Business

Nissan maps out deal to build cars for Chery at its Sunderland plant
Posted on Wednesday June 03, 2026

Non-binding agreement to start assembling vehicles in 2027 would safeguard jobs at UK’s largest car factory

Nissan has agreed to look at building cars in northern England for Chinese manufacturer Chery, in a move that would secure jobs at the UK’s largest car factory and begin mass-market Chinese car production in Britain for the first time.

The Japanese carmaker said on Wednesday it had signed a non-binding agreement and that discussions were ongoing over contract manufacturing by Nissan for Chery, which is part-owned by the Chinese state.

UK government to pay £1.3bn to help fund Universal Studios theme park in Bedfordshire
Posted on Wednesday June 03, 2026

Chancellor hails deal saying it will create tens of thousands of jobs in the construction, hospitality, creative and technology sectors

British taxpayers will provide £1.3bn in funding to help the Hollywood studio giant Universal build its first theme park in Europe.

Comcast, the US media company that owns NBC Universal and Sky, had been considering a number of countries in which to build its first European theme park.

Lloyds customers unable to make payments due to IT glitch
Posted on Wednesday June 03, 2026

Bank apologises after IT update caused problems with Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland apps

Lloyds Banking Group has apologised after thousands of its customers were unable to make payments or send money due to another IT glitch.

According to Downdetector, a website that lets people track real-time service issues and outages, customers started noticing problems shortly after 11am on Wednesday, with issues affecting many of the group’s brands: Lloyds Bank, Halifax, Bank of Scotland, Scottish Widows and MBNA.

As the tech mega-IPO race heats up, has OpenAI missed its moment?
Posted on Wednesday June 03, 2026

With rivals racing to market to raise ‘eye-popping sums’, the spotlight is now on the AI sector’s one-time ‘poster child’

A year is a long time in AI. Just 12 months ago, Sam Altman was predicting his company OpenAI would build a super intelligence and fundamentally remake society. Now the boss of the ChatGPT developer is walking back those ideas after failing to make money from ads and erotic chatbots.

Meanwhile, rivals are storming ahead with plans to expand and go public on the stock market, in what is widely expected to be a season of record-setting initial public offerings (IPOs).

EU proposes to block foreign providers using ‘kill switch’ to disrupt vital tech across Europe
Posted on Wednesday June 03, 2026

European Commission aims to reduce ‘risky dependencies’ on foreign suppliers in cloud computing, AI and semiconductor production

The EU executive wants to ensure no foreign government or company has access to a “kill switch” to turn off or disrupt vital tech services across the continent, as part of an effort to cut dependencies on the US and China.

Publishing “technological sovereignty” proposals that risk further tensions with Donald Trump, the European Commission said on Wednesday the bloc needed to reduce dependency on foreign suppliers in cloud computing, artificial intelligence and semiconductor production.

UK media websites given power to block Google using their articles in AI search
Posted on Wednesday June 03, 2026

Watchdog makes ruling on search summaries after publishers complain about drop in click-through traffic and revenue

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Online publishers and news organisations are now able to block their content from appearing in Google’s AI summaries in UK search results, the British competition watchdog has announced.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said the new requirement would “put publishers, like news organisations, in a stronger position to negotiate content deals with Google”.

OECD predicts spate of recessions globally if Iran conflict drags into 2027
Posted on Wednesday June 03, 2026

Policy forum lays out ‘prolonged disruption’ scenario in which world’s GDP falls to 2.1% this year from 3.4% in 2025

Rural UK ‘particularly at risk’ of diesel shortages

If the Middle East conflict drags on into next year it would hit global growth hard, driving some economies into recession and causing energy shortages, according to forecasts from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

In its latest Economic Outlook, the Paris-based club of industrialised countries lays out a “prolonged disruption” scenario, in which there is no agreement between the US and Iran until 2027.