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Direct Line accepts £3.6bn takeover after rival insurer Aviva raises bid

The insurance company Direct Line has accepted an improved offer from its bigger UK rival Aviva, in a deal valuing the business at £3.6bn.Aviva, the UK’s largest insurer, has succeeded in reaching a preliminary agreement to take over Direct Line after submitting a third cash and shares bid valuing London-listed Direct Line at 275p a share.Aviva had its first offer, at 250p, rejected last week, and this week raised it to 261p a share.Direct Line’s board, led by the chair, Danuta Gray, rejected Aviva’s first approach last month, saying it was “highly opportunistic” and “substantially” undervalued the business

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‘It comes at a cost’: British growers criticise Christmas vegetable price war

Ten years ago, marketing executives at Britain’s biggest supermarket had a brainwave: might slashing the price of basic vegetables tempt shoppers to do their Christmas shop with them?Tesco, under chief executive Dave Lewis, was trying to revive a business reeling after falling sales, five profit warnings and an accounting scandal. That promotion in December 2014, dubbed its Festive Five, offered bags of carrots, potatoes, brussels sprouts, parsnips and a cauliflower for 49p each.It was to spark a vegetable price war that endures to this day. Tesco returned a year later with a cheaper 39p promotion, while the German discounter Aldi went further with its 19p a bag Super Six offer.And while consumers have benefited from the discounts, questions are increasingly being asked about the toll those prices have taken on Britain’s farmers, and whether it has warped shoppers’ perceptions about the fair cost of growing vegetables

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UK construction grows but housebuilding decline threatens government targets

Activity in Britain’s construction industry picked up in November but housebuilding weakened, throwing the government’s new homes targets into further doubt.The S&P Global/CIPS UK Purchasing Managers’ Index for the construction industry came in at 55.2 last month, up from October’s 54.3.Robust demand for commercial and civil engineering projects offset the contraction in residential housebuilding, underlining the industry’s sensitivity to interest rates and consumer sentiment

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Vodafone and Three given approval to merge

Vodafone and Three have been given the green light to create the UK’s largest mobile phone operator after agreeing to invest heavily in upgrading the merged group’s network across the country.The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said the pair must commit to upgrading 5G coverage and offer short-term customer protections against price rises.The £16.5bn merger of the UK’s third and fourth biggest operators respectively will create a network with more than 27 million subscribers.The CMA indicated last month it was likely to approve the deal, despite fierce opposition from rival BT and fears over the impact on customer bills and competition

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Dan Murphy’s stock shortages hit NSW and Victoria as Woolworths industrial action continues

Alcohol retailer Dan Murphy’s is alerting customers to stock shortages at some of its New South Wales and Victorian stores, as industrial action at Woolworths-operated warehouses leaves a growing number of grocery, beer and wine shelves bare.The disruptions in the busy pre-Christmas trading period come ahead of a crucial Fair Work Commission hearing on Friday, when Woolworths will argue that the picket line outside a key distribution centre in Melbourne should be cleared.Industrial action has affected up to five distribution centres run by Woolworths’ supply chain arm, Primary Connect, which also counts Endeavour Group, the owner of Dan Murphy’s and BWS stores, as a customer.Woolworths is the former owner of Endeavour.An Endeavour spokesperson said Victorian and southern NSW stores were experiencing stock shortages

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Tata Steel’s UK losses hit £1.1bn on cost of closing Port Talbot blast furnaces

Losses at Tata Steel’s UK operations ballooned to £1.12bn due to the cost of closing Port Talbot’s two blast furnaces.Accounts for the Indian-owned company show that pre-tax losses quadrupled from £279m to £1.12bn in the year to the end of March due to restructuring costs associated with the closure of its blast furnaces and coke ovens at the site in south Wales.Tata ended primary steelmaking at Port Talbot in September with the closure of its last blast furnace, a decision that will lead to 2,500 job losses

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Average UK house price hits record £298,083, says Halifax

The average price of a house in the UK has hit a record high after a fifth success month of increases in the value of properties, Britain’s biggest mortgage lender has said.Halifax’s monthly house price index found that the cost of an average home was £298,083 in November, up almost £5,000 on the previous record set in October.Before the latest rises, the record high was set in June 2022, at £293,507.House prices increased by 1.3% in November, the biggest increase this year and the fifth consecutive monthly rise

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‘Unlawful’: Woolworths wins bid to clear picket line outside Melbourne warehouse

Woolworths has won its application to clear a picket line at one of its key distribution centres in Melbourne, and prevent similar action at other sites, after arguing that the industrial protests were being used as a “metaphorical gun” during negotiations over pay and conditions.The Fair Work Commission’s deputy president, Gerard Boyce, found on Friday that the United Workers Union (UWU) had engaged in “unlawful picketing” to hinder access to warehouses, and that the union had therefore not met good faith bargaining requirements.“The instance has not been a one off instance; it has continued,” Boyce said.“It is clearly affecting third parties, including individual employees who wish to return to the work site, management and transporters or truck drivers of goods who seek to enter the work site.”Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news emailWorker strikes at five distribution centres – including the picketed regional distribution centre in Melbourne’s southern suburb of Dandenong – have disrupted grocery supplies at some Woolworths stores, leading to bare shelves and reduced sales in the pre-Christmas trading period

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ChatGPT’s refusal to acknowledge ‘David Mayer’ down to glitch, says OpenAI

Last weekend the name was all over the internet – just not on ChatGPT.David Mayer became famous for a moment on social media because the popular chatbot appeared to want nothing to do with him.Legions of chatbot wranglers spent days trying – and failing – to make ChatGPT write the words “David Mayer”. But the chatbot refused to comply, with replies alternating between “something seems to have gone wrong” to “I’m unable to produce a response” or just stopping at “David”.This produced a blizzard of online speculation about Mayer’s identity

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Smartphones should carry health warning, Spanish government told

Smartphones sold in Spain should carry a label warning users about their potential health impacts, experts have told the Spanish government, in a report that calls for doctors to ask about screen time during checkups.As Spain pushes forward with a draft law to limit children’s exposure to technology, the 50-member committee of experts has also called for minors to have limited exposure to digital devices until they are 13 to mitigate what they see as a public health problem.The experts’ nearly 250-page report, seen by the newspaper El País, recommends that children under the age of three do not have any exposure to digital devices, while children up to six years old should be allowed to access them only on an exceptional basis.For children between six and 12, the use of so-called “dumb phones” – which do not have access to the internet and which are limited to calls – should be prioritised, as should offline activities such as sports.The report called on the government to consider adding a warning label to digital devices sold in Spain, informing consumers of the health risks that some have linked to social media and digital devices, as well as the possible impacts that access to inappropriate content could have on the development of children

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Top Afghan cricketers urge Taliban to reverse ban on women’s medical education

Two of Afghanistan’s national sporting heroes have called on the Taliban to reverse a decision to bar women from education and medicine, as cricket’s international community grapples with how to best address human rights concerns in the country.Afghanistan’s women’s cricket team fled following the takeover in 2021 and no longer competes internationally, but the country’s men’s cricket team continues to play and triggered mass celebrations following historic victories over England at last year’s 50-over World Cup and Australia in the T20 version this year.The team’s captain Rashid Khan posted on social media on Thursday that women had a “right” to education and must be allowed to train as doctors and nurses.“It is essential for our sisters and mothers to have access to care provided by medical professionals who truly understand their needs,” he said. “Providing education to all is not just a societal responsibility but a moral obligation deeply rooted in our faith and values

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WNBA expansion draft: how do the Golden State Valkyries build a team from scratch?

The league’s newest franchise start play next year and have zero players. That will be fixed on Friday when they absorb talent from other teamsNext season the WNBA will add a team from the Bay Area, the Golden State Valkyries, before Portland and Toronto start play in 2026, with another franchise likely to arrive in 2028.These teams, of course, will need new players. And Golden State will pick their new stars on Friday through an expansion draft. The WNBA has so far enjoyed five expansion drafts – in 1998, 1999, 2000, 2006, and 2008