Oil and gas prices jump amid Middle East escalation and Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian gas plants – business live
Posted on Thursday September 10, 2026

British gas prices top 200p per therm, the highest since December 2022, while European gas prices are the highest since January 2023

Oil prices continue to climb, and are above $102 a barrel now after the US and Iran stepped up their attacks on ships on Wednesday.

Brent crude touched $102.17 a barrel and is now trading at $102.09, up 88 cents or 0.87%.

This leaves the market vulnerable as we head closer towards the upcoming heating season.

The sharp drop at the open is the market saying Primark’s turnaround is still a story, not a number. Like-for-like sales at Primark, expected down 3% in the fourth quarter after a 2.2% drop in the third, tell investors the recovery they had started to price in is not here yet. Summer price cuts and a sharper UK offer have not turned the existing store base. New shops in the US can still lift the headline. They cannot, on their own, justify the multiple a standalone Primark will need. Europe remains the problem, and that is half the estate.

Home delivery in the UK is the right call and closes a long running gap. It will not rescue this Christmas, and the market has treated it accordingly.

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John Lewis losses widen to £124m as shopper confidence dips
Posted on Thursday September 10, 2026

Retailer says higher costs also hit first-half figures as group pursues its turnaround plan, though Waitrose grew sales

• Business live – latest updates

Losses at the owner of John Lewis and Waitrose widened by more than 40% in the first half of the year as it struggled with higher costs and with shoppers feeling less confident about their money.

The John Lewis Partnership, which operates 36 department stores and more than 300 Waitrose supermarkets, said its pre-tax loss for the six months to 1 August climbed to £124m, compared with £88m in the same period in 2025.

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Bond market rebuffs US treasury’s plan to buy back $6bn in government debt
Posted on Wednesday September 09, 2026

Scott Bessent made announcement on Wednesday as bond yields rose to highest point since 2008 financial crisis

• US politics live – latest updates

The US treasury moved to cut the cost of borrowing on Wednesday only to be swiftly rebuffed by the bond market.

Scott Bessent, the treasury secretary, announced the US would buy back $6bn worth of government debt – treasuries – in an effort to alleviate a selloff in the US bond market that has put pressure on interest rates.

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Iceland to become first UK high street retailer to open shop in Falkland Islands
Posted on Thursday September 10, 2026

Boss Richard Walker is ‘proud to be backing Britain’ with a store in the capital, Stanley

• Business live – latest updates

The supermarket chain Iceland has said it will open a shop on the Falkland Islands in early December.

The shop, to be launched in partnership with a local retailer, Kelper Stores, will be the first UK high street brand to have a presence in the British territory and will be in the capital, Stanley.

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Lawmakers blast AI companies after researcher warns of human extinction by 2030
Posted on Thursday September 10, 2026

Former Anthropic employee Jacob Coxon said AI will become ‘superhuman systems’ that can cause human extinction by the end of the decade

Just a day after three Anthropic researchers warned that artificial intelligence could kill off humanity within the decade, lawmakers have begun lashing out about the risks of the burgeoning technology.

Ted Cruz, a republican senator from Texas, said in an interview on ABC’s The View, that AI poses a “catastrophic risk” and that he “read that whole tweet thread that that developer put out. It was highly concerning.

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Apple unveils folding iPhone Duo as new CEO takes center stage
Posted on Wednesday September 09, 2026

The passport-size iPhone Duo serves as the first big test for John Ternus, who took over for Tim Cook last week

Apple has unveiled the iPhone Duo, the company’s first foldable phone and the most significant change to the iPhone since the smartphone’s introduction in 2007.

The nearly $2,000 device takes inspiration from iPads’ wide screens and combines them with the portability and camera features of iPhones. When opened, it is the company’s largest phone display and thinnest phone. The Duo opens and closes like a passport to double its screen size.

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England v Pakistan: third men’s cricket Test, day two – live
Posted on Thursday September 10, 2026

Over-by-over updates from at Edgbaston, 11am BST start
County cricket live – Tanya Aldred has the latest news
Jonathan Liew on Sooryavanshi | Sign up for The Spin

Day one report

In jettisoning seven players from their squad, parachuting seven more in, and then making four changes to their XI, Pakistan went into this third Test against England pretty much throwing mud at the wall in the hope that some of it might stick.

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Chelsea’s 2016-17 Premier League title should be given to Spurs, says Pochettino
Posted on Thursday September 10, 2026

• Former manager says Chelsea should be stripped of title

• ‘The title should be for the team that was second’

Mauricio Pochettino says Chelsea should be stripped of their 2016-17 Premier League title for financial rule breaches and the honour retrospectively awarded to Tottenham, who he led to second place that season.

Chelsea were fined £10m by the Football Association in July and given a suspended two-window transfer ban for multiple violations of the rules during the Roman Abramovich era. They were also fined £10.75m by the Premier League in March.

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