FTC alleges in lawsuit that online retailer ‘secretly and systematically overcharged’ advertisers for years

The US’s main trade regulator and 22 states sued Amazon on Monday, alleging the online retailer “secretly and systematically overcharged” advertisers on Amazon.com.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said these practices led to higher costs for customers on items like groceries and other essential goods that are sold on Amazon.

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© Photograph: Charles-McClintock Wilson/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Charles-McClintock Wilson/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Charles-McClintock Wilson/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

The former US representative was also fined more than $71,000 for allegedly attempting to manipulate the prediction market.

Telecoms company to benefit from soaring prices for recycled metal recovered from full-fibre broadband rollout

BT is on track for an estimated £2bn-plus windfall over the next decade from selling off old copper cabling, as it cashes in on soaring prices amid the AI market frenzy and switches the UK’s network to full-fibre broadband.

Copper is one of the main beneficiaries of the “electrification of everything”, essential for the rapid growth of AI datacentres, electronics and the fast-growing renewable energy industry.

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© Photograph: Ian Rutherford/Alamy

© Photograph: Ian Rutherford/Alamy

© Photograph: Ian Rutherford/Alamy

Trump’s Operation Economic Outcast is expected to push many Iranians into deeper poverty as food inflation soars

For many Iranians, the new US sanctions campaign, called Operation Economic Outcast, seems superfluous given the grim economic situation in their country.

Iranians are facing runaway food inflation, closed petrol stations and a seemingly never-ending depreciation of the nation’s currency caused by a lack of foreign exchange reserves.

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© Photograph: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA

© Photograph: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA

© Photograph: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA

AI company faces multibillion dollar lawsuit over misuse of copyrighted songs to train Claude models

All AI wants for Christmas is a vast back catalogue of songs without paying for it, according to a multibillion-dollar lawsuit against the startup behind the Claude chatbot.

Sony Music Publishing and Warner Chappell, music publishers who manage the copyright of songs on behalf of songwriters and composers, are seeking damages for alleged misuse of “tens of thousands” of copyrighted works by Anthropic.

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© Photograph: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for MC

© Photograph: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for MC

© Photograph: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for MC

Trump’s Operation Economic Outcast is expected to push many Iranians into deeper poverty as food inflation soars

For many Iranians, the new US sanctions campaign, called Operation Economic Outcast, seems superfluous given the grim economic situation in their country.

Iranians are facing runaway food inflation, closed petrol stations and a seemingly never-ending depreciation of the nation’s currency caused by a lack of foreign exchange reserves.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA

© Photograph: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA

© Photograph: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA

Exclusive: How a court case over an unoccupied office block could end a widely used tax avoidance scheme

From the outside, the seven-storey building at 2 America Square looks like any other office block in the heart of London’s financial district.

Located about half a mile from Tower Bridge, one might expect it to be a hive of commercial activity, teeming with employees holding important meetings. However, much of the property is home not to staff vying for their next bonus, but to stacks of nondescript black boxes arranged in neat lines.

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© Photograph: Brian Anthony/Alamy

© Photograph: Brian Anthony/Alamy

© Photograph: Brian Anthony/Alamy

Of the Glassdoor reviews from claims adjusters that mentioned AI, a staggering 98 percent were negative. “AI is just a tool,” one person tells WIRED. “It should never be given the keys.”

US trade representative Jamieson Greer has a level-headed reputation but commerce secretary Howard Lutnick and White House adviser Peter Navarro also have key roles

Having reportedly read Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, in French, during a military tour of duty in Iraq, Jamieson Greer considered himself an unlikely target for accusations of francophobia.

But Donald Trump’s US trade representative, hitherto one of the president’s less high-profile cabinet members, found himself in that uncomfortable position amid the acrimonious collapse of bilateral trade talks with Canada that now threatens to degenerate into an all-out trade war between the two close trading partners whose economies are tightly intertwined.

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© Photograph: Getty Images

© Photograph: Getty Images

© Photograph: Getty Images

With traditional goals such as stability and home ownership feeling out of reach, young people are focused on the present

By now, we all know the shape of financial nihilism: the throw-your-money-at-anything reaction to the dissolution of the slow, linear path to wealth; the prediction markets, meme stocks, cryptocurrencies and microluxuries growing in its place. We’re left in an economic no man’s land. But financial nihilism only describes where we put our money. What about how we earn it in the first place?

The modern economy has long relied on our need for stable employment – to pay the mortgage, to keep our kids fed, or, for some, to chase prestige and power – to generate the work ethic that keeps the wheel of production turning. None of this is going well for young people. Our jobs are insecure, we can’t afford houses, we’re deferring having kids (if we have them at all), and only 6% of us say a leadership position is our primary career goal. Hope is one of the economy’s most productive inputs, powering our willingness to endure long hours. When the production function of income – the mechanism that turns hard work into a stable salary, then a mortgage, then a pension – breaks down, so does our relationship with the input. I call this production nihilism: my generation’s growing indifference to the kinds of work we’re willing to participate in, and where we’re willing to earn.

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© Photograph: Michael Simons/Alamy

© Photograph: Michael Simons/Alamy

© Photograph: Michael Simons/Alamy

Secretive state begins repairs on ageing facilities after being revealed as worst country for leaks of potent greenhouse gas

Turkmenistan has started plugging the mega-leaks of methane that spew from its ageing oil and gas facilities, the latest UN data shows, in a move hailed as a breakthrough.

Methane, also called natural or fossil gas, is a potent greenhouse gas. It traps 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide and causes 25% of global heating today. Stopping leaks can be quick and cheap and, because methane breaks down in the atmosphere far quicker than CO2, this has a rapid impact, with some experts calling it the climate “emergency brake”.

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© Photograph: David Goldman/AP

© Photograph: David Goldman/AP

© Photograph: David Goldman/AP

Secretive state begins repairs on ageing facilities after being revealed as worst country for leaks of potent greenhouse gas

Turkmenistan has started plugging the mega-leaks of methane that spew from its ageing oil and gas facilities, the latest UN data shows, in a move hailed as a breakthrough.

Methane, also called natural or fossil gas, is a potent greenhouse gas. It traps 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide and causes 25% of global heating today. Stopping leaks can be quick and cheap and, because methane breaks down in the atmosphere far quicker than CO2, this has a rapid impact, with some experts calling it the climate “emergency brake”.

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© Photograph: David Goldman/AP

© Photograph: David Goldman/AP

© Photograph: David Goldman/AP

Andrew Bailey, in role as financial stability watchdog chief, warns advanced models risk destabilising system

The Bank of England’s governor, Andrew Bailey, has joined the throng of figures warning about the global risks posed by the most advanced artificial intelligence technology.

In a two-page letter sent to international finance ministers and central bank governors as part of his role as chair of the international Financial Stability Board (FSB), Bailey said “frontier” AI models were “showing increasingly sophisticated autonomy and problem-solving abilities, as well as threat capabilities”.

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© Photograph: Richard Drew/AP

© Photograph: Richard Drew/AP

© Photograph: Richard Drew/AP

Administrators will be forced to close the business if it fails to secure additional funding, revealing hundreds of staff have not been paid for weeks

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The administrators of embattled property developer Bathla Group have said the company will fold by the end of the week unless they can secure additional funding to keep it afloat.

The insolvency advisory Teneo assumed control of Bathla’s operations on 25 August after the Sydney-based construction company went into voluntary administration under the weight of almost $3.6bn in debt.

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© Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

© Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

© Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

Centre for Economics and Business Research calculates effect of inflation and wage stagnation to end of 2027

UK households will have suffered a £2,400 financial hit, on average, from the Iran war by the end of 2027, new analysis shows.

The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) has calculated that the jump in inflation since the conflict began, and weaker wage growth, will knock £1,100 off the real income of the average UK household in 2026, and by a further £1,300 in 2027.

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© Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian

© Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian

© Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian

Nationwide research also shows average 14% premium for housing in national landscapes of England and Wales

Housebuyers are paying a premium of almost a quarter to own a property located within a UK national park, with the New Forest the most expensive national park to live in, according to Britain’s biggest building society.

Nationwide found that a property located within a national park cost 24% more on average than a similar property elsewhere, while buyers were also stumping up a 6% premium for homes within three miles of a national park.

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© Photograph: Greg Balfour Evans/Alamy

© Photograph: Greg Balfour Evans/Alamy

© Photograph: Greg Balfour Evans/Alamy

Nationwide research also shows average 14% premium for housing in national landscapes of England and Wales

Housebuyers are paying a premium of almost a quarter to own a property located within a UK national park, with the New Forest the most expensive national park to live in, according to Britain’s biggest building society.

Nationwide found that a property located within a national park cost 24% more on average than a similar property elsewhere, while buyers were also stumping up a 6% premium for homes within three miles of a national park.

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© Photograph: Greg Balfour Evans/Alamy

© Photograph: Greg Balfour Evans/Alamy

© Photograph: Greg Balfour Evans/Alamy

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The Australian government is working with Russian officials in a bid to secure the release of Australian Oscar Jenkins, Matt Thistlethwaite says.

Speaking to ABC news breakfast, the assistant minister for foreign affairs declined to answer whether a prisoner swap was on the table.

Obviously, we try and negotiate as best we can on behalf of all Australians who find themselves in difficulties such as this. We obviously have to abide by international laws and we always uphold them. But the Australian officials on the ground will work with their counterparts to ensure that, hopefully he’s returned to Australia safely.

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© Photograph: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

© Photograph: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

© Photograph: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images