From matcha lattes to Dubai chocolate – how supermarkets fight to cope with TikTok trends

TikTok’s algorithm is one of the great mysteries of the modern age. What it deems to be interesting is fed to millions of users, giving it huge cultural sway, from fashion to music and politics. It is also increasingly influencing what we eat.Supermarkets were once the trendsetters, studying popular items on restaurant menus and recreating them on their shelves. Now the big shops are the ones being influenced, says Zoe Simons, a brand development chef at Waitrose

Trump announces Nippon Steel and US Steel partnership – as it happened

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office Friday afternoon, Donald Trump said that he will also target Samsung, which is based in South Korea, and “any other company that makes” with a 25% tariff.“Or it would not be fair,” he said, adding that the White House will “appropriately have that done by the end of June”.“When they build their plant here, there’s no tariffs. So they’re going to be building plants here,” he said.When Trump first announced the tariff Friday morning, he targeted Apple CEO Tim Cook, who said recently that the company was shoring up manufacturing in India

Royal Mail faces Ofcom questions over missed delivery targets

The postal regulator has launched an investigation into Royal Mail for missing its annual delivery targets, with almost a quarter of first-class mail arriving late.The company, which has been fined more than £16m in the last two years for failing to meet the delivery targets set by Ofcom, said 23.5% of first-class mail failed to arrive on time in the year to the end of March.This is a slight improvement on the previous year, when more than a quarter of first-class mail failed to arrive within the one-working-day target set by the regulator.Under the watchdog’s rules, 93% of first-class mail must be delivered within one working day of collection, excluding Christmas

Reform UK promises to reverse ban on new North Sea oil drilling if elected

Reform UK has promised to reverse the government’s ban on fresh North Sea oil and gas drilling as a “day one” priority if elected to power, with the taxpayer taking a stake in the projects.Richard Tice, the party’s deputy leader, has met with senior UK oil executives in recent weeks to pledge the party’s support for the industry, which has been hit hard by the government’s windfall tax and moves to block fresh North Sea exploration licences.Tice told the energy bosses to expect a reversal of the government’s ban alongside billions of pounds of public investment in their projects if the party comes to power in the 2029 election.The public investments would effectively hand taxpayers an equity stake in North Sea fossil fuel developments, which have stalled in recent months after Labour swept to power with a manifesto that promised to end fresh exploration licences for new oil and gas fields.“As long as there’s oil in the North Sea, we should be drilling for it,” a spokesperson for Reform UK said

Thames Water boss ordered to tell MPs if executives received bonus payments

The chief executive of Thames Water has been ordered to tell MPs whether any executives have received payments from a controversial bonus package taken from a £3bn loan.Britain’s biggest water company admitted last week that senior managers were in line for “substantial” bonuses linked to an emergency £3bn loan. Thames claimed the payouts were vital to retain staff and prevent rival companies from “picking off” its best employees. The disclosure provoked fury as the company has said its finances are “hair-raising” and that it came “very close to running out of money entirely” last year.On Tuesday, the environment secretary, Steve Reed, announced the bonuses had been withdrawn by the water company after the Guardian revealed the chair of Thames Water had wrongly claimed they were insisted upon by creditors

M&S contractor ‘investigating whether it was gateway for cyber-attack’

An Indian company that operates Marks & Spencer’s IT helpdesk is reportedly investigating whether it was used by cybercriminals to gain access to systems at the retailer, which is battling a devastating hack.M&S said this week that “threat actors” had gained access to the retailer’s systems through one of its contractors – understood to be Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).The clothing, food and homeware retailer confirmed the hackers used “social engineering” techniques to attack them, such as posing as a staff member to fool a helpdesk into giving away passwords.TCS, which has worked with M&S for more than a decade, has been helping the retailer with its inquiries into the cyber-attack, which began over the Easter weekend. The retailer said the attack could cost it up to £300m in profit