UK watchdog raises competition concerns over Greencore-Bakkavor deal

Greencore’s £1.2bn deal to buy Bakkavor is under the spotlight after the competition watchdog said the tie-up between Britain’s biggest sandwich maker and its rival could harm competition.Greencore struck a deal in April to buy its rival Bakkavor, which supplies pizzas, salads and other snacks to leading supermarkets such as Tesco, Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Asda.Together the companies said they would create a UK convenience food business with a combined revenue of £4bn.However, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has said the deal could result in a “substantial lessening of competition” within the market for supermarket own-label chilled sauces

AI can help authors beat writer’s block, says Bloomsbury chief

Authors will come to rely on artificial intelligence to help them beat writer’s block, the boss of the book publisher Bloomsbury has said.Nigel Newton, the founder and chief executive of the publisher behind the Harry Potter series, said the technology could support almost all creative arts, although it would not fully replace prominent writers.“I think AI will probably help creativity, because it will enable the 8 billion people on the planet to get started on some creative area where they might have hesitated to take the first step,” he told the PA news agency.“AI gets them going and writes the first paragraph, or first chapter, and gets them back in the zone,” he said. “And it can do similar things with painting and music composition and with almost all of the creative arts

Supermarkets tell Reeves tax rises could push food prices higher

Food prices in the UK could climb even further if the chancellor raises taxes on supermarkets at the next budget, the industry has warned.Supermarket bosses, including those at Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons, have said in a letter to Rachel Reeves that households would “inevitably feel the impact” of potential tax rises on the sector.“If the industry faces higher taxes in the coming budget – such as being included in the new surtax on business rates – our ability to deliver value for our customers will become even more challenging, and it will be households who inevitably feel the impact,” they wrote in the joint letter.“Given the costs currently falling on the industry, including from the last budget, high food inflation is likely to persist into 2026. This is not something that we would want to see prolonged by any measure in the budget

Does your boss have the right to time your bathroom breaks when you work from home? | Gene Marks

How long does it take you to go to the bathroom? And does your boss have any right to ask?According to a recent story in the New York Post, one manager warned workers of the company’s “five-minute rule” which required work-from-home employees to “notify the team” if they stepped away from their desk for any reason, including to use the bathroom.“This helps us stay aligned and ensures nothing is missed. Thank you for your co-operation,” the manager said in an email shared online by an irate worker. Not surprisingly, this policy did not go over very well with some.“5 min?” one commenter wrote

Trump sanctions have swift impact but will world stop buying Russian oil and gas?

Donald Trump’s stated mission to broker peace in Ukraine could come down to this simple question: can the US president convince the world to stop buying Russia’s fossil fuels?Last week, Trump imposed sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, in an effort to damage Moscow’s ability to fund its war machine.Tom Keatinge, the founding director of the Centre for Finance and Security (CFS) at the defence thinktank Rusi, said: “The US has been more effective in 24 hours than the EU has been in the last six months. Trump is willing to say what many others are too timid or too diplomatic to say out loud. For the longest time people have been calling for Trump to pull out the sanctions hammer. It could be very significant

Peer trying to derail UK smoking ban discussed bill with relative at tobacco firm

A member of the House of Lords who is trying to derail the generational ban on tobacco sales discussed the legislation with a family member who is “very high up” at British American Tobacco (BAT).Lord Strathcarron is proposing amendments that would scrap the central provision of the tobacco and vapes bill, originally proposed by Rishi Sunak’s government.If the bill is passed in its original form, the UK would become only the second country to implement a so-called generational smoking ban, making it illegal to sell tobacco to anyone born after 2008.Strathcarron’s proposal is to simply raise the legal purchase age from 18 to 21.The change proposed by the peer, who in a recent speech in the Lords described cigars as “harmless”, mirrors BAT’s lobbying position