Revealed: how top PR firm uses ‘trust barometer’ to promote world’s autocrats

Edelman, world’s largest public relations company, paid millions by Saudi Arabia, UAE and other repressive regimes

Public trust in some of the world’s most repressive governments is soaring, according to Edelman, the world’s largest public relations firm, whose flagship “trust barometer” has created its reputation as an authority on global trust. For years, Edelman has reported that citizens of authoritarian countries, including Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and China, tend to trust their governments more than people living in democracies do.

But Edelman has been less forthcoming about the fact that some of these same authoritarian governments have also been its clients. Edelman’s work for one such client – the government of the UAE – will be front and center when world leaders convene in Dubai later this month for the UN’s Cop28 climate summit.

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Black Friday: Australian shoppers tipped to spend more than $6bn in four-day sales period

Retailers say online sales on Friday were 10-25% up on last year, with the shopping event becoming bigger than Boxing Day

Retailers say Black Friday has gotten off to a strong start, with Australians tipped to spend a record amount as they seek savings during the cost-of-living crisis.

The Australian Retailers Association (ARA) has predicted shoppers will spend $6.36bn across the four days between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, up 3% from last year, according to their research in partnership with Roy Morgan.

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P&O Cruises and Cunard threaten to fire and rehire more than 900 UK staff

Cruise firms could dismiss crew unless they accept salary cuts and flexible working arrangements

P&O Cruises and fellow cruise firm Cunard have made provision to fire and rehire more than 900 UK-based crew unless they accept salary cuts and more flexible working arrangements.

The affected crew include officers on the British flagship, the luxury ocean liner Queen Mary 2, and nine other ships operated under Carnival UK, which is part of the $18bn-listed Carnival group.

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OpenAI ‘was working on advanced model so powerful it alarmed staff’

Reports say new model Q* fuelled safety fears, with workers airing their concerns to the board before CEO Sam Altman’s sacking

OpenAI was reportedly working on an advanced system before Sam Altman’s sacking that was so powerful it caused safety concerns among staff at the company.

The artificial intelligence model triggered such alarm with some OpenAI researchers that they wrote to the board of directors before Altman’s dismissal warning it could threaten humanity, Reuters reported.

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Shell to face human rights claims in UK over chronic oil pollution in Niger delta

More than 13,000 Nigerian villagers can bring legal claims against oil firm, rules high court

Thousands of Nigerian villagers can bring human rights claims against the fossil fuel company Shell over the chronic oil pollution of their water sources and destruction of their way of life, the high court in London has ruled.

Mrs Justice May ruled this week that more than 13,000 farmers and fishers from the Ogale and Bille communities in the Niger delta were entitled to bring legal claims against Shell for alleged breaches to their right to a clean environment.

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Report critical of big four consultancies was censored by Australian government agency, academic claims

Peter Carey tells inquiry he was asked by Accounting Standards Board to omit details because partners from PwC, KPMG, Deloitte and EY sat on the board

A government agency allegedly censored a major study that was critical of the big four consultancy firms because their partners sat on its board, according to the academic who wrote the report.

The allegation, which has been disputed by the agency, was made during a parliamentary inquiry into the ethics and professional standards of the consulting industry. It has led to questions about potential “regulatory capture” and possible undue influence.

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Chinese shadow bank admits £30bn shortfall after ‘management ran wild’

Zhongzhi, a wealth manager with links to China’s ailing property market, says it is ‘severely insolvent’

One of China’s biggest financial conglomerates with links to the country’s ailing property market has admitted a shortfall of nearly £30bn as it warned investors that it is “severely insolvent”.

Zhongzhi, an asset and wealth management company in China’s shadow banking sector, said its total assets amounted to 200bn yuan (£22.5bn) against obligations of up to 460bn yuan, in a letter to shareholders issued on Wednesday.

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Energy bills in Great Britain to rise by 5% from January as cap hits £1,928

Ofgem increases minimum price for energy suppliers to charge customers after rise in global gas prices

Households will begin the new year with a 5% increase in energy bills after the regulator raised the price cap to an average of £1,928 a year for the typical gas and electricity bill.

Ofgem raised the maximum price that energy suppliers can charge their customers from £1,834 a year for the typical household between October to December, after a rise in global gas market prices after the start of the Israel-Hamas war last month.

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Office of judge presiding over Trump’s New York trial bombarded with threats

Judge Arthur Engoron and his clerk have also received antisemitic abuse since a gag order imposed on the ex-president was lifted

The office of the New York judge overseeing Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial has been bombarded with death threats and antisemitic abuse following the former president’s online attacks.

Judge Arthur Engoron and his clerk, Allison Greenfield, are said to have received hundreds of threatening, harassing and disparaging messages via telephone and social media.

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Autumn statement live: Jeremy Hunt cuts national insurance as OBR downgrades UK growth forecast

Chancellor cuts employee national insurance to 10% while abolishing class 2 national insurance

Keir Starmer has said that a pause in hostilities between Israel and Hamas must be used to tackle the “urgent and unacceptable humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza.

Welcoming the deal, which is expected to involve the release of 50 hostages being held by Hamas and a number of women and teenagers from Israeli jails, the Labour leader said his party had been calling for “a substantial humanitarian pause”. He said:

There must be immediate access to aid, food, water, fuel and medicine to ensure hospitals function and lives are saved. Aid and fuel need to not just get in but be distributed widely and safely.

We must also use the space this pause creates to take more steps on a path towards a full cessation of hostilities rather than an escalation of violence.

The real function of the projected spending squeeze is as a trap for Labour. If the opposition rejects the Tory trajectory, it will be accused of planning a profligate spree with public money. And if it pledges adherence to impossible targets, it will enter government with its hands bound too tight to deliver prompt satisfaction to the people who voted for it.

Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have so far operated a sensible policy of not walking into traps of this kind. That approach restored swing voters’ trust in Labour as stewards of the economy. But it tests the patience of an activist base that sees reversal of austerity as a moral imperative and can smell the incipient disappointment in promises of fiscal discipline.

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OBR halves UK growth forecast and warns inflation will exceed 2% target until 2025

Despite £27bn windfall for the autumn statement, government forecaster warns of generally more difficult outlook until 2028

The government’s official forecaster has slashed its predictions for economic growth over the next two years, and warned that inflation could take until 2025 to come back to the official 2% target.

In an updated financial health check to accompany the autumn statement, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) said a more resilient economy this year had handed the chancellor a £27bn budget windfall, but it warned of a more difficult outlook up to 2028 than previously forecast at the time of the budget in March.

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UK minister intends to refer Barclay family’s offer for Telegraph to Ofcom

Government ‘minded to’ issue intervention notice to call in regulator on public interest grounds

The culture secretary intends to ask the media watchdog to examine the Barclay family’s proposed deal to hand control of the Telegraph and the Spectator magazine to an Abu Dhabi-backed consortium.

Lucy Frazer said on Wednesday she was “minded to” call in Ofcom to look at the investment fund’s plans to take over the titles in exchange for repaying £1.15bn of the family’s debts to Lloyds Banking Group.

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Eurozone banks starting to show ‘stress’ as loan defaults rise, ECB warns

Rising interest rates have boosted profitability but are likely to limit demand and increase risk of bad debts, says central bank

The balance sheets of eurozone banks are showing “early signs of stress” after a rise in loan defaults and late payments by customers, the European Central Bank has warned.

Higher interest rates have boosted banks’ income and profits for the time being, the ECB said, but lenders are facing pressures from higher funding costs, worsening asset quality and lower lending volumes.

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New Karate Kid movie with Ralph Macchio and Jackie Chan in the works

A global casting call from the two actors – looking for a new teenage star – suggests the separate strands of the series will be brought together

Following the success of the TV series Cobra Kai, a new Karate Kid movie featuring Ralph Macchio and Jackie Chan has been announced, along with a global casting call to find a teenage star for the film.

Macchio, who starred in the first three Karate Kid movies between 1984 and 1989 before returning to anchor Cobra Kai which first aired in 2018, and Chan, who appeared in the 2010 reboot starring Jaden Smith, appeared together in a short video to make the announcement. The casting notice suggested the film will also feature a new character called Li Fong, who is “Chinese or mixed-race Chinese [aged] between 15-17 years old [and] speaks fluent English”. The website added: “Conversational Mandarin is a strong plus. He’s smart, scrappy and a skilled martial artist.”

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B&Q owner issues another profit warning after weak sales in France

UK business lifted by ‘improve not move’ trend and interior design videos on TikTok

The owner of B&Q and Screwfix issued its second profit warning in three months after weak sales in France but said its UK business is being boosted by the “improve not move” trend and interior design videos on TikTok.

Kingfisher, which also owns Castorama and Brico Dépôt in France and operates in Poland, Iberia and Romania, too, reported an almost 4% sales decline in its financial third quarter, prompting a downgrade in its annual profit forecast from £590m to £560m.

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Labor to reconsider mandatory data retention laws for companies in light of major hacks

New cyber security strategy cites business concerns at having to store large amounts of data for excessive periods of time, increasing breach risk

Following several high-profile data breaches in the past year, the federal government will review laws requiring companies to retain data as part of its new cyber security strategy.

Released on Wednesday, the 2023-30 strategy notes that data is increasingly used for ransom attacks and as a tool for coersion.

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Crypto giant Binance admits to money laundering and agrees to pay $4.3bn

CEO Changpeng Zhao will resign and pay a $50m individual fine as part of a plea deal with the US Justice Department

Changpeng Zhao, founder of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, agreed to resign from the company and plead guilty to money laundering on Tuesday.

As part of a guilty plea, Zhao agreed to pay a $50m fine and would be barred from any involvement in the business. Binance too agreed to plead guilty, accept the appointment of a monitor and pay a criminal fine of nearly $1.81bn as well as a $2.51bn order of forfeiture to settle three criminal charges. The US Justice Department had charged the company with conducting an unlicensed money transmitting business, a conspiracy charge and violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.

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Autumn statement: Jeremy Hunt looks to cut UK taxes and ‘turbo-charge growth’

Amid less gloomy OBR forecasts the chancellor is expected to take first steps towards cutting personal taxes

Jeremy Hunt will announce 110 measures to boost Britain’s stagnant economy and bow to demands from anxious Tory MPs for tax cuts when he delivers his second autumn statement on Wednesday.

In one of the last set-piece economic events before the general election, the chancellor will pledge to “turbo charge” growth while taking the first steps to cut personal taxes after recent sharp increases.

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Dyson tells libel trial Daily Mirror article was a distressing ‘personal attack’

Inventor is suing publisher over ‘rogues’ gallery’ article that stated he championed Vote Leave before moving global HQ to Singapore

An article that featured Sir James Dyson in a “rogues’ gallery” and stated that he had “championed Vote Leave … before moving his global head office to Singapore” was “damaging and distressing” to the inventor and entrepreneur, the high court has heard.

In a written statement to the court, Dyson described a Daily Mirror article published last year as a “personal attack on all that I have done and achieved in my lifetime” and said it was “highly distressing and hurtful”.

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‘Breakthrough battery’ from Sweden may cut dependency on China

Northvolt says new lithium-free sodium-ion battery is cheaper, more sustainable and doesn’t rely on scarce raw materials

Europe’s energy and electric vehicle industries could reduce their dependency on scarce raw materials from China after the launch of a “breakthrough” sodium-ion battery, according to its Swedish developer.

Northvolt, Europe’s only large homegrown electric battery maker, has said it has made a lower cost, more sustainable battery designed to store electricity which does not use lithium, nickel, graphite and cobalt.

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