Category Archives: Business

‘Expect the unexpected’: Trump fraud trial becomes family affair

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Donald Jr, Eric and Ivanka scheduled to give evidence with father this week in case against Trump Organization

Donald Trump’s fraud trial becomes a family affair this week as three of his children, and the former president himself, prepare to be called to the witness stand in New York.

Trump’s appearances in court so far have been controversial, to say the least. The former president has railed against the prosecution, calling it a “witch-hunt”, and has been threatened with jail for attacking one of the court’s clerks on social media.

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Pineapple loses its crown: Sainsbury’s sells leafless version to cut waste

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Removing leaves will mean they can be replanted or shredded for animal feed and could reduce emissions

The pineapple has been dethroned: Sainsbury’s has announced it will start selling a crownless version of the tropical fruit from Wednesday.

The spiky, green leaves that grow from the top of the plant are a unique feature of the exotic fruit. But, says the supermarket, they are typically thrown away by customers, contributing to up to 700 tonnes of food waste a year.

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Port Talbot steelworkers braced for up to 3,000 job cuts

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Tata Steel board thought to be meeting in India and decision over blast furnaces expected about noon

Tata Steel is expected to confirm as many as 3,000 job losses at its steelworks in Port Talbot on Wednesday, in what would be a devastating blow to the south Wales economy.

The board of Tata Steel is thought to be meeting in India, where it is headquartered, to make a final decision.

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Ticket office U-turn ditches hated rail policy but where will savings come from now?

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Unpopular proposal for England came on back of crisis that has engulfed the industry in Britain since Covid hit

So, welcome back, ticket offices – not yet four months after their wholesale closure across England was announced by train operators. Back then rail executives breezily assured us that virtually no one bought an actual ticket from a person in an office: just for 13% of journeys, in an era of trains filled by happy smartphone users.

But then it turned out, according to the passenger watchdogs who compiled and analysed 750,000 responses to the public consultation, every single one of the 1,007 menaced offices needed to stay open after all. Transport Focus – independent, but not notable for outspoken condemnation of either industry or government – said serious concerns remained despite long discussions over the detail of options proposed by train operators to serve all passengers.

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Rail ticket office closures in England scrapped in government U-turn

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Watchdogs say they received 750,000 responses to consultation, 99% of which were objections

Plans to close railway station ticket offices in England have been scrapped, in a government U-turn.

The transport secretary, Mark Harper, said the “government had asked train operators to withdraw their proposals”.

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Odey Asset Management to shut after sexual misconduct allegations against founder

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Financial institutions have cut ties with hedge fund set up by Brexiter and Conservative party donor

Odey Asset Management is closing down, five months after allegations of sexual misconduct made by junior female members of staff against its founder Crispin Odey threw the hedge fund into turmoil.

The business said on its website: “Odey Asset Management [OAM], including Brook Asset Management and Odey Wealth, will be closing. Fund managers and funds have moved to new asset managers.”

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Major multinational port operator paid zero tax in Australia while raking in billions

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Exclusive: DP World, part-owned by the Dubai government, may have ‘artificially reduced profits’, a new report claims

DP World, one of Australia’s two largest port operators, has paid no tax in Australia despite generating revenue of more than $4.5bn over eight years.

A new report by the Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research (Cictar) says that DP World’s top Australian subsidiary may have “artificially reduced profits” to achieve the result.

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French police detain Russian tycoon over alleged financial and sanctions violations

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Alfa Bank founder Alexey Kuzmichev was sanctioned by EU for ‘well-established ties’ to Vladimir Putin

Police in France have detained the Russian tycoon Alexey Kuzmichev and raided two of his properties in connection with alleged tax evasion, money laundering and sanctions violations.

The French financial prosecutor’s office said on Tuesday that searches had taken place a day earlier at Kuzmichev’s Paris home and an estate in in the Mediterranean Var region.

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Eurozone economy shrinks by 0.1%, putting it at brink of recession

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Ireland and Austria post biggest declines, while Germany contracts by 0.1% and France grows by 0.1%

The eurozone is teetering on the brink of a winter recession after the latest official figures showed its economy contracted by 0.1% in the third quarter of 2023.

In a worse than forecast performance, the 20-nation single currency zone has now failed to grow in three of the past four quarters, leaving its economy only 0.1% higher than it was a year earlier.

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Australia’s banks face unprecedented wave of threats, RBA warns

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A rush on withdrawals among the possible dangers as sector likely to see risks with ‘a different complexion’ in coming decade, assistant governor says

Australia’s banking industry faces emerging threats from potential rapid-fire bank runs to climate change and geopolitical tensions that are without historical precedents, a senior Reserve Bank official has warned.

Brad Jones, an assistant RBA governor, told a Sydney conference on Tuesday that “the emerging risks we are likely to confront over the next decade have a different complexion to those of recent decades” and that what passes for resilience today will likely need to evolve over time.

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Ulez expansion: 45% fewer ‘dirty’ vehicles now on London’s roads, says TfL

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Sadiq Khan hails ‘huge progress’ as progress report finds more than 95% of vehicles are now compliant

The number of the most polluting vehicles driven in London has fallen by almost half since the capital’s ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) was expanded, taking almost 80,000 older cars off the roads.

About 77,000, or 45%, fewer non-compliant cars and vans were detected on average a day in September, the first month of operation of the expanded zone – compared with June 2023.

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FCA acts against PayPal and QVC as more Britons turn to buy now, pay later

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Payments group and TV shopping channel change small print after financial regulator steps in

The City regulator has taken action after finding that customers of two leading buy now, pay later providers were “at risk of harm” because of potentially unfair and unclear small print.

The US-based online payments group PayPal and the TV shopping channel QVC have changed the terms of their contracts after the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) expressed “concern” over the impact to customers.

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Sam Bankman-Fried denies messy hair part of ‘tech genius’ persona during trial

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Disgraced former CEO of crypto exchange FTX admits to disparaging regulators on third day of testimony

Sam Bankman-Fried testified in his own blockbuster crypto trial again Monday, with prosecutors grilling the one-time crypto mogul about the many discrepancies between his public and private claims about crypto-exchange FTX.

Bankman-Fried appeared to have had a haircut over the weekend, just in time for prosecutors to start their cross examination and question whether his famously unkempt hair was part of a deliberate, anti-style “tech genius” persona.

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Disabled man drags himself off plane after Air Canada fails to offer wheelchair

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Airline was forced to apologize to Rodney Hodgins who flew to Las Vegas with his wife to celebrate their anniversary in August

Air Canada has been forced to apologize after a man with spastic cerebral palsy was forced to drag himself off a plane when the flagship carrier failed to provide a wheelchair for him.

Rodney Hodgins, 49, a hardware salesman from British Columbia who requires the use of a motorized wheelchair, flew to Las Vegas with his wife, Deanna, to celebrate their anniversary in August.

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‘Hamas has created additional demand’: Wall Street eyes big profits from war

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Morgan Stanley and TD Bank hope for aerospace and weapons boon after a 7% value increase from start of Israel-Hamas conflict

The United Nations has warned that there was “clear evidence” that war crimes may have been committed in “the explosion of violence in Israel and Gaza”. Meanwhile, Wall Street is hoping for an explosion in profits.

During third-quarter earnings calls this month, analysts from Morgan Stanley and TD Bank took note of this potential profit-making escalation in conflict and asked unusually blunt questions about the financial benefit of the war between Israel and Hamas.

Co-published with Responsible Statecraft

Eli Clifton is a senior advisor at the Quincy Institute and Investigative Journalist at Large at Responsible Statecraft

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Higher interest rates help HSBC to more than double profits

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Bank criticised by MPs for being too slow to reward savers as it announces 15% rise in net interest income and $3bn share buyback

Higher interest rates helped HSBC to more than double its profits and hand over $3bn (£2.5bn) to shareholders, as MPs criticised the largest UK banks for being too slow to reward savers.

The London-headquartered bank said it was launching a share buyback, and paying a dividend worth 10 cents a share, after what its chief executive, Noel Quinn, hailed as “three consecutive quarters of strong financial performance”.

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Huge ethnicity pension gap revealed in UK figures

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Shortfalls fuelled by misconceptions and distrust of employers, as well as lack of spare income, figures show

A UK individual from a minority ethnic background typically has a pension pot less than half the size of that belonging to the average white British saver, data reveal.

The research from Legal & General’s investment arm claimed there was a sizeable “ethnicity pensions gap” in the UK that was being fuelled by “misconceptions” around pensions and a “significant distrust of employers”, as well as a lack of spare income.

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Panera adds warnings about caffeinated lemonade after suit over student’s death

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Family sued after Sarah Katz died last year after drinking Charged Lemonade, apparently unaware of soda’s high caffeine content

Panera Bread restaurants have displayed new warnings about its highly caffeinated lemonade, days after a lawsuit filed by the family of a university student who died after drinking the beverage.

Sarah Katz, an Ivy League student with a congenital heart condition, died last year just hours after drinking Panera’s Charged Lemonade, having apparently been unaware of the soda’s extremely highly caffeine content, according to the wrongful death suit.

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Aurelius Group in talks to buy the Body Shop, says report

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Banking sources say a deal for the beauty products chain is expected to be signed next month

The private equity investor Aurelius Group is in talks to buy the beauty products chain the Body Shop, which has been put up for sale by its Brazilian owner, Natura & Co, a source familiar with the talks has told Reuters.

If completed, the deal is expected to value the Body Shop at a lower price than the £400m-£500m suggested in some media reports, the source said.

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UAW and Stellantis close to tentative agreement in Illinois

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Negotiators will outline terms to local union officials on Saturday, including reopening automaker’s Belvidere plant, sources say

The United Auto Workers (UAW) reached a tentative labor deal with Chrysler owner Stellantis on Saturday, two sources said, moving closer to securing record wage hikes and a new life for a Jeep factory shut down earlier this year.

The tentative deal is a big step towards ending the first simultaneous strike against the so-called “Detroit Three” automakers, and will follow a template set just days ago by UAW and Ford, including a 25% wage hike over the 4.5-year-long contract.

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