Business

Rachel Reeves is opening up Britain’s corporate bond market to small investors as part of a wider push to channel more household savings into UK businesses and revive London’s capital markets. The chancellor will on Monday launch a government-backed initiative designed to make corporate bonds accessible to retail investors for the first time in years, scrapping barriers that had effectively restricted the market to institutions and wealthy individuals. Under the new rules, individuals will be...

UK employers are being forced to reassess their healthcare and benefits strategies as demand for weight-management drugs surges among employees, according to new research. More than a quarter of UK workers have already used a weight-management drug such as Ozempic, while two in five believe their employer should fund access to these treatments through workplace healthcare plans. As a result, 44 per cent of employers say they are now reviewing, or fundamentally redesigning, their healthcare...

Rachel Reeves is preparing to channel tens of millions of pounds of public money into a British self-driving technology company as Labour moves to accelerate the rollout of autonomous vehicles on UK roads. The £28bn National Wealth Fund (NWF), backed by the Treasury, is understood to be close to agreeing a major investment in Oxa, the Oxford-founded driverless vehicle start-up previously known as Oxbotica. The business was established in 2014 by Oxford University academic Professor...

Amazon is carrying out tuberculosis (TB) testing at its Coventry fulfilment centre after a small number of workers were found to have the infectious lung disease. The company confirmed that screening is taking place as a precaution, following the identification of several cases at the site, which employs around 2,000 people, according to the GMB union. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) began a targeted screening programme at the warehouse in September after a handful...

Adverts will soon begin appearing inside OpenAI’s flagship chatbot ChatGPT, as the company looks for new ways to monetise one of the world’s most widely used AI tools. OpenAI has confirmed it will trial advertising in ChatGPT in the United States, with adverts shown to some users on the free version of the service as well as a new lower-cost subscription tier, ChatGPT Go. ChatGPT Go will be priced at $8 a month in the...

Sir Keir Starmer has condemned Donald Trump’s threat to impose sweeping tariffs on the UK and other European allies over Greenland, calling the move “completely wrong” and warning it undermines Nato unity. The intervention follows a statement by Donald Trump, who said the United States would introduce a 10 per cent tariff on goods from the UK and seven European countries from 1 February. The levies would rise to 25 per cent on 1 June...

President Donald Trump has reignited global trade tensions after announcing a fresh wave of tariffs on European exports, a move that businesses warn could disrupt supply chains, dent confidence and push up inflation in the United States. Under the new plan, a blanket 10 per cent tariff will be imposed on “all or any goods” exported to the US from the UK, Denmark and other European countries from February 1. Trump has also threatened to...

DL Mining Against the backdrop of an increasingly complex global economic situation, the cryptocurrency market has recently seen a long-awaited rebound, with Bitcoin prices rebounding sharply and becoming the focus of market attention. One of the key factors driving this rebound is the significant progress in the negotiations between China and the United States on tariff policies. Driven by the market boom, digital currency investment and mining activities are gradually heating up. Especially for investors...

Let’s face it: “Regulatory Update” is a phrase that usually sends marketers sprinting for the nearest espresso machine. We like the creative stuff. The “big ideas.” The high-octane campaigns that turn prospects into advocates. But here is the hard truth for every Channel Partner Marketing Manager (CPMM): In 2026, compliance is no longer a “legal thing”—it is a brand thing. If your partner in Munich mishandles customer data, or your reseller in Paris uses a...

Online communities and digital services now play a key role in the global gaming industry. While games still require specific hardware to run smoothly, technological innovations promise a future where that may no longer be necessary. They make it possible to play high-quality games without owning expensive devices, and developers are increasingly optimising gaming apps to run smoothly on smartphones. Technology is redefining the foundation of gaming through advancements in cloud infrastructure, widespread use of...