Category Archives: Business

Tesla Autopilot feature was involved in 13 fatal crashes, US regulator says

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Federal transportation agency finds Tesla’s claims about feature don’t match their findings and opens second investigation

US auto-safety regulators said on Friday that their investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot had identified at least 13 fatal crashes in which the feature had been involved. The investigation also found the electric carmaker’s claims did not match up with reality.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) disclosed on Friday that during its three-year Autopilot safety investigation, which it launched in August 2021, it identified at least 13 Tesla crashes involving one or more death, and many more involving serious injuries, in which “foreseeable driver misuse of the system played an apparent role”.

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Anglo American rejects £31bn takeover offer from mining rival BHP

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All-share proposal had potential to be one of biggest deals in sector for decade but deemed ‘opportunistic’

The board of Anglo American, the London-listed mining company, has rejected a “highly unattractive” £31bn takeover approach from its Australian rival BHP.

BHP’s all-share proposed offer for Anglo American had the potential to be one of the biggest deals in the global mining sector for a decade but has attracted criticism from Anglo’s shareholders as being too low and “highly opportunistic”.

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Barclays accused of greenwashing over financing for Italian oil company

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Exclusive: Environmental groups say bank is misleading public over ‘sustainable’ financing for Eni as company vastly expands fossil fuel production

Barclays is being accused by environmental groups of greenwashing after helping to arrange €4bn (£3.4bn) in financing for the Italian oil company Eni in a way that allows them to qualify towards its $1tn sustainable financing goal.

Environmental groups have said the London-based bank is deliberately misleading the public by labelling the financial instruments as “sustainable” at the same time that Eni is in the midst of a multibillion-pound fossil fuel expansion drive designed to increase production.

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Scott Farquhar to resign as joint CEO of Atlassian

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Co-founder leaving ‘to spend more time with his young family, improve the world via philanthropy, and help further the technology industry globally’

Scott Farquhar, the Australian tech billionaire and joint chief executive of software company Atlassian, will step down from his role at the end of August to spend time with his young family and focus on philanthropy, the company says.

Farquhar’s co-CEO, Mike Cannon-Brookes, will lead the Sydney-headquartered company, which has found huge success developing software that allows teams to coordinate resources on complex projects.

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Microsoft’s heavy bet on AI pays off as it beats expectations in second quarter

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World’s largest public company reports $61.86bn revenue after investing billions into artificial intelligence

Profits at Microsoft beat Wall Street’s expectations as its heavy bet on artificial intelligence continued to bear fruit in the second quarter.

The technology giant has invested billions of dollars into AI in a bid to turbocharge its growth, particularly of its cloud computing services. Its cloud computing revenue surged by more than 20% in the latest quarter.

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Oil price could exceed $100 a barrel if Middle East conflict worsens, World Bank warns

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Increase in cost of crude could drive inflation up and force central banks to keep interest rates high

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A serious escalation of tensions in the Middle East would push the price of oil above $100 (£80) a barrel and reverse the recent downward trend in global inflation, the World Bank has said.

The Washington-based institution said the recent fall in commodity prices had been levelling off even before the recent missile strikes by Iran and Israel – making interest rate decisions for central banks tougher.

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Barclays profits tumble 12% as UK interest rates hit mortgage demand

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Pre-tax profits drop to £2.3bn between January and March, down from £2.6bn last year

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Profits at Barclays tumbled 12% in the first quarter, as higher UK interest rates weighed on demand for mortgages and loans and its investment bank was hit by a backdrop of economic uncertainty.

The UK bank said pre-tax profits fell to £2.3bn in the first quarter, down from £2.6bn last year, when it reported the strongest quarterly profit since 2011 after a string of interest rate hikes by the Bank of England.

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Sussan Ley ‘really disappointed’ with Elon Musk – as it happened

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Hundreds gather in Sydney for Anzac Day dawn service

AAP has the details on Sydney’s dawn service where hundreds of people – including veterans – gathered under a full moon and clear skies for a solemn service in the CBD.

You who have loved will remember the glow of their glad young years, as you stand today to salute them in silence, with pride and with tears.

The best thing about the ceremony this morning is to see the number of people that come early in the morning.

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Barbados leader halts £3m payout to UK MP for Drax Hall plantation

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Government U-turn as PM Mia Mottley acknowledges anger from reparations movement over plan to buy Barbados land from Dorset MP Richard Drax

The prime minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, has halted plans for a multi-million-pound payout to the British Conservative MP Richard Drax for the purchase of 53 acres of the Drax Hall plantation, which he owns.

As revealed in the Observer last Sunday, the payout plan had angered those involved in the Caribbean reparations movement, who said Drax, the MP for South Dorset, should hand over all or part of the 617-acre plantation to the people of Barbados.

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Billionaire Jeff Yass linked to $16m in donations to anti-Muslim and pro-Israel groups

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The TikTok investor is also linked to funding challenges to progressive politicians and against Obama’s Iran nuclear deal

Top Republican donor and TikTok investor Jeff Yass is connected to over $16m in funding to anti-Muslim and pro-Israel groups that have advocated for a US war with Iran and other militaristic policies in the Middle East, according to an investigation by the Guardian and Responsible Statecraft.

Media reports on Yass, the billionaire co-founder of Susquehanna International Group, a trading and technology firm, have focused on his outsized role in the Republican party, to which he is now the largest political donor in the 2024 election cycle, contributing more than $46m thus far.

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Multiple crew members hospitalised after accident on set of Eddie Murphy film

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Two crew members were hospitalised when a car and truck collided during shooting of The Pickup in Atlanta, Georgia

Several crew members were injured and two were hospitalised when a car and truck collided during shooting of the Eddie Murphy film The Pickup in Atlanta, Georgia.

Amazon MGM Studios said in a statement that the scene that led to Saturday’s accident in Georgia had been rehearsed and all safety precautions were taken. Neither Murphy nor the film’s other stars, including Keke Palmer and Pete Davidson, were on the set at the time.

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Heathrow expects summer holiday season to be ‘busiest on record’

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Passengers numbers this year predicted to hit 82.4m but airport’s future uncertain, with proposed £6bn sale in doubt

Heathrow is expecting its busiest ever summer holiday season but faces uncertainty over its long-term future as the proposed £6bn sale of the UK’s biggest airport remains in doubt.

The airport said on Wednesday that the summer getaway this year was expected to be “the busiest on record” and promised to have “robust” plans in place to keep the airport “running smoothly”, even if staff strikes held last year are repeated.

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Woodside Energy’s climate plan rejected by shareholders in ‘globally unprecedented’ rebuke

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Investors lodge 58% protest vote against emissions report but defiant chair Richard Goyder maintains company is part of solution to climate change

Woodside Energy has suffered an embarrassing rebuke of its climate credentials after its emissions plan was overwhelmingly rejected by shareholders at its annual general meeting on Wednesday.

Investors lodged a 58% vote against Woodside’s climate report, representing the strongest protest recorded against any of the dozens of listed companies around the world that regularly put climate-related resolutions to shareholders.

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Jeremy Hunt’s scope for tax cuts hit by higher-than-expected borrowing

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Government borrowed £120.7bn in the last financial year, with just under £12bn in March

Jeremy Hunt’s scope for a substantial pre-election tax giveaway has been hit after the latest set of official figures showed the UK’s public finances in worse shape than thought at last month’s budget.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed the government borrowed £120.7bn in the 2023-24 financial year – £6.6bn more than the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) had expected.

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What’s behind the record FTSE 100 high?

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Hopes of a UK interest rate cut and easing geopolitical tensions are not the only reasons for the intraday peak reached this morning

The UK stock market has hit an intraday record high, lifted by hopes of interest rate cuts and easing geopolitical tensions, after setting a new closing high on Monday. The FTSE 100 index touched 8,076 points at the opening bell on Tuesday, surpassing a previous high of 8,047 reached in February 2023. We explain what is behind the rising London market.

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Cava firm Freixenet to furlough 80% of its workers in Catalonia due to drought

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Spanish-German company announces layoffs as conditions in north-eastern Spain hit grape production

The Spanish-German cava giant Freixenet, known for its distinctive black glass bottles of sparkling wine, is to furlough 80% of its workers in Catalonia as the north-eastern Spanish region struggles with a drought that has lasted more than three years and severely affected grape production.

In a statement released this week, Freixenet said the temporary layoff – which will apply to as many as 615 of the 778 people it employs in Catalonia – would begin in May.

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Jerry Seinfeld says the movie business is over: ‘No longer the cultural pinnacle’

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In an interview promoting his Pop-Tarts movie Unfrosted, comedian says confusion and disorientation have taken film’s place

Jerry Seinfeld has said the film business is “over” and that movies are no longer “the pinnacle in the social, cultural hierarchy” they once were.

In an interview with GQ magazine, Seinfeld talked about his experience on his feature film directing debut Unfrosted, saying that he admired the dedication of his collaborators on the movie, but that the industry itself was in crisis. “I thought I had done some cool stuff, but it was nothing like the way these people work. They’re so dead serious! They don’t have any idea that the movie business is over. They have no idea.”

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Designer Nancy Gonzalez sentenced to prison for smuggling crocodile and python handbags

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Celebrity fashion designer, who recruited couriers to transport bags from her native Colombia to US on commercial flights, receives 18-month sentence

A leading fashion designer whose accessories were used by celebrities from Britney Spears to the cast of the Sex and the City TV series has been sentenced to 18 months in prison after pleading guilty in Miami federal court on charges of smuggling crocodile handbags from her native Colombia.

Nancy Gonzalez was arrested in 2022 in Cali, Colombia, and later extradited to the US for running a sprawling multiyear conspiracy that involved recruiting couriers to transport her handbags on commercial flights to high-end showrooms and New York fashion events – all in violation of US wildlife laws.

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US sues to block Tapestry-Capri $8.5bn merger, citing monopoly concerns

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FTC lawsuit to block Coach parent from buying Michael Kors owner says deal would deprive consumers of competition

The US Federal Trade Commission said on Monday it was suing to block Coach parent Tapestry’s $8.5bn deal to buy Michael Kors owner Capri, saying it would eliminate competition.

This comes at a time when several US lawmakers have sought increased scrutiny from the FTC of several multi-billion dollar deals that might risk higher prices and affect consumers.

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EU threatens TikTok Lite with ban over reward-to-watch feature

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App feature could be suspended unless child safety concerns addressed, in first use of sweeping new digital powers

The EU has said it will ban a new service launched by TikTok in Europe that it believes could be “as addictive as cigarettes” unless the company offers “compelling” fresh evidence that children are safeguarded.

If the ban goes ahead, it would be the first time the EU has used sweeping new powers to impose sanctions on social media companies since its landmark Digital Service Act (DSA) came into force last August.

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