‘Free grand piano’: the scam playing on music lovers’ heartstrings

She says she would love it to go to someone "who will truly appreciate and care for it". The piano "is in excellent condition and has brought joy to our home". The email ends: "If you know of a dedicated student…

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What the Budget means for small businesses

Plans to change the way they pay income tax will raise almost as much as tax increases for banks and savers , the Budget small print reveals, and unlike the tax hike on banks, this reform is intended to be permanent.…

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Hot fridges, a fake nuclear alert and a $6bn heist: are we in the foothills of a hacking epidemic?

The defrost light on refrigeration unit 2 was on, and the panel reading was 150C. Unit 4 was the same. As he approached his biggest unit, its defrost light also blinked on. It was at this point that Pearce thought: is…

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Women’s football doesn’t need to become men’s football to succeed

It doesn't need to mimic men's. Women’s football is on a continual gradient of growth. The curve has been getting steeper and steeper each year, each season – more investment, more interest, more sales, more TV airtime.…

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He spent $50,000 on Labubus but now the craze is dying

Collectors young and old energetically snapped up "blind boxes" - sealed, mystery packages containing the quirky monsters - often paying $15 (£11) or more. Those unable to get the characters they wanted were often…

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‘Very strange, very sad’: Paraguay bank collapse fells a presidency and leaves millions broke

It was a day after payday, and Volpe, 50, a writer and lawyer, opened his banking app and panicked: he could not even see his balance. Volpe was among nearly 3 million Paraguayans, about 60% of the country's adult…

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Five European leaders call for closer EU-UK ties ahead of Brussels summit

The leaders of Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Denmark, said deeper cooperation on clean energy would benefit both sides in a letter to Ursula von der Leyen and António Costa. Von der Leyen, the…

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National Trust votes to seek banking partner more in tune with its environmental policies

The resolution, passed at the charity's annual general meeting on Saturday with the backing of its board of trustees, instructs the organisation to begin a competitive tendering process for its banking arrangements. That…

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Great British Railways: new dawn for a new network but with plenty of old problems to fix

But with a renationalised industry facing fresh storms in 2027, some in the railway world are wondering if they should be careful what they wish for. The legislation that will rip up how rail has been run , anticipated…

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A ‘customer success story’: leaked documents show Cisco doubled down on Israeli military deals during Gaza war

There were major, multi-hour outages to their systems, and repeated crashes. Built-in debugging mechanisms failed. The problems, which started as intelligence operations were undergoing updates to digital infrastructure…

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