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View our forecasts for grocery retail sales in the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain.

Why it matters: A take-private deal with Sycamore could include a sell off of some pieces of Walgreens鈥� business, such as Boots, the company's UK pharmacy chain that has been in talks to be sold multiple times over the past few years.

Apple made its NFC tech available to developers in the US, the UK, and five other markets in the iOS 18.1 update. To use the tech, developers have to enter into a commercial agreement with Apple and pay fees. What this means: This could open the floodgates for more competing wallets on the iPhone. Google Wallet stands to gain the most.

ASOS in October began charging UK shoppers who frequently return items a return fee of 拢3.95 ($5.26) if they keep less than 拢40 ($53.22) worth of items, per the BBC. Nordic department store Boozt banned roughly 60,000 so-called 鈥渟erial returners鈥� who it claimed 鈥渆xploit high service levels of free shipping and returns at the expense of our business, other customers, and the environment.鈥�

That could mean a divesture of Boots, the company鈥檚 UK pharmacy chain that has been in talks to be sold multiple times over the past few years. It would also likely indicate even more layoffs and an acceleration of its planned store closures as Sycamore looks to right-size the business.

Sora isn鈥檛 available in the UK and the EU, and complex regulations could prevent it from being offered at all. The competition: While a 20-second video clip is no feature-length film, Sora鈥檚 content capabilities surpass competitors鈥� offerings. Adobe鈥檚 generative AI (genAI) tools include a text-to-video and an image-to-video tool that can each create up to 5 seconds of content.

JPMorgan still leads in AI maturity, according to UK-based intelligence platform Evident Insights. It has prioritized hiring top AI talent鈥攁 costly endeavor. And it鈥檚 testing how genAI can 鈥渃opilot鈥� its private banking advisors by helping them identify important opportunities for their clients.

Outage tracking website Downdetector recorded over 600 reports from the UK and more than 400 from the US early on, with disruptions also affecting users in South Africa and India. Microsoft 365鈥檚 website was also affected. Microsoft鈥檚 Service health website indicated there were no more issues at 2:20pm EST. Related outages?

Last week, an AI system used by the UK government to investigate welfare fraud was shown to hold bias based on age, disability, marital status, and nationality, per The Guardian. In May, a Yale study found notable racial bias in OpenAI鈥檚 ChatGPT model.

The US, China, and UK are expected to remain the largest markets for ad revenue growth in 2025. US political advertising reached $15.1 billion in 2024, up 30% from 2020. The Asia-Pacific region, particularly China, leads retail media growth, with India expected to see retail media surpass search advertising revenues by 2025. Channel shifts:.

Marcus, you have a British accent. I brought you on board to talk about the UK, but you don't have any numbers for the UK for me, do you? Marcus Johnson (12:37):. Haven't got a clue. Bill Fisher (12:38):. No? Good job I do, then, isn't it? Marcus Johnson (12:40):. You live there. [inaudible 00:12:44]. Bill Fisher (12:44):.