Category: 3. Business

Walk through a supermarket and the technology is everywhere. Self-service checkouts, electronic shelf labels, handheld barcode scanners and the video screens showing you – caught by AI facial recognition cameras – leaving the shop.

In an economy struggling for growth, the encroachment of these machines in our everyday lives could be an early sign of a new dawn – a tech-driven renaissance in activity after years of flatlining growth in productivity and stalled business investment. No bad thing.

On the other hand, it could be the glimpse of a dystopian future that is already beginning to take shape. Of retailers using tech with low running costs instead of low-paid, but relatively more expensive, humans. A productivity boom. But who for?

In the past year unemployment in Britain has risen to the highest rate in a decade, excluding the height of the Covid pandemic. Meanwhile economic output has maintained a reasonable, if pedestrian, pace of growth. Put those two things together and rising levels of productivity – output per hour of work – is the mechanical consequence.

Much of the gains are down to tumbling employment in low-paying sectors – retail in particular, where jobs are being shed and hiring frozen in the face of rising labour costs.

Bosses have blamed the government. This year’s £25bn hike in employer national insurance contributions (NICs) and living wage increases are among reasons the British Retail Consortium (BRC) gives for a 10% jump in the cost of employing people in full-time entry-level retail roles. The trade association also complains about Labour’s employment rights bill and packaging costs hitting jobs.

At this time of year, retailers typically take on hordes of staff for the festive season. However, this year has not matched the usual pattern.

Figures from the jobs website Adzuna showed retail vacancies fell by almost 6% in November, typically the key month for hiring. Openings are at the lowest point in a decade, excluding the Covid pandemic.

Much of this is down to feeble consumer demand and the boom in online retail. However, the rise of the machines is also playing a role. Industry surveys show investment in automation rank second as the most common response to Labour’s business tax changes, after raising prices.

Taken together, it is hardly surprising retail employment has collapsed by more than 350,000 in the past decade. Young people applying for lower-skilled, entry-level positions – which also happen to be easier to automate – have borne the brunt.

Within Labour circles, there is an unspoken logic to driving up the cost of employment. For too long, firms have relied on paying poverty-level wages to turn a profit. UK firms have lagged behind in the G7 investment league tables for decades. Economists reckon some of that is down to a lower relative cost of employing labour versus capital – especially in volatile economic times.

Recently, however, the balance has shifted. Employment costs are up; access to immigrant labour is down, and workforce participation has fallen amid rising levels of ill-health and early retirement. Much of this is the outcome of policy choice.

“The higher your employment costs, regulation, and risk around hiring – the more likely you are as a business to consider options to automate,” says Tera Allas, a professor at the Productivity Institute, a research organisation.

So far, the data shows the UK is still in the foothills of the turnaround.

Business investment has not exploded, but is rising – with a 1.5% increase in the third quarter. Meanwhile productivity rose 1.1% compared with a year earlier. Although still short of the 2% pre-2008 financial crisis annual average productivity growth, that is better than the flatlining of investment of recent years.

Successive governments have treated productivity as a silver bullet to Britain’s decades of economic underperformance. None, however, would have campaigned for any gains to come at the expense of workers.

There is also an irony in the prospect of a “jobs-lite boom” under Labour – a party tracing its roots, however thinly today, to the struggle of organised labour amid the galloping productivity gains of the Industrial Revolution.

In the early 19th century, factory owners investing in steam-driven power looms, knitting frames and mill engines fuelled a productivity boom. At first, the spoils went largely to the capitalists – in a period later described as “Engel’s pause”, after the philosopher Friedrich Engels, to describe the years of wage stagnation as Britain became the world’s richest economy. Many angry workers turned to rebellion.

In the long run, living standards rose as workers shifted into new occupations. The Luddites were on the wrong side of history. However, progress was not without social upheaval, nor taken for granted. There were struggles for employment rights and pay through the nascent trade union movement – culminating in political representation and the creation of the modern welfare state.

There are clear parallels today. This month, Andrew Bailey warned that job displacement similar to the Industrial Revolution was highly probable – with the Bank of England governor calling for the UK to have “training, education, [and] skills in place” to help those at risk.

Allas says there are reasons to be hopeful, not least because new technologies typically help to create new forms of work – enabling people to leave behind menial tasks. Businesses, too, worry about the consequences of losing their pipeline of middle managers if all the entry-level work is automated out.

“Humans are infinitely resilient. We have a capability to learn and we’ll figure out how to learn in new ways,” she says.

However, there will be serious problems if the transition is not managed well. Workers will demand to be brought along, not left behind. For Labour there are a few lessons from history.

December 28, 2025

What does responsible planning look like as San Antonio becomes a growing hub for data centers?

Councilmember Ric Galvan, whose Westside District 6 contains most of the city’s existing facilities, has calledfor a broad policy discussion on how data centers interact with neighborhood development, utilities and long-term infrastructure.

He says his request stems from questions he’s hearing from residents about energy, water and long-term economic planning. 

The Maine Department of Environmental Protection recently issued a letter of warning designed to recoup wetlands protections lost in a regulatory oversight more than 20 years ago.

The lapse by state and federal regulators allowed a wetlands mitigation site in Belfast to be marketed for commercial development earlier this year.

The mitigation deal emerged from the development of credit card giant MBNA’s sprawling campus in Belfast. In exchange for impacts to about seven acres of wetlands, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers agreed to let MBNA restore wetlands on a nearby 24-acre site, just west of the Renys Plaza, and protect it in perpetuity for conservation and public access. 

Bank of America acquired the wetlands parcel when it bought MBNA in 2006. It sold the 24 acres at auction this January, but the deed was unencumbered by a conservation easement, because it had never been filed. The new owner is now offering it for sale for commercial development. (Listing agent Charlie Hippler did not reply to requests for comment.)

The warning letter issued by the DEP last month was addressed to the nonprofit Penobscot Community Health Care, which now owns the property where regulators allowed MBNA to alter wetlands in exchange for setting aside the 24-acre parcel. 

“It has come to the Department’s attention that the deed restriction was never placed on the mitigation parcel as intended and required by both the Department order and Corps permit,” DEP’s Robert Wood wrote in the November 10 letter. “The Department is also aware that the current owner of the mitigation parcel, which is not PCHC, recently listed the property for sale for commercial development.”

The warning letter continues, “The license requires PCHC to preserve wetland functions and values on the mitigation parcel. Because the parcel has not been protected in perpetuity by deed restriction and is now at risk of being developed for commercial purposes, PCHC has not preserved the wetland functions and values on the mitigation parcel.” 

Wood said if PCHC does not comply with the terms of the license, DEP might take enforcement action. 

But the health care agency says it does not feel obligated to fix the mitigation snafu. The nonprofit bought the land for its Seaport Community Health Center from Bank of America in 2021, before the missing conservation easement came to light. 

“Penobscot Community Health Care is not and has never been the owner of the land which contains the wetlands in question and does not have any responsibility regarding the property,” the agency said in an emailed statement. “PCHC is investigating why the Maine Department of Environmental Protection believes PCHC has any responsibility regarding the matter.”

As the parties parry over if and how the wetlands should be conserved, as required by the 1997 permit issued to MBNA, it remains unclear who dropped the ball on the easement. 

Pierce Atwood attorney Philip “Chip” Ahrens drafted the easement, and sent it to MBNA’s Blaine Buck in April 1997 for the signature of MBNA Regional Vice President Shane Flynn.

But several years later, Michael Hartman of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers noticed that the easement had not been filed. He wrote to Ahrens in December 2001, asking him to provide copies if the document had been filed. But there is no record of the easement ever having been filed. 

Bub Fournier, director of planning for the City of Belfast, says the parcel is not ideal for commercial development due to the extensive wetlands. Still, the property appears to be ever more valuable. 

In January 2025, Bank of America sold the lot at auction to We Buy and Resell Homes LLC, a Georgia company, for $15,750. CORE real estate listed it over the summer for $295,000. Now it is asking $500,000. 

December 28, 2025 | 5:00 AM

For a full listing of this week’s Chester County restaurant inspections, click here.

The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, 866-366-3723, uses a risk-based inspection reporting process for restaurants and other food handlers.

READ: What do restaurant inspectors look for and can they close a restaurant?

Abcd Restaurant, 477 Lancaster Ave. Malvern, Opening, December 19. Pass. Women’s restroom requires a lidded trash receptacle for sanitary napkins. Provide immediately.

Brock & Co. Food Service @ CTDI Bette’s Cafe, 1336 Enterprise Dr. West Chester, December 19. Fail. Coca-Cola drink cooler was storing drinks at 43 degrees F nearing the temperature danger zone. Repair/adjust to maintain foods at 41 degrees F or below. Foods such as yogurt and salad with boiled egg and chicken were held at 48 degrees F, in the customer area display cooler, rather than 41 degrees F or below as required. TCS foods were discarded. Repair/adjust unit to maintain foods at 41 degrees F or below as required. Unit cannot be used until it can hold foods at required temperature. Non-food contact surfaces not cleaned at a frequency to preclude accumulation of dirt and soil. Clean floors behind oven in front prep area.

Brock & Co. Food Service @ CTDI Don’s Cafe, 1373 Enterprise Dr. West Chester, December 19. Pass. Food facility operator failed to post an original, valid Chester County Health Department Certified Food Manager in a location conspicuous to the consumer. Post CCHD CFM. Two ham and cheese sliders stored outside of refrigeration by soup/salad bar. Sliders were held at 65 degrees F rather than 41 degrees F or below as required. Sliders were discarded. Commercially processed, ready-to-eat food, located in the two-door cooler, and held more than 24 hours, is not being marked with the date it was opened. Begin practice immediately.

Coatesville Loyal Order of Moose #297, 1200 Airport Rd. Coatesville, December 19. Fail. Clean shelves in walk-in refrigerator. Correct within 3 days. The first compartment of the three-compartment sink in the bar area was observed leaking and not used. Sink was set up to wash and sanitize but was not rinsing. Facility must discontinue use of this sink until first compartment is repaired. Repair sink within 7 days. Shelves near dishwasher are rusty. Replace shelves within 14 days. Food prep sink was not in working order. Repair sink within 7 days and remove wood from floor under leg of sink. Soda gun holster is old and in poor condition. Replace within 7 days. Dishwasher was observed not dispensing chlorine properly. All equipment must be manually sanitized. Repair dishwasher immediately. Ice machine is due for cleaning. Clean within 48 hours. Chlorine is used for dishwasher and quaternary is used at three-compartment sinks. Provide test kits for both sanitizers. Correct within 7 days. Floor below ice bin behind bar was observed in need of cleaning. Correct within 5 days. Floor throughout kitchen and prep areas must be thoroughly cleaned. Correct within 5 days. Outside area behind facility is cluttered with old equipment. Clean and remove equipment within 5 days. Facility does not have a certified food manager. A full-time employee must enroll in an approved certified food manager’s course within 30 days.

Creme, 227 Birch St. Kennett Square, December 19. Pass. No violations.

Creme Mobile Tent & Table, 227 Birch St. Kennett Square, December 19. Pass. No violations.

For a full listing of this week’s Chester County restaurant inspections, click here.

A collection of interviews, photos, and music videos, featuring local musicians who have stopped by the WITF performance studio to share a little discussion and sound. Produced by WITF’s Joe Ulrich.

This story is part of the WHYY News Climate Desk, bringing you news and solutions for our changing region.

From the Poconos to the Jersey Shore to the mouth of the Delaware Bay, what do you want to know about climate change? What would you like us to cover? Get in touch.

South Philadelphia resident Edoardo Vignani started tracking his utility bills when he lost his job in 2022.

Since then, he’s noticed many of his bills climbing higher each year. He worries most about electricity, which he uses for heating and cooling his house. One month this past summer, his PECO bill topped $400, he said.

Vignani is now working again, and he said he can afford his utility bills. But he worries the continuing increases could become unsustainable for him.

“That’s just kind of hard to budget for,” Vignani said.

Philadelphians were squeezed by multiple utility rate hikes in 2025. With water, electric and gas bills combined, the typical household is paying a little over $30 more per month. Another increase is around the corner in 2026 for PECO customers.

Here’s what to know.

Electricity bills shot up this year and will rise again in 2026

Over the past six years, average electricity prices have risen faster than inflation in roughly half of U.S. states — including Delaware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

State regulators approved a plan for investor-owned electric utility PECO to raise distribution rates last year, mostly to pay for infrastructure investments. The typical residential bill rose 10%, from $135.85 to $149.43 in January 2025.

Demand for electricity is growing while a lot of the grid infrastructure is coming to the end of its useful life, said Abe Silverman, an energy consultant and research scholar at Johns Hopkins University.

“The cost of maintaining the system, the expansion of the system, these are all driving [prices up,]” Silverman said. “And inflation is just making it all very expensive at the moment.”

It’s not just the cost of transformers, wires and poles. Silverman said the cost of the electricity itself has also increased alongside the price of natural gas, which is used to generate most electricity in the region.

Separately, a supply-and-demand crunch on the regional electric grid has driven up capacity prices, which reflect the cost of paying power generators to commit to producing a certain amount of electricity in the future. An independent market monitor found that the expected growth of data center construction drove this price spike.

“The capacity prices have been going up just astronomically,” said Seth Blumsack, a professor of energy policy and economics at Penn State University.

As first reported by Bloomberg, China’s Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission issued a document Saturday that outlines proposed rules for anthropomorphic AI systems. The proposal includes a solicitation of comments from the public by January 25, 2026.

The rules are written in general terms, not legalese. They’re clearly meant to encompass chatbots, though that’s not a term the document uses, and the document also seems more expansive in its scope than just rules for chatbots. It covers behaviors and overall values for AI products that engage with people emotionally using simulations of human personalities delivered via “text, image, audio, or video.”

The products in question should be aligned with “core socialist values,” the document says.

Gizmodo translated the document to English with Google Gemini. Gemini and Bloomberg both translated the phrase “社会主义核心价值观” as “core socialist values.”

Under these rules, such systems would have to clearly identify themselves as AI, and users must be able to delete their history. People’s data would not be used to train models without consent.

The document proposes prohibiting AI personalities from:

• Endangering national security, spreading rumors, and inciting what it calls “illegal religious activities.”
• Spreading obscenity, violence, or crime
• Producing libel and insults
• False promises or material that damages relationships
• Encouraging self harm and suicide
• Emotional manipulation that convinces people to make bad decisions
• And Soliciting sensitive information

Providers would not be allowed to make intentionally addictive chatbots, or systems intended to replace human relationships. Elsewhere, the proposed rules say there must be a pop-up at the two hour mark reminding users to take a break in the event of marathon usage.

These products also have to be designed to pick up on intense emotional states and hand the conversation over to a human if the user threatens self-harm or suicide.

On a crisp Friday morning in early December, Abington Street in Northampton is starting to stir. Despite having lost high street stalwarts like Marks & Spencer, Moss Bros and H&M in recent years, it is drawing in locals for one end-of-week errand: banking.

Along the pedestrianised road, customers are streaming in and out of HSBC, Barclays, Metro Bank and the building society Nationwide. But it is a rare scene that defies a wider trend: more than 6,000 bank branches in the UK have closed since 2015 as bosses try to cut costs and push millions of customers towards online services.

Relief for customers may be at hand, however, with banks now pausing closures and opening new sites, in what appears to be a mini renaissance for bricks-and-mortar branches.

HSBC UK pledged to keep all of its remaining 327 branches open until at least 2027, while Barclays – which has been one of the most aggressive in shutting sites – has extended opening hours at 87 of its 200 or so branches.

Challenger banks are bucking the closure trend, too. Among smaller lenders, Metro Bank has launched three new locations in Gateshead, Chester and Salford, while Newcastle Building Society poured millions of pounds into a Grade II listed building to open a new branch in Newcastle city centre.

“It’s interesting how the commercial decisions are starting to change,” Nikhil Rathi, the chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority told MPs this month. “You’re starting to see more of the major financial institutions actually seek to make a virtue of the fact that they’re going to keep branches open for a certain period, and that is a shift.”

Nationwide has made one of the biggest commitments, promising to keep 696 branches open until at least 2030. That news was a relief for Jatish and Sudha Shah, a couple in their 70s, who were worried that their local Virgin Money branch in Northampton would be under threat following Nationwide’s £2.9bn takeover of the rival bank in 2024.

Jatish, who is hard of hearing, often needs a private space to discuss his accounts. He visits the Virgin branch, which is just 300 metres from a Nationwide site, every few months to check on the couple’s ISAs.

“I know we could do it online and I’m quite capable, but I prefer face to face,” he said. Had the branch closed, he added, the couple would have considered jumping ship to another bank.

By and large, however, decisions to keep branches open do not reflect a reversal in customer behaviour. The move to digital banking has led to an overall decline in the number of branch visits, according to KPMG research, which found that a fifth of UK customers had not visited a branch in the last two years.

But banks are seeing the benefit of connecting with customers in person, albeit through a much smaller and cheaper network. “There is a sweet spot where you try and push as many customers on to digital channels as possible, but it is still constructive to have physical locations,” said John Cronin, the head of research and analysis firm SeaPoint Insights.

Some of the shift is about serving older, and less technologically capable account holders, but it is also helping banks compete for small and medium business customers who need advice or help with paperwork.

The trend is even drawing in digital natives, the younger generations that have long had access to online-only services such as Monzo, Starling and JP Morgan’s Chase brand. More 18– to 24-year-olds visited a bank branch last year than those aged over 65, with younger customers representing 72% of customers visits.

“It’s a misconception that younger customers only care about digital banking,” said Peter Rothwell, a partner and head of banking at KPMG UK. “While they appreciate seamless apps, many still value having a local branch, whether it’s to deposit cash from a side job or a birthday gift.

“At the same time, older customers remain some of the most loyal and financially significant clients, expecting not just convenience but also competitive rates and attentive service from their traditional banks.

“To succeed, banks must deliver on both fronts, offering digital innovation without losing sight of the personal touch that matters to every generation.”

Back on Abington Street, most of the customers streaming into Nationwide on a Friday morning were simply looking to make withdrawals at indoor cash machines. But some, like Diana Yates, 73, had bigger fish to fry, having made the trip to cash in her bond investments.

“I have got internet banking. But because of my age and because I live on my own, I’m not confident doing things with large amounts of money on my own. I haven’t got anyone to sit with me and say, ‘Is this OK?’ They’ll do it all in the branch with me.”

Gary Greenwood, a banks analyst at Shore Capital, said most banks were trying to morph into “hubs for advice rather than day-to-day processing”. That has meant providing more advice and support around investments and life events such as getting a mortgage or securing power of attorney when a loved one can no longer manage their own finances.

That is where banking hubs – where lenders share a single location to make up for local branch closures – have been falling short. Many hubs offer only simple transactions and lack the personal touch, leaving many underused. KPMG said 72% of UK individuals have never visited a banking hub.

Threats such as online scams and digital service outages are also making branches seem more attractive. While they are usually tied in to the same systems as the online service, it can provide a sense of security to know problems can be discussed in a physical branch with its own dedicated staff.

Over time, Greenwood predicts, branches will become even more focused on narrow support functions, especially as older generations pass on. “Day to day transactions will be processed via self-service terminals while staff will be focused on providing value-added advice and resolving more complicated issues,” he said.

Cronin believes artificial intelligence may also turn out to be a boon for branches, despite fears about the technology. Bank bosses hope it can replace many manual operations in back offices, potentially increasing scope for face-to-face contact.

“That’s where the efficiency focus is,” Cronin said. “It was branches 10 years ago, and that has now largely played out. Maybe there is another wave of branch closures [coming] in a few years’ time [though]. I suspect that’s how it will play out: this is a pause rather than an end state.”

A mild spring, dry summer and comfortable fall helped contribute to a banner year for tourism operators in Cape Breton.

Destination Cape Breton CEO Terry Smith says an increase in domestic travellers and free museum admission were also factors that made 2025 one of the most profitable years on record for the island’s tourism industry.

That success was reflected in the numbers at Highland Village Museum in Iona, N.S., which saw an increase in visitors of about 10 per cent compared to 2024, representing its best season since pandemic restrictions halted the industry.

“We welcomed over 30,000 visitors through our doors, which is a fairly decent increase from last year,” said Melissa Blunden, executive director of the outdoor living history museum that celebrates Scottish Gaelic culture in Nova Scotia.

Blunden said the museum saw a large uptick in visitors from the Atlantic provinces and from across Canada, with the hot summer weather providing tourists with more opportunity to experience Highland Village. 

Americans visiting despite tensions

Roughly 1,500 people visited the museum during the 64th annual Highland Village day concert on Aug. 2, which Blunden said was also the busiest day across the province for museums in Nova Scotia. 

With ongoing diplomatic tensions between Canada and the United States, many Canadians decided to stay close to home this year, but Smith said island tourism operators reported that Americans were still eager to visit the Maritimes, and specifically Cape Breton.

Highland Village had a healthy number of visitors from the U.S., Blunden said, and also saw large numbers from across Europe, especially during the fall.

Statistics Canada indicated that U.S. visitors to Canada slid by 10 per cent in June. While region-wide data won’t be released to the public until early next year, Smith said early signs from Cape Breton operators point to strong numbers.

“What we’re hearing from operators is that we wouldn’t say there was an increase in American visitors, but it seems that it was holding its own,” he said. “So Americans were definitely still considering Cape Breton Island as a destination to visit.”

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