Delivery firm DPD accused of ‘revenge’ sacking drivers who criticised pay cuts

The delivery firm DPD has been accused of “revenge” sackings after workers spoke out against a plan to cut thousands of pounds from their earnings, including their Christmas bonus.The company, which reported pre-tax profits of nearly £200m last year and plays a significant role in the festive rush to have gifts and parcels delivered, has even threatened to withhold money from some staff to pay for the cost of replacing them, the Guardian has learned.DPD confirmed it had dismissed workers after an estimated 1,500 self-employed drivers chose not to take on any work for a three-day period in protest at the plans.It emerged earlier this month that the company had told workers it planned to cut 65p from the rate it pays for most of its deliveries on 29 September.Drivers said the cut, which came to as much as £25 a day, and the loss of a £500 Christmas bonus, was likely to add up to more than £6,000 a year for each worker – and as much as £8,000 for those who take on a lot more deliveries over Christmas

The London consensus is a timely challenge to Trump’s isolationism | Phillip Inman

What replaces neoliberal capitalism is a question at the forefront of Donald Trump’s mind every day.The US president has never much liked those elements of the Washington consensus that celebrate free markets and liberal trade, as we have come to see in both his presidencies.Trump can happily accept the neoliberal agenda when it means privatising government agencies and commonly held assets. He is enthusiastic about deregulation and handing the private sector all the freedom it needs to exploit workers and resources to boost profits.But what Trump’s America First agenda cannot live with is tariff-free trade

Knee-jerk corporate responses to data leaks protect brands like Qantas — but consumers are getting screwed

It’s become the playbook for big Australian companies that have customer data stolen in a cyber-attack: call in the lawyers and get a court to block anyone from accessing it.Qantas ran it recently after suffering a major cybersecurity attack that accessed the frequent flyer details of 5 million customers.The airline joined the long list of companies in Australia, dating back to the HWL Ebsworth breach in 2023, to go to the NSW supreme court to obtain an injunction against “persons unknown” – banning the hackers (and anyone else) from accessing or using the data under threat of prosecution.Of course, it didn’t stop hackers leaking the customer data on the dark web a few months later.But it might have come as a surprise when ID protection company Equifax this month began alerting Qantas customers that their data had been leaked – since access to the data was supposedly banned

Ducking annoying: why has iPhone’s autocorrect function gone haywire?

Don’t worry, you’re not going mad.If you feel the autocorrect on your iPhone has gone haywire recently – inexplicably correcting words such as “come” to “coke” and “winter” to “w Inter” – then you are not the only one.Judging by comments online, hundreds of internet sleuths feel the same way, with some fearing it will never be solved.Apple released its latest operating system, iOS 26, in September. About a month later, conspiracy theories abound, and a video purporting to show an iPhone keyboard changing a user’s spelling of the word “thumb” to “thjmb” has racked up more than 9m views

World Series Game 7: Los Angeles Dodgers v Toronto Blue Jays – live

It’s anthem time in Toronto. First it’s Pia Toscano, the ninth-place finisher on the 10th season of American Idol, perfoming the Star-Spangled Banner. And now out comes the giant Canadian flag. Noah Reid, of Franklin and Schitt’s Creek fame, is out to sing O Canada! and the crowd is having a good old sing-a-long. Chills!Shohei Ohtani is doing the impossible one more time

Breeders’ Cup 2025 horse racing: day two – live

Citizen Bull led everywhere but the final stride there. Agonising for his jockey, Juan Hernandez, as Nysos edges past in the final stride.1. NYSOS (Flavien Prat), 2. Citizen Bull, 3