Revenue at Chinese telecom rose 10% as net profit more than doubles
Chinese telecoms firm Huawei grew faster in 2023 than it has for four years, as it shrugged off the impact of US sanctions.
Revenues rose by nearly 10% to 704.2bn yuan (£77bn) as the Shenzhen-based company enjoyed a rebound within its consumer segment, which includes smartphone handsets.
Continue reading...Former PM’s meeting with President Maduro, in capacity as hedge fund consultant, is under further scrutiny
Labour is demanding answers over what the party said was “potentially serious impropriety” by Boris Johnson after it emerged that the former prime minister met the Venezuelan president in his role as a consultant for a hedge fund.
Nick Thomas-Symonds, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, said in a letter to Oliver Dowden, the deputy prime minister and Cabinet Office minister, that there were concerns that Johnson may have breached the ministerial code.
Continue reading...Decision raises concerns about financial future of UK’s biggest water firm and increases prospect of nationalisation
Investors at Thames Water have pulled the plug on £500m of emergency funding, raising concerns about the financial future of the country’s largest water company and increasing the prospect of nationalisation.
The beleaguered utilities company announced this morning that its shareholders had refused to provide the first tranche of £750m funding set to secure its short-term cashflow, after the company had failed to meet certain conditions.
Continue reading...Prime minister Anthony Albanese says China’s duties on Australian bottled wine will come to an end from Friday
China has dropped tariffs on Australian wine, a long-awaited decision heralded by the Albanese government as validation of its “calm and consistent approach” with the superpower on a series of controversial trade disputes.
In a statement on Thursday the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, foreign minister, Penny Wong, and trade minister, Don Farrell, said they had been informed that from Friday, China’s duties on Australian bottled wine would come to an end. Australia would, in turn, discontinue its legal proceedings in the World Trade Organization, the government said.
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Local MP says government ‘had to do something’ about ‘weeks of unrest’ in Alice Springs
MP for Lingiari, Marion Scrymgour, says the government “had to do something” when asked if a youth curfew, imposed for Alice Springs from last night, was necessary.
That’s culminated in some of the riotous behaviours that we’ve seen played out in the streets of Alice Springs, which over a number of weeks, has gotten increasingly worse. The government had to do something.
Continue reading...Latest estimate from ONS says GDP declined by 0.3% in final quarter of 2023
Official figures have confirmed that the UK economy went into recession at the end of last year, after the latest estimate found it contracted in the last two quarters of 2023.
In a blow to the government’s economic standing, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the economy, as measured by gross domestic product, shrank by 0.3% in the last three months of the year, unrevised from an earlier estimate.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Man who has now given party at least £10m copied Steve Barclay into email about problems with bid, documents show
The Conservative mega-donor Frank Hester complained to the NHS and the health secretary last year over problems his IT business had bidding for a contract, documents show.
The Leeds businessman, who owns a healthcare tech firm responsible for 60m UK medical records, raised a complaint about procurement in December 2022 with the chair of NHS England, copying in Steve Barclay, the then health secretary, saying he was an “interested party”.
Continue reading...The former star UBS and Citigroup trader was convicted of conspiracy to defraud by manipulating financial benchmark and served 5 1/2 years in prison
Britain’s financial regulator has identified shortcomings in how some motor insurance firms are valuing written-off or stolen vehicles.
A review by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has found evidence that suggests some firms are offering their customers less than their written-off or stolen vehicle is worth and, in some cases, are only increasing that offer when a customer complains.
Having your vehicle written off or stolen can be intensely stressful and we expect firms to offer the right support to help their customers.
We expect all motor insurers to take note of our findings and we are engaging directly with those that have issues that need to be addressed.
Continue reading...Tourism oversight board members approve agreement, ending nearly two years of litigation after DeSantis’s takeover
Allies of the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, and Disney reached a settlement agreement on Wednesday in a lawsuit over who controls Walt Disney World’s governing district.
In a meeting, the members of the board of the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District approved the settlement agreement, ending almost two years of litigation that was sparked by DeSantis’s takeover of the district from Disney supporters following the company’s opposition to Florida’s so-called “don’t say gay” law.
Continue reading...Trump Media & Technology trading on Nasdaq under ‘DJT’ ticker, using Trump’s initials and closing up 15% after first day of trading
The firm behind Donald Trump’s Truth Social went public on Tuesday at a price that values the minnow social network at close to $8bn.
Shares in Digital World Acquisition, the shell company with which Trump’s social media business has merged, have been surging since the turn of the year.
Continue reading...Details of Chris O’Shea’s ballooning package emerge in Centrica’s annual report after company reports bumper profits
The boss of the British Gas owner, Centrica, has seen his earnings nearly double to £8.2m, despite having admitted that his smaller pay packet the previous year was “impossible to justify”.
Chris O’Shea earned a basic salary of £903,000, which was topped up by cash and share bonuses worth an extra £7.3m.
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Renewed push to scrap activity level requirements for childcare subsidies
There was a lot of disappointment last budget when the government did not scrap the activity test as a way of making early child education more accessible and universal.
Zoe Daniel MP, Member for Goldstein
Georgie Dent, the CEO of the Parenthood
Sam Page, the CEO of Early Childhood Australia
Kate Carnell, the former Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman and former ACT chief minister
Natalie Walker, the deputy chair of Goodstart Early Learning
Sue Morphett, a businesswoman and the former president of Chief Executive Women
Continue reading...Bill to be introduced to parliament this week will incentivise carmakers to import cleaner vehicles
The Albanese government has watered down flagship new laws aimed at disincentivising the use of high-polluting cars and hastening the importation of cleaner vehicles amid pressure from the auto industry.
On Tuesday the transport minister, Catherine King, and the energy minister, Chris Bowen, revealed the details of compromise bill to be introduced to parliament this week, with the changes largely easing rules for popular large SUVs.
Continue reading...Technology groups face hefty fines if they are found guilty of breaching Digital Markets Act
Apple, Google’s parent company and Meta are being investigated by the EU for potential breaches of the bloc’s new laws designed to police anti-competitive behaviour by big technology companies.
The trio face significant fines if they are found guilty of breaching the Digital Markets Act (DMA), a landmark piece of regulation that came into force on 7 March and is aimed at increasing choice for online consumers.
Continue reading...Leading social scientists issue warning after call by business leaders and London Stock Exchange
More than 20 leading social scientists have warned the UK’s biggest investment companies and pension funds that allowing US-style executive pay packages could “create a significant risk of higher inequality” and “much worse lower levels of happiness, health and wellbeing across society”.
The academics said they had decided to speak out as an increasing number of British business leaders and the London Stock Exchange have argued for much higher pay awards to improve the UK’s competitiveness.
Continue reading...Plant on outskirts of Coventry could create up to 6,000 jobs and will be part of planned Centre for Electrification
A Chinese manufacturer of electric vehicle batteries is in talks to invest more than £1bn to build a giant new factory on the outskirts of Coventry.
EVE Energy, which says it employs 28,000 staff worldwide, is understood to be in talks to construct a 5.7m sq ft gigafactory, which will form one of the main parts of the planned UK Centre for Electrification, an investment zone in the West Midlands.
Continue reading...In letter to TfL boss, Khan says plans ‘will not include new pay-per-mile road user charging scheme’
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has pledged not to expand the ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) scheme if he returns to the role after May’s election.
In a letter to London’s transport commissioner, Andy Lord, Khan wrote that he had “categorically” ruled out the introduction of a pay-per-mile scheme as well as any tightening of Ulez emissions standards.
Continue reading...Subsidiary of Lazari Investments fined £67,000 for breaches of HMO licence conditions on Camden flats
A family-owned property empire whose holdings include the former Fenwick department store building on London’s Bond Street has seen one of its subsidiaries named on the city’s rogue landlords register and hit with fines totalling £67,000.
The Lazari family have an estimated fortune of £2.5bn, placing them 72nd on the Sunday Times rich list. It is based on a property portfolio that includes some of the most luxurious addresses in central London as well as rental flats in the north of the city.
Continue reading...Party says it is committed to policies such as zero-hours ban after peer warned against ‘rushing’ changes
Labour has said it will keep its ban on zero-hours jobs and improvements to workers’ rights after the party peer Peter Mandelson warned against “rushing” through changes championed by trade unions.
Anneliese Dodds, the Labour chair, said the party was committed to the package to “make work pay” and get more money into people’s pockets, but that it would “continue to discuss” the plans with business and unions.
Continue reading...Resolution Foundation points to legacy of Covid as it warns that near-record 2.7m people are too ill to work
Britain is going through the longest sustained rise in the number of working-age adults who are too sick to work since the 1990s, according to a report warning that a benefits crackdown is unlikely to solve the country’s jobless crisis.
The Resolution Foundation said economic inactivity due to long-term sickness – when people aged 16-64 are neither in work nor looking for a job because of a health condition – had increased in each year since July 2019, the longest sustained rise since 1994 to 1998.
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