Monday newspaper round-up: Youth jobs crisis, 79th Group, Hargreaves Lansdown owners

(Sharecast News) - Fixing Britain's youth jobs crisis will require ministers to drastically increase investment in employment support while avoiding arbitrary cuts to benefits, the head of the trade union movement has said. Before an important official report expected next week, the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, Paul Nowak, said the government had a "once in a generation chance" to secure young people's futures. - Guardian

A French AI giant championed by Emmanuel Macron, the French president, is on the hunt for British defence work as it seeks to sell itself as an alternative to Silicon Valley. The �21bn (£19bn) Paris-based lab is hiring experts who can help it break into deals working on UK security and critical infrastructure. The French business, which develops AI technology similar to that of OpenAI's ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude, has previously warned that Europe risks becoming over-reliant on US technology. - Telegraph

Families are dramatically cutting back on driving as the war in Iran causes a surge in prices at the pump, encouraging more people to work from home. The amount of fuel purchased by drivers in the week to Nov 1 fell by 12pc compared with a year earlier, NatWest debit and credit card spending data shows. Oil prices have surged since Iran began blockading the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow shipping lane out of the Gulf that used to transport a fifth of the world's seaborne oil and gas exports, and are now hovering around $100 (£75) per barrel. - Telegraph

An alleged £250m Ponzi scheme doubled in size after it was allowed to keep raising funds from individual investors even though the City regulator had privately told it to stop more than two years previously. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) signed an agreement in February 2023 with directors of 79th Group that the business would stop promoting mini-bonds, or "loan notes", The Times can reveal. - The Times

The private equity owners of Hargreaves Lansdown and its billionaire co-founder have shared in dividends from Britain's biggest stockbroker totalling hundreds of millions of pounds since its £5.4bn takeover last year. Payouts amounting to £600m were made by the wealth manager in the 12 months to the end of June and a further dividend of £189.3m was declared for the end of September. - The Times