Category Archives: Business

Currys boss: minimum wage hike shows government does not ‘care’ about retail

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Planned 10% UK increase as business rates rise will put pressure on already overburdened industry, says Alex Baldock

The boss of Currys has accused the government of failing to “understand or care” about UK retailers by pushing through a “big hike” in the UK’s minimum wage.

Alex Baldock’s comments come weeks after chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced plans to increase the legal minimum wage for the UK’s lowest paid workers to £11.44 an hour, representing a hike of almost 10%, from April 2024. The move will force employers to pay full time workers around £1,800 more per year.

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Thames Water appoints Chris Weston as boss with up to £2.3m package

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Former British Gas executive tasked with leading turnaround in face of debts and controversy over sewage

Thames Water has appointed a former British Gas executive as its new boss with a pay package of up to £2.3m a year and tasked with leading a crucial turnaround as it faces mounting debts and controversy over dumping sewage in Britain’s waterways.

Chris Weston replaces Sarah Bentley, who resigned with immediate effect in June amid a backlash over the firm’s poor environmental track record. Weston will take up the role on 8 January.

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‘They are so convincing’: Vera Gazzard lost her life savings to HyperVerse

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Australians who were convinced to put money into the Hyper group investment schemes say no one has been held to account for their losses

Geelong woman Vera Gazzard had plans for her $50,000 in savings. Elective surgery was on the list, as was help for her daughter who was expecting a second child.

But when an acquaintance recommended an investment opportunity called HyperVerse offering daily returns of 0.5% she jumped at the opportunity.

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Argentina’s new government devalues peso by more than 50%

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Package of spending cuts introduced in attempt to tackle country’s worst economic crisis in decades

Argentina has devalued its currency, the peso, by more than 50% as part of a package of large-scale spending cuts intended to address the country’s worst economic crisis in decades.

The plans, introduced under the newly inaugurated administration of Javier Milei, include cutting energy subsidies and cancelling tenders for public works.

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Sainsbury’s boss defends decision to sell customers’ Nectar card data

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Supermarket says it protects personal data ‘incredibly carefully’ and move makes ads ‘more relevant’

The chief executive of Sainsbury’s has defended its decision to sell data on the shopping habits of his customers to TV and consumer goods manufacturers looking to target their advertising.

Simon Roberts has said the supermarket group protects personal data “incredibly carefully” and that its strategy had made adverts more “relevant” for shoppers.

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War has left Gaza economy at almost total standstill, says World Bank

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Washington-based development organisation providing $20m for citizens suffering ‘multidimensional poverty’

The economy of Gaza has ground to an almost total standstill as a result of the war between Israel and Hamas that has left about 85% of workers without jobs, the World Bank has said.

In an assessment of the economic impact of the two-month-long conflict, the Washington-based development organisation said Gaza was operating at only 16% of its productive capacity and was in “deep recession”.

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Scale of bullying and harassment of women in City ‘shocks and alarms’ MPs

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Cross-party Treasury committee says its private hearings suggest there has been no improvement in 20 years

MPs on the cross-party Treasury committee have been “shocked and alarmed” to hear about the scale of bullying and sexual harassment against women in the City of London, which suggests there has been “no improvement whatsoever” over the past 20 years.

The Labour MP and committee member Angela Eagle said private hearings held as part of the committee’s sexism in the City inquiry had raised significant concerns about the conditions women were forced to endure in the UK’s financial services sector.

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Abu Dhabi-backed group close to £1bn deal for Gogglebox maker All3Media

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Telegraph bidder RedBird IMI in talks to buy UK’s largest independent TV production group

The Abu Dhabi-backed investment group that has struck a deal to buy the Telegraph is close to securing a £1bn-plus takeover of another prize UK media asset – All3Media, the TV production group behind shows including Call the Midwife, Squid Game: The Challenge, Gogglebox and Midsomer Murders.

RedBird IMI, a joint-venture between the US company RedBird Capital and International Media Investments (IMI) of Abu Dhabi, the investment vehicle for the UAE vice-president, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, is understood to be in advanced negotiations to buy the UK’s largest independent TV production group.

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Dozens of US lobbyists represent both climate-focused charities and fossil fuels – report

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Watchdog finds 86 foundations, including New Venture Fund and Pew Charitable Trusts, that share firms with fossil fuel companies

Dozens of US charities, including ones prioritizing climate action, are employing lobbying firms who also work for fossil fuel companies, new data shows.

Pew Charitable Trusts work on environmental issues while sharing a lobbying firm with Chevron. New Venture Fund’s priorities include a “range of conservation, climate, and energy issues”, yet it employed lobbying firms representing oil and gas companies in six states since the beginning of 2022. And Ballmer Giving funds climate and Indigenous rights programs, yet represents a company building fossil fuel infrastructure on tribal land.

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China overtakes US as branded coffee shop capital of the world

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Number rose by almost 60% in a year to 49,691 stores, making China ‘a global coffee industry powerhouse’

The branded coffee chain craze may trace its roots to a single Starbucks in Seattle’s Pike Place market in 1971, but now China has toppled the US as the country with the most branded coffee shops.

The number of branded coffee shops in China increased by 58% over the past 12 months to a record 49,691 outlets, according to research by World Coffee Portal. That was more than 9,000 in excess of the 40,062 in the US, where the market grew by just 4%. The US had held the crown as the world’s biggest coffee shop market for the entire 20-year history of the research.

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Falling UK inflation will ease pressure for high pay awards, says thinktank

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Strong growth in earnings has been driven by increases in cost of living, says Resolution Foundation

Bank of England concerns over the high level of pay awards are likely to be eased in the coming months as wage settlements fall in response to a tumbling annual inflation rate, a thinktank has said.

The Resolution Foundation said recent strong growth in earnings was primarily caused by a sharp increase in the cost of living, with workers trying to prevent their living standards being eroded.

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EU agrees tough limits on police use of AI biometric surveillance

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Measure bans use of real-time data without judicial authorisation in nearly all circumstances and covers both public and private spaces

Police and national security bodies in the EU will be banned from using real-time biometric data driven by artificial intelligence in most circumstances without having judicial authorisation, it has emerged.

The measure was part of a historic agreement reached between the European parliament and EU member states on Friday after three days of negotiations. However, officials only revealed the operational details on Monday, as the final text will not be published until “a cleaning-up process” is complete.

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Hayao Miyazaki’s ‘final’ film The Boy and the Heron hits No 1 at North American box office

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The Japanese director’s animation beats The Hunger Games prequel and Godzilla Minus One on its opening weekend in the US and Canada

The Boy and the Heron, reportedly the final film from Japanese master animator Hayao Miyazaki, has taken the number one spot at the box office on its North American release, as well as achieving record figures for the director.

Preliminary box office returns report that The Boy and the Heron took $12.8m in the US and Canada on its opening weekend, putting it a significant distance ahead of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, which managed $9.4m. In third place was another Japanese film, the monster movie Godzilla Minus One, on $8.3m.

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UK Christmas shoppers will pay more for less this year, say economists

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Cost of festive season is up almost a quarter in three years, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research

Consumers will pay more for less this Christmas, economists have warned, getting less of a bang for their buck than the faint phutting of a puny, overpriced cracker being pulled.

Although Britons will spend more than in the belt-tightening 2022 festive season, the resultant fare won’t yet match the pre-pandemic Christmases past.

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Trump says he won’t return to witness stand in $250m New York fraud trial

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Former president, who was expected to take the stand, announced on Truth Social on Sunday that he already testified to everything

Donald Trump announced he would not take the witness stand for a second time at his fraud trial in New York on Monday, the former US president’s last chance to make his case as he combats a potential $250m fine that hangs over his family business.

Trump had been expected to take the stand again as the hearings draw to a close. But on Sunday he announced on the Truth Social site that he would no longer be making an appearance.

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Saudi Arabia could take ‘effective majority control’ of London Heathrow

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Investors may sell shares to oil-rich state’s Public Investment Fund, which already owns a stake, report says

Saudi Arabia could take effective majority control of London Heathrow, the UK’s major airport, with other investors considering selling their stakes, according to reports.

The oil-rich state’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) allied with private equity investor Ardian to announce the purchase of a 25% stake in the airport last month from Ferrovial, the Spanish infrastructure giant that had been the primary owner of Heathrow for 17 years.

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‘The optics are terrible’: how Rishi Sunak’s 2020 ‘eat out to help out’ scheme backfired

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The then chancellor’s plan proved to be of no economic benefit and was decried by scientists – but it clearly set out the political aims of ‘Dishy Rishi’

There is no blue heritage plaque above the stainless-steel open kitchen at the branch of Wagamama at London’s Festival Hall – but the restaurant might have claims to one. It was here, in delivering a couple of plates of katsu curry – one chicken, one vegan – on 8 July 2020, that our current prime minister in effect launched his campaign for the country’s leadership.

During that lockdown spring as pandemic chancellor, Rishi Sunak had one of the few enviable public roles: he was cast as the man who saved the economy by giving money away. By the time he pitched up at Wagamama that lunchtime, his various Covid-help schemes had dished out £176bn in furlough payments and loans and deferred taxes. In those efforts Sunak, little known before the crisis, had sometimes looked like the only sober and responsible member of her majesty’s government. The headline act of his summer budget statement, “eat out to help out”, changed that narrative.

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Bank of England, Fed and ECB poised to leave interest rates on hold

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Stubbornly high inflation forces central banks to avoid cuts, but markets expect falls next year

The western world’s largest central banks are poised to keep interest rates on hold this week amid concerns over stubbornly high inflation, despite growing expectations for sharp cuts in borrowing costs next year.

In a crunch week for the global economy, the US Federal Reserve, Bank of England (BoE) and European Central Bank are expected to keep interest rates at their current restrictively high levels to ensure inflation continues to fall back from the highest levels in decades.

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Top US betting firm lobbied against rules to protect young people and problem gamblers

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Exclusive: documents show FanDuel fought crackdown on ads near college campuses and ‘deceptive’ marketing

One of the United States’ largest online gambling operators tried to water down rules designed to help problem gamblers and protect young and vulnerable people, according to documents seen by the Guardian.

FanDuel lobbied for New York to rethink a proposed ban on gambling platforms from using certain words and phrases to attract people “who are or may be” problem gamblers to their websites.

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Trump expert witness paid nearly $900,000 for testimony in fraud case

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Court hears Eli Bartov, professor at NYU, has worked about 650 hours on New York fraud case at rate of $1,350 per hour

An accounting expert who came to Donald Trump’s defense in his $250m fraud has racked up nearly $900,000 in fees for his testimony, a court heard on Friday.

New York University Stern School of Business research professor Eli Bartov testified on Thursday that he had found “no evidence here of concealment” in his review of the financial statements at the heart of the case.

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