Bank bosses called to meeting with Reeves over impact of Iran war on UK economy

The bosses of Britain’s “big five” retail banks have been summoned to a meeting with the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, this week to discuss how to limit the economic impact of the crisis in the Middle East triggered by the US and Israel’s attacks on Iran.The chief executives of HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds, NatWest and Santander have been asked to attend an emergency summit on Wednesday, amid increasing acceptance that a major economic hit from the Iran war is unavoidable.Talks will focus on how to protect those most vulnerable to the ripple effect, according to a source familiar with the plans, with borrowers who are braced for mortgage rate increases a particular area of focus.This will include an update on banks’ commitment to support 1.6m customers whose fixed-rate deals end between now and the end of the year, under the government’s mortgage charter

Falling fertility, debt and AI: is the US headed toward a population crisis?

Americans having fewer kids plus an ageing population could be a recipe for disaster that further erodes social stabilityRemember environmentalist Paul Ehrlich’s 1960s-vintage prediction about how overpopulation would deplete the Earth’s resources and condemn millions to starvation? His Malthusian condemnation of humanity’s voracious appetite has kept a grip on the debate over the future of the planet, even scaring the young out of having children.Ehrlich was wrong. Yet as we have come around to the thought that overpopulation won’t kill us all, we are being walloped by another demographic emergency: we are not having too many kids, we are having too few. This problem is real.The most recent scare came from government figures released last week suggesting the fall in US fertility – the number of children a woman will have over her lifetime – may be speeding up, hitting a record low of 1

UK’s OnlyFans tops $3bn valuation amid talks to sell stake to US investor

OnlyFans, the UK adult video platform, is in talks to sell a minority stake to a US investor that will value the business at more than $3bn (£2.2bn).The London-based company is in advanced talks to sell a stake of less than 20% to the San Francisco-based investment firm Architect Capital, according to the Financial Times. Sources familiar with the process confirmed the talks to the Guardian.OnlyFans has decided that offloading a minority stake is the best guarantee of stability for a business dealing with the death of its owner, Leonid Radvinsky

Finance leaders warn over Mythos as UK banks prepare to use powerful Anthropic AI tool

British banks will be given access in the next week to a powerful AI tool that was deemed too dangerous to be released to the public, as a series of senior finance figures warned over its impact.Anthropic, which has so far limited the release of the new model to a small clutch of primarily US businesses, including Amazon, Apple and Microsoft, said it would expand that to UK financial institutions.“That is in the very near term, in the next week,” Pip White, Anthropic’s head of UK, Ireland and northern Europe operations, said in a Bloomberg TV interview. “As you would expect, the engagement I have had from UK CEOs in the last week has been significant.”Anthropic, which is the company behind the Claude family of AI tools, has said that its latest model, Mythos, poses an unprecedented risk because of its ability to expose flaws in IT systems

How was Elijah Hollands allowed to keep playing during a ‘mental health episode’? | Jonathan Horn

The weekend of football threw up great dollops of drama and pathos. One of the tallest and most talented players in the sport buckled like a stricken baby giraffe. Arguably the best footballer in Australia was blanketed by an Irishman. The heart and soul of his club copped a knee to the head that may spell the end of his career. In Adelaide, 46,000 people stood to acknowledge a family that had lost a brother and a son

Raducanu withdraws from Madrid Open as illness absence nears two months

Emma Raducanu will extend her absence from the WTA Tour because of a viral illness to two months after she withdrew from the coming week’s Madrid Open.Raducanu has not competed since a 6-1, 6-1 loss to Amanda Anisimova in the second round of the Indian Wells Open on 8 March. She briefly trained on-site at the Miami Open just over a week later before citing lingering symptoms from an earlier viral illness as the reason for her withdrawal. Raducanu had been affected by a viral illness during the Middle East swing in February, which she said had contributed to her poor performances on the court.In the aftermath of her withdrawal from the Miami Open, Raducanu took a considerable amount of time off from training