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Here are the top business stories making the headlines in the morning newspapers.

Row over plans for new referendum

Opposition leaders have criticised Scottish Government plans to hold an independence referendum in October next year.

Conservative leader Douglas Ross said yesterday that the first minister's priorities were "all wrong" and she should instead focus on issues such as Covid recovery and closing the attainment gap.

These should not have to "play second fiddle" to a referendum, he said.

But the BBC says Nicola Sturgeon insisted she had a mandate for a referendum.

At First Minister's Questions, she insisted that the case for independence was not separate to the big challenges - and instead was part of the solution to them.

Plans to revive well-known Aberdeen bar

North-east craft beer venture Brew Toon is hoping to expand into Aberdeen by resurrecting a long-closed pub as its first bar.

The Peterhead firm has lodged proposals with the city council for the Holburn Street building.

As well as reviving the old bar, it wants to create three luxury flats in a new extension.

The Press and Journal says the Malt Mill has been closed since 2016, along with its downstairs music venue.

No more new waste incinerators

The Scottish Government has announced what is effectively a ban on the building of more new waste incinerators.

It means councils will be told not to grant planning permission to further incineration sites.

Six sites currently operate in Scotland. Plans for 11 more have already been approved, and their construction can go ahead.

The BBC says there has been a rapid growth in applications because of a ban coming in 2025 on sending rubbish to landfill.

Early retirement problem for Britain

Britain faces a permanent drag from Covid after hundreds of thousands of older workers retired early, the Institute for Fiscal Studies warned as it published new evidence of Britain's economic inactivity crisis.

Some 270,000 people aged between 50 and 69 left work during the pandemic, the IFS said.

The vast majority decided to retire early, as opposed to being laid off or forced out of work by illness, according to the Telegraph.

Beatrice Boileau, of the IFS, said: "Rather than being driven by poor health, or by weak labour demand, our findings suggest that this rise in inactivity is driven by a lifestyle choice to retire in light of changed preferences or priorities during the pandemic."

The IFS found that the rise of remote working during lockdowns had exacerbated the problem by making staying in work less appealing.

Gazprom is defiant: 'Our product, our rules'

The boss of Russian state-controlled gas giant Gazprom has said it is a case of "our product, our rules" after the firm halved its supply to Germany.

The German economy minister has accused Gazprom of attempting to push up energy prices by sharply reducing supplies.

But Gazprom said it was due to the delayed return of equipment serviced by Germany's Siemens Energy in Canada.

The BBC says Italy and Austria have also reported big falls in Russian gas supply.

Gazprom chief executive Alexei Miller said Russia would play by its own rules after limiting the amount of gas to Germany to under 70million cubic metres per day - well under half the previous rate.

"Our product, our rules. We don't play by rules we didn't create," Mr Miller said.

Profits warning from online-clothing retailer

Asos has warned that full-year profits will fall sharply as cash-strapped customers return more items to the online clothing retailer.

The company said that, while sales rose in the three months to the end of May, profits had been hit by "inflationary pressures on consumers".

Asos's chief operating officer Mat Dunn said it was "too early" to tell how long this behaviour would continue.

But the firm expects adjusted pre-tax profits to fall to between £20million to £60million.

The BBC says it is far below Asos's prediction in January when it said annual profits was set to reach between £110million and £140million, and a sharp decline from the previous financial year when it hit £193.6million.

Asos said the higher rate of returns was adding to warehouse and delivery costs. It said profits would be impacted if it had to cut prices to shift goods.

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