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Friday newspaper round-up: High speed rail line, Boeing, Grangemouth

(Sharecast News) - A plan for a new high-speed rail line linking Birmingham and Manchester has been unveiled, claiming to deliver most of the benefits of the scrapped northern leg of HS2 at significantly cheaper cost and with only slightly longer journey times. The 50-mile track would run from where the HS2 line is now due to end in Staffordshire to join a planned Northern Powerhouse Rail line west of Manchester airport, under a plan unveiled by the mayors of Greater Manchester and the West Midlands. - Guardian Boeing workers voted on Thursday night to strike for higher pay, halting production of the planemaker's strongest-selling jet as it wrestles with chronic output delays and mounting debt. Newly installed Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg pleaded with workers not to go on strike - the first since 2008 - ahead of the vote, saying the action would put the company's "recovery in jeopardy". - Guardian

Low-paid migrant workers are an immediate drain on the public purse, costing taxpayers more than £150,000 each by the time they hit state pension age, according to the Government's tax and spending watchdog. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said the average low-earner who came to Britain aged 25 cost the Government more overall than they paid in from the moment they arrived. - Telegraph

Scotland's last remaining oil refinery at Grangemouth is to close next year with the loss of 400 jobs, leaving the UK with only a handful of refineries and increasing the country's reliance on imported fuel. The site's owner Petroineos, a joint venture between Sir Jim Ratcliffe's Ineos and PetroChina, believes that domestic demand for motor fuels will fall sharply with the forthcoming ban on new petrol and diesel cars. - The Times

Artificial intelligence has moved to more human-like reasoning, OpenAI has claimed, with the launch of its latest model. In a blogpost, the ChatGPT maker said that "much like a person would", its new o1 series would spend more time thinking before it responded to queries. The company said it could "reason through complex tasks and solve harder problems than previous models in science, coding, and maths". - The Times

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Monday newspaper round-up: EasyJet staff, hiring confidence, Apple
(Sharecast News) - Donald Trump has said that his administration plans to start sending letters on Monday to US trade partners dictating new tariffs, amid confusion over when the new rates will come into effect. "It could be 12, maybe 15 [letters]," the president told reporters, "and we've made deals also, so we're going to have a combination of letters and some deals have been made." - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: Trade, AstraZeneca, Tax hikes
(Sharecast News) - Brussels is heading into a critical week, with just two to go to clinch a trade agreement with the US or face a 50% levy on its exports. At stake are €1.6trn in transatlantic trade. Germany is down as favouring a quick deal akin to that inked by the UK so as to avoid a full-blown trade war. Paris on the other hand believes that the EU should hold out if too quick a deal is "imbalanced" - Guardian
Friday newspaper round-up: Car sales, Vodafone, Glencore
(Sharecast News) - Ed Miliband has unveiled plans to make it easier for homeowners to install wind turbines in their gardens as part of a mass expansion of green power. The Energy Secretary has announced a consultation on relaxing planning rules governing the construction of turbines on residential and commercial properties. - Telegraph
Thursday newspaper round-up: Shorter working week, Microsoft, EY
(Sharecast News) - Nearly 1,000 British workers will adopt a permanently shorter working week, after the latest trial of a four-day week and similar changes to traditional working patterns. All 17 British businesses in a six-month trial of the four-day week said they would continue with an arrangement consisting of either four days a week or nine days a fortnight. All the employees remained on their full salary. - Guardian

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