Can our home and supermarket fridges cope with heatwaves?

High street shops, pharmacies and music venues have called on Rachel Reeves to axe the looming increases to business rates for them as well as pubs. The government is expected to announce a climbdown on the increases to business rates bills faced by pubs in England in the coming days. Landlords and pub owners have…

Japan’s central bank has raised its main interest rate to a fresh 31-year high as it continues to move away from decades of ultra-low borrowing costs and as the country faces increasing economic pressures. In a widely expected move on Friday, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) increased the rate from 1% to 1.25% – a…

Faarea MasudBusiness reporter Getty Images Boxing Day sales have seen a muted start as shoppers continued to shun bricks-and-mortar stores in favour of online. By 3pm, visits to UK high streets were down 1.5% on 2024, while shopping centres saw a 0.6% fall, according to data from MRI Software. MRI’s footfall data showed retail parks…

Three members of Ben & Jerry’s independent board will no longer be eligible to serve in their roles, after the ice cream company introduced a new set of governance practices. These include a nine-year limit set on board members’ terms. Chair Anuradha Mittal, who earlier said she had no plans to resign under pressure, is…