Co-op staff told to boost promotion of vapes after costly cyber-attack, document shows

The Co-op has quietly told staff to boost promotion of vapes in an effort to win back customers and sales after a devastating cyber-attack.The ethical retailer is making vapes more prominent in stores via new​ displays and additional advertising, according to an internal document seen by the Guardian. It is also stocking a bigger range of vapes and nicotine pouches.The action plan is to tackle a big sales drop after the April hack that resulted in gaps on its shelves.Called Powering Up: Focus Sprint: Cigs, Tobacco and Vape, the document says: “Sales haven’t recovered compared to pre-cyber

Wall Street and FTSE 100 hit record highs after US inflation report fuels interest rate cut hopes – as it happened

Newsflash: US inflation has risen, but not as much as expected, new delayed economic data shows.The annual US consumer prices index rose to 3% in September, up from 2.9% in August, but lower than the 3.1% which economists had forecast.That means the cost of living is continuing to rise faster than the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, as the US central bank comes under pressure from the White House to cut interest rates faster

‘He’s one of the few politicians who likes crypto’: my day with the UK tech bros hosting Nigel Farage

It is a grey morning in Shadwell, east London. But inside the old shell of Tobacco Dock, the gloom gives way to pulsating neon lights, flashy cars and cryptocurrency chatter.Evangelists for Web3, a vision for the next era of the internet, have descended on the old trading dock to network for two days. For many, the main event is one man: Nigel Farage.“Whether you like me or don’t like me is irrelevant, I’m actually a champion for this space,” the leader of Reform UK tells the audience of largely male crypto fanatics at the Zebu Live conference

‘Sycophantic’ AI chatbots tell users what they want to hear, study shows

Turning to AI chatbots for personal advice poses “insidious risks”, according to a study showing the technology consistently affirms a user’s actions and opinions even when harmful.Scientists said the findings raised urgent concerns over the power of chatbots to distort people’s self-perceptions and make them less willing to patch things up after a row.With chatbots becoming a major source of advice on relationships and other personal issues, they could “reshape social interactions at scale”, the researchers added, calling on developers to address this risk.Myra Cheng, a computer scientist at Stanford University in California, said “social sycophancy” in AI chatbots was a huge problem: “Our key concern is that if models are always affirming people, then this may distort people’s judgments of themselves, their relationships, and the world around them. It can be hard to even realise that models are subtly, or not-so-subtly, reinforcing their existing beliefs, assumptions, and decisions

Australia lose by nine wickets to India in third men’s one-day international – as it happened

That, in anyone’s language, is a belting. India’s spinners controlled the tempo of Australia’s innings, with Kuldeep joining Axar and Washington. All took wickets, all went for fewer than five an over in the process. That was after a good start from Siraj, then it was Harshit Rana who stamped his influence on the middle of the innings, knocking off Carey, Connolly, and Owen.India took some time to get started, with Rohit careful against Starc and Hazlewood, but Gill was the only wicket to fall, out to the latter

Hawk Mountain can scale Doncaster heights for O’Brien in Futurity Trophy

Aidan O’Brien’s prospects of beating his own record for Group One wins in a calendar year diminished last weekend when he missed out in all five of the top-level events on Champions Day at Ascot, but he appears to have an iron grip on the Futurity Trophy at Doncaster on Saturday, the final Group One of the British Flat season.O’Brien fields three of the six runners – Benvenuto Cellini, Hawk Mountain and Action – and they fill the first three spots in the early betting, with Benvenuto Cellini, the mount of Christophe Soumillon, heading the market at around 5-4.The favourite was an emphatic five-length winner at Leopardstown last time and is the long-range 12-1 market leader for next year’s Derby, but he has yet to race on anything slower than good-to-soft going.Hawk Mountain, though, was a comfortable winner on soft in the Group Two Beresford Stakes at the Curragh last month, posting a useful time in the process.Ronan Whelan, his jockey there, keeps the ride on Saturday and with the ground at Doncaster now heavy after recent rain, Hawk Mountain (2