Monday newspaper round-up: Trade bazooka, shoplifting epidemic, John Lewis

(Sharecast News) - UK business leaders have called on the government to build an EU-style "trade bazooka" to protect Britain's economic interests in response to the latest tariff threats from Donald Trump. As transatlantic tensions rise, the British Chambers of Commerce said the UK's "inadequate economic security" was putting growth and jobs at risk. The lobby group, which represents thousands of firms, urged Keir Starmer to take the lead in protecting Britain from external crises, saying there had been "years of neglect by successive governments". - Guardian

Keir Starmer will attempt to call time on a "disgraceful" shoplifting epidemic afflicting the UK's retailers, as Greggs became the latest to take action to deter thieves. The bakery chain has axed self-service display cabinets in stores that have been most severely hit by shoplifters. - Guardian

For a company that was only recently viewed as a scrappy underdog in the AI arms race, Anthropic has quickly become a victim of its own success. The explosive growth in demand for AI coding bots has forced the $380bn (�280bn) Silicon Valley lab to start rationing access to its most popular tools, leaving paying customers fuming. "Claude Code has become unusable," moaned one user earlier this month. "I tried to stay. I couldn't. Just cancelled," said another. - Telegraph

John Lewis has told staff they must be in the office more often as it races to keep up with rivals, which have ditched remote working. In a memo to head office staff, the retailer said it expected them to be working "more in person than not", either in the office or out with suppliers and customers. - Telegraph

The would-be owners of Thames Water have rebutted claims from a leading Oxford don that the company needs to be put into administration. Dieter Helm, the outspoken free market academic economist, has joined the chorus of those demanding that because of the long delay in rescuing Thames, the time has come for Britain's largest water supplier to be put under a government special administration regime. - The Times

More than 300 restaurants, pubs and bars have closed their doors for the last time since the start of this year as operators buckled from the "heavy toll" of higher labour and energy costs combined with fragile consumer confidence. New analysis from CGA by NIQ, the market research firm, found the number of licensed premises fell to 98,609 at the end of March, a net 305 fewer than in December, equating to more than three closures a day. - The Times