UK food inflation: why your barbecue meat is becoming more expensive

The weather is not the only thing putting a dampener on impromptu barbecues as consumers balk at the soaring cost of burgers, sausages and chicken to put on the grill.At nearly £4, a four-pack of supermarket own-label beef quarter-pounders costs 53%, or £1.37, more than this time last year, according to the price analysts Assosia. With steak and kebabs also off the menu because they are too pricey, Britons are switching to poultry.However, this extra demand is pushing up the price of chicken

Openreach engineers trial panic alarms as incidents of abuse and assault soar

From scissors being brandished as weapons to verbal abuse and being trapped during a home visit, the number of reported incidents of abuse and assault on telecoms engineers is on the rise.Openreach, the BT subsidiary that maintains the vast majority of the broadband network serving UK homes and businesses, recorded 450 reports of abuse and assault in the year to the end of March.The number of incidents involving Openreach employees was up 8% year-on-year, a 40% increase on 2022-23 and seven times the volume reported almost a decade ago.Abuse and assault has for the first time become the largest cause of injury to Openreach office staff and its 22,000 field engineers. Managers believe the number of incidents is even higher, as many cases are not reported by staff

Airbnb guest says images were altered in false £12,000 damage claim

Airbnb has apologised to a woman after an apartment host falsely claimed she had caused thousands of pounds’ worth of damage and used images she says were digitally manipulated to back up his allegations.The London-based academic was refunded almost £4,300, and an internal review of how the case was dealt with has been launched at the short-term accommodation rental company.The incident highlights how cheap and easily available artificial intelligence software is now being used to manipulate images to give false evidence of what has happened in consumer complaints, according to one security expert.The woman, who is based in London, had booked the one-bedroom apartment in New York’s Manhattan for two-and-a-half months earlier this year to stay in while she was studying, but she decided to leave early after feeling unsafe in the area.Shortly after she left, the host told Airbnb that she had caused more than £12,000 worth of damage, and submitted pictures of an apparently cracked coffee table as part of his case

Jury orders Tesla to pay more than $200m to plaintiffs in deadly 2019 Autopilot crash

A Florida jury ordered Tesla to pay more than $200m to victims of a deadly crash involving its Autopilot driver assist technology.Friday’s verdict is a hit for Elon Musk’s car company, as it opens the door to other costly lawsuits and could potentially strike a blow to Tesla’s reputation for safety at a critical time for the company.And the decision has been closely eyed by other car companies, as they work to develop cars that increasingly drive themselves.The federal jury in Miami held that Tesla bore significant responsibility for the crash because its technology failed and that not all the blame can be put on a reckless driver, even one who admitted he was distracted by his cellphone before hitting a young couple out gazing at the stars.The decision comes as Musk seeks to convince Americans his cars are safe enough to drive on their own as he plans to roll out a driverless taxi service in several cities in the coming months

‘He was angry’: India admit wind-up strategy to disrupt Joe Root’s batting

At the end of another day of backchat and occasionally fraying tempers, in which the former England captain Michael Vaughan suggested of the two sets of players that “it’s almost like they’ve had enough of each other”, India admitted Joe Root had been the target of a deliberate plan to wind him up and put him off his game.Alastair Cook, another former England captain, had suggested as much after Root reacted to a comment from Prasidh Krishna. “He was angry, he wasn’t in much control, but why wouldn’t you try to upset Joe Root?” Cook said. “I don’t know if it was a plan but you can say that it did work. I just hope what he said was within the line

Yorkshire and Glamorgan wins shake up tables: county cricket – as it happened

Wins for Glamorgan at the top end of Division Two, and Yorkshire at the bottom end of Division One, spruces things up nicely as the County Championship slips into the wings for August.Glamorgan’s first Championship victory at Old Trafford since 1993 left them sitting pretty in the second promotion spot behind Leicestershire. Rain had wiped out most of the morning’s cricket but the visiting bowlers stuck to their task against Lancashire, Asitha Fernando producing a juicy inswinging yorker to get rid of Tom Bailey and Ben Kellaway persuading Chris Green, the saviour of Cheltenham, to top-edge a sweep. Glamorgan cemented their victory when Jimmy Anderson was bowled by Mason Crane – who hopped on the team coach with nine for 126 in the match.A Scarborough, a 22-point hoopla lifted Yorkshire clear of the immediate relegation zone