Business
FCA urged to investigate Peter Mandelson over potential insider trading
Posted on Saturday February 07, 2026
Exclusive: Lib Dem Daisy Cooper says ex-minister could have ‘abused trading laws’ when sharing state information with Jeffrey EpsteinThe Liberal Democrats have urged the UK’s financial regulator to immediately investigate Peter Mandelson, saying his apparent decision to leak highly confidential government information to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein may have led to insider trading.In a letter to Nikhil Rathi, the chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Daisy Cooper, the MP for St Albans and the Lib Dems’ deputy leader, said it was “crucial” to determine whether Mandelson or those he shared information with had profited from accessing “market-sensitive and confidential material” in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. Continue reading...
UK electric vehicle charging firms ‘seeking buyers amid rising costs and tough competition’
Posted on Saturday February 07, 2026
Mergers and acquisitions will shrink number of operators from more than 100 to five or six, says Be.EV co-founderBritish electric charger companies are asking rivals to buy them as they run out of cash amid rising costs and intense competition, according to industry bosses.A wave of mergers and acquisitions is likely to shrink the number of charge point operators from as many as 150 to a market dominated by five or six players, said Asif Ghafoor, a co-founder of Be.EV, a charging company backed by Octopus Energy. Continue reading...
Post-Brexit sales of British farm products to EU fall by 37%
Posted on Saturday February 07, 2026
NFU warn it could take years to restore Brexit losses despite efforts to smooth negotiations on farming and other elements of UK-EU resetExports of British farm products to the EU have dropped almost 40% in the five years since Brexit, highlighting the trade barriers caused by the UK’s divorce from the EU in 2020.Analysis of HMRC data by the National Farmers’ Union shows the decline in sales of everything from British beef to cheddar cheese has dropped by 37.4% in the five years since 2019, the last full year before Brexit. Continue reading...
Opinion
Technology
Battle of the chatbots: Anthropic and OpenAI go head-to-head over ads in their AI products
Posted on Saturday February 07, 2026
New Anthropic campaign suggests other AI platforms will incorporate targeted ads in their chatbot conversationsThe Seahawks and the Patriots aren’t the only ones gearing up for a fight.AI rivals Anthropic and OpenAI have launched a war of ads trying to court corporate America during one of the biggest entertainment nights of the year. Continue reading...
Victims urge tougher action on deepfake abuse as new law comes into force
Posted on Saturday February 07, 2026
Campaigners welcome criminalisation of non-consensual AI-generated explicit images but say law does not go far enoughVictims of deepfake image abuse have called for stronger protection against AI-generated explicit images, as the law criminalising the creation of non-consensual intimate images comes into effect.Campaigners from Stop Image-Based Abuse delivered a petition to Downing Street with more than 73,000 signatures, urging the government to introduce civil routes to justice such as takedown orders for abusive imagery on platforms and devices. Continue reading...
Sport
Team GB lose Cas appeal over new skeleton helmets at Winter Olympics
Posted on Saturday February 07, 2026
Cas ruling deems helmets illegal due to protruding rearSetback for Team GB’s Matt Weston and Marcus WyattGreat Britain’s skeleton team have been banned from wearing its new aerodynamic helmets at the Winter Olympics after the court of arbitration for sport ruled they were illegal because its “rear significantly protrudes”.The news is a big blow to Team GB’s Matt Weston and Marcus Wyatt, who have dominated skeleton all season, winning all seven of the World Cup races between them. Continue reading...
Arundell hat-trick fires England to emphatic Six Nations win against Wales
Posted on Saturday February 07, 2026
England 48-7 WalesEarl, Roebuck and Freeman also score tries for hostsNo surprises here, not even a hint of one. England have had tougher training sessions in preparation for this Six Nations and by the end the scoreboard spoke for itself. Wales were not so much beaten as buried beneath an avalanche of seven white tries including a first-half hat-trick for the pacy Bath wing Henry Arundell on his first England start since the 2023 World Cup.If not quite as big a rout as England’s 68-14 win in Cardiff 11 months ago, the flashing red warning lights were visible from the moment the visitors had two players sent to the sin bin in the first quarter. They never looked like recovering and, in its own way, this disappointment will sting as much as the 73-0 defeat by South Africa in November. Continue reading...