Reeves’s promise of pub business rates U-turn averts Labour rebellion

Rachel Reeves has avoided another damaging rebellion against her economic policies with the promise of a U-turn on controversial tax hikes for pubs in England, after weeks of protest from her colleagues and the hospitality industry.Government sources said on Thursday the chancellor was finalising a support package for the struggling industry that would include reductions to business rates for pubs, which had been facing a 76% rise on average over the next three years.Industry figures welcomed news of the U-turn, which comes after similar climbdowns over cuts to winter fuel payments, cuts to disability benefits and a rise in inheritance tax for farmers.But with the Treasury yet to publish details of the support package, Reeves’s colleagues say they are willing to push ahead with an amendment to the government’s finance bill if they feel it does not go far enough.Tonia Antoniazzi, the Labour chair of the all-party parliamentary group on beer, said: “I am over the moon, things are moving in the right direction

The Primark machine suffers a continental splutter at a bad moment | Nils Pratley

It is probably a good thing that Associated British Foods has not yet split itself in two, liberating the go-getting and supposedly reliable Primark from the more volatile food and ingredients businesses. In standalone form, Primark would probably have suffered a bigger share price thump than the 14% fall that the still-combined conglomerate sustained after Thursday’s profits warning.The problem at Primark is that it has suddenly become hard to know what to expect. A year ago, the stores in continental Europe seemed to be trading well while the UK ones hit a soft spot. Now the UK end is back on form, regaining some market share, while the continental stores have had a serious skid

Hundreds of nonconsensual AI images being created by Grok on X, data shows

New research that samples X users prompting Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok demonstrates how frequently people are creating sexualized images with it. Nearly three-quarters of posts collected and analyzed by a PhD researcher at Dublin’s Trinity College were requests for nonconsensual images of real women or minors with items of clothing removed or added.The posts offer a new level of detail on how the images are generated and shared on X, with users coaching one another on prompts; suggesting iterations on Grok’s presentations of women in lingerie or swimsuits, or with areas of their body covered in semen; and asking Grok to remove outer clothing in replies to posts containing self-portraits by female users.Among hundreds of posts identified by Nana Nwachukwu as direct, nonconsensual requests for Grok to remove or replace clothing, dozens reviewed by the Guardian show users posting pictures of women including celebrities, models, stock photos and women who are not public figures posing in snapshots.Several posts in the trove reviewed by the Guardian have received tens of thousands of impressions and come from premium, “blue check” accounts, including accounts with tens of thousands of followers

Musk lawsuit over OpenAI for-profit conversion can go to trial, US judge says

Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI is to go to trial after a US judge said there is plenty of evidence to support the billionaire’s case.The world’s richest man, who co-founded OpenAI, is suing the ChatGPT developer and its chief executive, Sam Altman, over claims its leaders violated the organisation’s founding mission by shifting to a for-profit model.The US district judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland, California, told a hearing there was plenty of evidence that suggested OpenAI’s leaders made assurances that its original nonprofit structure was going to be maintained.She said there were enough disputed facts to let a jury consider the claims at a trial scheduled for March, rather than decide the issues herself. Rogers said she would issue a written order after the hearing that addresses OpenAI’s attempt to throw out the case

Chloe Kim’s Olympic three-peat bid in doubt after dislocated shoulder

Chloe Kim’s pursuit of an unprecedented third straight Olympic gold medal has been thrown into uncertainty after the American snowboard star dislocated her shoulder during a training session in Switzerland.Kim, the dominant force in women’s halfpipe snowboarding for nearly a decade, revealed the injury on Thursday, sharing video of the fall that caused the scare. The injury occured while Kim was training in Laax, a regular World Cup venue and a key pre-Olympic stop on the circuit. The 25-year-old landed a maneuver cleanly but lost her edge shortly afterward, sliding awkwardly across the pipe and into the wall.With the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics less than a month away, Kim said she is still unsure whether she will be able to compete

The mediocre Ashes: England arrived as a rabble and Australia weren’t much better | Geoff Lemon

As far as endings go, it ended nicely. People streamed on to the Sydney Cricket Ground, wanting to get close to the trophy presentation and to have a canter on the turf. Nothing thrills an audience more than a chance to walk the stage. On a sun-kissed blue-heaven day, the match had finished early enough to leave plenty of afternoon to spare. Later Usman Khawaja soaked that up with his own crowd of family and friends, on his last day as a Test player