business

The Conservatives raised twice as much in donations as Labour at the end of last year, including £250,000 from Michael Ashcroft. Despite some Tory donors flirting with Nigel Farage’s Reform UK and others switching to Labour at the election, the party managed to raise almost £2m in the last three months of 2024 as Kemi … Read more

Poundland is to be put up for sale as the owner of the UK cut-price retail chain said it faced tough competition and increased wage costs from next month under Labour’s tax-raising plans. The Poland-based Pepco Group said it was considering “all strategic options” to spin out the struggling 825-store chain from the wider group, … Read more

The Danish postal service has said it will deliver its last letter at the end of this year, instead focusing on packages to respond to changing forms of communication. PostNord said on Thursday it would cut 1,500 jobs in Denmark and remove 1,500 red postboxes, citing the “increasing digitalisation” of society. The company, formed in … Read more

Millions of people in Queensland have hunkered down while residents in parts of northern New South Wales have been ordered to evacuate as Australia’s east coast prepares for wild weather brought by Tropical Cyclone Alfred. The slow-moving storm is now expected to make landfall in Queensland on Saturday morning, later than initially forecast after the … Read more

Maybe Australia’s boats just never turn up. To fanfare and flags, the Aukus deal was presented as a sure bet, papering over an uncertainty that such an ambitious deal could ever be delivered. It was assured, three publics across two oceans were told – signed, sealed and to-be-delivered: Australia would buy from its great ally, … Read more

HMV has put its UK expansion on hold and is to open stores in Ireland and Belgium instead, because of rising wage costs announced in last autumn’s budget that begin next month. Phil Halliday, the managing director of the entertainment retailer, said it had hoped to open up to 10 more stores in the UK … Read more

The European Central Bank has cut interest rates across the 20-member eurozone for the second time this year to bolster economic activity, as Europe braces for Donald Trump to impose damaging tariffs on EU exports to the US. The Frankfurt-based rate setter cut its benchmark deposit rate by a quarter of a percentage point to … Read more

Israel’s military surveillance agency has used a vast collection of intercepted Palestinian communications to build a powerful artificial intelligence tool similar to ChatGPT that it hopes will transform its spying capabilities, an investigation by the Guardian can reveal. The joint investigation with Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and Hebrew-language outlet Local Call has found Unit 8200 … Read more

For the second time in 25 years, a lone figure takes to the stage, an oversized maple leaf flag rippling on a screen behind him as he approaches the microphone. His hair is perhaps a little greyer but the message remains the same: Canada will not cower to the United States. “They mistake our modesty … Read more

A woman has pleaded guilty to killing a newborn baby whose body was discovered in woodland in Warrington in 1998. The baby, subsequently named Callum, was found dead in a bin bag near Gulliver’s World theme park in Warrington on 14 March 1998 by a dog walker in a wooded area off Camp Road. Joanne … Read more