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LAS VEGAS — There are three races remaining in the Formula 1 season and Max Verstappen of Red Bull is close to a fourth consecutive world championship, which can wrap up Saturday night at the Las Vegas Grand Prix. All is not smooth sailing headed into this final month of racing: "It was a bit of a surprise, I think, for everybody," said Mercedes driver George Russell, a GPDA director. "It's a hell of a lot of pressure now onto the new race director (with) just three races left. Often, as drivers, we probably feel like we're the last to find out this sort of information." The Andretti team is expected to receive F1 approval to join the grid, albeit without Michael Andretti, who has scaled back his role dramatically since the IndyCar season ended in September. Many drivers, particularly seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton, have been at odds with FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem since his election following the 2021 season finale. In the GDPA statement, they reminded the sanctioning body "our members are adults" who don't need lectures and fines on foul language or jewelry bans, and simply want fair and consistent race control. There's been no response from Ben Sulayem, and won't be this weekend since he does not attend the LVGP. He will be at Qatar and the finale in Abu Dhabi next month. Hamilton doesn't think all the behind-the-scenes changes will be a fan topic as the season comes to a close. But he noted that consistency from race control is all the drivers have asked for, while throwing his support behind Domenicali and the job Maffei has done in growing F1 since Liberty took over. "I really hope Stefano is not leaving because he's been so instrumental in changes and progress to this whole thing," Hamilton said. "And he knows the sport as well as anyone. But all good things do come to an end, and whoever they put into place, I just hope they are like-minded. But sometimes you have to shake the trees." That's just what happened with the surprise departure of race director Wittich. Although drivers have been unhappy with race officiating this season and held a private GPDA meeting in Mexico City, Russell said they had no prior warning Wittich was out. The race director is the referee each weekend and Wittich has been in charge since 2022, when Michael Masi was fired following the controversial 2021 season-ending, championship-altering finale at Abu Dhabi. Now the man in charge for the final three races is Rui Marques, the Formula 2 and Formula 3 race director. Las Vegas, which overcame multiple stumbling blocks in last year's debut before putting on one of the best races of the season, is a difficult place to start. Verstappen can win his fourth title by simply scoring three points more than Lando Norris of McLaren. "It's a bit weird with three races to go to do that," Verstappen said. "It doesn't matter if you're positive or negative about certain things. I thought in Brazil there was definitely room for improvement, for example. It's still a bit weird having to now then deal with a different race director." Charles Leclerc of Ferrari wondered why the move was made with only three races to go. "To do it so late in the season, at such a crucial moment of the season, it could have probably been managed in a better way," he said. The drivers have consistently asked for clearer guidelines in the officiating of races, specifically regarding track limits and racing rules. The drivers have no idea how Marques will officiate, highlighting a disconnect between the competitors and Ben Sulaymen's FIA. "We just want to be transparent with the FIA and have this dialogue that is happening," Russell said. "And I think the departure of Niels is also a prime example of not being a part of these conversations." The GDPA statement made clear the drivers do not think their voice is being heard. "If we feel we're being listened to, and some of the changes that we are requesting are implemented, because ultimately we're only doing it for the benefit of the sport, then maybe our confidence will increase," Russell said. "But I think there's a number of drivers who feel a bit fed up with the whole situation. It only seems to be going in the wrong direction." He also said the relationship between the drivers and the FIA seems fractured. "Sometimes just hiring and firing is not the solution," he said. "You need to work together to improve the problem." Norris, who has battled Verstappen this year with mixed officiating rulings, said "obviously things are not running as smoothly as what we would want." Marques has his first driver meeting ahead of Thursday night's two practice sessions and then three weeks to prove to the competitors he is up for the job. Carlos Sainz Jr., who will leave Ferrari for Williams at the end of the season, hopes the drama doesn't distract from the momentum F1 has built over the last five years. "I think Formula 1 is in a great moment right now and all these rumors, I think in every team, every job, there's job changes," he said. "It's not big drama. I'm a big fan of the people you mentioned, they've done an incredible job in Formula 1 and Formula 1 is what it is thanks to these people. But it's just so emotional, especially the Stefano one. The only one that has a real effect is the race director. But I think if he does a good job, it should be transparent and nothing big." Get local news delivered to your inbox!

Drama surrounds final three F1 races of seasonMultiple roads in or near Cirencester closed after floods

A look at holiday shopping trends as Black Friday approaches

NoneStock indexes drifted to a mixed finish on Wall Street as some heavyweight technology and communications sector stocks offset gains elsewhere in the market. The S&P 500 slipped less than 0.1% Thursday, its first loss after three straight gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.1%. Gains by retailers and health care stocks helped temper the losses. Trading volume was lighter than usual as U.S. markets reopened following the Christmas holiday. The Labor Department reported that U.S. applications for unemployment benefits held steady last week, though continuing claims rose to the highest level in three years. Treasury yields fell in the bond market. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below. Stocks wavered on Wall Street in afternoon trading Thursday, as gains in tech companies and retailers helped temper losses elsewhere in the market. The S&P 500 was up less than 0.1% after drifting between small gains and losses. The benchmark index is coming off a three-day winning streak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 10 points, or less than 0.1%, as of 3:20 p.m. Eastern time. The Nasdaq composite was up 0.1%. Trading volume was lighter than usual as U.S. markets reopened after the Christmas holiday. Chip company Broadcom rose 2.5%, Micron Technology was up 1.3% and Adobe gained 0.8%. While tech stocks overall were in the green, some heavyweights were a drag on the market. Semiconductor giant Nvidia, whose enormous valuation gives it an outsize influence on indexes, slipped 0.1%. Meta Platforms fell 0.5%, Amazon was down 0.4%, and Netflix gave up 0.7%. Tesla was among the biggest decliners in the S&P 500, down 1.4%. Health care stocks helped lift the market. CVS Health rose 1.4% and Walgreens Boots Alliance rose 3.9% for the biggest gain among S&P 500 stocks. Several retailers also gained ground. Target rose 3.1%, Ross Stores added 1.8%, Best Buy was up 2.5% and Dollar Tree gained 3.6%. Traders are watching to see whether retailers have a strong holiday season. The day after Christmas traditionally ranks among the top 10 biggest shopping days of the year, as consumers go online or rush to stores to cash in gift cards and raid bargain bins. U.S.-listed shares in Honda and Nissan rose 4.2% and 15.9%, respectively. The Japanese automakers announced earlier this week that the two companies are in talks to combine. Traders got a labor market update. U.S. applications for unemployment benefits held steady last week , though continuing claims rose to the highest level in three years, the Labor Department reported. Treasury yields turned mostly lower in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.58% from 4.59% late Tuesday. Major European markets were closed, as well as Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia. Trading was expected to be subdued this week with a thin slate of economic data on the calendar. Still, U.S. markets have historically gotten a boost at year’s end despite lower trading volumes. The last five trading days of each year, plus the first two in the new year, have brought an average gain of 1.3% since 1950. So far this month, the U.S. stock market has lost some of its gains since President-elect Donald Trump’s win on Election Day, which raised hopes for faster economic growth and more lax regulations that would boost corporate profits. Worries have risen that Trump’s preference for tariffs and other policies could lead to higher inflation , a bigger U.S. government debt and difficulties for global trade. Even so, the U.S. market remains on pace to deliver strong returns for 2024. The benchmark S&P 500 is up roughly 26% so far this year and remains near its most recent all-time high it set earlier this month — its latest of 57 record highs this year. Wall Street has several economic reports to look forward to next week, including updates on pending home sales and home prices, a report on U.S. construction spending and snapshots of manufacturing activity. ___ AP Business Writers Elaine Kurtenbach and Matt Ott contributed. Alex Veiga, The Associated PressKATIE Price has shown the love of the stage runs in the family as she welcomed son Harvey Price on stage with her at her pantomime show. Katie Price , who is currently starring as a wicked step-sister in a pantomime production of Cinderella, shared a clip of Harvey dancing on stage next to her on social media. The clip, shared to Instagram Stories, was captioned by proud mum Katie as she wrote: "I just love my @officialharveyprice". The clip, originally filmed by a fan in the audience, shows Katie alongside her co-star Kerry Katona as the pantomime performed their final number. Harvey, who has several health conditions including Prader-Willi syndrome, danced alongside his mum to Wizzard's Christmas hit 'I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday'. The video comes as it's been revealed that Katie will be raking in £50,000 for her performances in the pantomime at Northwich Memorial Court in Cheshire. An insider recently told us: "Katie knows her worth and she won't take a penny less. Despite everything she's a shrewd negotiator and her name still has some pull when it comes to booking gigs. "The panto organisers are thrilled with the response to Katie and Kerry being in the show so far and in their eyes it's money well spent." With Katie and her pal Kerry Katona confirmed for the panto shows, the theatre show broke box office records for ticket sales when they went on sale in September. A statement on the official Instagram for the theatre read: "Since our casting news broke earlier this evening, we have sold the highest number of tickets that we’ve ever sold in a single day during our last 14 years in Northwich!" In March, the former glamour model was declared bankrupt for a second time over an unpaid tax bill of £761,994.05. Mum-of-five Katie was declared bankrupt in 2019, after it was revealed that she owed £3.2 million to creditors, as well as HMRC, her mortgage company and various small businesses. Katie was also served an eviction notice from her Mucky Mansion following her second bankruptcy. The demand for payment was made by HMRC last October. Katie was due to give evidence about her finances at the High Court but failed to turn up - holidaying in Cyprus with her new man JJ Slater instead. Her Mucky Mansion was a bomb site for years after it was burgled, flooded and swamped by an overflowing septic tank. She finally moved out at the end of May and is now renting a four-bed mansion in Sussex.

'Bruised' bosses hit out at Labour's triple whammy of budget policies which make it harder to hire staff By MARTIN BECKFORD and HARRIET LINE Published: 23:17, 26 November 2024 | Updated: 23:25, 26 November 2024 e-mail View comments Labour was hit by a fresh backlash from business leaders on Tuesday in a new blow to ministers as they launched a drive to get more people back into work. Industry chiefs told a Parliamentary committee they were suffering a 'triple whammy' from both Angela Rayner 's workers' rights revolution and Rachel Reeves ' tax raid. Employers' groups and MPs also warned that the impact of the Budget risked undermining the new Get Britain Working white paper, which aims to tackle joblessness and reduce the spiralling benefits bill. And a senior figure at the Bank of England admitted that the increase to employers' National Insurance contributions would put companies off hiring more staff. It came just a day after Chancellor Rachel Reeves attempted to quell a growing revolt against the £40billion tax raid in her maiden Budget a month ago by promising 'I'm not coming back with more borrowing or more taxes'. In a more than five-hour hearing of the Employment Rights Bill Committee, industry chiefs warned that measures contained in Ms Rayner's workers' rights overhaul, coupled with the Budget changes , would make it riskier for a business to take someone on. Alex Hall-Chen, principal policy advisor at Institute of Directors (IoD), told MPs: 'A key fear for us is the cumulative impact of all the 28 reforms in this Bill, coupled with everything else happening in the employment space so far, and that taken as a whole the measures make hiring someone riskier and more expensive for businesses. 'Our research has shown that as a result businesses will hire fewer people.' Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall has published a white paper which she said represented the 'biggest reforms to employment support in a generation' Ms Kendall also said visiting the employment offices too often felt like 'you're back in the 80s or 90s' Chancellor Rachel Reeves has attempted to quell a growing revolt against the £40billion tax raid in her maiden Budget a month ago At the Budget, Ms Reeves launched a £25billion raid on employers' National Insurance contributions (NICs) and hiked the national living wage by 6.7per cent. Following the committee, British Chambers of Commerce director general Shevaun Haviland criticised the 'scale and scope of the changes' in the Bill. 'The Budget has already left many firms feeling bruised, and if this legislation is enacted as it stands, it could hamper growth, restrict recruitment and lead to job losses,' she said. Business groups also warned that young people would be 'disproportionately' affected, as a result of the changes to national insurance, the living wage and workers' rights. Matthew Percival, future of work director at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), told MPs that the impact of the changes would be 'concentrated in sectors which currently employ a large number of young people'. 'The Bill also ends up focusing on the same area, and those businesses often speak about a 'triple whammy' because they are also the same businesses that are affected by the national living wage increases. 'So in all three aspects, you end up with a similar group of businesses who are particularly facing costs and therefore, where there are unintended consequences, they are disproportionately likely to be faced by young people.' However, union leaders welcomed the changes in the Bill, with RMT general secretary Mick Lynch saying it could increase collective bargaining while TUC leader Paul Nowak said it would likely increase unionisation. Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith said Labour's 'union paymasters are licking their lips at the prospect of these measures becoming the law'. 'They will hand massive powers to the unions, making it easier for them to hold organisations and their consumers to ransom and take us back to the 1970s.' In a separate Parliamentary hearing, Bank of England chief economist Huw Pill told the Lords economic affairs committee that the NI hike was a 'disincentive to employment'. Meanwhile, industry chiefs warned that measures contained in Angela Rayner's workers' rights overhaul, coupled with the Budget changes, would make it riskier for a business to take someone on Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith (pictured) said Labour's 'union paymasters are licking their lips at the prospect of these measures becoming the law' 'We do recognise that an increase in national insurance contributions widens the wedge between the producer wage - the wage paid by firms - and the consumer wage - the wage received by wage earners. 'And that is a disincentive to employment at some level. That probably is weighing at the margin against participation in the labour market.' Read More Furious farmers plan Westminster protest over Labour's Budget land cash raid Meanwhile Work and Pensions Secretary Liz Kendall published a white paper which she said represented the 'biggest reforms to employment support in a generation'. She said the toll of 2.8million people out of work because of long-term sickness and almost 1million young people not in education, employment or training had created an economic and 'social crisis' as well as a welfare bill expected to rise by £26billion within five years. But she was warned in the Commons that her plans - including an overhaul of Jobcentres and more NHS appointments in worklessness hotspots - risked being defeated if bosses cannot afford new staff as a result of the Budget. Ms Kendall was told by her Tory counterpart Helen Whately that while she 'tries to get people into work, her Chancellor is busy destroying jobs'. 'If the Secretary of State wants to get more 18-year-olds into work, she should have a word with her Chancellor, who has made it so that from April it will cost £5,000 more for a business to employ them.' Liberal Democrat MP Christine Jardine said: 'Many of us see a contradiction in this policy and the National Insurance changes, because a major employer in my constituency of Edinburgh West tells me it's going to cost them a quarter of a million pounds extra a year, and they won't be taking on seasonal workers because they can't afford it.' Chief Economist and Executive Director for Monetary Analysis and Research at the Bank of England, Huw Pill said the NI hike was a 'disincentive to employment'. Business groups made the same point with the CBI's Matthew Percival saying: 'Employers have a key role to play in supporting the delivery of the government's objectives. There's no doubt that rising taxes and employment costs will make it more difficult for them to do so. 'That's why it's so important business and government work together to join the dots across the policy landscape in order for policy intent to translate into long-term impact.' Prof Len Shackleton of the IEA think-tank said: 'It is a disappointing package, unlikely to stimulate the inactive back into work. 'It is questionable that there would be enough jobs for them in any case, given that the budget and minimum wage increases have sharply raised the cost of employing people, especially the young, while new employment rights from Day One mean that employers face greater risk in taking on those without a sound employment record.' The white paper also raised the threat of fresh 'sin taxes' on unhealthy food as part of efforts to get people off sickness benefits. It stated: 'The Government is committed to reducing the number of people becoming overweight and obese and wants to work with the sector to consider all levers to further encourage food and drink reformulation to help tackle obesity, in a way that protects consumers and with a focus on voluntary and regulatory measures.' Labour Angela Rayner Rachel Reeves Share or comment on this article: 'Bruised' bosses hit out at Labour's triple whammy of budget policies which make it harder to hire staff e-mail Add comment