THE HOT STORY

Virtual interviews don't show bosses your personality, Burnham says

Employers should not rely so heavily on virtual job interviews when hiring because they don't capture candidates' personality and passion, UK prime minister Andy Burnham has said. "One thing I really don't like is this culture now of interviewing via Zoom or Teams," he told a careers podcast, adding: "How do you get over some of your personality, your passion?" Burnham said: "It seems to me to then work against people who have that side to their character and work for those who are just giving the more formulaic answer." Maxine Bligh from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) said: "AI tools are helpful, even essential, when dealing with a huge volume of applications, but it takes skill and professionalism to make the right call . . . The key message from us to recruiters is to go digital where it matters and human where it counts."

BBC News

WORKFORCE

Unilever agrees two-year worker protection following McCormick merger

Unilever has agreed to protect the employment terms of workers in its European and UK food unit until at least mid-2029 after the planned 2027 completion of its $65bn merger of the business with US spice maker McCormick. The two year agreement, which will govern the treatment and pay of European employees regardless of changes in business conditions, is twice as long as is usual for such deals and goes beyond the protection that is typically afforded under European Union and British legislation, under which employee contracts and collective agreements can be renegotiated one year after merger deals. A Unilever spokesperson said: "We have made good progress over the past few weeks and have agreed commitments in Europe regarding the protection of employees’ terms and conditions and consultation timelines."

Reuters

STRATEGY

Betfred to axe 600 jobs

Higher taxes and economic uncertainty have prompted Betfred to shut 132 shops and cut more than 600 jobs. The move will leave the gambling firm with around 1,100 shops across the UK. Jo Whittaker, chief executive of Betfred, said: "The combined impact of higher employer national insurance contributions, wage inflation, increases in gambling taxes and wider economic uncertainty has left us with no choice."

BBC News

Job cuts loom at Santander after TSB deal

Santander is preparing for potential job cuts following its £2.65bn acquisition of TSB. Unions are negotiating how to assess employees fairly amid concerns over redundancies. Currently, Santander employs about 23,000 staff, but the exact number of job losses remains unconfirmed. Banco Santander has already announced 130 job losses at TSB before the transfer of staff.

The Times

LEGAL

Papa Johns worker fired for tax honesty

Ashwani Kumar, a former Papa Johns manager, was dismissed for insisting on proper payslips and tax deductions. He refused cash-in-hand payments, wanting his tax paid to HMRC. After discovering his payslips were fake, he took legal action against franchise owners EEM London and Abdul Sattar Askar. The tribunal ruled in his favour, stating his dismissal was automatically unfair.

The Daily Telegraph

CYBERSECURITY

Massive data breach exposes police officers

More than 100,000 police officers' details have been leaked on the dark web following a security breach. Hackers also compromised data belonging to the Ministry of Defence, the Home Office, National Crime Agency, and Crown Prosecution Service. Tiff Lynch, chair of the Police Federation, said the breach "raises serious concerns for officer and staff safety. At a time when cyber threats are becoming increasingly sophisticated, [the police] and its partners must be properly funded to ensure the strongest possible cyber security protections are in place to safeguard sensitive personal data." The cybercriminal group ExfilSquad is believed to be responsible for the breach, having previously targeted other government departments. "Unfortunately government organisations are being seen as softer targets because they have not invested enough to properly protect private information," said Jake Moore, global security adviser at Eset, Europe's leading cybersecurity company.

The Times

Anthropic says Claude AI hacked three organisations during cyber tests

Anthropic has disclosed that its Claude AI models gained unauthorised access to three outside companies during an evaluation of its cyber-offensive tasks, days after rival OpenAI ⁠revealed a rogue agent had gone on a hacking spree at AI firm Hugging ‌Face. “Claude compromised the impacted organisations’ infrastructure using basic techniques, such as exploiting ‌weak passwords and unauthenticated endpoints,” Anthropic said. Two of the organisations were unaware of the activity ‌before being contacted, and Anthropic said that it was still trying to reach the third. “We discovered these incidents after a proactive review of our cybersecurity evaluation transcripts,” the company said in a statement.

INTERNATIONAL

AI startup guaranteed job interviews for people getting a tattoo

The co-founder of AI startup LemonLime has apologised after offering instant job interviews to networking event attendees who agreed to get inked with a company logo. Jordan Zietz, posting on LinkedIn, said the idea was to “meet exceptional people, and find out which of them are just as crazy as we are,” adding that he had brought a tattoo artist along to the event. Seven people, he wrote, took him up on the offer. The Wall Street Journal reports that “online outrage erupted almost instantly.” Mark Pincus, the former CEO of game company Zynga, observed: “It’s novel, but I don’t like it . . . You’re asking somebody to get the tattoo before we even know if we’re going to hire them - that’s not OK.”

Wall Street Journal

Audi workers protest over threatened plant closure

An estimated 6,000 Audi workers have demonstrated against the possible closure of the ‌German automaker's Neckarsulm plant as parent Volkswagen pushes ahead with a group restructuring in the face of increased competition from China and US tariffs. Oliver Blume, Volkswagen's CEO, has warned Neckarsulm is among four German plants that could close after 2030 if no alternative solution is found. "The staff wants clarity because they're worried about coming to work. Many families are worried, too," Audi trainee Frank Wojko said. Local mayor Steffen Hertwig told Reuters that closing Neckarsulm ⁠"would be a disaster" and have far-reaching consequences for the southwestern state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, a traditional automaking region.

Daily Sabah

Reuters

HSBC hiring spree to boost Singapore hub

HSBC is to hire more than 100 artificial intelligence specialists and 100 wealth managers as the bank moves to launch a new AI centre in Singapore in the second half of 2026. Talent will be recruited across natural language processing, data science, AI governance and human-centred design, HSBC said. The ⁠Singapore centre will initially focus on personalising customer wealth management conversations, introducing agentic treasury solutions, and expanding AI-enabled digital payments.

Reuters

OTHER

South Korea’s ‘dopamine apps’ offer shopping without spending

A growing number of South Koreans are turning to so-called "dopamine apps" that recreate the experience of online shopping or ordering food without requiring payment or delivering any products, as younger consumers seek low-cost ways to satisfy spending urges amid rising living costs. Apps such as FoodNeverArrives allow users to browse menus, place virtual orders and track deliveries that never arrive, while mock shopping websites offer fictional products and other platforms simulate experiences such as cigarette breaks. Commentators say the trend reflects financial pressures, including high youth unemployment and inflation, as well as growing economic uncertainty, although privacy experts have warned users to consider how these apps handle personal data.

AFR

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