Business

LONDON: UK chipmaker Graphcore has raised $50m from Sequoia Capital, one of Silicon Valley’s top venture capital firms, as the start-up angles to become Britain’s biggest maker of artificial intelligence hardware. Sequoia has only made a handful of investments in Europe but said Graphcore was poised to compete with industry ...

LONDON: Waitrose has focused on community spirit for its festive ad with the story of villagers who find themselves snowed in at the highest pub in Britain for Christmas lunch. The ad shows a snowstorm hitting the area as locals gather for a drink on Christmas morning, forcing them to ...

LONDON: UK supermarket chain ​Tesco has come under fire on social media, after its 2017 Christmas advert featured a Muslim family celebrating the holiday. The advert, which is around a minute in length, depicts a series of families from different backgrounds celebrating and preparing their respective Christmas dinners. It was ...

BRASILIA: Members of Lewis Hamilton’s world-championship winning Mercedes team were robbed at gunpoint as they left the Interlagos circuit on Friday night. A minibus, transporting Mercedes staff back to their team hotel, was held up at 2200 local time. One of the team had a gun held to their head, ...

LONDON: The GMB union said a ruling by the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) was a “landmark victory” for workers’ rights, especially in the gig economy. Two drivers, James Farrar and Yaseen Aslam, won an employment tribunal case last year after arguing that they were “workers” and entitled to the minimum ...

LONDON: Ofgem has announced a £150 cap on charges for installing prepayment meters under warrant for customers in debt. When customers fall into debt, suppliers attempt to collect payments over several weeks, which could include by email, letters, telephone and house visits. If they don’t receive payments or arrange a ...

Sainsbury’s said like-for-like sales had risen in the third quarter, but profits were hit by wage inflation. Like for like sales (excluding fuel) rose 1.6 per cent in the 28 weeks to the 23 September, the retailer said today, with underlying group sales rising 17 per cent to £16.3bn. But ...

LONDON: A driverless shuttle was involved in a crash with a truck on the first day of operation in Downtown Las Vegas on Tuesday. Keolis, the company that helped build the shuttle, says that the crash was in a minor accident and that damage to both vehicles was cosmetic. The driver ...

BERLIN: It’s the gloopy chocolate and hazelnut spread that has become a worldwide food phenomenon, whether slathered on toast or eaten straight from the jar by the spoonful. But aficionados of Nutella are up in arms after discovering that the recipe has been secretly changed, with more sugar and fat ...

SAN FRANCISCO: Alphabet Inc’s Waymo will launch a ride-hailing service with no human behind the steering wheel and has been testing the fully self-driving cars on public roads in Arizona, Chief Executive John Krafcik said on Tuesday. The test without a human in the driver’s seat is a first in ...