Here are the business stories making the headlines across Scotland and the UK this morning.
Kenny’s Music shop in Aberdeen shuts for good
Kenny’s Music in Aberdeen has closed after going into voluntary liquidation.
The chain, which sold new and pre-owned instruments, had a store at The Green for more than 17 years.
Managing director Alex Marten said a “sharp rise in costs” left the firm with no other option, despite a record year for sales.
Nvidia hits new milestone as world's first $5tn company
Nvidia has hit a new milestone, becoming the first company in the world to reach a market value of $5trillion (£3.8tn).
The US chip giant has rapidly climbed from a niche graphics-chip designer to an AI titan, as euphoria about the potential of artificial intelligence keeps driving demand for its chips and propelling its stock to record highs.
The company reached a market value of $1trillion for the first time in June 2023 and hit the $4trillion valuation mark just three months ago.
UK minister rebuked over claim English water better than Scottish
Britain’s former environment secretary risked “misleading the public” by repeatedly attacking Scotland’s water quality and insisting it was inferior to England’s, a watchdog has ruled.
Steve Reed, who is now the housing secretary, provoked fury from the SNP in July when he said sewer pollution levels north of the border were higher, while arguing against calls to take English water firms into public ownership.
Many Scots see the quality of the country’s tap water as a source of pride and there is a widespread belief that it is superior to that available in England.
Reform proposes to cut Pip payments to people with anxiety
Reform UK would stop people with anxiety disorders from claiming Personal Independence Payments (Pip), the party's welfare spokesman Lee Anderson has announced.
The party claimed its plans would save £9billion each year from the welfare budget by 2029, as it echoed other parties' plans to cut welfare spending.
Government figures show one in 10 people of working age are now on disability or sickness benefits of some type, including Pip, which can be claimed at the same time as being employed.
Websites disabled in Microsoft global outage come back online
Websites for Heathrow, NatWest and Minecraft returned to service late on Wednesday after experiencing problems amid a global Microsoft outage.
Outage tracker Downdetector showed thousands of reports of issues with a number of websites around the world over several hours.
Microsoft said some users of Microsoft 365, external saw delays with Outlook among other services, but by 21:00GMT, many websites that went down were once again accessible after the company restored a prior update.
Mhairi Black makes acting debut in new BBC drama
The former MP Mhairi Black has joined the cast of a new BBC legal drama in her first television acting role.
She plays a police detective in Counsels, which is being filmed in Glasgow and will be aired on BBC One and the BBC iPlayer. Black will appear in four episodes of the eight-part series and starts filming next week.
The series is co-created by the Scottish writers Bryan Elsley and Gillian McCormack, a BBC Writers’ Drama Room graduate, and is supported by Screen Scotland.