Viagogo ‘mistakenly’ listed resale of England football match tickets

Website blames human error for the advert, now removed, for about 100 seats when practice is illegal in UK

The ticket trading website Viagogo has apologised for “mistakenly” advertising tickets to an upcoming England football match, despite the fact that the resale of football tickets is illegal in the UK.

Cris Miller, the managing director of Viagogo,has previously said the company does not resell football tickets. But Viagogo was advertising about 100 seats at Wembley for England’s 7 June friendly against Iceland, a warm-up for this summer’s Euro 2024 tournament in Germany.

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Eurostar reverses wheelchair policy that left user stranded, after Observer campaign

Passengers were left abandoned and humiliated after operator banned staff from providing assistance

Eurostar has reversed a new accessibility policy that left a wheelchair user stranded and has retrained its London staff following pressure from the Observer.

Travellers with disabilities claimed that they would be barred from Eurostar services after the company banned its London staff from pushing passenger wheelchairs. Those who require assistance were told they must travel with a companion or cancel their ticket if they were unable to access services unaided, according to passengers who contacted the Observer.

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Blow to UAW as Mercedes workers in Alabama vote against unionization

Workers in Tuscaloosa vote against bid to unionize, as UAW president Shawn Fain hails impact of campaign despite defeat

The United Auto Workers has failed in its effort to unionize workers at two Mercedes-Benz plants in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in a blow to the union’s plans to build its membership in the southern states.

The loss on Friday comes amid the UAW’s ambitious union-organizing campaign to organize 150,000 non-union auto workers around the US.

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Binance executive denied bail in Nigeria over money laundering charges

Tigran Gambaryan faces allegations of ‘serious criminality’ on behalf of world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange

A Nigerian court has ruled that Tigran Gambaryan, the Binance executive detained on charges of tax evasion and money laundering, can face trial on behalf of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.

In a judgment in Abuja on Friday – Gambaryan’s 40th birthday – the presiding judge, Emeka Nwite, denied the American national bail, saying he was likely to abscond.

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China to cut mortgage rates as part of plan to prop up property market

Local authorities will be allowed to turn unsold homes from developers into affordable housing

China will cut mortgage rates and allow local authorities to turn unsold homes from developers into affordable housing, in a series of drastic measures by Beijing aimed at propping up the country’s faltering property market.

The People’s Bank of China said it would scrap the minimum rate of interest and reduce down-payment ratios to 15% for first-time buyers and 25% for second homes. It will also create a 300bn yuan (£32.8bn) facility to support local state-owned companies to buy homes at reasonable prices, it said in a series of statements on Friday.

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Chalmers says Dutton’s budget reply lacks economic credibility – as it happened

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Shorten and Dutton clash over reduced migration

Earlier this morning the NDIS minister, Bill Shorten, and the opposition leader, Peter Dutton, clashed over Dutton’s promise to reduce Australia’s migration intake in his budget reply speech last night.

Well, Bill, a couple of points. One is that we say that, in the first year, 40,000 homes will be freed up. That includes the numbers who would be bidding at auctions this weekend against Australian citizens.

If the government had have adopted our policy over a five-year period, you would free up 325,000 homes. So the number of people who are foreign citizens, who are buying houses in our country is low, but nonetheless it contributes to an overall shortage of housing in our country.

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More than 6,000 bank branches now gone in nine years of ‘disastrous’ closures

Thirty-three constituencies, including two in London, will not have a single bank branch by the end of the year, says Which?

The number of UK bank branches that have shut their doors for good over the last nine years will pass 6,000 on Friday, and by the end of the year the pace of closures may leave 33 parliamentary constituencies – including two in London – without a single branch.

The tally is being published by the consumer group Which? as it seeks to make the “avalanche” of closures and the “disastrous” impact they can have on local communities an election battleground.

Barnsley East (estimated population: 94,000)

Bolton West (98,000)

Bradford South (106,000)

Bury South (103,000)

Central Suffolk and North Ipswich (102,000)

Chatham and Aylesford (103,000)

Clwyd South (70,000)

Colne Valley (112,000)

Dagenham and Rainham (117,000)

Denton and Reddish (88,000)

Don Valley (99,000)

East Worthing and Shoreham (99,000)

Erith and Thamesmead (117,000)

Glasgow North East (88,000)

Liverpool, West Derby (94,000)

Mid Bedfordshire (121,000)

Mid Derbyshire (83,000)

Newport East (84,000)

North East Derbyshire (92,000)

Nottingham East (98,000)

Penistone and Stocksbridge (89,000)

Plymouth Moor View (94,000)

Reading West (112,000)

Rhondda (68,000)

Sedgefield (85,000)

Sheffield Hallam (85,000)

St Helens North (100,000)

Stone (86,000)

Swansea East (81,000)

Warrington North (95,000)

Wentworth and Dearne (100,000)

Wirral West (68,000)

York Outer (92,000)

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Union urges Labour not to ban new North Sea licences without plan for jobs

Unite launches bid to persuade Keir Starmer to invest more in north-east Scotland

The UK’s oil and gas workers risk becoming “the coal miners of our generation,” Unite’s general secretary, Sharon Graham, has warned, urging Labour not to ban new North Sea licences without a clear plan to safeguard jobs.

Unite is launching a billboard campaign in six Scottish constituencies aimed at persuading Keir Starmer to commit more investment to north-east Scotland, the centre of the offshore oil and gas industry.

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Dow Jones Industrial Average hits 40,000 points for first time; UK reality TV stars charged over FX scheme – as it happened

Strong quarterly results and hope of interest rate cuts drive DJIA to new alltime high

A group of business leaders have warned Rishi Sunak that the government’s migration policies risk weakening the UK university sector, the Financial Times reports, undermining a key reason for companies to invest in the country.

The FT explains:

In a letter to Rishi Sunak, bosses at groups including miners Anglo American and Rio Tinto and industrial conglomerate Siemens, said they were “deeply concerned” by widening funding gaps and declining international student applications that were “a result of government policy”.

They said this risked “undermining the positive impact that international students have on our skills base, future workforce, and international influence”, as well as reducing the funding available for research and industry collaboration.

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Australia politics live: Speaker urges no political fundraising in parliament as Coalition MPs sell tickets to Dutton budget reply events

Follow all today’s news live

‘We don’t think production tax credits is way to go’: Angus Taylor on Future Made in Australia

Is the Coalition going to vote against the Future Made in Australia policy, which was fleshed out in the budget and includes tax credits (in 2028) for things like critical minerals mining and green hydrogen?

We haven’t seen the act. We don’t think production tax credits is the way to go in order to have a strong manufacturing sector.

It’s about getting those fundamentals right whether it be approvals, whether it be getting rid of red tape or making sure the construction costs are competitive with the rest of the world.

Oh, but it’s also a drop in the ocean, you know. What are we saying? It’s a Band-Aid on a bullet wound compared to the pain that mum and dads in Australia are actually feeling.

I can tell you, they’ve paid a lot more than $300 under Mr. Albanese for their electricity. For the life of me, though, what it does show is Mr Albanese, [and the government] they’ve got their priorities all wrong.

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EasyJet’s Johan Lundgren to step down at beginning of 2025

CEO will be replaced by chief financial officer Kenton Jarvis, who like Lundgren joined from Tui

EasyJet’s chief executive, Johan Lundgren, will step down at the beginning of next year after seven years at the helm of the budget airline.

The carrier is promoting its chief financial officer, Kenton Jarvis, to take his place, with Lundgren set to hand over the reins on 1 January 2025. The outgoing boss will then stay with the business until mid-May as part of the airline’s “orderly succession plan”.

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UK government was ‘scared’, says man behind failed UAE-backed Telegraph bid

RedBird IMI deal effectively killed by new legislation blocking foreign states from owning UK newspapers

The former CNN executive who fronted a failed bid for the Telegraph newspaper by a UAE-backed consortium has suggested the government was not willing to listen to assurances about editorial neutrality.

Jeff Zucker said there were figures in the UK who were “scared” of the £600m deal, which would have seen the Abu Dhabi-backed consortium, RedBird IMI, take control of the Telegraph and Spectator.

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UK trade summit in Saudi Arabia accused of promoting firms linked to senior Tories

Lib Dems says Conservatives have ‘serious questions to answer’ about what appears to be clear conflict of interest

A UK government trade summit in Saudi Arabia has been criticised for helping to promote businesses linked to a string of senior Conservatives, including peers and the former chair of the party, Ben Elliot.

Oliver Dowden, the deputy prime minister, has been in Riyadh this week launching the government-backed Great Futures campaign to promote British trade with Saudi Arabia, despite the Gulf country’s controversial record on the repression of women and LGBT people.

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Burberry profits slump by 40% as demand for luxury goods slows

British fashion retailer hit by drop in sales in Asia and Americas, and expects challenging first half of 2025

Burberry’s profits have slumped by 40% in a year amid a wider slowdown in demand for luxury goods that has pushed down sales in Asia and the Americas.

The high-end UK fashion retailer posted a pre-tax profit of £383m for the year up to 30 March in its preliminary results on Wednesday, a 40% drop on the £634m in the previous 12 months. Global sales fell by 8% in the second half of the year.

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Budget 2024 live updates: reaction and fallout from the Australia federal budget – latest news

Treasurer grilled on inflation and migration after National Press Club address. Follow today’s news and 2024 federal budget reaction live

Jim Chalmers said the government didn’t create a new system for the energy payments (so everyone gets it) because it is done through the energy retailers, who don’t have people’s income data.

It’s not a cash payment paid directly to you – instead, it is paid through the energy sector, which takes money off your bill. In this case, $75 a quarter.

I don’t see it in political terms. I think primarily the motivation of this budget is to help people who are doing it tough. More help is on the way for people who are doing it tough via the tax system, via their energy bills and with rent assistance and cheaper medicines and in other ways as well. That’s our primary motivation.

Once you go beyond providing this to people on pensions and payments, you have to design a whole new system in order to create a new distinction. We are providing this energy bill relief to every household. We think that’s a good way to help things make things easier. Some of the other measures are more targeted.

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Brexit border IT outages delay import of perishable items to UK by up to 20 hours

Lorries carrying meat, cheese and cut flowers held up by new checks, with retailers rejecting some orders

Lorries carrying perishable food and plants from the EU are being held for up to 20 hours at the UK’s busiest Brexit border post as failures with the government’s IT systems delay imports entering Britain.

Businesses have described the government’s new border control checks as a “disaster” after IT outages led to lorries carrying meat, cheese and cut flowers being held for long periods, reducing the shelf life of their goods and prompting retailers to reject some orders.

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Biden announces 100% tariff on Chinese-made electric vehicles

White House levy to protect US makers from cheap imports likely to inflame trade tensions

The US president, Joe Biden, has announced a 100% tariff on Chinese-made electric vehicles as part of a package of measures designed to protect US manufacturers from cheap imports.

In a move that is likely to inflame trade tensions between the world’s two biggest economies, the White House said it was imposing more stringent curbs on Chinese goods worth $18bn.

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Federal budget 2024 live updates: energy bill rebate and rent assistance boost confirmed ahead of Australian treasurer Jim Chalmers’s budget speech tonight – latest news

Treasurer will be able to boast back-to-back surpluses when he speaks at 7.30pm tonight. Follow live updates today

Nick McKim said he agrees with EY chief economist, Cherelle Murphy, who says that you can look after people without impacting inflation by taking the money you are spending on people who don’t need it, and redirecting it to people who do. (Therefore it is the same pool of money, but targeted differently.)

McKim:

For example, you could end the massive tax breaks for property investors who own multiple investment properties then put in place a rent freeze and a rent cap, for example.

You could tax billionaires and CEOs on the basis of their wealth and you could use that revenue to raise income support, which would lift a large number of Australians out of the grinding poverty that they experience every day.

No, certainly not. I mean, what the surplus shows is that they’re prioritising their own political benefit over investing in the kind of programs that would provide genuine help to people who are really doing it tough at the moment.

So what you’re going to see in the budget tonight is that having talked up an absolute storm on things like climate change and on things like cost of living, Labor is simply not prepared to take the action necessary to respond to those challenges that the urgency and the scale that is required.

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UK real pay grows at fastest rate in two years as unemployment rises

Figures provide mixed message for Bank of England when it considers interest rate cut next month

The level of real pay for UK workers is rising at its fastest rate in more than two years despite a cooling of the labour market that has led to rising unemployment and falling job vacancies, the latest official figures show.

Fresh data from the Office for National Statistics showed the mild recession in the second half of 2023 has had an impact on demand for workers but has been slower to affect wages.

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NHS spending rise lags behind Tory funding pledges, IFS finds

Thinktank says extra funding eaten up by higher inflation despite greater demand with service in poor state of repair

Spending on the NHS in England has risen less quickly than the Conservatives promised at the last election despite the extra demand created by the pandemic and record waiting lists, a leading thinktank has said.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said increases in funding from the government had been eaten up by higher than expected inflation and, as a result, NHS day-to-day spending had grown by 2.7% a year during the current parliament – below the 3.3% pledged by Boris Johnson in 2019.

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