Claire’s and The Original Factory Shop near collapse, putting 2,550 jobs at risk

The retailers Claire’s and The Original Factory Shop are on the brink of administration, putting 2,550 jobs at risk.Both chains are owned by Modella Capital, a private equity firm, which recently bought the high street arm of WH Smith – renamed TG Jones. Modella said in a statement that the climate on UK high streets was “extremely challenging” and data suggested “an alarming drop-off in pre-Christmas footfall”.It said administration was the “only option” for both Claire’s and The Original Factory Shop, and it had started insolvency proceedings for both chains.The investment group has 154 Claire’s stores after buying about half the UK chain from administrators in September last year

Despite Trump’s hopes, big oil will be wary of rushing back to Venezuela | Nils Pratley

The theory sounds straightforward. Venezuela has vast oil reserves and used to produce more than three times as much volume as it does now. Therefore it should be a simple matter to upgrade the crumbling kit with an injection of dollars and watch the extra barrels and profits flow.That, roughly speaking, is the only clear part of Donald Trump’s plan for what happens next in Venezuela. “We’re going to have our very large US oil companies, the biggest anywhere in the world, go in, spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure – the oil infrastructure – and start making money for the country,” he said at the weekend

New tool allows Californians to request data brokers delete personal details

Californians can now use a government website to request that certain companies stop selling their personal information online. The Drop website, which stands for Delete Request and Opt-Out Platform, launched on New Year’s Day as part of a state law aimed at enhancing data privacy.The Drop tool sends a mass deletion request to 500 data brokers, the term for companies which collect and sell personal information gleaned from public records, phone data, online web browsing and a host of other activities. The information, which can be highly detailed and can be taken without user consent, is widely available for purchase on data brokers’ sites.California’s Drop program aims to reduce the typically time-consuming and expensive process of individually identifying and contacting data brokers to seek out deletion

Grok AI still being used to digitally undress women and children despite suspension pledge

Degrading images of children and women with their clothes digitally removed by Grok AI continue to be shared on Elon Musk’s X, despite the platform’s commitment to suspend users who generate them.After days of concern over use of the chatbot to alter photographs to create sexualised pictures of real women and children stripped to their underwear without their consent, the UK’s communication’s watchdog, Ofcom, said on Monday that it had made “urgent contact with X and xAI to understand what steps they have taken to comply with their legal duties to protect users in the UK”. Ofcom added that it would assess whether an investigation is necessary based on the company’s response.Meanwhile, politicians and women’s rights campaigners accused the UK government of “dragging its heels” by failing to enact legislation that was passed six months ago making the creation of such intimate images illegal.The trend, which went viral over the new year period, also prompted the European Commission to say on Monday that it was “very seriously” looking into complaints that Grok was being used to generate and disseminate sexually explicit childlike images

Australia v England: fifth Ashes Test, day three – live

46th over: Australia 202-2 (Head 121, Neser 5) Head larrups Potts through extra cover, but this time there’s a man on the boundary so he only gets one run. Later in the over he walks miles outside off stump and drags the ball onto his body. He’s basically taking the pith out of Potts; in the previous Potts over he left the ball with an extravagant, almost disdainful flourish.“It has to be Herzog doesn’t it?” says Ruth Purdue. “He would have to try and find the ‘truth’

Raducanu fails to last distance as Britain suffer bitter United Cup loss to Greece

Great Britain fell to a bitter 2-1 loss in their decisive United Cup tie against Greece in the round-robin group stage as Emma Raducanu fought hard to overcome her injury-ravaged preparation for the new season before fading physically in her first match of the year, losing 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 against Maria Sakkari.Raducanu’s defeat had been preceded by a courageous performance from the British men’s No 5 Billy Harris, who played one of the best matches of his career before falling 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7-4) to the former world No 3 Stefanos Tsitsipas. In the mixed doubles dead rubber, Neal Skupski and Olivia Nicholls defeated Despina Papamichail and Stefanos Sakellaridis 6-2, 3-6, 10-4.Raducanu said she was frustrated with the defeat but satisfied with her performance: “Considering the circumstances, doubt whether I was going to play or not today, I’m pretty happy with how I was able to play a match of three sets,” she said. “Considering I played five, six games in practice, it is a big effort for me