Business
Ministers should ‘start doing stuff’ to help farmers and cut fuel costs, says Asda boss
Posted on Friday March 27, 2026
Allan Leighton predicts food prices will inevitably rise, as group’s full-year profits dive by a third to £764mAsda’s executive chair has called on the government to “stand up and start doing stuff” to support farmers and ease the price of fuel as he warned that food prices would inevitably rise as a result of the conflict in the Middle East.Allan Leighton said farmers were under pressure but the supermarket chain had so far received “a trickle of requests not an avalanche” of cost price increases from its suppliers, as they were under pressure from higher fertiliser, energy and fuel costs. Continue reading...
UK government borrowing costs hit 5% as Iran war fuels bond market sell-off
Posted on Friday March 27, 2026
Yields on 10-year debt reach highest since the 2008 financial crisis, raising concerns of faster interest rate risesUK government borrowing costs have risen above 5% amid an intensifying global bond market sell-off fuelled by the Iran war.The yield – or interest rate – on 10-year debt hit its highest level since the 2008 financial crisis, rising 13 basis points to 5.081%, as investors acted on concerns about the economic fallout from the conflict. Continue reading...
Italy investigates beauty brands over concerns about young girls’ mental health
Posted on Friday March 27, 2026
Regulator fears use of ‘covert marketing strategies’ by Sephora and Benefit might fuel compulsive habits Italian regulators are investigating Sephora and Benefit Cosmetics over the apparent use of “covert marketing strategies” to sell beauty products to young girls that might be fuelling an unhealthy skincare obsession known as “cosmeticorexia”.The Italian Competition Authority said it was looking into promotions for skincare products such as face masks, serums and anti-ageing creams that in some cases appeared to target girls under 10. Continue reading...
Opinion
Technology
Number of AI chatbots ignoring human instructions increasing, study says
Posted on Friday March 27, 2026
Exclusive: Research finds sharp rise in models evading safeguards and destroying emails without permissionAI models that lie and cheat appear to be growing in number with reports of deceptive scheming surging in the last six months, a study into the technology has found.AI chatbots and agents disregarded direct instructions, evaded safeguards and deceived humans and other AI, according to research funded by the UK government-funded AI Safety Institute (AISI). The study, shared with the Guardian, identified nearly 700 real-world cases of AI scheming and charted a five-fold rise in misbehaviour between October and March, with some AI models destroying emails and other files without permission. Continue reading...
Wikipedia bans AI-generated content in its online encyclopedia
Posted on Friday March 27, 2026
Ban includes two exceptions: AI can still be used for translations, and to make minor copy editsWikipedia has banned the use of artificial intelligence in the generation or rewriting of content for its voluminous online encyclopedia.In a recent policy change, Wikipedia said that the use of large language models (or LLMs) “often violates” its core principles and will not be allowed. The English language version of Wikipedia has more than 7.1m articles. Continue reading...