A British man jailed in the United States for hacking the Twitter accounts of high-profile figures including Barack Obama and Jeff Bezos has been ordered to hand over £4.1 million in cryptocurrency linked to his crimes. Joseph James O’Connor, 26, was sentenced in the US last year after admitting to his role in a sophisticated cyberattack that saw him gain access to dozens of celebrity and corporate Twitter accounts. He used the compromised profiles to...
Businesses and financial experts have sharply criticised a potential clampdown on salary sacrifice pension benefits in the upcoming Budget, warning that the move would amount to a stealth rise in Employer National Insurance and leave companies with even fewer ways to manage rising employment costs. Rumours are circulating that the Chancellor could introduce a dramatic cap on the amount employees can sacrifice into their pensions, with some suggesting the annual allowance could be cut to...
When I first started taking clients out for dinner, you could sit under the copper dome of Le Gavroche, order a bottle of claret you’d never dare drink at home, and—after a couple of courses, a soufflé, and a few discreet nods from the maître d’—leave only mildly lighter in wallet and spirit. Today, on the same site, you can do much the same thing at Matt Abé’s new venture Bonheur. Only now, the bill...
More than 60 leading operators of serviced offices, business centres and co-working spaces have warned Chancellor Rachel Reeves that recent changes to the business rates system could force thousands of companies to the brink and place jobs across the UK at risk. In a letter seen by Business Matters, the group, which collectively hosts over 27,000 businesses nationwide, expressed “urgent and deeply serious concern” over what they described as a quiet but dramatic shift in...
A 15-year-old British entrepreneur has been crowned the Grand Winner of Alibaba.com’s CoCreate Pitch, securing a $200,000 prize for his innovative small business, CoolTowel, at the platform’s flagship B2B event in London. Held on 14 November, CoCreate Europe brought together thousands of SMEs from across the continent, with 30 finalists shortlisted to pitch their product innovations to a panel of global business leaders. Each finalist was tasked with delivering a 90-second pitch to win the...
President Trump is calling on House Republicans to vote to release files related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, insisting he has ‘nothing to hide’ and accusing Democrats of using the case as a distraction from GOP accomplishments. In a Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump urged House Republicans to vote in favor of releasing the documents, describing the controversy as a ‘Democrat hoax perpetrated by radical left lunatics.’ ‘As I said on Friday night aboard...
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Sunday that the Cartel de los Soles, a powerful criminal network tied to Venezuela’s top leadership, will be labeled as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO). The move appears to be an escalation in Washington’s stance toward the Venezuelan government and could lead to military action against the Maduro regime. In a statement, Rubio confirmed the U.S. will formally designate the cartel as an FTO later this month. The designation,...
From new stealth bombers to AI-enabled drones, the U.S. and China are reshaping airpower for a Pacific showdown – each betting its technology can keep the other out of the skies. The U.S. is charging ahead with its next-generation F-47 fighter, while China scrambles to catch up with jets designed to match the F-35 and F-22. After a brief program pause in 2024, the Air Force awarded Boeing the contract in March for the F-47,...
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced new efforts to ‘clean up’ the nation’s energy sector amid a corruption scandal and near-constant attacks from Russia. Zelenskyy met with Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko on Sunday morning, saying he called on lawmakers to revamp the leadership at the State Nuclear Regulatory Inspectorate and the State Energy Supervision Inspectorate, in addition to other efforts to expunge Russian influence in the sector. ‘In full coordination with law enforcement and anti-corruption...
From new stealth bombers to AI-enabled drones, the U.S. and China are reshaping airpower for a Pacific showdown — each betting its technology can keep the other out of the skies. The U.S. is charging ahead with its next-generation F-47 fighter, while China scrambles to catch up with jets designed to match the F-35 and F-22. After a brief program pause in 2024, the Air Force awarded Boeing the contract in March for the F-47,...
