Wednesday newspaper round-up: M&S, Ocado, Facebook, Trump tariffs

The chairman of Marks & Spencer has given his starkest warning yet about existential threat faced by the high street giant as he refused to rule out further store closures and job losses. This business is on a burning platform,” said Archie Norman, who took over as M&S’s chairman last year. “We don’t have a God-given right to exist and unless we change and develop this company the way we want to, in decades to come there will be no M&S.” – Guardian

A 56-storey tower called The Diamond is set to join the growing cluster of skyscrapers in the City of London and will be the financial district’s third-tallest building when completed. The planned 263.4m tower at 100 Leadenhall Street will rank behind 1 Undershaft at 290m, nicknamed the Trellis, where work is yet to start, and 22 Bishopsgate, the reworked Pinnacle at 278m, which is under construction. All three will eclipse the nearby Heron Tower, currently the tallest building in the Square Mile at 231m. – Guardian

The online grocer Ocado has outlined ambitious expansion plans that include a move beyond groceries into using its hi-tech warehouses to sell clothing and homeware. The company was dubbed the “Microsoft of retail” by one analyst after recently signing a blockbuster deal with the US supermarket Kroger which propelled the company into the FTSE 100. – Guardian

Facebook has been slapped with a £500,000 fine for the role it played in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which the data of 87m users was harvested for political purposes. The data regulator found that the social network failed to safeguard users’ information and allowed people’s personal data to be harvested by others, constituting a breach of the Data Protection Act 1998. Had the breach occurred after May this year, Facebook may have faced a far greater fine under the new data protection law, a maximum of 4pc of global turnover or €20m (£18m), whichever was highest. – Telegraph

German consumer goods and automotive giants Bosch and Daimler are to launch a citywide pilot in the US to test autonomous vehicles in a challenge to US tech firms like Waymo and Uber. The driverless car project will see Mercedes Benz cars designed for a driverless car shuttle service. The project will aim to develop Level 4 and Level 5 capabilities of autonomous driving, meaning cars will be able to drive without any human interaction. – Telegraph

Theresa May was hit by two further resignations yesterday as bitter splits emerged among Tory Brexiteers over her plans for leaving the European Union. In a further blow, President Trump said that he wanted to speak to his “friend” Boris Johnson during his three-day visit, which starts tomorrow. He declared Britain to be “in turmoil”. – The Times

President Trump was reported last night to be preparing a list of an additional $200 billion in Chinese products to be hit with tariffs. The list could be made public this week and start a weeks-long process that includes a public-comment period and hearings, according to Bloomberg. - The Times