Category Archives: Business

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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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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