WPP chief Mark Read to step down as ad agency battles AI
The boss of WPP, Mark Read, has announced he will step down, as the advertising agency, which was once the largest in the world, struggles against the rise of artificial intelligence and with its shares at their lowest level in about five years.Read will leave WPP after more than 30 years, with just under seven spent in the top job. He will stay on as chief executive until the end of the year while the board starts to look for his successor.WPP’s share price has shed about half of its value under his leadership, as the company has struggled against the rise of AI tech that helps companies to automate the creation of adverts.The chair of WPP, the former BT boss Philip Jansen, said Read “played a central role in transforming the company into a world leader in marketing services”
Farage is like a tribune for the working class, says former Bank of England economist
Nigel Farage is the closest to a “tribune for the working class”, the former Bank of England chief economist has said, in a stark warning for Keir Starmer’s Labour party.Andy Haldane said the surge in support for Reform UK in the opinion polls suggested there had been “something of a moral rupture” between the government and many voters, which he said should spur Starmer to take action with a “radical reset” of its growth plans.Haldane said Labour’s misfiring growth strategy and decisions on winter fuel payments and the two-child benefit limit had opened the door to Farage by fuelling a sense that mainstream politicians promise change but fail to deliver.Asked whether Reform was the new party of the working class, Haldane said: “I do not know. [But] as things stand today, and doing no more than echoing what is in the polls … that is what the larger part of the working classes think – which matters rather more than what I think
Bidders demand Thames Water granted immunity over environmental crimes
Lenders vying to take over Thames Water have demanded that the struggling company and its management be granted immunity from prosecution for serious environmental crimes as a condition of acquiring it, the Guardian can reveal.Creditors want the environment secretary, Steve Reed, to grant the water company extraordinary clemency from a series of strict rules covering everything from sewage spills to failure to upgrade its water treatment works.The demands, if successful, would render the Environment Agency (EA) largely powerless to take enforcement action against Britain’s biggest water company for some of the most serious criminal breaches of its licences and permits.Thames Water has been a serial offender in recent years, paying tens of millions of pounds in fines and penalties, with multiple convictions for dumping raw sewage into rivers and streams and dozens more investigations under way.The fate of the heavily indebted utility was thrown into further doubt this week when the US private equity firm KKR quit an auction to buy it, citing concerns about politicisation and the poor state of its assets
Trump bill set to add trillions to US debt pile – can America stop it climbing?
Economists are concerned, politicians are angry – but the national debt keeps growing, no matter who’s in chargeIn this febrile political era, few issues command stronger bipartisan support than the need for fiscal responsibility. Barack Obama and Donald Trump committed to curtail the US national debt on their respective roads to the White House.And yet, no matter the party, Americans have been able to count on one thing above most: the national debt will keep climbing.And here we are again. With Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” threatening to add once more to the US’s huge debts, several Republican senators are threatening to block his current spending plans, with Rand Paul of Kentucky among those highly critical
UK banks to experiment with Nvidia AI in ‘supercharged sandbox’ scheme
The UK’s financial regulator is to allow banks and other City firms to experiment with the US chipmaker Nvidia’s leading AI products to “speed up innovation” and fulfil government orders to boost UK growth.The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said it was launching a “supercharged sandbox” that would give successful applicants the chance to experiment safely with cutting-edge AI under the watchdog’s supervision, allowing them to use Nvidia’s accelerated computing products.The regulator is not dictating what those experiments might be, but some firms have previously suggested that AI could be used to identify and intercept authorised push payment fraud, in which victims are tricked into sending money to criminals’ bank accounts, or help identify stock market manipulation.The FCA’s chief data, intelligence and information officer, Jessica Rusu, said: “This collaboration will help those that want to test AI ideas but who lack the capabilities to do so. We’ll help firms harness AI to benefit our markets and consumers, while supporting economic growth
Tariff-hit firms should review bonuses or risk backlash, US lawyers warn
Businesses hit by tariffs should start reviewing their bonus policies and how deeply they may need to cut executive payouts if they hope to avoid a public backlash, lawyers have said.Partners at the Silicon Valley law firm Cooley said that while pay was probably the last thing on bosses’ minds as they scramble to adapt to Donald Trump’s unpredictable tariff policies, pay committees should start assessing their options soon.“Many will encounter rising material costs and reduced profit margins, particularly given the significant pressure on the supply chain,” a memo by its top lawyers said.“Taken together with the recent stock market volatility, companies (both public and private) will need to address the impact of these challenges on their business and, importantly, consider the effects on director and executive compensation programs.”Cooley – whose clients have included Netflix, Apple, Meta, and Twitter before its takeover by Elon Musk and rebrand as X – said that without a proper review of pay policies, companies may end up handing big bonuses to bosses while the rest of the workforce suffers from cost cuts and job losses
US attacks on science and research a ‘great gift’ to China on artificial intelligence, former OpenAI board member says
Trump-Musk feud shows what happens when unregulated money floods politics
High court tells UK lawyers to stop misuse of AI after fake case-law citations
Shopper put on facial ID watchlist after dispute over 39p of paracetamol at Home Bargains
Australians may soon be able to download iPhone apps from outside Apple App Store under federal proposal
All civil servants in England and Wales to get AI training
Alcaraz’s ridiculous victory over Sinner sets tone for next decade of rivalry at top of tennis | Tumaini Carayol
Five hours into the madness, when their legs should have been fading and sanity departing, the miraculous French Open final between Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner ascended to even greater heights. So much had already happened. For a long time, Alcaraz had been dominated with the same ruthless efficiency Sinner reserved for the rest of the field and he soon stared into the abyss, trailing triple championship point at 3-5, 0-40 in the fourth set.That moment would instead mark the beginning of Alcaraz’s unprecedented, preposterous comeback as he completely turned the match around. He soon closed in on victory, leading by a break in the fifth set against a weary opponent
How to make perfect tandoori chicken (without a tandoor) – recipe | Felicity Cloake's How to make the perfect …
Don’t let the lack of a traditional clay oven stop you from making this ‘king of kebabs’ at homeWhen was the last time you had tandoori chicken? Described by the Liverpool Daily Post in 1962 as “roast chicken Indian fashion”, this delicately seasoned, but often luridly coloured, dish was once the mainstay of the British Indian restaurant menu; yet, always greedy for novelty, I can’t remember when I last had the pleasure.The loss is mine, because it’s one of the very best ways to eat chicken – rich and tender, thanks to its yoghurt marinade, tangy with lemon and perfumed with spice. Vivek Singh argues that “no Punjabi celebration can be complete without tandoori chicken”, while J Inder Singh Kalra went as far as to crown it the “king of kebabs”, a sentiment echoed by Rohit Ghai.The issue for domestic cooks is, of course, that few of us have the clay oven, or tandoor, from which the dish takes its name. Traditionally used to cook bread, and capable of getting up to astonishingly high temperatures, it’s this that gives tandoori chicken its characteristically smoky flavour
Sarah Snook wins best actress at Tony awards for The Picture of Dorian Gray
Sarah Snook has won the Tony award for best actress in a play for her performance in all 26 roles in The Picture of Dorian Gray, the Sydney Theatre Company one-woman show that has become a Broadway hit.“This means so much for a little Australian girl,” she said from the podium, thanking her husband, actor Dave Lawson, for “holding down the fort and keeping our family together”.The show marks the Australian actor’s Broadway debut, after having also performed the show in London’s West End, for which she won an Olivier award last year. Snook took over the role from actor Erin-Jean Norvill, who originated the performance to acclaim in Australia between 2020 and 2022.“It’s about concealing and revealing, putting on masks, taking off masks,” Snook told the New York Times
Teenage girls’ TikTok skincare regimes offer little to no benefit, research shows
Skincare regimes demonstrated by young influencers on TikTok offer little to no benefit, researchers have found, saying that on the contrary they raise the risk of skin irritations and lifelong allergies in children.The team behind the study say there has been a rise in young girls sharing videos of complex skincare routines with moisturisers, toners, acne treatments and anti-ageing products.In the first study of its kind, researchers analysed such videos on the platform and found the regimes are not only laborious – some girls wake up as early as 4.30am to fit in their routines – but pricey, unnecessary and potentially harmful.“The risks associated with using these products, especially in young girls, far outweighs whatever marginal benefit you may get from using the active ingredients,” said Dr Molly Hales, the first author of the research from Northwestern University
Thames Water creditors offer up £5bn as part of emergency turnaround plan
Lenders to Thames Water have said they will provide £5bn in funding to the struggling utility, in an emergency turnaround plan that has quickly raised concerns from the water regulator, Ofwat, over potentially inadequate losses for debt holders.The group of existing senior creditors to Thames Water, a band of more than 100 financial institutions, said their plan would inject £3bn of equity and another £2.25bn of debt.However, they said their plan would reduce total debt levels at Thames, which is struggling under about £20bn of debt. In total, lenders would write off about £6
Public perceptions of Starmer and Farage are perhaps a bit hazy
The optics could hardly be more different. On one stage, Nigel Farage was in a Welsh former steel town talking about reopening coalmines. On another, Keir Starmer enjoyed a cosy chat with a tech multi-billionaire wearing a £7,000 leather jacket.Does this therefore show that the Reform UK leader has been successful in, to use his words, parking his tanks on Labour’s lawn and becoming the voice of working people? As ever in politics, it’s all a bit more complicated.For one thing, Starmer is not exactly a stranger to the factory floor
Keir Starmer says technology can create a ‘better future’ as he addresses AI fears
Rachel Reeves in standoff over policing and council budgets days before spending review
NHS to get £30bn boost over three years at expense of other services
Nigel Farage’s pitch for Welsh elections: bring back coalmining
Sadiq Khan said to be furious over lack of spending review cash for London
Reform UK backs plan to put swift bricks in every new home in England