High street ‘slot farms’ could evade budget tax rise through bingo hall loophole
Posted on Sunday November 01, 2026

Hundreds of adult gaming centres in England have bingo licences that still qualify them for discounted business rates

Hundreds of high street “slot farms” could continue claiming a discount on their business rates, unless the government closes a loophole that allows them to pose as bingo halls.

John Healey singled out adult gaming centres (AGCs) in his first budget this week, in which he increased duty on slot machine takings from 20% to 25%, claiming he was “raising taxes on gambling to support good growth on every high street”.

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UK charity shop profits plummet amid shift in secondhand clothes market
Posted on Saturday October 31, 2026

British Heart Foundation describes ‘exceptionally challenging’ trading after Oxfam’s retail profit reportedly fell 23% amid rise of platforms such as Vinted

Profits at some of the UK’s best-known charity shops have plummeted as they face a number of pressures, including from online secondhand clothes platforms, prompting claims that a key part of the sector’s fundraising model could be under threat.

According to unpublished accounts seen by the Financial Times, Oxfam’s retail profit fell 23% to £4.9m in the last financial year, compared with £6.4m in the previous year.

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A-listers and AI stylists: how high-street brands are staging a fashion comeback
Posted on Saturday October 31, 2026

Gap, M&S, Topshop and more are taking a leaf from luxury label playbooks to satisfy savvier generation of shoppers

High street brands that boomed in the noughties before the squeeze of both sustainably minded consumers and the rise of ultra-cheap online labels are staging a comeback.

This time, rather than focusing solely on trend-led affordable designs, the names familiar to any shopper are courting luxury fashion, A-list collaborations and enhanced services in an attempt to engage consumers.

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A gift to scammers: why you should probably keep your birthday a secret
Posted on Sunday November 01, 2026

Using a fake DOB or leaving the field blank when making an online account can offer protection from identity theft

You get a call from your bank saying there has been suspicious activity on your account. They read out your name, address and date of birth so you are happy it is a legitimate caller.

But you are talking to criminals who have used your date of birth as part of a web of verifying information to convince you they are someone else.

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North Korea is likely culprit behind $6.3bn crypto hack, ‘largest heist in history’
Posted on Friday October 30, 2026

Binance exchange says it will cover customer losses as it scrambles to freeze affected assets, with about $3bn located so far

• Q&A: How big a deal is the $6.3bn crypto heist?

• Tell us: have you been affected by the Binance hack?

The world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange has been hit by a record $6.3bn (£4.7bn) hack described as the biggest heist in history, with experts identifying North Korea as the likely culprit.

Binance said it would cover all customer losses as it froze $3bn of the affected assets.

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I read Anthropic's 92-page risk factor document, so you don't have to – video explainer
Posted on Friday October 30, 2026

Anthropic, the creator of Claude, filed to go public on the US stock market on 26 October. The company's filing statement contains a 92-page risk factor document in which it acknowledges the dangers that AI poses to society and human beings, and factors that could negatively affect Anthropic's business. Johana Bhuiyan, senior tech reporter for the Guardian, breaks down the document and explains why Anthropic's IPO could be a real test to the AI boom

• Anthropic files for potentially record-breaking stock market valuation in key test for AI industry

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Carrick to stay in charge for Roma match, Liverpool v Arsenal buildup, WSL and more – matchday live
Posted on Sunday November 01, 2026

⚽ All the latest as we build up to Sunday’s games
⚽ Live scores | Premier League table | Fixtures

It is not going well for Oliver Glasner at Nottingham Forest, to say the least.

“For me, I go home and have breakfast with my family, so it’s not the worst situation,” Glasner said. “Nobody needs to have pity with Oliver Glasner. If I want, I could start in two weeks somewhere else. I won’t do it. But the players, the staff, they remain in the same situation. And it’s the same shit situation that the club had last year. So you need to change and rebuild from the bottom to the top. And this is clear for me. And this is what I will do. And without any compromises, zero, zero.”

Régis Le Bris, Sunderland’s head coach, said: “I don’t think they are not aware of the situation. We are exposed this season with this busy schedule, it’s really demanding.

“Is it unexpected? I don’t think so. Many clubs last year experienced exactly the same situation. First year in Europe, you know you will have on average 10 less points. It’s our reality.

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If Mikel Arteta’s dossier is part of a deliberate strategy, it is a dangerous one for Arsenal | Jonathan Wilson
Posted on Saturday October 31, 2026

The manager is not yet in Alex Ferguson and José Mourinho’s league, but his conspiracy theories have reached new levels

English football loves the word “dossier”. It doesn’t love dossiers themselves, of course; they’re for nerds – unless, that is, they’re a “secret dossier”, which have a thrilling redolence of spy dramas, invisible ink and dead drops. Non-secret dossiers, though, are inherently risible: call something a “dossier” in English football and you’re immediately signalling: this is absurd poindextering. Dossiers were preposterous when Don Revie was – imagine the pretension! – drawing up scouting reports on opposing players, and they are preposterous today as Mikel Arteta collates images of rival managers stepping outside their technical area.

Arteta, it should be said, did not use the word “dossier”; rather it was swiftly applied to what he had called “a massive storage of images”. During Arsenal’s 2-0 win against Everton last Saturday, he received his second booking of the season for leaving his technical area. This, it turns out, is another part of the vast conspiracy against Arsenal. Yes, Arteta accepted, he left his technical area (44 times before being booked, according to the former referee Graham Scott), but other managers do it too. “There are managers who have the record in the league, 36 times in 10 minutes [they] leave the touchline – no yellows,” he said. “I am clipping all of that … so if somebody comes to me I can say: ‘I am not in the record yet.’ Somebody else has the record so let’s see. Then it’s 36 yellow cards in 10 minutes for the managers.”

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