business

Next has rung up £1bn in annual profits for the first time but warned of growing risks to the UK economy, saying big business could not afford to finance “excessive regulation” and government debt. The retailer said pre-tax profits rose 10% to just over £1bn, before one-off items including a £15m pension charge, in the … Read more

Morning opening: Bienvenue à Paris Jakub Krupa Leaders from some 30 countries – not just from Europe, but beyond, including Turkey and Canada – are meeting in Paris to firm up their previous discussions about what “the coalition of the willing” could do to help Ukraine in case of a US-negotiated ceasefire or peace agreement. … Read more

Australians could have to wait weeks longer, or even months, for social service payments if Peter Dutton delivers on his pledge to slash public service 41,000 jobs, new Albanese government analysis shows. The opposition is ramping up its efforts to sell budget savings through cutting bureaucrat jobs as the key to helping other Australians out … Read more

A payments company that was used by parents to pay for school dinners has drawn criticism for charging them £10 to withdraw the remaining funds in their accounts after it pulled out of the market. Squid, which was used by 600 schools around the UK to take payments, stopped its service earlier this month after … Read more

A Taiwan court has sentenced four soldiers, including three who worked in the president’s security team, to jail for up to seven years on charges of spying for China. The men were convicted of violating the national security law by passing “internal military information that should be kept confidential to Chinese intelligence agents for several … Read more

Just after 6am on Tuesday morning, a curious young ginger cat boarded a train at St Albans station in Melbourne’s western suburbs and journeyed to Flinders Street station in the city centre. In CCTV footage you can see the carriage doors open on platform one before the unexpected passenger casually tails morning commuters to catch … Read more

Donald Trump has said he would be willing to reduce tariffs on China to get a deal done with TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell the social media app used by 170 million Americans. He acknowledged the role China would play in any agreement. “With respect to TikTok, and China is going to have … Read more

After more than 170 years at a Scottish university, the remains of a young Aboriginal man killed on his traditional land have returned home. The skull of the unknown man was taken from Tasmania in the 1830s and had been held by the University of Aberdeen since the early 1850s. It is understood he was … Read more

Banning teenagers from social media is neither a “practical nor effective” solution to the growing problem of youth violence, young people from across the UK have told MPs. Although Australia has implemented a social media ban for under-16s, a better solution would be to strengthen regulation deterring social media companies from promoting violent and age-inappropriate … Read more

Wildfires raging in South Korea doubled in size in a day, as authorities on Thursday called the blazes the country’s worst ever natural fire disaster with at least 26 people killed and historic temples incinerated. More than 33,000 hectares (81,500 acres) have been charred or were still burning in the largest of the fires, which … Read more