Category Archives: Business

Bangladesh garment workers fighting for pay face brutal violence and threats

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Workers describe hands and arms being targeted in ‘merciless’ beatings as protests over low wages turn increasingly violent in Dhaka

When Masuma Akhtar arrived at the garment factory where she works on the outskirts of Dhaka on 31 October, she was expecting a normal shift. Instead, she was met with brute violence. “The moment I walked through the factory gates, a group of armed men began beating me with wooden sticks,” says Akhtar. “I fell down on to the ground. Even then they wouldn’t stop beating me.”

Akhtar, 22, is a seamstress at Dekko Knitwears in Mirpur, where she spends long days churning out clothes for western fashion brands, including Marks & Spencer, C&A and PVH Corp, which owns Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein.

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Putin ally wired £3.7m into UK via Cyprus after Ukraine invasion, documents suggest

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Petr Aven, a UK-based billionaire who owns a Surrey mansion, is under UK and EU sanctions

He is a billionaire Russian oligarch who has been closely linked to Vladimir Putin for three decades.

And for years Petr Aven also enjoyed the trappings of London high society, as a trustee and donor of the Royal Academy of Arts, as well as owning three multimillion-pound UK properties, including one in the ultra-wealthy Surrey enclave of Virginia Water.

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Selfridges comes under full control of Thailand’s Central Group

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Announcement after Central’s Austrian partner Signa Group was placed in hands of restructuring expert

Thailand’s largest department store owner, Central Group, has announced it has taken control of Selfridges department stores.

Central Group and Rene Benko’s Austrian real estate company Signa Group bought Selfridges in 2021 in a deal worth $5bn.

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Cyprus to clamp down as investigation reveals oligarchs moved assets after Ukraine invasion

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Biggest ever leak of financial data from Cyprus raises concerns over EU state’s role in managing Russian fortunes

Cyprus has vowed to tighten controls on its financial sector as an investigation published by the Guardian and its reporting partners reveals oligarchs transferred hundreds of millions in assets while sanctions loomed after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The role of the blue-chip accountants PwC Cyprus and other advisers in managing transactions as Vladimir Putin’s forces launched their assault has emerged from Cyprus Confidential, a cache of 3.6m files leaked by an anonymous source to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and Germany’s Paper Trail Media, which shared access with the Guardian and other reporting partners.

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‘We deserve our fair share’: state Labor leaders clash with federal government over infrastructure plan

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Albanese government move to make states pay at least 50% of new infrastructure project bills receives pushback from premiers

State Labor leaders are at odds with the Albanese government over its plan to split the cost of building nationally significant infrastructure.

On Tuesday, the federal minister for infrastructure and transport, Catherine King, announced it would no longer be “the default” for the federal government to pick up the bulk of the tab for new roads, rail and other major projects.

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Victorian premier suggests businesses could pay more if Coalition votes down WorkCover reforms

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The government may increase premiums paid by businesses if Labor’s WorkCover bill is defeated, Jacinta Allan says

The Victorian premier has threatened to further hike premiums paid by businesses to fund the state’s workers’ compensation scheme if parliament does not pass proposed reforms she says will secure its financial future.

The Coalition party room on Tuesday voted to oppose the WorkCover bill in its current form, joining the Greens and several other crossbenchers in effectively denying Labor the numbers it needs to pass the legislation in the upper house.

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Trump Jr hails ‘sexiness’ of father’s properties at New York fraud trial

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Donald Trump’s son showers praise on former president as he returns to the stand at $250m real estate fraud trial

Donald Trump’s eldest son hailed the “sexiness” of his father’s properties after returning to the stand at the $250m fraud trial over the former president’s real estate empire.

Lawyers for the Trump Organization summoned Donald Trump Jr at the start of the seventh week of the New York civil trial.

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What is the Greensill scandal overshadowing David Cameron’s return to cabinet?

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Inquiry found ex-PM had sent dozens of messages to former colleagues asking them to help his then employer

David Cameron’s surprise return to the cabinet as foreign secretary comes just two years after a parliamentary inquiry found he had shown a “significant lack of judgment” over a lobbying campaign for a bank in which he held a personal economic interest.

The former prime minister launched the intensive round of text messages to ministers and high-ranking civil servants at the height of the Covid pandemic on behalf of Greensill Capital, which collapsed the following year.

Nine WhatsApp messages to the then chancellor, Rishi Sunak.

Two WhatsApp messages to Richard Sharp, then adviser to Sunak.

Twelve texts to Sir Tom Scholar, the then permanent secretary to the Treasury.

A dozen texts, emails, phone calls and other messages to the ministers Michael Gove, Matt Hancock, Nadhim Zahawi, John Glen and Jesse Norman.

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Ofgem plans to cut wind and solar delays by stripping out ‘zombie’ projects

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Regulator aims to reduce backlog as some wind and solar schemes wait up to 15 years to get hooked up

The energy regulator is to introduce rules designed to kick out “zombie” wind and solar farms from the lengthy queue to connect to Great Britain’s electricity grid.

Ofgem hopes to speed up the process of hooking up new energy projects to the electricity network in the face of a backlog that is deterring investment and Britain’s attempts to switch to clean energy.

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Firms that donate to political parties twice as likely to win government contracts, analysis finds

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Transparency group says donating companies should be banned from government contracts but constitutional expert disagrees

Companies that make political donations are more than twice as likely to win government contracts and should be banned from working with departments for an entire electoral cycle, according to a key transparency group.

But a constitutional expert has warned a ban could be an overreaction that confuses coincidence with corruption, given public servants who award contracts may have no idea of recent donations to political parties.

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DP World hack: Australian port operator hit by cyber-attack says cargo may be stranded for ‘days’

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DP World pulls plug on its internet connection after finding hackers inside its systems

Australia’s biggest ports operator, which has been the target of a cyber-attack, says it should be up and running again within days.

DP World Australia closed its Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Fremantle port operations after detecting the breach on Friday, leaving cargo and containers stuck on the docks.

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Labour motion to ban Truss-style budget meltdowns puts pressure on Tory MPs

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Party loyalty would force Conservatives to vote against plan for fiscal responsibility

Read more: ‘I challenge Rishi Sunak: vote with Labour to stop a Truss-style disaster happening again,’ writes Rachel Reeves

Labour will force a Commons vote this week aimed at creating new legal safeguards against fiscal disasters such as Liz Truss’s catastrophic mini-budget, which sent the financial markets into meltdown and drove up mortgage rates.

The party’s plan for a “fiscal lock” to protect personal, family and the national finances from reckless politicians will be contained in an amendment to the king’s speech that will be voted on by MPs on Tuesday. The manoeuvre will present Conservative backbenchers with a dilemma over whether to back a Labour amendment, or vote against what is a plan designed to embed fiscal responsibility into the budgetary process, and protect it from wild or accidental political misjudgments.

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Premature death of 80m chickens raises concerns over UK’s fast-growing breeds

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Animal welfare groups urge retailers to switch to slow-growing birds in face of record deaths last year

More than 80 million chickens died before reaching slaughter weight in the UK last year, with mortality rates the highest for at least a decade, reveal official figures.

Animal welfare organisations say the fast-growing chicken breeds that dominate production have higher mortality rates, lameness and muscle disease than slower-growing breeds. They are calling on retailers to switch to slower-growing breeds and provide more space for the birds.

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How M&S regained its place as UK’s top womenswear retailer

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Four years after it fell out of the FTSE 100 the high street brand is again boasting strong sales

Fours years after it fell out of the FTSE 100, M&S has turned around its fortunes to become the UK’s best retailer for women’s wear.

In May, strong sales figures were driven not only by bog-standard basics such as underwear and T-shirts, but by more fashion-forward categories, too. Now, sales of women’s party wear are up 49%, and knitwear up 23% in October compared with last year.

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Contract for Hollywood actors includes $40m yearly in streaming bonuses

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Union leaders on Friday shared details of three-year contract, on AI, wage increases and end to racist hair and makeup practices

Streaming services like Netflix will pay actors bonuses amounting to roughly $40m per year as part of the tentative labor agreement reached between the SAG-AFTRA actors union and major Hollywood studios, union leaders said on Friday after their board backed the deal.

The proposed three-year contract, which the union said was valued at more than $1bn over three years, was endorsed by 86% of SAG-AFTRA’s national board.

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Optus chief executive set to face Senate inquiry over nationwide outage

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Kelly Bayer Rosmarin to appear in person before inquiry next week as it investigates network crash that endured for up to 14 hours last Wednesday

The embattled chief executive of Optus will appear in person before a Senate inquiry next week, as it investigates Wednesday’s outage that left millions of its customers without internet or mobile phone coverage for up to 14 hours.

Optus has confirmed that Kelly Bayer Rosmarin will appear before the inquiry – which was brought on by the Greens and the Coalition in the Senate on Thursday – in the coming days.

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Booking.com to compensate some hotels over delayed payments but others miss out

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Travel website apologises to partners left out of pocket, but those told they do not qualify for compensation say it adds insult to injury

Travel website Booking.com has apologised and offered some hotel operators cash compensation for leaving hotels and partners out of pocket for months, but those who have been left out of the payment say it adds insult to injury.

In an email sent out to hotel operators this week, the Booking.com chief executive, Glenn Fogel, apologised for “the impact that our finance and payment systems maintenance and the resulting delay in payments may have had on you and your business”.

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UK subsidies for offshore windfarms likely to increase amid rising costs

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Developers say higher prices across their supply chains mean costs have climbed by about 40%

The government is poised to offer higher subsidies for new offshore windfarms to avoid missing its green energy targets as developers grapple with a rise in supply chain costs.

Ministers are expected to set out within the next week a new starting price for the next subsidy auction, which is likely to offer higher levels of support to offshore wind developers.

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‘Call their bluff’: shopping around on home loans can save money – even with high interest rates

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Many mortgage lenders reporting increased competition, meaning savvy borrowers can negotiate for a better deal

In real estate, everything is negotiable, including your mortgage.

While many lenders have withdrawn cashback incentives in recent months, there are still large discrepancies between the best and worst mortgage offers in the market, which means many borrowers are paying too much.

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Drop in Latin American drinking prompts Diageo to issue profits warning

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Shares fall in world’s largest spririts company as consumers seek cheaper brands

The Guinness to Johnnie Walker drinks maker Diageo has issued a profit warning as a result of cash-strapped customers in Latin America and the Caribbean consuming less alcohol and seeking cheaper brands.

Shares in the world’s largest spirits company plunged more than 11% in early trading on Friday, making it the biggest faller in the FTSE 100, as investors worried that the trend in the region might spread to other markets.

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