Friday newspaper round-up: Nationwide, Anthropic, Marks & Spencer

(Sharecast News) - Labour is poised for a fresh attempt at changing the welfare system after a major government-backed report said youth unemployment was costing Britain more than £125bn a year. As official figures revealed the number of young people not working or studying had surpassed a million for the first time in more than a decade, Alan Milburn said the government had a responsibility to the next generation to take action. - Guardian Anthropic, the AI firm behind the Claude chatbot, announced on Thursday it had raised $65bn in funding to value the company at $965bn post-money. The move makes Anthropic the world's most valuable AI startup, eclipsing its competitor OpenAI. The deal marks an exceedingly successful period of growth for Anthropic, which was once considered to be a smaller player in the global AI arms race. The widespread adoption of its products by large enterprise businesses, especially following its release of powerful coding assistants late last year, has turned it into a dominant player in the industry. - Guardian

The ousted chairman of BP has attacked a culture of "excessive" spending at the oil giant, including purchasing tickets for sports events such as Wimbledon. Albert Manifold suggested he had been forced out of BP after raising concerns over "unnecessary expenditure". Mr Manifold was dismissed without warning on Tuesday, with people close to the BP board suggesting he had been shown the door because of a "volcanic" temper, "bullying" and "verbal abuse". - Telegraph

The rebel Nationwide customer campaigning to join the building society's board has accused it of orchestrating an "unfair fight" after the mutual urged its members to oppose him. Britain's biggest building society said on Thursday it was recommending that its members vote against James Sherwin-Smith's election as a director at its annual meeting in mid-July because its board had concluded he did not have the requisite skills or experience. - The Times

Marks & Spencer is stepping up efforts to win more shoppers and capture greater market share from rival grocers by expanding further into frozen food. The premium retailer is doubling the size of its frozen food range, including ice creams and desserts, in an attempt to gain customers from the likes of Iceland, Tesco and Asda, which have long dominated the frozen category. - The Times