Wednesday newspaper round-up: Lyft, Hinkley, Waitrose, BAT

UK shop workers are facing 1,300 incidents of violence and abuse a day and a battle to control “brazen” acts of shoplifting, as pressure mounts on ministers to intervene to protect retail employees. Retailers saw the number of incidents of racial abuse, sexual harassment, physical assaults and threats with weapons rise 50% last year, while thefts more than doubled to 16.7m incidents, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC), the trade body which represents most major retailers. – Guardian

Lyft beat estimates for fourth-quarter profits on Tuesday and said it would generate positive free cashflow for the first time in 2024, as the ride-share platform reaps the benefits of heavy cost-cutting. Company shares surged nearly 60% in extended trading but erased a third of those gains after Lyft’s chief financial officer corrected a major mistake in the earnings report. Erin Brewer had said that the company would grow by 500 basis points (5%) in 2024, but later said that the real increase would be a factor of 10 lower – 50 basis points (0.5%). In 2023, the stock gained about 36%. – Guardian

British taxpayers have been asked to stump up cash to fund nuclear power plants being built in the UK by the French energy giant EDF. Bruno Le Maire, France’s finance minister, said on Tuesday he would be asking Jeremy Hunt for “an equitable sharing of costs” for the power stations which include Hinkley Point C, in Somerset, and Sizewell C, in Suffolk. – Telegraph

Waitrose is to cut hundreds of prices as the retailer battles against Marks & Spencer for Britain’s middle class shoppers. The supermarket said on Wednesday it would invest £30m into lowering the price of swathes of its own-brand products. Waitrose’s price cuts will span 200 items across meat, fruit and vegetables, as well as kitchen cupboard staples. The retailer promised a further round of price cuts in the spring. – Telegraph

British American Tobacco has retained “call” options to reacquire its Russian and Belarusian businesses, it has emerged. The owner of Lucky Strike and Dunhill cigarettes agreed to sell the businesses in September, 18 months after it had committed to doing so in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. However, BAT did not disclose at the time that it had retained the option to buy them back. – The Times