Retail sales in Great Britain fall despite heatwave increasing food and drink demand
Posted on Friday August 21, 2026

Volume of goods sold in stores and online dropped 0.5% in July, ONS says

• Business live – latest updates

Retail sales across Great Britain weakened last month despite the men’s football World Cup and record temperatures boosting the demand for food and drink.

The Office for National Statistics said the volume of goods sold in stores and online fell 0.5% in July. That is down from 0.7% rise in June – revised down from initial estimates of 1% – and a 1.3% rise in May.

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UK reports unexpected deficit of £1.8bn as John Healey prepares for first budget
Posted on Friday August 21, 2026

July data shows total public debt was £2.98tn, or 94% of GDP – up £96bn on a year earlier

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The UK government ran a larger-than-expected £1.8bn deficit in July, underlining the challenges facing the chancellor, John Healey, as he draws up his first budget.

City economists had expected a shortfall of zero for July, a month when Treasury receipts tend to be swollen by self-assessment income tax payments.

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Airbus bows to remote working demands after series of strikes
Posted on Friday August 21, 2026

Aeroplane maker said to have watered down plans to restrict working from home to one day a week

Airbus has bowed to employee demands on remote working, after a series of strikes over its chief executive’s return-to-the office orders.

The world’s largest aeroplane maker is said to have watered down plans to restrict remote working to one day a week from September. At present, staff are able to work remotely for two.

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Jamie and Jools Oliver pay themselves £1.5m dividend as profits almost halve
Posted on Friday August 21, 2026

Pre-tax earnings slump at chef’s food and media group after one-off costs including for a new cookery school

Jamie and Jools Oliver have paid themselves a £1.5m dividend – more than 40% down on last year – after profits at their cookery and media empire almost halved.

Sales at Jamie Oliver Holdings remained broadly steady at £28.4m in 2025, £160,000 less than in the previous year, as a strong performance at the group’s own restaurants, franchise business, cookery schools and TV productions offset a decline in royalties, licensing and endorsements.

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Zuckerberg lied about concern for child safety, Meta whistleblower testifies at landmark trial
Posted on Wednesday August 19, 2026

Arturo Béjar, former Meta safety engineer, tells jury tech company was aware of products’ potential harm to children

Meta has taken a “don’t ask, don’t tell” strategy when it comes to the safety of children on its social media platforms, according to a whistleblower who testified during a landmark trial against the company on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Arturo Béjar, a former Meta safety engineer, told the jury that the company was aware of the harm its products caused children, which included its recommendations pushing content from sexual predators and violent and graphic images. He said he repeatedly raised the issue to various Facebook and Instagram executives but that they did little to resolve it.

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I worked at OpenAI. Here are the guardrails we need now | Miles Brundage
Posted on Friday August 21, 2026

I understand the pressure on AI companies to rush forward. But employees are right to be concerned

Last month, more than a thousand employees at frontier AI companies signed a letter asking the US government to find a way to “pace” AI development, citing the risk of the technology spiraling out of human control as it begins to build itself.

They were right to be concerned: just days earlier, two AI models that OpenAI was testing internally escaped the test environment, then autonomously hacked the company Hugging Face and at least three other online services. A few days after that, Anthropic announced that some of their models had also broken out and hacked other companies during testing.

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England’s bowlers tear through Pakistan to seal crushing innings victory in first Test
Posted on Friday August 21, 2026

• 1st Test, D3: England, 409, bt Pakistan, 171 & 135, by inns & 103

• Archer, Robinson and Tongue all take three wickets

The sounds heard emanating from the Headingley area at 3.38pm on Friday were not simply the belching roars of the Western Terrace as England wrapped up a one-sided victory over Pakistan. A pressure valve had also been released.

One win against a team as ragged as this Pakistan might not have been reason for Joe Root to hang bunting off the Dickie Bird balcony at his home ground. But given events this year – events that have thrust Root back into the Test captaincy under an interim head coach – the alternative outcome was unthinkable.

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Konsa joins Arsenal; Shakhtar to play European home games at Chelsea; Paredes gets 10-match ban: football – live
Posted on Friday August 21, 2026

⚽ All the latest football news, comment and previews
⚽ This weekend’s fixtures | Read Football Daily | Mail Tom

Nothing like a bit of exclusive news to kick off the shift. Can we keep this momentum going? We shall see!

Uefa and Concacaf have begun talks about setting up a combined Nations League tournament featuring all 96 European and North and Central American and Caribbean countries, in another direct challenge to Fifa.

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