globally

“I am a little crazy maybe,” admits Ray Blanchette, a former TGI Fridays kitchen manager who has taken on the revival of the bar-restaurant chain’s UK business in the face of blasting industry headwinds.

Blanchette’s family investment firm, Sugarloaf, rescued the Dallas-based parent business from administration in 2025. He then went on to pick up its UK arm in January after the local franchisee got into difficulties, retaining 33 UK restaurants but closing 16, with the loss of 456 jobs.

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Young people ‘more likely to leave for health reasons when in low-paid, insecure jobs’

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Research for TUC analyses link between job quality and economic inactivity, as UK youth unemployment rises

Young people in the UK are more likely to leave their job for health reasons and become economically inactive when they work in insecure, low-paid sectors, a study has found.

Research carried out for the Trades Union Congress by the consultancy Timewise charts a connection between the jobs young people are most likely to do – in hospitality, retail and care, for example – and the proportion of people leaving because of ill health.

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Alleged maple syrup scam in Quebec uncovered by Canadian broadcaster

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A Radio-Canada reporter noticed his maple syrup tasted odd; testing revealed it was adulterated with cane sugar

An investigation by Canada’s national broadcaster has found that a major Quebec producer has been diluting its maple syrup with cane sugar and selling the fraudulent product to grocery chains.

In a sting operation that involved false identities and covert recordings, journalists from Radio-Canada’s Enquête programme found that a low-cost syrup sold in major grocery store chains was heavily diluted.

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Oil price jumps and markets slide after Trump warning to Iran

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Brent crude rises 8% as US president vows to hit Iran ‘extremely hard’ over coming weeks

Oil prices have soared after Donald Trump vowed in a televised speech to hit Iran “extremely hard” over the coming weeks, knocking hopes of a near-term end to the conflict in the Middle East.

Brent crude prices jumped by as much as 8% on Thursday to $109.74 a barrel, reversing Wednesday’s drop when hopes of a de-escalation in the Iran war pushed the international benchmark below the $100-a-barrel mark at one point.

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UK firms expect to raise prices more quickly as Iran war pushes up costs

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Bank of England survey in March shows chief financial officers foresee 3.7% increase over coming year

Companies in the UK expect to raise their prices more rapidly over the coming months as the war in the Middle East drives up costs, Bank of England research shows.

The Bank’s regular survey of more than 2,000 chief financial officers conducted last month, after the Iran conflict began, shows they now expect to raise their prices by 3.7% over the coming year.

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Drivers told to look for cheapest fuel ahead of ‘busiest Easter on UK roads since 2022’

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Bank holiday traffic predicted to peak on Thursday, as petrol and diesel prices surge from fallout of Iran war

UK drivers are being urged to look for the cheapest petrol and “to fill up as usual” as travellers prepare to make 21.7m journeys on what is expected to be the busiest Easter on the roads in four years.

The average price of a litre of unleaded petrol rose by 20p in March, from 132.83p on the 1st to 152.83p on the 31st, raising concerns about the cost of filling up for Easter journeys. The higher fuel prices have been triggered by rising oil prices as a result of the US-Israel war against Iran.

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‘From high flyer to dead parrot’: former billion-dollar eco-shoe brand Allbirds sold for $39m

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Once-hyped, celebrity-backed company snapped up by American Exchange Group for fraction of former value

Allbirds, the San Francisco sustainable trainer brand once valued at more than $4bn, is being sold for just $39m (£29.6m) after global demand for its wool-based footwear failed to materialise.

American Exchange Group, the owner of a string of brands including the fashion label Ed Hardy and the accessories maker Born, is snapping up the struggling company once touted as the future of footwear.

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‘If he’d stayed on the golf course, we’d be in a better place’: experts on Trump’s tariffs, one year on

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Last April, the president unleashed a tidal wave of tariffs on ‘liberation day’. Analysts say the policy has failed, even by the Trump administration’s own terms

Before Donald Trump declared “liberation day” on 2 April 2025 and shocked the world by raising import tariffs on nearly every country the US did business with, he had spent almost three months causing chaos in Washington.

The wholesale slashing of government jobs under Doge (the “department of government efficiency”) and the defunding of US aid agencies had shown White House watchers that the US president was in a hurry to upset institutions he considered profligate or useless.

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Two-thirds of UK hospitality businesses plan to cut jobs and one in seven will close, survey finds

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Sector cites ‘billions of pounds in additional costs’ from new business rates and increase in minimum wage thresholds

Two-thirds of hospitality businesses are planning to cut jobs as a result of “suffocating” costs imposed by government, as new business rates and higher wage bills come into force.

Many pubs, restaurants and hotel companies will see their costs increase significantly from 1 April after Rachel Reeves’s changes to business rates and an increase in minimum wage thresholds announced at the chancellor’s November budget.

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Debit and credit card surcharges to be removed in Australia by October

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Treasurer Jim Chalmers says changes will help with cost of living and ‘Australians hate paying’ the surcharges

Debit and credit card surcharges will be gone by October under Reserve Bank reforms, with big banks likely to foot the bill for the cost-of-living measures.

The new rules, announced on Tuesday, will enable businesses to remove added fees on Mastercard, visa and eftpos card payments.

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Harrods’ closure of compensation scheme for survivors of alleged sexual abuse called ‘neither fair nor just’

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Scheme for accusers of store’s former owner Mohamed Al Fayed to close before end of retailer’s internal investigation

Harrods has been accused of being “neither fair nor just” over its decision to close a compensation scheme for survivors of alleged sexual abuse by the luxury department store’s former owner Mohamed Al Fayed.

Kingsley Hayes, partner at KP Law, which is representing nearly 280 survivors, questioned why the scheme was being closed on Tuesday 31 March, before Harrods had completed an internal investigation into what happened and who knew about it.

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Car finance victims to get an average £830 payout but fewer loans eligible

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City regulator reduces number of loan agreements in line for compensation from 14m to 12m

Victims of the car finance scandal will be in line for payouts worth £830 on average, as the City regulator tightened the rules of its compensation scheme to cover fewer contracts.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) released the final details of its planned redress programme, saying it had narrowed the number of loan agreements eligible for payouts from 14m to 12.1m contracts.

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Apple subsidiary fined by UK government over Moscow sanctions breach

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Apple Distribution International, based in Ireland, made payments worth £635,000 to a Russian streaming service

The UK government has fined a subsidiary of Apple £390,000 for breaching sanctions against Moscow over payments it made to a Russian streaming platform.

Apple Distribution International (ADI), based in the Republic of Ireland, instructed an unnamed UK-based bank to make two payments to a company owned by a sanctioned Russian entity.

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Trump appears to relax oil blockade on Cuba as Russian tanker arrives

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US president says he has ‘no problem’ with countries sending oil to Cuba, in potential lifeline to island nation

Donald Trump appears to have relaxed his blockade on fuel-starved Cuba after a Russian tanker reached the Caribbean island carrying 100,000 tonnes of crude.

Russia’s transport ministry said the Anatoly Kolodkin tanker arrived at the port of Matanzas on Cuba’s northern coast on Monday to deliver the crisis-hit country’s first such cargo in more than three months.

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Farmers plead for tax breaks, diesel guarantees and help buying fertiliser as national cabinet meets on fuel crisis

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State and federal leaders due to discuss assistance for business sectors but petrol rationing not expected to find backing

Farmers say the federal government must help them with tax breaks and underwriting fertiliser purchases to survive the fuel crisis, with Monday’s national cabinet expected to discuss more assistance to businesses amid ballooning petrol prices.

Federal and state governments have remained tight-lipped about what would be on the meeting’s agenda but state premiers have urged the Albanese government to take a stronger national coordination role in the crisis.

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How EVs could be part of answer to UK’s fuel reserve worries

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More use of two-way charging will earn money for owners and could avoid the need to expand North Sea oil drilling

The Iran war has sent petrol and diesel prices to their highest levels in years, sparked warnings of fuel rationing across Europe and triggered calls for Britain to drill more North Sea oil and gas. But analysis suggests the UK is looking for solutions in the wrong places – and that one of them is sitting on people’s driveways or parked in the street.

If more drivers switched electric vehicles, Britain would sharply reduce its petrol and diesel consumption, with every car charged from the grid rather than the pump extending the country’s fuel reserves – and experts say the potential impact goes far beyond that.

If more drivers switched to electric vehicles, Britain could sharply reduce its petrol and diesel consumption. Every car charged from the grid rather than the pump extends the country’s fuel reserves – and experts say the potential impact goes far beyond that.

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