Category Archives: Business

Optus gets some clear air but the ghosts of twin disasters will haunt whoever comes next

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Kelly Bayer Rosmarin’s resignation fuels speculation Optus executive and former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian could be top contender for CEO

The departure of Kelly Bayer Rosmarin as chief executive will give Optus some clear air to move past the 14-hour outage, but for whoever comes next as CEO the turbulence won’t be over yet.

Bayer Rosmarin’s appearance at the inquiry into the Optus outage on Friday went fairly smoothly compared with how disastrous it has been for some to face the same fate in the past. Yet it was clear to everyone watching that she was unlikely to last much longer at the helm.

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Jet trip followed guidelines, minister’s office says – as it happened

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Australians increasingly relying on credit cards as cost-of-living pressures rise

A survey from comparison site Finder has found an increasing number of Australians are turning to credit cards amid the rising cost of living.

Mounting pressure on households is seeing Aussies borrowing money to keep afloat.

Used responsibly, credit cards can be a great tool for earning rewards such as frequent flyer points and building your credit history.

But relying too heavily on them could cause you to go into a debt spiral which can be hard to bounce back from.

It symbolises the balance between utility and respect for the environment, mirroring our approach to space exploration.

It’s time for Australian science to take the next leap all the way up into space, like our roos do back home. Naming the new lunar rover ‘Roo-ver’ will reflect the Aussie spirit as we launch into this new endeavour.

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Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin resigns after network outage

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Optus parent company Singtel says ‘priority is about setting on a path of renewal for the benefit of the community and customers’

Kelly Bayer Rosmarin has resigned as the chief executive of Optus in the wake of the nationwide outage that took down phone and internet services for 14 hours close to two weeks ago.

In a statement released by Optus’s parent company, Singtel, on Monday morning, Bayer Rosmarin said it was an appropriate time to step down, following her appearance at a Senate inquiry into the outage on Friday.

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Tax corporate polluters and rich to help tackle climate crisis, Jeremy Hunt told

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In letter to Guardian, campaigners say billions could be raised to help finance decarbonisation

Jeremy Hunt has been warned that combating the climate emergency will require higher taxes on wealth and big corporate polluters at the autumn statement rather than a package of giveaways for the rich.

In the run-up to the chancellor’s speech to the Commons on Wednesday, a group of 19 leading charities and campaigners – including Greenpeace, Christian Aid and Patriotic Millionaires UK – said billions of pounds could be raised to help finance decarbonisation.

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Ousted OpenAI CEO Sam Altman ‘in talks to return at firm’s HQ’

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Boss was sacked by ChatGPT developer over failure to be ‘candid in his communications’

Sam Altman is being lined up for a surprise return as the chief executive of the ChatGPT developer OpenAI amid pressure from investors to reverse his shock ousting.

Altman was fired by the company board on Friday, citing a failure to be “candid in his communications”, in a move that startled Silicon Valley.

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Billionaire miners Andrew and Nicola Forrest buy Australian hatmaker Akubra

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Outgoing chairman Stephen Keir IV says family-owned company ‘thought long and hard about selling business after five generations’

Iconic Australian hatmaker Akubra is changing ownership for the first time in five generations.

Tattarang, owned by Australian businessman Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest and his wife Nicola, has acquired Akubra from the Keir family, who trace their ownership back 147 years.

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Jeremy Hunt faces red wall revolt if he delivers ‘a budget for the rich’

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The chancellor’s potential inheritance tax cut in Wednesday’s budget would aid millionaires amid a cost of living crisis

Jeremy Hunt faces a backlash from “red wall” Tory MPs if he uses a fiscal windfall of up to £20bn to deliver tax cuts for the rich rather than to help ordinary families with the cost of living, the Observer has been told.

The chancellor and Rishi Sunak are this weekend finalising an autumn statement on Wednesday that could include a major reduction in inheritance tax – four-fifths of which would benefit those with more than £1m at their death, according to a new report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). Each person with more than £1m would receive an average tax cut of £180,000, the IFS states.

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Co-op and Aldi champagnes beat Veuve Clicquot in Which? taste test

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Top-scoring supermarket fizz costs less than half of the price of its prestigious competitor

Money might be tight this Christmas but there is good news for champagne lovers after much cheaper supermarket own brands fared better than the prestigious French label Veuve Clicquot in a quaff test.

The Co-op’s Les Pionniers champagne received the top score of 85% in a blind taste test conducted by Which? with the £22.75-a-bottle bubbly wowing the panel with its “smoky notes” and “smooth creaminess”.

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UK savers urged to act quickly for best returns as rates drop

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NS&I, Shawbrook and Tandem among providers to make reductions amid flurry of such moves

Savers have been urged to act quickly if they want to get the best returns on their money after a flurry of interest rate cuts on top-paying accounts.

This week NS&I reduced the rate it offers on its three-year green bonds from 5.7% to 3.95%, while Shawbrook, Tandem and Ford Money were among other providers making cuts.

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Tory party’s ex-chair to be paid to advise firm with links to sanctions-hit Russians

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MP Brandon Lewis will be paid £250,000 a year by LetterOne, investment group 49% owned by two oligarchs

The former Conservative party chair, Brandon Lewis, will be paid £250,000 a year to advise a company part-owned by two Russian oligarchs with sanctions placed against them.

The job at LetterOne, an investment group 49% owned by Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven, is Lewis’s fifth on top of his role as an MP, and his total earnings will come to almost £500,000 a year.

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Collapsed hospital operator NMC Health misled markets over £3.2bn of debt, says watchdog

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FCA censures former FTSE 100 company but stops short of a fine as no funds are expected to be left

The financial watchdog has found that collapsed hospital operator NMC Health committed market abuse by understating its debts by as much as $4bn (£3.2bn).

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) censured the former FTSE 100 company on Friday for misleading the market but stopped short of fining it as no funds are expected to be left at the business once outstanding debts to creditors are paid out.

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EU agrees to ban exports of waste plastic to poor countries

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Rules, still subject to formal approval, stop exports to non-OECD countries and limit them elsewhere

The EU has struck a deal to stop ships of waste plastic landing in ports of poor countries.

European lawmakers and member states agreed on Friday to ban exports of plastic rubbish to countries outside the OECD group of mostly rich countries from the middle of 2026. The deal comes as diplomats meet in Nairobi, Kenya, to hammer out a global treaty on plastic pollution.

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New York judge suspends Trump gag order in fraud trial, citing free speech

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Trial judge Arthur Engoron had imposed gag order last month after the former president maligned a court clerk

A New York appeals court judge on Thursday paused a gag order that barred Donald Trump from commenting on court staffers in his civil fraud trial. The trial judge had imposed the gag order last month and later fined Trump $15,000 for violations after the former president made a disparaging social media post about a court clerk.

In his decision, Judge David Friedman of the state’s intermediate appeals court cited constitutional concerns about restricting Trump’s free speech. He issued a stay of the gag order, allowing Trump to comment freely about court staff while a longer appeals process plays out.

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Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin faces Senate grilling as Singtel denies it was to blame for outage

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Optus claimed on its parent company’s Singtel Internet Exchange was responsible, but Singtel says its upgrade was not the cause

The Optus chief executive, Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, faces a grilling at a Senate hearing on Friday over the telco’s handling of last week’s 14-hour nationwide outage as both Optus and its parent company Singtel dispute who was to blame.

Bayer Rosmarin will be facing the Senate committee, chaired by the Greens communications spokesperson, Sarah Hanson-Young, over two hours on Friday morning in the inquiry launched shortly after the Optus outage last week.

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Rail strikes: Aslef announces industrial action in December

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Drivers to stage fresh series of 24-hour strikes and overtime ban, as RMT signals possible breakthrough

The train drivers’ union, Aslef, will stage a series of one-day strikes and call an overtime ban across England’s operating companies at the start of December, ratcheting up the national rail dispute again.

Drivers at each company will strike for 24 hours on dates between Saturday 2 and Friday 8 December, and will refuse to work overtime between Friday 1 and Saturday 9 December, causing more disruption for operators that rely on rest day working.

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Large parts of Port Talbot steelworks could be shut under Tata Steel cuts plan

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Unions say move could force Tata’s automative steel factory at Llanwern to close, costing 600 jobs

Large parts of the Port Talbot steelworks will be closed or mothballed for years, and would leave the plant and its few remaining workers reliant on imported steel, according to proposals under consideration by the owner, Tata Steel.

Tata Steel has briefed union representatives on the proposals but has yet to announce a final decision. Workers, who marched through the town in protest on Saturday, were left in limbo two weeks ago after the company’s board in India decided to pull an announcement about its plans for the plant at the last moment.

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Cyprus police investigate how Russian tycoon moved £1bn on day he was put under sanctions

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Cypriot government and EU respond to revelations over apparent role of local companies in helping oligarchs shield wealth

The Cyprus police force is investigating how an oligarch attempted to transfer a £1bn stake in a public company on the day he was placed under EU sanctions, government insiders have told the Guardian.

News of the involvement of the financial crime squad came as the Cypriot government and the European Union responded to revelations that local service providers appear to have played a key role in enabling Russian oligarchs to shield assets from EU sanctions within days of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

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Charities urge government not to ‘fiddle’ benefits increase after inflation hits two-year low – as it happened

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Cost of living campaigners say government should use September’s inflation rate to set benefits, not October’s, after CPI falls to 4.6% from 6.7%

Falling energy bills, and the economic drag caused by higher interest rates, should get the credit for the drop in inflation.

That’s the view of Suren Thiru, economics director at ICAEW (The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales).

“This dramatic drop suggests that the UK has turned the corner in its battle against soaring inflation, particularly given the fall in core inflation, which indicates that underlying price pressures are also easing.

“While the Prime Minister has achieved his target to halve inflation this year, this owes more to the downward pressure on prices from falling energy costs and rising interest rates than any government action.

“The fall in inflation will come as some relief for families struggling with the cost of living.

“But now is not the time for Conservative ministers to be popping champagne corks and patting themselves on the back.

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Average UK house sale price suffers first annual fall for 11 years

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ONS says average price dropped 0.1% year on year in September, with those in London decreasing 1.1%

The average price of a home in the UK dropped by 0.1% in the year to September, official figures show – the first annual fall for more than a decade.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures, which are based on completed sales, have shown annual price inflation slowing since July 2022, when the headline rate stood at 13.8%.

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German publisher halts sale of top author’s books after leak reveals he received €600,000 from Putin ally

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Broadcaster NDR launches investigation after Hubert Seipel admits receiving support for work on two books on Russian leader

A German publisher has announced a stop to the sale of books authored by a leading journalist and Russia expert after an investigation showed he had received at least €600,000 (£522,000) in undisclosed offshore payments from companies linked to an oligarch close to Vladimir Putin.

Hubert Seipel, an award-winning film-maker and author, admitted receiving support for his work on two books charting the Russian leader’s rise to power and offering portrayals described as sympathetic to him.

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