Car finance: Barclays becomes first big lender to offer payouts for mis-selling of loans
Posted on Tuesday November 03, 2026

Bank to make ‘early settlement’ offers before outcome of legal battle, with those who accept likely to get money before Christmas

• Business live – latest updates

Barclays will this month start offering compensation to tens of thousands of people who claim they were mis-sold car loans, with some of those who accept likely to see the money land in their account before Christmas.

Amid an ongoing legal battle over an industry-wide compensation scheme for victims of the UK’s car finance scandal, Barclays has become the first big UK lender to break cover and begin offering payouts to some customers who have complained.

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UK’s most polluting power plant could power country’s largest AI datacentre
Posted on Tuesday November 03, 2026

Drax’s FTSE 250 owner strikes £20bn deal to build infrastructure in what it says is site’s ‘next chapter’

• Business live – latest updates

Britain’s most polluting power plant could soon power the country’s largest datacentre under a £20bn deal to build AI infrastructure on the site of the Drax power plant in North Yorkshire.

The power plant’s FTSE 250 owner has struck a deal with the infrastructure investor Brookfield and ⁠and the AI infrastructure platform Radiant to develop a datacentre with an eventual capacity of more than 1 gigawatt that could begin operations by early 2028.

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Guaranteed pension income ‘resurrected’ for 17m private sector workers
Posted on Tuesday November 03, 2026

Ministers propose new guided retirement scheme to help give savers protection for life

• Business live – latest updates

Millions of private sector workers will be offered a guaranteed pension income for life under new rules designed to help them get the most out of their retirement savings.

Over the past 30 years, the majority of final salary pension schemes offering a set payout for life have closed. Workers have instead saved into a scheme and arrived at retirement with a pot of money they have to decide what to do with.

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John Lewis Christmas ad stars Kristin Scott Thomas as glamorous granny on a gift hunt
Posted on Tuesday November 03, 2026

Company tugs at heartstrings with Pickles the talking toy dog as it celebrates 20 years of blockbuster festive ads

• Review: Kristin Scott Thomas v Pickles the evil AI overlord puppy

John Lewis has turned to a celebrity best known for playing aristocrats to put a playful but rather upmarket spin on the countdown to Christmas with this year’s festive ad, which features a toy dog called Pickles and a glamorous granny.

Kristin Scott Thomas, known for playing upper-crust characters in films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral and the Apple TV show Slow Horses, is cast as Gloria, a grandmother searching for gift inspiration, with the tagline “don’t give up on giving”.

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Freezers of UK meat suppliers heat up after cyber-attacks in Europe
Posted on Tuesday November 03, 2026

Cybersecurity experts say incidents had minimal effect but may represent the ‘foothills’ of a wider threat

Meat suppliers in the UK have been hit by cyber-attacks after hackers raised the temperatures of supermarket freezers across Europe.

The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre said it was working with the affected companies but the national impact was minimal.

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Binance battles to save its brand after record $6.3bn crypto hack
Posted on Tuesday November 03, 2026

World’s largest crypto exchange faces fallout from angry customers, and Lula wins with WhatsApp

• This was originally published in TechScape, a newsletter about how technology shapes our lives. Sign up to receive it here

This week in tech, we’re discussing the fallout from the multibillion-dollar hack of Binance and the significance of Lula’s political mobilization on WhatsApp.

And if you’ll be at Web Summit in Lisbon next week, drop me a line! I’ll be there moderating panels on open-source AI and human agency in the age of AI agents.

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

Polymarket temporarily suspends trading on international platform due to security incident

How crypto hacking funds isolated North Korea’s nuclear programme

Ghost in the machine: how AI is haunting the search for the supernatural

Computerized clairvoyance: psychics push back against AI-generated readings

The staggering $446m Elon Musk has spent on the US midterms – visualized

Billionaire tax: how a union leader’s ‘crazy’ idea became the defining issue of California’s midterms

How tech became the villain of the US midterms

The ultra-rich are spending one million dollars a day fighting California’s proposed billionaire tax

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Falling revenues, bigger losses, higher wages: Prem Rugby clubs’ debt climbs to £366m
Posted on Tuesday November 03, 2026

• Six clubs found to be balance-sheet insolvent

• Spending restraint urged despite investment

Prem Rugby clubs’ collective losses and debt levels are continuing to increase despite growing interest from global companies and financiers shown by the recent investment of Red Bull, Sir James Dyson, and the Black Knight group which owns AFC Bournemouth.

The third edition of the Leonard Curtis Rugby Finance Report published on Tuesday shows that the financial losses of the 10 Prem clubs rose from £34m to £36.5m over the 2024-25 season and combined debt levels increased from £342.5m to £366.1m, while the top flight’s total wage bills grew from £125.9m to £129.8m, 80% of revenues.

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Tenerife footballer Jesús de Miguel dies aged 30 after on-pitch collision
Posted on Tuesday November 03, 2026

• Forward had cardiac arrest and was taken to hospital

• He was struck in the chest when challenging for ball

The Tenerife striker Jesús de Miguel has died following a collision with the Andorra goalkeeper Jesús Owono during a match in Spain’s second division.

Tenerife announced that the 30-year-old had died at 8am on Tuesday after he had been taken into intensive care on Monday afternoon. De Miguel did not regain consciousness following a cardiorespiratory arrest.

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