Whether the deal auto-renewed without your knowledge or you forgot a free trial had ended, try asking for your money back

How many subscription services are you signed up to? It may be more than you think.

According to recent research from Citizens Advice, the amount consumers are spending on “accidental subscriptions” has risen sharply: it estimates unused subscriptions cost us GBP688m in the past year. The charity found that many of those affected said the subscription “auto-renewed” without their knowledge, or they signed up for a free trial but forgot to cancel later.

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Younger women and men are discovering the former fashion faux pas is a great alternative to lugging heavy bags

You might associate shopping trolleys with older people toiling to get home with their groceries.

But now they are being embraced by shoppers of all ages thanks to a fashion makeover that chimes with the current vogue for “nanna glamour”.

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US officials say pedal pad could come loose and get lodged in interior trim, causing vehicle to accelerate unintentionally

Tesla is recalling all 3,878 Cybertrucks it has shipped since the vehicle was released in late 2023, according to a Friday filing from the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), following reports of a faulty accelerator pedal.

Cybertruck owners reported the vehicle’s accelerator pedal pad could come loose and get lodged in the interior trim, causing the vehicle to accelerate unintentionally, and increasing the risk of a crash, the auto safety regulator said in a notice.

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Environmental groups say bosses should ‘hang their heads in shame’ as firm bows to pressure from shareholders to cut costs

Unilever is to scale back its environmental and social aims, provoking critics to say its board should “hang their heads in shame”.

The consumer goods company behind brands ranging from Dove beauty products to Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream was seen as perhaps the foremost proponent of corporate ethics – particularly under the tenure of its Dutch former boss Paul Polman.

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Annual health check to examine whether tax increases or spending cuts will be needed after election

Jeremy Hunt’s plans for a fresh tranche of pre-election tax cuts will be put under the microscope when the International Monetary Fund conducts its in-depth look at the UK economy next month.

IMF officials said the team sent to London to conduct its annual health check would be looking closely at whether tax increases or spending cuts would be needed after the general election.

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Sector may breach the government’s Jet Zero strategy which pledged not to surpass 2019 CO₂ figures

Emissions from UK flights are rapidly returning to pre-pandemic levels, with CO₂ pollution from aviation on track to reach a record high this year.

The increase means the sector may breach a key plank of the government’s Jet Zero strategy, which pledged to not surpass 2019 figures on the way to reaching net zero emissions from aviation by 2050.

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Maker hopes solein, protein grown with CO2 and electricity, will cut environmental impact of farming

Nothing appears remarkable about a dish of fresh ravioli made with solein. It looks and tastes the same as normal pasta.

But the origins of the proteins which give it its full-bodied flavour are extraordinary: they come from Europe’s first factory dedicated to making human food from electricity and air.

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Trade bodies say ongoing confusion about when checks will come in is ‘incredibly challenging’

• UK to delay start of health and safety checks on EU imports

Businesses have described Britain’s Brexit border plans as being in “complete disarray” after it emerged the introduction of some checks on EU imports will be delayed.

Post-Brexit border rules, due to come into force on 30 April, will require many meat, dairy and plant products from the EU to be physically checked at government border control posts (BCPs).

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Body armour suppliers say demand for protective clothing has risen sharply in past two years

Staff wearing stab vests in shopping centres are becoming an increasingly common sight across the UK, after soaring demand for body armour amid a rise in violent and abusive incidents.

A British Retail Consortium report found that instances of violence and abuse in shopping centres rose 65% from 2021-22 to 2022-23. Body armour suppliers say demand for stab vests to be worn by shopping centre security staff has soared in the past two years.

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Andy Leek, creator of Notes to Strangers, made the move after finding himself unable to afford rising rents in UK capital

An artist who was made homeless after being evicted by his private landlord in London has started effectively commuting from Argentina where the rent is so much cheaper that it covers the cost of air fare.

Andy Leek, 38, whose Notes to Strangers works are pasted on to walls and junction boxes across more than 20 British and European cities, has moved to Buenos Aires where the rents are several times cheaper and he travels back to the UK roughly every two months for work. The flight costs less than a monthly train season ticket between Bristol and London.

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Rents are soaring, housebuilding is lagging and long-promised eviction reform has still not been enacted

• Artist cuts rent by commuting from Argentina

Andy Leek’s escape to Argentina from Britain’s soaring rents is no doubt extreme. But the fact that this relatively successful artist feels he is better off paying transatlantic air fares than stumping up for ever-rising landlord demands is indicative of a crisis that only ever seems to get worse.

Polls show 23% of voters now rank housing as the most important issue facing the country, up from 14% at the December 2019 general election. More people now rate it as the priority than crime or the environment, according to YouGov. Yet little is done.

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Acoba chair Eric Pickles says rules on post-ministerial jobs are ‘unenforceable’ after former PM avoids answering questions

Boris Johnson was “evasive”, “avoided answering specific questions” and has “refused to be open” about his relationship with a hedge fund on whose behalf he met the Venezuelan president, a Whitehall watchdog has said.

Johnson met Nicolas Maduro in early February in a paid role as a consultant to Merlyn Advisors, according to reports. This raised questions for the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (Acoba) which is responsible for providing advice on post-ministerial roles for two years after a minister leaves office.

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Talk of Elizabeth line order raised hopes over safeguarding future of Derby factory but staff are taking nothing for granted

“It’s strange at the moment: everywhere’s so quiet. It’s not good.” Mick Waldram has worked at Alstom’s sprawling train manufacturing plant on Litchurch Lane in Derby for 20 years, like his parents before him, and has watched in recent months as its six production lines have been gradually mothballed.

“I’ve been here 20 years and my brother’s been here 20 years as well,” Waldram says. “My mum was the managing director’s secretary, she was here 38 years, and my dad was a projects engineer who was here 36 years. We want to stay here. Me and my brother are not looking at leaving, we want to stay here if possible, do another 20 years.”

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Watchdog rules that vote should be held at Coventry warehouse to test support for union recognition

• Business live – latest updates

Amazon could be forced to recognise a trade union for the first time in the UK after members of the GMB at the internet retailer’s Coventry warehouse were granted permission to hold a legally binding ballot.

The Central Arbitration Committee (CAC), the independent statutory body that adjudicates on collective bargaining rights, has ruled that a vote should be held at the site to test support for union recognition.

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Process has coincided with a rise in price in the past and is due to take place again on Saturday

Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of bitcoin, still has an influence on the cryptocurrency nearly 14 years after disappearing.

This week the protocol designed by Nakamoto – an individual or group of individuals who went silent in December 2010 – will trigger what is known as a “bitcoin halving”, a process that has coincided with price increases in the past. The latest halving is expected to take place on Saturday.

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Top rated retrofits: from a grand listed city centre penthouse dating back to the 1700s to a converted church in a pretty village

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Pilot to explore how to repurpose unused school space to increase capacity for funded childcare

An estimated 85,000 additional childcare places would be required by September 2025 to enable the government’s planned expansion of funded childcare for working parents in England, according to the Department for Education.

A pilot will explore how to repurpose unused school space to support childcare and increase capacity. If successful, the scheme will be rolled out to expand funded childcare for eligible families of children as young as nine months old.

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Almost three in four services between London, Edinburgh and York will be cut in Aslef members’ stoppage

A train drivers’ strike will lead to almost three in four services being cut on Saturday on LNER, which operates intercity trains between London, York and Edinburgh.

Members of the Aslef union will take industrial action for 24 hours on 20 April – and also ban overtime during the weekend – in a dispute over terms and conditions, separate to the wider pay row that has led to strikes at all national rail operators across England.

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The anti-growth coalition, Bank of England and the OBR are among those under fire from Liz Truss

Raw free-market economics is missing in action. Somewhere between its 1980s ascendancy and today, the media, politicians, civil service and even the corporate mainstream abandoned small government and low taxes.

At the heart of Liz Truss’s new book, Ten Years to Save the West, the former prime minister reckons this is the reason for Britain’s economic drift, alongside “unelected technocrats” overruling the “wishes of the people”.

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The sale of the music fund ends its tumultuous years as a listed company – and that may be for the best, for it and its investors

So ends a stock market experiment that is unlikely to be repeated in a hurry: Hipgnosis Songs Fund, the music royalties company with songs by the likes of Beyonce, Blondie and Chic, is to be sold to a US fund for less than its starting price in 2018 of 100p.

The immediate point is that 93p a share, or GBP1.1bn, is a lot better than shareholders were looking at in recent months. The price went as low as 60p during the company’s bust-up with its own investment adviser, a suspension of dividends (unforgivable for a fund designed to turn royalties into income) and a writedown in the value of assets after a tortuous debate about valuation methodologies.

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Tentative offer follows four months of talks and could create new banking group with almost 5m customers

Coventry Building Society has tentatively offered GBP780m to buy the Co-operative Bank from its hedge fund owners, in what could be the latest in a string of takeovers among UK lenders.

The offer follows nearly four months of exclusive talks between the two lenders, which began in December. If a deal is completed, it would create a new high street challenger with almost 5 million customers and an GBP89bn balance sheet

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Passengers crowded around airline desks at Dubai international airport on Wednesday after major delays and cancellations caused by heavy rains.

The United Arab Emirates was hit by what the government described as the highest rainfall in the past 75 years. The rains began on Monday night, and by Tuesday evening the desert city of Dubai had received the average amount of rain it normally gets in a year.

Although the heavy rains had eased by late Tuesday, disruption was continuing on Wednesday, with Emirates airline suspending check-in for passengers departing from Dubai until midnight

• What the desert city of Dubai looks like after its biggest rainfall in 75 years – video

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'No single politician has ever put tax up more times than he has,' said Keir Starmer during a heated session at prime minister's questions, during which the Labour leader clashed with the prime minister over the Conservative party's management of the economy. Sunak defended his record, saying inflation was down and pensions had been increased, accusing the Labour leader of wanting to increase taxes

• UK politics – latest updates

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The car is just five years old, and now the company seems to be washing its hands of the matter

I read with interest your recent letter.

Unfortunately, I am having a very similar experience, but, in my case, Renault wants to charge us GBP9,121 to repair the heater on our Zoe, which we bought new for GBP30,000.

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A fire has broken out at Copenhagen’s old stock exchange, one of the Danish capital’s most famous buildings, engulfing its spire, which collapsed on to the roof. There were no reports of injuries. The historic building, whose spire is shaped as the tails of four dragons entwined, had been under renovation when the blaze broke out. The Dutch Renaissance-style building no longer houses the Danish stock exchange but serves as headquarters for the Danish Chamber of Commerce

• Spire collapses after fire breaks out at Copenhagen’s old stock exchange

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For days now, every time I try to book, a pop-up menu adds GBP42

I have been trying for days to book a GBP520 train and hotel package to Lille in September via the Eurostar website. Each time I enter my card details and hit “continue” to pay, a pop-up window advises that the trip has increased by an extra GBP42. Each time I have cancelled the transaction and started again. Each day it’s still advertised at GBP520 on the Eurostar site, but the same price increase pops up when I try to pay. It seems Eurostar is counting on me not bothering to cancel and go through the booking process again.
CB, Congleton, Cheshire

Eurostar seems to think that if it makes the right noises, customers will overlook shoddy service. “We prioritise the safety and wellbeing of our customers and staff above all else,” it explained last week when asked to justify a new policy that prevents staff pushing the wheelchairs of passengers with disabilities.

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From simple lifestyle changes to choosing the right bedding and gadgets that can help

Dr Nicola Cann, a sleep consultant and psychologist, says sleeping is a natural process “that our bodies are primed for”, so there is a lot you can do to improve it without spending anything.

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