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Share price rally driven by strong product demand as well as decision to sit out AI spending race, amid wider tech sell-offApple has become only the second company to pass the $5tn valuation mark, as it benefited from investors fleeing AI and semiconductor stocks amid a wider tech sell-off.The iPhone maker’s shares hit a session high ⁠of $342.89 on Tuesday, giving it a market ⁠capitalisation of $5.04tn (£3.78tn), then eased back down to $340.08 – around the $5tn mark. Continue reading...

Samsung and SK Hynix fall by more than 10% amid renewed fears over AI spending and Chinese competitionBusiness live – latest updatesThe sell-off in AI stocks has intensified, driving South Korea’s stock market down to its lowest level in three months.Investors continued to ditch chip stocks on Tuesday, amid rising concerns about the huge amount of borrowing among AI companies to fund their datacentre expansion plans. Continue reading...

Ex-officials ask FCC to reject petitions to deny renewal of broadcast licenses for eight stations owned by ABCA group of prominent former Federal Communications Commission (FCC) officials, including key staffers and commissioners appointed by both Democratic and Republican presidents, issued a filing on Tuesday that warns the agency is trying to send a “chilling message” to broadcasters after it received petitions to deny ABC license renewals for eight of its local television stations.The networ

Consumer goods group reports strong sales growth, owing in part to World Cup marketing campaignsBusiness live – latest updatesUnilever has warned it will push through further price rises over the coming months, as the Marmite, Dove and Hellmann’s owner tries to recoup its own growing costs.The Anglo-Dutch company said that while the pace of price rises slowed in the second quarter, owing in part to World Cup-related discounts and efforts to stay competitive in Brazil, these were “temporary facto

Whether in favor of or against the US-Israel war on Iran, people across the country are left holding the bill and wondering on its purposeFive months after the United States and Israel started a historically unpopular war against Iran that was going to supposedly last weeks, the fighting has refused to resolve in victory, defeat or peace. Iran’s supreme leader had been killed in the opening strikes, ceasefires broke down, and the strait of Hormuz has been closed and reopened.For voters interview

MTC provided security at heavily criticised Manston centre in Kent – and could now make £500m managing arrivals at siteA private security company linked to Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown reported a slump in UK revenues after an asylum centre contract ended but could make £500m managing the same facility until 2036.Management & Training Corporation (MTC) said sales fell from £28.4m to £17.6m in 2025 after its contract to provide “security and care” at the heavily criticised Manston site in

Landmark deal covers about 76,000 claims and could end contentious, decade-long legal battleJohnson & Johnson said it would pay an estimated $5.5bn to resolve tens of thousands of lawsuits alleging its baby ⁠powder and other talc products caused ⁠ovarian cancer, in a landmark ​deal that could end a contentious, decade-long legal battle.Johnson & Johnson on Monday said the settlement covers about 76,000 claims, including ones consolidated in a federal court in New Jersey, and related cases in sta

Brent crude drops 9% to below $88 a barrel, prompting UK government bond yields to fallOil prices have dropped sharply as traders bet that a pause in US attacks on Iran could prevent an escalation in the conflict that would further restrict global supply.Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil, initially fell 9% to below $88 a barrel on Monday after climbing to $100 last week, when the Iran-aligned Houthis attacked Saudi Arabian oil tankers in the Red Sea. Continue reading...

Julie Masino faced criticism as restaurant chain was called ‘woke’ and ‘soulless’ after unveiling modernized logoCracker Barrel’s CEO, Julie Masino, is stepping down, the restaurant announced on Monday, nearly a year after the company was swept into a political maelstrom over proposed modernizations to its branding.Critics on social media denounced the Tennessee-based rustic restaurant chain as “woke” as well as “sterile and soulless” after it unveiled an updated logo that removed Uncle Herschel

The president is using forced labor as a pretext to slap tariffs on countries around the worldWith the midterm elections less than four months away, it’s a precarious time for Donald Trump and Republicans: Trump’s war against Iran is going badly, his approval ratings are in the toilet, gas prices are soaring and pushing up inflation, and nation after nation is furious about Trump’s insults, bullying and ugly American unilateralism.So amid all this mess, what does Trump do? He turns to his favori

Europe and US risk being outpaced on innovation, as happened in the car industry, warns Pascal SoriotAstraZeneca must operate at “Chinese speed” to ensure it does not suffer the fate of the western automotive industry by losing out to more innovative rivals, the drug company’s boss has said.The FTSE 100 company is watching the rise of China’s pharmaceutical industry closely and collaborating to take drugs to global markets, but its chief executive, Pascal Soriot, said the US and European pharmac

Bank of England expected to keep rates on hold on Thursday but renewed Iran conflict casts shadow over energy costsThe Bank of England could be forced to tear up its economic forecasts and raise interest rates later this year if oil prices return to above $100 a barrel, according to City economists.Before a meeting of Bank officials on Thursday, economists said that while an interest rate hike would probably be avoided this week there could be some in the future because of conflict in the Middle

Reports of wide-scale replacement of workers by AI are overblown. Small businesses use it to help workersI recently met the owner of a company that sells windows and doors. He told me he invested about $10,000 in an AI application that is used by his salespeople in his showroom. The application listens to the conversations between the salesperson and the prospective customer and then automatically creates a quote for the salesperson to review and send.“It allows my salespeople to talk to more cu

More than 330,000 Haitian immigrants in limbo as Trump administration seeks to end temporary protected statusMore than 330,000 Haitian immigrants in the US are set to lose their ability to legally live and work in the country as the Trump administration seeks to terminate their temporary protected status. An estimated 13,000 are nursing assistants, who care for 65,000 patients every day.“I get up at 5am every morning and I take two buses to work to clean the rooms of the residents. I give my hea

While overall levy for UK is unchanged, sectors not covered by Turnberry deal face tougher competitionDonald Trump’s latest round of tariffs has put UK businesses at a disadvantage against the EU even though the overall tariff for British goods has not changed, experts have said.In the levies, announced late on Thursday and said to be aimed against countries that engage in forced labour, the EU’s previous 15% near blanket tariff is reduced to 10%, the same level as the tariff deal struck by Keir

Historian Kim Phillips-Fein’s book Country of Lords looks back at the many men who have tried to fight against egalitarianism, from John Adams to Peter ThielThe historian Kim Phillips-Fein’s new book is published amid celebrations of the 250th anniversary of the declaration of independence and its truth “self-evident, that all men are created equal”. Country of Lords, however, is a history of Neo-Aristocrats, Social Darwinists, Tech Utopians, and the Long Fight Against Equality in America.Concis

People across the country are pushing for moratoriums, and electeds who approve projects are being punishedLenoxdatacenter.com went live in May, promoting what it called a “proposed advanced technology and data center campus” in Michigan. The site did not state who wanted to build the center. Lenox Township officials denied anyone had applied to build one.Emails obtained by residents through an open records request showed, however, that developers had contacted the township supervisor and deputy

Strong figures suggest Tesla’s auto business is regaining momentum after two straight annual sales declinesTesla blew past ​Wall Street estimates for second-quarter deliveries on Thursday, posting a record for the period as recovering demand in Europe outweighed persistent weakness in North America.The strong figures suggest Tesla’s ⁠mainstay auto business is regaining momentum after two straight annual sales declines, providing the spending cushion needed to power its ambitions in autonomous dr

The country’s unemployment rate dropped slightly to 4.2% as US job growth also slowed for the monthSign up for the Breaking News US newsletter emailUS job growth slowed in June as employers added 57,000 new jobs – just about half of what economists had predicted – and the Bureau of Labor Statistics revised its figures from the past two months down by a total of 74,000.The country’s unemployment rate dropped slightly to 4.2%, but the number of unemployed people changed little, according to the la

Trump and US officials opted to keep USMCA alive on short leash of annual reviews rather than longer term renewalDonald Trump has refused to renew the North American trade pact he once championed as his signature deal, opting instead to keep it alive on a short leash of annual reviews rather than committing to another 16 years.Wednesday was the deadline built into the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) for the three countries to jointly decide its fate, which is set to expire in 2036.