Seeking out a better deal from your broadband, pay TV and energy suppliers? While you know it could save hundreds of pounds, you might be wondering if it's worth the hassle. But often it only needs one call or a couple of clicks - and banks even pay an incentive to people who switch their main current accounts. Regulators have made the switching process easier in recent years, encouraging people to shop around when cost of living pressures have intensified. Which deals are the best for you still depends on your circumstances, but here are some of the ways that switching works.

Apple has sued OpenAI and two former employees, alleging misappropriation of its trade secrets as the artificial intelligence company seeks to build its own hardware for ChatGPT, a major rupture in a partnership between the iPhone maker and the AI giant. The complaint, filed in a California federal court on Friday, alleges a coordinated effort to steal Apple's confidential information, including product designs, manufacturing processes and supply chain strategies. The lawsuit names Chang Liu, a former senior system electrical engineer, and Tang Yew Tan, a former vice president of product design for the iPhone and Apple Watch, as defendants, along with the OpenAI Foundation, OpenAI Group PBC and io Products. Neither defendant immediately responded to a request for comment. Apple alleged that Liu failed to return a company-issued work laptop and later used an authentication bug to access Apple's internal network, downloading "dozens of Apple's confidential hardware-related files".

The iPhone-maker claims OpenAI encouraged poached Apple employees to bring over confidential presentations, secret prototypes, and key supplier details. Apple filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and its hardware chief on Friday for allegedly stealing the iPhone-maker's trade secrets, including unreleased parts and prototypes, confidential designs, and documents about stealth projects. The lawsuit accuses OpenAI chief hardware officer Tang Tan, who spent 24 years at Apple and oversaw iPhone product design, and his colleagues at the AI company of encouraging people departing or considering leaving Apple to bring with them proprietary and unreleased technology. Tan allegedly helped coach recruits on how to evade Apple's data security protocols and directed them to bring confidential Apple parts to job interviews at OpenAI. "OpenAI's nascent hardware business now rests on the shakiest of foundations, rotten to its core by its illegal reliance on misappropriated trade secrets," Apple says in the lawsuit, which was filed in US district court in San Jose.

New Scotland Yard, the headquarters of the Metropolitan police whose pilot with Palantir focuses on detecting misconduct by officers. New Scotland Yard, the headquarters of the Metropolitan police whose pilot with Palantir focuses on detecting misconduct by officers. Mayor's office grants extra 12 months to run pilot while London force procures long-term supplier Wed 24 Jun 2026 18.14 EDTLast modified on Wed 24 Jun 2026 18.50 EDT The Metropolitan police have been granted a 12-month extension to a pilot project with the spy-tech firm Palantir while the force carries out a procurement process. The development comes weeks after the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, blocked a £50m deal between the Met and the US company to automate intelligence analysis in criminal investigations. Last month the mayor's office said there had been a "clear and serious breach" of procurement rules and said police had seriously considered only one supplier. Palantir's lawyers subsequently wrote to the Mayor's Office for Policing and Crime (Mopac) saying they intended to challenge the decision in court, the Times reported.

Motivated by real-life supply chain management, we study a repeated newsvendor problem in which the learner is a mediator that facilitates trades between suppliers and retailers in a sequence of supplier/retailer interactions. At each time step, a new supplier and retailer join the mediator's platform with a private production cost and utility function, respectively, and the platform proposes a unitary trading price. The supplier accepts the proposed price if it meets or exceeds their unitary production cost and communicates their decision to the platform; simultaneously, the retailer decides the quantity to purchase at the proposed trading price based on their private utility function and sends their decision to the platform. If the supplier accepts the trading price, the transaction proceeds, and the retailer purchases their chosen quantity of units, paying the product of this quantity and the trading price to the supplier. The mediator's objective is to maximize social welfare. We design an online mediator's pricing strategy that features sharp regret rates under some natural assumptions, and we investigate the necessity of these assumptions, proving that relaxing any of them leads to unlearnability.

Millions of people can get discounts on their bills - here's how Water, phone and broadband companies are willing to give millions of people discounted deals on their bills. Social tariffs - sometimes known as essential, or basic, tariffs - can reduce bills for people on various benefits. Generally, you only need to ask your supplier to get on one. Importantly, they are not price promotions designed to attract customers, but lower bills for the same service for those who would otherwise struggle to pay. Most people who have fallen behind on paying their bills are unaware this help is available, a major report has suggested.

A labour rights organisation claims it has found evidence of worker exploitation in a Chinese factory that makes the viral Labubu dolls. China Labor Watch (CLW), a US-based non-governmental organisation, alleges that its investigation found that one of Pop Mart's suppliers made employees work excessive overtime shifts, sign blank or incomplete contracts and did not give them paid leave. The furry Labubu dolls have surged in popularity around the world in recent years and are best known for selling toys in blind boxes, which hide its content from buyers until it is opened. Pop Mart told the BBC that it is investigating the claims. The Beijing-based toy retailer said it appreciated the details from the review and that it will firmly require companies making its toys to correct their practices if the allegations are found to be true.

Octopus Energy to spin off $8.65bn tech arm Kraken Octopus Energy is set to spin off its Kraken Technologies arm as a standalone company after a deal to sell a stake in the platform valued it at $8.65bn (£6.4bn). The energy giant, Britain's biggest gas and electricity supplier, has sold a $1bn stake in the AI-based division to a group of investors led by New York-based D1 Capital Partners. The move paves the way for Kraken to be demerged from Octopus, and for a potential stock market flotation for the business in the future. Octopus founder and chief executive Greg Jackson told the BBC there was every chance Kraken would list its shares in the medium term, with the location of the flotation between London and the US. Kraken uses AI to automate customer service and billing for energy companies and can manage when customers use energy, rewarding them for reducing consumption at peak times. It was initially built for use by Octopus but has since picked up a raft of other utilities clients, including EDF, E.On Next, TalkTalk and National Grid US.

It used to be just a sci-fi nightmare scenario, but today, AI phishing is real, and it's costing companies millions. We've already touched upon this one, but the Hong Kong phishing scam that targeted an employee at Arup deserves a deeper dive. The employee was tricked by deepfake versions of her CFO and colleagues into transferring HK 200 million across 15 transactions. The case has been widely reported and confirmed by the Hong Kong police. Every face and voice was AI-generated.