Co-op cyber attack leaves island shop shelves empty
Some Co-op stores across Scotland's islands have been running low on fresh food supplies following a cyber attack on the company.
Co-op is the main retailer in Skye and pictures from its supermarket in Portree show row upon row of empty shelves.
The disruption comes after the company told the BBC on Friday the attack on its systems had resulted in "significant" amounts of customer data being stolen.
A Co-op spokesperson said deliveries to its stores were also impacted by the "sustained malicious attempts by hackers to access our systems", and staff were working around the clock to reduce disruption.
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The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
‘It's a lonely job': Neil Warnock on management, Guardiola and his ire for Ferguson
'I was at Crystal Palace and I wanted a centre-half,' Neil Warnock says as, after 45 years as a manager, he describes how football has changed since his rise from non-league to the Premier League. 'I sent Ronnie Jepson, my assistant, to Scotland to watch a centre-half. And he came back and said he would cost us around £4m, but he was very good. So I told the people at Crystal Palace.' Warnock resists identifying Steve Parish, Palace's chairman, by name for he is deep in a story that illustrates how data analytics is not always infallible. 'He asked for 24 hours and went to the data people. The next day he said: 'We don't want to go ahead.' I asked him why and he said they don't think he's quick enough. I said: 'He might not look quick enough, but he's in second gear in Scotland. If he had to sprint, he'd sprint.'' I already know Warnock is remembering how he missed signing Virgil van Dijk and, as we're having an enjoyable knockabout, I ask if even a great player such as Franz Beckenbauer might have been dismissed by the stats men. The German sweeper had pace and tenacity, but his regal vision meant he could intercept a pass without needing to produce a crunching tackle. 'Correct,' Warnock replies. 'Beckenbauer would never have got on, would he, with the data? He'd have been playing Sunday league, Beckenbauer. 'So we didn't sign Van Dijk. He went to Southampton [for £13m]. I was with Cardiff a few years later, when we got to the Premier League, and I came up against him at Liverpool [who signed Van Dijk for £75m]. He came up and said: 'Mr Warnock, you could have signed me'. I swore and said: 'I bet you were glad that you were too slow for me.' We had a laugh together.' 'It just shows you. They can sign these great players on a computer but I was at Middlesbrough and they said they'd got a left-back for me,' Warnock goes on. 'I watched him for five minutes and said: 'He can't defend. I don't want him.' They said: 'But his stats show he's got the most tackles, the most headers.' I said: 'Are you listening? He can't defend.' Managers now are more or less coaches and they're letting the recruitment team pick the players. But the data people don't see the character of the person or other aspects of his game.' A freewheeling conversation with Warnock moves from memories of drinking pink champagne with Brian Clough to a bitter fallout with Sir Alex Ferguson. It includes recollections of eight promotions, five relegations, and a lot of pride. 'I survived 1,627 games,' Warnock says. 'When I started [at Gainsborough Town in 1980] I just wanted to survive a season. Let alone 45 years as a manager. Fucking hell. Frightening, isn't it?' Warnock's managerial career ended in March last year. He resigned after Aberdeen beat Kilmarnock 3-1 to reach the semi-finals of the Scottish Cup and, while he won't discuss the reasons for his abrupt departure from Pittodrie after eight games, Warnock didn't like off-field interference in his work. He is now a part-time consultant at Torquay United and hopes to help the club return to the Football League. But, in a sign of his diluted focus, the 76-year-old's attention is also on his upcoming tour, when he will appear at the London Palladium. Warnock sounds suitably gobsmacked in his unvarnished Sheffield accent. 'When I was a kid, my mum had multiple sclerosis and my dad worked in the steelworks. But on a Sunday night I used to sit in front of my mum in her wheelchair and she played with my hair while as a family we watched Sunday Night at the London Palladium. So when these shows were being discussed I just said: 'I'd love to do the Palladium.' I didn't suppose we could, but I'll be thinking so much of my mum and dad. 'In those days your dad never told you he loved you. It was macho. But he was a crane driver in the steelworks and after his 16-hour shifts he would come home to a wife with multiple sclerosis and three kids in a two-bedroom semi. You don't appreciate what he must have gone through until years later.' Warnock's distinctly human stories prompted Pep Guardiola to invite him into the Manchester City dressing room. Towards the end of last season Warnock spoke to a group of multimillionaire footballers, including Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland, and he grins now. 'The first thing I said is: 'I bet you lot think yourselves lucky you've not got me as your manager, because you'd be kicking the ball from there to there and it wouldn't be on the ground.' They all creased up. I said a few other things that made them laugh. Afterwards Pep said he'd enjoyed it so much and that you don't get that now in football – the humour. He said: 'Everything's so methodical, so data-driven, blah-blah-blah.' He said we miss that human element.' Warnock interviewed Guardiola for Sky Sports and, despite their mutual affection, there is an amusing clash of philosophies. Guardiola cackled through much of the interview but he looked almost bewildered when Warnock said: 'We love man-marking.' After Guardiola said 'You love, huh? Why?' Warnock explained that, as his teams were technically inferior, they had to try and nullify the opposition. 'And the players,' Guardiola asked, 'they support it? They like it?' Warnock's immediate reaction – 'well, they had to' – makes Guardiola smile again. As Warnock tells me now, 'I never had a good team but I always had a good dressing room.' Warnock was old school. 'When I were manager at Palace,' he says, 'Man City brought down two buses full of staff. I thought: 'Bloody hell, I've never seen 'owt like it.' I got our kit man to chuck a bucket of cold water on the floor in their dressing room to make it scruffy as possible.' But there were occasions when Warnock was helpless. 'At Cardiff we played City [in 2018] and had a couple of shots. It was 0-0 after 30 minutes and I'm thinking: 'we're doing well here'. Then we went in at half-time 2-0 down and after Bernardo Silva scored the second I'm saying out loud on the bench: 'What a goal. That's unbelievable.' And I'm the opposition manager!' Cardiff lost 5-0 and were relegated that season when a controversial 2-1 defeat by Chelsea hastened their demise in May 2019. 'It's a lonely job, being a manager,' Warnock says. 'I felt very lonely at times and probably the loneliest was at Cardiff when Chelsea got a goal that should have been disallowed for three yards offside. I knew that would relegate us. The dressing room was desolate because the lads had given me absolutely everything. I can tell you now the linesman was Ed Smart and Craig Pawson refereeing. I can see it as if it were yesterday. I'll be looking at that on my grave. 'I told the referee and linesman: 'I wish you could come in my dressing room and see the desolation because you didn't do your jobs right.' We didn't deserve to go down that year.' Warnock was fined £20,000 for complaining about the officiating but now his attention reverts to Guardiola. 'I noticed how much he was having to bite his tongue when you looked at the goals City conceded towards the end of last season. It wasn't anything tactical. They were just bad mistakes. I knew it hurt him but he's got the bit between his teeth again now. I'm going to be interested in seeing how they go this season because they'll be a threat. Liverpool have spent all that money and Arsenal are spending as well, but Pep's signed two or three good players. He's the best manager since I've been around and I think he'll prove it again.' Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion When I ask Warnock for the top three managers he has faced, he responds with just two names. 'I'd say Pep one and Arsène Wenger two because he changed the whole concept of football. Oh my God, his intelligence.' Warnock and Wenger also had an unlikely bromance. 'He liked me and he respected me. It was said that Wenger never had any managers in his office after a game but he always invited me. On one occasion I even took my kids in and we had a picture in his office.' He frowns when I suggest it's strange Ferguson has not been added to his top three. 'I'd have to put Fergie in,' he says grudgingly. 'But I'd have Pep and Arsène before him.' Warnock once spoke warmly of Ferguson and how the Scot would write to him encouragingly after every promotion and relegation. But his attitude has hardened now. 'I don't really want to talk about him because I've not got anything good to say.' Is that because Ferguson played a weakened Manchester United side against West Ham in the final game of the season in 2007? 'Absolutely. Unforgivable, in my eyes. Same with [Liverpool's] Rafa Benítez. He played the kids at Fulham that same year.' The pain for Warnock was intensified because Sheffield United, his boyhood team, were relegated after they lost at home to Wigan and West Ham stayed up after beating United by a solitary goal scored by Carlos Tevez, whose registration was thought to be ineligible by Warnock and many others. Has he spoken to Ferguson since that disastrous day? 'No,' Warnock says with icy finality. He is happier discussing another managerial icon in Clough. 'I was at Notts County [between 1989 and 1993] and Cloughie used to walk past our little training ground to get to their 10 acres where they had a fantastic training facility. He would be with [Clough's assistant at Nottingham Forest] Alan Hill and a black labrador. Cloughie would walk across my pitch. He never walked around it and nobody said 'owt. He looked round at what we were doing, shook his head and walked on. Brilliant!' Warnock laughs before becoming more serious again. 'We drew 1-1 at their place and at one of our lunches, he said: 'You don't realise, son, but it's a remarkable job for a club like Notts County to be competing with us in the top division. It'll never happen again, what you've done.' And of course Notts County went from the old First Division to non-league football. 'I've had eight promotions and if I went back to these clubs tomorrow, I'd get a great reception. I got Cardiff in the Premier League. Look where they are now. To get Notts County in the top flight? If I had a fashionable name or I were a fashionable manager, I think I'd have got more acknowledgment. But they gave me an award this year at the Football League, for my contribution to the EFL.' Warnock sinks back in his chair and smiles: 'I thought: 'Bloody hell. It's about time!'' Neil Warnock: Are You With Me? is at Opera House, Manchester on 29 August, London Palladium on 18 September and Ashton Gate Stadium, Bristol on 28 September. Tickets at
The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
Deal or no deal?: world leaders walk tightrope in tariff negotiations with Trump
It was grip-and-grin time for Ursula von der Leyen as she sat across from Donald Trump in Scotland last week, with the two announcing a deal for 15% tariffs on European imports that would avert a transatlantic trade war – but came at a stiff price for the 27-country bloc. After committing to a unilateral US raise on tariffs that came on the heels of a Nato commitment to increase defense spending to 5% of national GDPs, von der Leyen then thanked Trump 'for his personal commitment and his leadership to achieve this breakthrough'. 'He is a tough negotiator, but he is also a dealmaker,' she said, as the US president beamed. The EU was one of just a number of parties to strike a deal with Trump before his temporary pause on new tariffs came to an end this week. And like many others, the guiding principle for the EU appeared to be: it can always get worse. 'This is clearly the best deal we could get under very difficult circumstances,' Maroš Šefčovič, the EU trade chief, said. Others had a far bleaker interpretation of the dynamics, as Trump has wielded the threat of sky-high tariffs to cudgel his trading partners into submission. 'It is a dark day when an alliance of free peoples, brought together to affirm their common values and to defend their common interests, resigns itself to submission,' wrote the French prime minister, François Bayrou. Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán put it another way: 'It was Donald Trump eating Ursula von der Leyen for breakfast,' he said on his podcast. Later, he called her a 'featherweight'. World leaders have been forced to adopt a position of appeasement and pragmatism as they've approached the Trump administration, which has swung between imposing staggering tariffs on imports and then announcing last minute pauses and exclusions that suggest there is little rhyme or reason to the White House's tariff strategy. But the key factor for Trump appears to be taking whatever he can get. Countries across Asia exporting to the US were quickest to begin negotiating new trade deals with the White House. Vietnam was desperate to cut a 46% tariff imposed on the country, and Trump early last month announced that he had negotiated a 20% rate with Vietnamese negotiators. Except, it turned out, they believed that they had negotiated an 11% rate, Politico reported. And treasury secretary Scott Bessent this week admitted that he had never seen the deal, which the Vietnamese authorities have never confirmed. Trump reportedly used the trade threats along with other incentives in order to broker a recent peace between Thailand and Cambodia after fighting broke out along the border between the two countries. He soon announced a 19% rate – a significant cut from 49% for Cambodia and 36% for Thailand – which appeared more motivated by international politics than trade considerations. But while many countries in the region will breathe a sigh of relief as they avert sky-high tariffs, some see a new danger in the arbitrary redrawing of the US's trade relationship with the world. 'What we felt during this negotiation is that the US trade environment is fundamentally changing,' South Korean trade minister Yeo Han-koo said shortly after a deal was made to tariff imports at 15%, down from a threatened 25%. The two sides had made a verbally agreement but had not made a formal draft, he said, because the deal had to be struck so quickly. 'I think we are entering a new normal era,' he said. 'So, although we have overcome this crisis, we cannot be relieved, because we do not know when we will face pressure from tariffs or non-tariff measures again.' Leaders who have stood up to Trump are having the hardest time. Among others, Trump has focused his ire on Canada, which he has blamed for the fentanyl crisis in the US, a charge that Canada's prime minister Mark Carney has rejected. Trump on Friday announced that he would raise tariffs on Canada, a top trading partner, to 35%, as tough negotiations between the two sides continued. Carney, who had coined the elections slogan 'Elbows up, Canada' as a signal of defiance against Trump's tariff and annexation threats, said he was 'disappointed'. 'While we will continue to negotiate with the United States on our trading relationship, the Canadian government is laser focused on what we can control: building Canada strong,' Carney said.
The Sun
4 hours ago
- The Sun
I could get £10,000 back due to car finance scandal despite judges landmark ruling – but I'm devastated for others
PIZZA delivery worker Roy Turner could be set to get £10,000 back in car finance compensation despite a landmark Supreme Court ruling in favour of banks. Roy, 57, from Tayport, bought a BMW 118D in 2016 to help his disabled wife, Elaine, with her mobility issues. He is one of millions who could still be due back cash as part of the car finance scandal as banks will still be liable to pay out claims for those hit with excessive interest, which dealers earned commission from. The UK's highest court was considering an appeal against a Court of Appeal ruling made in October last year, which were about three different claims from people who had each bought a car on credit. In each case, the car dealer made a profit on the sale of the car but also made commission for introducing the business to them - which the three people claimed they did not know about. These were known as "commission disclosure complaints" and could apply up to 99% of car finance loans. The Court of Appeal ruled in October that the firms broke the law by not telling borrowers about 'secret' commission payments. Two lenders, FirstRand Bank and Close Brothers, challenged the ruling in April, calling it a "egregious error". Today, the Supreme Court overturned the ruling in two of the cases but it does not entirely close down the path for compensation for drivers. Firstly, it upheld the judgement in the case of Mr Johnson, who was an extreme example of where excessive interest had been charged. But the UK's highest court ruled that banks are not liable for so-called secret commission payments. However, they will still be liable for discretionary commission arrangements, which applied to 40% of car finance deals. The city watchdog - The Financial Conduct Authority - has been considering a financial redress scheme for drivers over PCP and hire purchase agreements from before 2021. It is where brokers and dealers could increase the amount of interest they charge without telling them. If they did, they got increased commission. The Supreme Court ruling had put these claims on hold - but now the FCA is set to reveal within six weeks whether it will launch an industry wide compensation scheme. It is deciding whether this scheme will involve automatic compensation refunds or whether drivers will have to "opt-in". It is also looking at the interest rates for compensation payments. Payouts could have been as high as £44billion for the scandal in total if the Court of Appeal decision had been upheld, but now they are now expected to be around £20billion. This will be a big win for the banks and disappointing for affected drivers - but you could still get cash. Roy had a discretionary commission arrangement for his car, so could still get a payout. Commenting on the ruling, he said: "These companies have been robbing the poor to benefit the rich. I'm devastated for others." Roy bought his car for £8,650, but the cost of the credit was an eye-watering £9,356, bringing his total bill to £17,996. He said the car dealer, John Clark Aberdeen, did not do an affordability check to see if he could afford the monthly repayments, even though he had a bad credit rating. The monthly repayments were £157 a month, and he was charged an interest rate of 39.1% APR. The term of the loan was five years. Roy said that he cannot remember having a conversation about any commission he would have to pay for. 'It's been stressful - it was hard to afford the car loan,' he said. 'I was struggling to afford phone bills. If the car needed repair work or an MOT, I would need to borrow money from friends. It was very embarrassing. 'I wish I never took it out because of the interest rate.' Roy decided to ring legal firm Courmac Legal after watching an advert on television about the mis-selling scandal. The firm has put in a claim on his behalf, and says that while his lender, Advantage Finance, has not disclosed the level of commission charged, his claim could be worth as much as £10,000. 'I feel disgusted,' Roy said. 'I was completely misled by the dealer and lender when I took out a loan to buy my car. 'The financial impact on my family of the hidden commission was considerable and I've been fighting to get the compensation I'm owed. 'I felt like a fool for paying all that money for a car.' Roy's local MP, Wendy Chamberlain, said she was 'shocked' to hear about Roy's case. She said: 'Loans must be transparent practices, not riddled with hidden commissions for those who sell them at the expense of honest people's hard-earned money.' Advantage Finance and John Clark Aberdeen were contacted for comment. Who can claim? That has not been confirmed but anyone who had a car, van or motorbike on PCP or hire purchases before January 28 2021 could be due back £1,000s. More than 23million people believe they could be in line for compensation, polling by consumer law firm Slater and Gordon suggests. Consumer groups have estimated that motorists took out more than 30million car loans over those years. The FCA will decide who and how this will work within six weeks of today's judgement. It has said it may even do it without the need for people to reclaim, with firms ordered to make automatic refunds. It is likely that you won't be able to complain about agreements taken out before April 6 2007, as this is when the Financial Ombudsman took over motor finance complaints, but the exact rules are still being worked out. DCAs were banned after January 2021, so anyone who took out an agreement after this time wouldn't be able to claim. How to claim While we wait for the FCA to reveal it's plans you can still lodge a claim. If you think you should be compensated, consumer finance website has a free email template to help you complain to your finance provider. You can also complain directly to your provider without using the template. Anyone who took out car finance and could be eligible should file a claim, even if their previous one was denied. In your complaint, ask whether you were overcharged due to your broker receiving a commission and ask the company to rectify this if it happened. If you are not happy with the company's response then you can escalate your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service for free. You have until July 29, 2026, or up to 15 months from the date of the company's final response letter to do so, whichever is longer. 'My jaw hit the floor when I discovered the huge £44billion car finance scandal' PAUL Carlier's jaw hit the floor the moment he discovered that dealerships and brokers were arranging finance deals with high interest rates for customers so they could bag a higher commission. It was back in 2015, when he and his wife were taking out a deal for a new Mercedes, that the car dealer revealed the scandal. 'I was gobsmacked - I had to pick my jaw off the table,' he said. Little did he know that this would mark the beginning of a huge £44 billion mis-selling expose. Paul, 56, who investigates financial crime for a living, is the whistleblower who first exposed the car mis-selling finance issue in 2016. He has been fighting to expose the alleged dodgy deals ever since and get redress for affected drivers since. It all started in 2011, when Paul's mother-in-law Alison took out a car finance agreement with a high interest rate of 14.9%. Paul, knew something was wrong. Alison, now 84, had a perfect credit score so shouldn't have been charged such a high rate. Alison bought a Ford S Max for £25,574 in September 2011 from car dealer SMC Motors. Her finance agreement was with Black Horse, and the total cost of the credit was £9,424, making her total bill around £35,000. The interest rate on her deal was 14.9% APR, which Paul believed was way too high based on her pristine credit history. 'I thought the APR was excessive and inappropriate,' he said. He made a complaint to Black Horse in May 2012, but after the lender investigated, he was told that she had not been mis-sold. 'I wasn't happy, it didn't add up,' he said. In December 2015, his wife, Louise, also bought a car on finance. The Mercedes E Class was £27,950 and the cost of credit was £8,376 - bringing the total bill to £36,326. The interest rate on her deal was 8.9% - which Paul said was 'much better than his mother-in-law's' to the car dealer at 123 Prestige. Then, the car dealer started to unveil how the finance deals were arranged. 'The higher the APR charged, the bigger the commission the dealer gets paid,' he said, which means dealerships and brokers were incentivised to charge higher interest rates. Paul made complaints to Black Horse, the FCA and the Financial Ombudsman about both Louise's and Alison's deals, which were both discretionary commission arrangements. They could still get compensation. Commenting on the Supreme Court's decision, Paul said: "It's not over - this won't end here - with the evidence we've got, we will bring new claims and class actions on behalf of the victims who have today been denied justice." Black Horse and SMC Motors was approached for comment.
