Thursday newspaper round-up: British Steel, public services, Microsoft

(Sharecast News) - British Steel should get an extra �200m from the government to support it in keeping the UK's two remaining blast furnaces open until electric replacements are built, according to a proposal put forward by unions. Chinese-owned British Steel has said it will replace its polluting blast furnaces at Scunthorpe with electric arc furnaces, which can be used to make much cleaner, recycled steel. - Guardian

Britain's crumbling public services are bad for business, and spending more taxpayers' money to fix them is a pro-growth policy, the pensions minister, Torsten Bell, has argued. Rachel Reeves has been accused by business lobby groups of clobbering the economy with the �25bn increase in employer national insurance contributions imposed in her October budget. - Guardian

Microsoft has invented a new state of matter separate to solids, liquids and gases in a scientific breakthrough the technology giant says could create the world's most powerful computer. The company unveiled a quantum computer chip on Wednesday that generates new types of particles existing in a "topological" state. Topological states have previously only existed in theory and require a delicate combination of magnetic fields, new materials and temperatures near absolute-zero to bring about. The state does not occur naturally and its existence has only been made possible through advances in quantum physics. - Telegraph

The US arm of KPMG has removed reports on its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives from its website after similar programmes were criticised by President Trump. The accounting and consulting firm has withdrawn years of annual "transparency reports" from its website that detailed the representation of women and minorities across the organisation. Similar reports produced for KPMG's UK business remain available to view online. - The Times

The chief financial officer of John Wood Group has resigned after it emerged that his professional qualifications had been misstated. Arvind Balan said it had been an "honest oversight" that he was described as a chartered accountant rather than a certified practising accountant. Balan, 44, was hired in November 2023 and formally joined the energy engineering consultancy in April last year. He was described as a chartered accountant in official announcements by the company. - The Times