>
Category

Business

The latest published reporting in this category.

Finance

Control of Britain’s 39m smart meters passes to non-profit startup

The handover marks the end of a 13-year licence for Smart DCC, a subsidiary of Capita, after years of spiralling costs and delays Control over Great Britain’s 39m smart meters has passed to a non-profit startup after its former owner presided over more than a decade of spiralling costs and delays in the troubled network. The company owned by crisis-hit outsourcing firm Capita has promised a “seamless transition” to its not-for-profit successor, which will take over running the data network connecting the smart meters from this week. Continue reading...

The Guardian
Read more
Finance

Brickmaker’s woes deepen the UK housebuilding gloom

Ibstock has issued a thumping profits warning, with sales 22% below expectations in the third quarter With John Healey’s Your First Home scheme on the way, is the mood improving in the housebuilding sector? A couple of the builders have results later this week, so can speak for themselves. In the meantime, though, here’s a thumping profits warning from Ibstock, the country’s biggest brickmaker, to spread a little more gloom. Demand hit a brick wall in the summer, as the company could have put it. Industry data, said Ibstock, show UK brick market volumes down 17% year-on-year in July and August

The Guardian
Read more
Finance

Oil price falls amid hope of a breakthrough to end Iran war

Brent crude drops by more than 6% to $105.55 a barrel, the lowest level in more than two weeks The oil price has fallen to its lowest level in more two weeks amid new hopes of a breakthrough to end the Iran war. Brent crude, the international benchmark, dropped by more than 6.5% to as low as $105.55 a barrel on Monday, the lowest since 16 October, sending shares in airline companies higher and pushing down government borrowing costs. Continue reading...

The Guardian
Read more
Finance

Shop fridges and freezers across Europe hit by fresh suspected cyber-attack

Chains in seven countries say cooling unit temperatures rose overnight in incident similar to hack of French shops Who is hacking Europe’s supermarket fridges and freezers, and why? Supermarket chains in at least seven European countries have said the temperatures of refrigerators and freezers in some of their shops soared overnight to as high as 50C (122F), echoing a cyber-attack last month that caused millions of euros of damage in France. Retailers in Belgium, Estonia, Ireland, Finland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Sweden reported problems with their refrigeration systems on Monday, and

The Guardian
Read more
International

Fridge cyberattack hits supermarkets across Europe

Grocery stores in at least seven European countries saw temperatures in their cold cases soar on Monday, with several confirming they had been hit by a cyberattack similar to one three weeks ago in France.

France 24
Read more
Finance

Tomb Raider’s creators on how the game changed their lives: ‘Skint staff were suddenly pulling up in sports cars’

‘Giving Lara Croft pistols meant we could show off her acrobatics. And when she goes to Peru, we threw in a T rex!’ I joined Core Design in the summer of 1994 and met Toby Gard, who showed me his concept sketches for Tomb Raider. He’d already come up with the title and drawn a mock-up box cover with a woman holding two pistols. Continue reading...

The Guardian
Read more