Business

• Royal Mail pleads to drop delivery obligation after £319m loss

  Robert Lea, Industrial Editor

• Burberry profits hit by slump in luxury spending

  Isabella Fish, Retail Editor

• Bank of England could start cutting UK interest rates as early as February, says Goldman Sachs

  Jack Barnett, Mehreen Khan

• Mars checks in at the Hotel Chocolat with £534m deal

  Helen Cahill

• Boots owner close to £5bn pension deal

  Patrick Hosking, Financial Editor

• HS2 delays threaten hundreds of jobs at Alstom

  Robert Lea

• A net-zero strategy in need of a jolt

  Alistair Osborne

• Fairytale accounting of an NHS pension scheme with no assets

  Patrick Hosking

• EY elects Janet Truncale as first female boss in the Big Four

  Tom Howard

• Amazon ‘blocks promotions for staff who won’t come back to the office’

  Katie Prescott, Technology Business Editor