UK wealth manager and price comparison site shares fall amid AI fears

Wealth managers and price comparison sites have become the latest companies to be hit by fears that their businesses will be disrupted by new artificial intelligence innovations.Shares in UK wealth management firms tumbled on Wednesday morning, after the AI company Altruist Corp launched a service that it said helps advisers create personalised tax strategies by reading clients’ pay stubs, account statements and other documents.The UK wealth manager St James’s Place fell almost 10% in early trading, with rival Quilter down 5.2% and AJ Bell losing 5.7%, as investors anticipated that agentic tools that can sort tax affairs, or provide advice, could eat into their revenues

‘Unsustainable’ gaps in policing of franchise businesses must end, MPs say

The UK government needs to eradicate “unsustainable” gaps in the policing of franchise businesses after a series of scandals to hit the sector, a parliamentary committee has found.The conclusion forms part of the business and trade committee’s small business strategy report and follows a Guardian investigation in December which revealed claims that Adrian Howe, a former Vodafone employee who had agreed to become a franchisee in 2018, drowned after becoming convinced his deal with the multinational company would prove financially disastrous.The cross-party committee highlighted further allegations from Vodafone franchisees of an imbalance of power in their agreements, which prompted them to launch a high court claim in December 2024. Vodafone is contesting the claim.The MPs also raised separate allegations of “widespread sexual harassment and abuse in McDonald’s restaurants” and how franchisors could “fail to maintain adequate oversight of their franchisees’ employment practices”

Apple and Google pledge not to discriminate against third-party apps in UK deal

Apple and Google have committed to avoid discriminating against apps that compete with their own products under an agreement with the UK’s competition watchdog, as they avoided legally binding measures for their mobile platforms.The US tech companies have vowed to be more transparent about vetting third-party apps before letting them on their app stores and not discriminate against third-party apps in app search rankings.They have also agreed not to use data from third-party apps unfairly, such as using information about app updates to tweak their own offerings.Apple has also committed to giving app developers an easier means of requesting use of its features such as the digital wallet, and live translation for AirPod users.The commitments have been secured as part of a new regulatory regime overseen by the Competition and Markets Authority, (CMA), which has the power to impose changes on how Apple and Google operate their mobile platforms after deciding last year that they had “substantial, entrenched” market power

Beats Powerbeats Fit review: Apple’s compact workout earbuds revamped

Apple’s revamped compact workout Beats earbuds stick to a winning formula, while slimming down and improving comfort.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.The new Powerbeats Fit are the direct successors to 2022’s popular Beats Fit Pro, costing £200 (€230/$200/A$330)

The Spin | Aiming for the moon: the rise of the slower ball, from Stephenson to Curran

Franklyn Stephenson’s throaty chuckle rolls down the phone line. “You know the hardest thing about bowling that ball? I couldn’t stop laughing when I saw how the batsmen were trying to play it! They’d be jabbing here or ducking there, most of them were so clueless!”Since the earliest days of cricket, bowlers have bamboozled batters with deceptive changes of pace. You can picture those old tricksters now, flannelled and moustachioed, deploying an assortment of sky-high lobs and skiddy, scudding deliveries with a glint in the eye, wreaking havoc on the wealds and downs of southern England.A couple of hundred years later, the Surrey and England bowler Bill Lockwood was said to possess a slower ball “of almost sinful deceit” at the turn of 20th century. Lockwood was hailed by Wisden’s Almanack as “one of the game’s first great fast bowlers” but could deploy his slower ball without any discernible change to his action

‘It is hard to forgive’: former girlfriend of Norwegian Olympic biathlete responds to apology for affair

The former girlfriend of the Norwegian biathlete Sturla Holm Lægreid has responded to his public apology for having an affair, saying it “is hard to forgive” what he did.It was after Lægreid had won bronze in the individual 20km on Tuesday that he, unprompted, opened up on what he described as the “hardest week of my life,” saying: “Half a year ago I met the love of my life. The world’s most beautiful and nicest person. Three months ago I made the mistake of my life and cheated on her, and I told her about that a week ago. This has been the worst week of my life