Waitrose under pressure to reinstate worker sacked after stopping shoplifter

Waitrose is under growing pressure to reinstate an employee of 17 years who was sacked after tackling a shoplifter who was trying to steal Lindt Gold Bunny Easter eggs.The retailer has faced public outcry over its treatment of Walker Smith, who was fired two days after he stopped the shoplifter taking items from the Easter egg display.After Smith told the Guardian he had lost his job after the incident, a fundraiser was launched on his behalf and has since raised more than £4,000, with the organiser claiming he had “simply tried to do the right and noble thing”.On Sunday, Smith explained that a customer alerted him to someone filling a bag with Lindt chocolate eggs.The 54-year-old, who worked in the Clapham Junction branch in south London, said the shoplifter was a repeat offender

Jamie Dimon says US should strengthen allies economically, in veiled criticism of Trump

The head of the US’s largest bank has pressed the White House to strengthen Washington’s allies economically in order to “avoid truly adverse consequences”, in the latest intervention in an increasingly testy relationship with the Trump administration.As the Middle East conflict sparked by US and Israeli attacks on Iran enters its sixth week, Jamie Dimon, the chair and chief executive of JP Morgan Chase, said in his annual letter to shareholders that good US foreign policy should put America first “though not alone”.His remarks appear certain to be viewed as critical of Donald Trump, who in January announced he was suing the banker and the Wall Street institution for at least $5bn (£3.8bn) after accusing them of debanking him.The comments also come five days after Trump told governments to “go get your own oil” by force from the Gulf, as transatlantic relations further soured over soaring energy prices as a result of the war

An AI bot invited me to its party in Manchester. It was a pretty good night

Two weeks ago, an AI bot invited me to a party it was organising in Manchester. It then promptly lied to dozens of potential sponsors that I’d agreed to cover the event, and misled me into believing there would be food.Despite all this, it was a pretty good night.In early February, a class of new, powerful AI assistants went viral. The assistants, called OpenClaw, represented a step change in the rapidly improving capabilities of AI – in large part because, unlike other AI agents, they could be untethered from guardrails and set loose upon the world

Kurt Strauss obituary

My father, Kurt Strauss, who has died aged 95, was a senior engineer who worked for more than two decades at the Electricity Council, the government body that coordinated electricity supply in England and Wales before privatisation in 1990.He worked for all of that time within the council’s overseas relations branch, managing international relationships, technical exchanges and consultancy services while rising steadily through the ranks to associate director. German by birth but brought up in the UK, he was a passionate European who spoke French and German, and was therefore well suited to those responsibilities.Kurt was born in Degerloch, a suburb of Stuttgart, into a Jewish family. In 1937 his parents, Viktor, who worked in the family down and feather business, and Marianne (nee Melzer), sent Kurt’s older brother, Helmut, to safety in Britain, where he ended up at a boarding school, Sidcot, in Somerset

Sir Craig Reedie, key London 2012 Olympics figure and former BOA chair, dies aged 84

Sir Craig Reedie, a giant of the Olympic movement, who served as chair of the British Olympic Association for more than a decade and was instrumental in bringing the Games to London in 2012, has died at the age of 84.Tributes have poured in for the Scots-born Reedie, who was also president of the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) when Russia was found guilty of state-sponsored doping across “a vast majority” of winter and summer sports, including at the 2014 Sochi Olympics. During this tumultuous period, Reedie and Wada recommended that Russia be banned from the 2016 Rio Games – a call that was ultimately rejected by the International Olympic Committee.Reedie was vice-president of the IOC during part of his Wada tenure and a former badminton competitor who led the campaign for its Olympic inclusion starting at Barcelona ‘92.Sebastian Coe, the World Athletics president, who led the organising committee for the London Games on whose board Reedie sat, said: “I am devastated for his family

County cricket: Sussex beat Leicestershire, Yorkshire draw against Glamorgan – as it happened

Four lots of last-gasp ditch-digging brought the first round of County Championship games to a tense finish.Northamptonshire’s last pair defied Lancashire for an hour to earn a draw at Wantage Road, strung together by an unbeaten 197-ball 95 from George Bartlett. The game looked done when James Anderson and the new ball reduced Northants to 181 for nine, but Ben Sanderson gave brave support and Bartlett straight-batted the final over from Tom Hartley despite a warren of close fielders.Derbyshire gnashed their teeth at the County Ground, as Matthew Waite and Ethan Brookes masterminded a Worcestershire rearguard action, brushing off an attack including Mohammad Abbas and Shoaib Bashir.Tawanda Muyeye’s unbeaten 109 off just 121 balls for Kent kept out Durham at Chester-le-Street and a rollercoaster match at Sophia Gardens was enlivened by a brave declaration from Glamorgan’s captain, Kiran Carlson