Sarah Butler

Vulcan device ‘capable of grabbing three-quarters of items in warehouses’ fuels fears of mass job losses

Amazon said it has made a “fundamental leap forward in robotics” after developing a robot with a sense of touch that will be capable of grabbing about three-quarters of the items in its vast warehouses.

Vulcan – which launches at the US firm’s “Delivering the Future” event in Dortmund, Germany, on Wednesday and is to be deployed around the world in the next few years – is designed to help humans sort items for storage and then prepare them for delivery as the latest in a suite of robots which have an ever-growing role in the online retailer’s extensive operation.

Chain says up to one in 10 stores was affected on Tuesday morning but issue now fixed in all branches

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The Co-op was forced to scramble to fix a problem with contactless payments at dozens of its stores, as it grapples with the fallout from a cyber-attack that has left gaps on shelves.

The food retailer said that up to 200 of its 2,300 stores across the UK had been affected by an issue with its contactless payment systems on Tuesday morning but said the problem had been fixed in all stores by mid-afternoon.

Luxury department store is forced to shut some systems but website and shops continue to operate

Harrods has been hit by a cyber-attack, just days after Marks & Spencer and the Co-op were targeted.

The luxury department store is understood to have been forced to shut down some systems, but said its website and all its stores, including the Knightsbridge flagship, H beauty and airport outlets, continued to operate. It is understood the retailer first realised it was being targeted earlier this week.