Team GB’s Winter Olympics medal wait goes on after agonising curling defeat
Great Britain are still searching for their first medal of the Winter Olympics after Bruce Mouat and Jennifer Dodds were defeated in a nail-biting curling mixed doubles bronze medal game by Italy.The match went down to the final end before defeat by the 2022 curling champions with Stefania Constantini making sure of victory with her final throw.Italy had led throughout the match but the British pair had given themselves a chance before ending in fourth place, the same position they obtained – again without a medal – at the Beijing Games.Mouat and Dodds were both fighting back tears when speaking to the BBC reporter afterwards.“So close but yet so far – it hurts as much as it did four years ago.
Thank you to everyone back home who are loving curling as much as we are,” said Dodds.Mouat said: “We played so much better than four years ago – to leave without a medal is tough.We talked last night about how lucky we are to be even competing at the Olympics with my best mate here.”After topping the round-robin stage, the British pair slumped to a 9-3 defeat the hands of Sweden in Monday’s semi-final and had to regroup for a Tuesday afternoon clash with 2022 Olympic champions Constantini and Amos Mosaner.A missed opportunity in the first end saw Italy take an early 1-0 lead, with Britain levelling the score in the second before a perfectly delivered final stone from Constantini in the third edged Italy back in front.
A further point for Italy in a nervy match put them 3-1 ahead at the half-way stage, although Britain secured a point in the fifth end to keep within range of their rivals.In the sixth end, Dodds and Mouat consulted with coach Greg Drummond but the time-out did not help as Mosaner produced a winning shot to extend the Italian’s lead to 4-2.A point in the seventh end kept Britain in the hunt but with the advantage of the hammer, Constantini secured bronze for Italy.More details soon …
BT replaces Openreach boss in latest management shake-up
The head of BT’s infrastructure arm, Openreach, is to step down after nearly a decade, having almost completed a £12bn rollout of full fibre broadband to 25m homes.Clive Selley, who was tasked by the former BT chief Philip Jansen to “build like fury” to address the UK’s status as global laggard in the introduction of high-speed broadband, will become the boss of BT’s international division.Selley is being replaced by his deputy, Katie Milligan, who will decide on whether to further expand the fibre network to 30m homes by 2030.The change in management is the latest in a shake-up by Allison Kirkby, BT’s first female boss, who has changed 10 of the 11 members of the telecoms group’s executive committee since she took over in February 2024.After joining in 2016, Selley was tasked with upgrading the ageing Openreach network, which provides broadband across the UK, to full fibre
BP halts share buy-backs as annual profits slide
BP has halted share buybacks after reporting weaker annual profits as it prepares to continue a plan to resuscitate its fortunes under a new chief executive.The company became the first large oil company to suspend its buybacks after its underlying earnings fell to just below $7.5bn (£5.5bn) for 2025, down from almost $9bn for 2024.Oil companies have reported weaker profits over the last year after global prices fell for a third consecutive year and at the steepest rate since the Covid pandemic
Telstra joint venture to axe more than 200 jobs amid AI rollout
More than 200 Telstra jobs are expected to be cut, as the telco rolls out AI capabilities and sends some jobs to India.Telstra and the technology consultancy Accenture announced a $700m joint venture (JV) in 2025 to drive efficiency, modernisation and productivity.A JV spokesperson confirmed on Tuesday that the team had been notified “about proposed changes to its workforce, including reducing roles where work is no longer needed, and moving some work to the JV team in India”.If the changes proceed, the spokesperson said, affected team members would be helped to find new jobs either at Telstra or at Accenture, or have “access to our leading career transition program and retrenchment benefits”.Sign up: AU Breaking News email“These changes would see the JV use Accenture’s global capabilities, advanced AI expertise and specialist hub in India to deliver Telstra’s data and AI roadmap more quickly
Europeans shunning US as Emirates and Asia travel prove popular, says Tui
Europeans are booking fewer trips to the US, Europe’s biggest travel operator has said, as appetite for long-haul travel wanes and concerns linger around Donald Trump’s immigration policies.Tui, which receives most of its bookings from customers in Europe, has seen “significantly lower demand” for travel into the US, according to its chief executive, Sebastian Ebel.“What we do see is growing business to the Emirates and Asia,” he said. “We also see European demand to the Caribbean, which – due to capacity – had not been the biggest priority in the past, but there we see now potential again to grow.”It comes amid signs that demand for long-haul travel across the Atlantic is waning
NatWest is chasing the mass affluent wallet. So is everyone else | Nils Pratley
Announce a £2.7bn acquisition and watch your stock market value fall by £3.1bn.NatWest picked a bad day to announce its big move in the fashionable field of “wealth management” – the noise from Westminster created a poor backdrop for UK assets such as gilts and domestic banks. But the main problem with its Evelyn Partners deal is that it is very much of the “one for the long term” variety
Rise in UK borrowing costs reverses after cabinet backs Starmer
UK borrowing costs dipped back on Monday after rising earlier in the day, as cabinet ministers voiced support for the embattled Keir Starmer.The yield, or interest rate, on UK benchmark bonds initially increased on Monday as traders reacted to Sunday’s resignation of the prime minister’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, over the decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington.Yields rose further after the Downing Street communications director, Tim Allan, resigned on Monday morning, with long-term borrowing costs then hitting their highest level since November, as the Scottish Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, called on Starmer to stand down as prime minister.With the Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, saying Starmer’s position was “untenable” after the departure of McSweeney, and the Green party leader, Zack Polanski, agreeing he should resign, the City of London was weighing up the prime minister’s survival chances, and assessing the impact of likely replacements on the public finances and the economy.At one stage, the yield on 10-year UK government debt rose by as much as 7 basis points (0
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Team GB’s Winter Olympics medal wait goes on after agonising curling defeat