US pitches plan to counter Chinas dominance of critical mineral supply

Simon JackBusiness editor Getty Images Not a single measure in the government’s policy-packed Budget will change the growth forecast for the next five years – that was the damning assessment of the government’s official forecaster, the Office for Budget Reponsibility (OBR). For a government that has declared economic growth as its top priority it is…

Organisers of a Christmas toy appeal are urging people to donate to the project if they are able to, so they can give gifts to thousands of children living in extreme hardship in north and east London. The Hackney Local Buyers Club is running its 12th annual appeal, but fear donations will drop due to…

“Locally, the prices are very much linked to geopolitical instability, they’re linked to supply and demand at global level… and money markets, currency exchange rates, which again there’s no ability for people in Northern Ireland to control,” explained Smyth.

Plans to relax restrictions on new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea will be unveiled on Wednesday under the government’s North Sea Strategy. Chancellor Rachel Reeves will announce the publication of the strategy as part of her Budget speech, the BBC understands. The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero will release a…

It does not focus on quantitative polling, which is already largely automated through mass surveys. Instead, it emphasises depth. “We don’t ask people to tick boxes – they have a conversation with an AI,” Fontaine explains. “That means we can explore not just what people think, but how they think – how they build their…

Japanese brewing giant Asahi has been hit by a cyber-attack that has caused a “systems failure” affecting the company’s shipping and customer service operations. Asahi said there had been no “confirmed leakage of personal information of customer data” and its European operations, including the UK, were not affected. But the company said that its order…