Category Archives: Business

Sunak and Hunt accused of ‘damaging UK plc’ over NatWest boss’s exit

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Concerns raised over anonymous briefings that triggered early-hours resignation of Dame Alison Rose

The prime minister and the chancellor have been accused of “damaging UK plc” and failing to follow due process amid concern over anonymous briefings that triggered the early-hours resignation of NatWest boss Dame Alison Rose.

“There is a real sense of disquiet that political pressure has led to a midnight exit for such an important banking CEO,” an official at the City regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, told the Guardian. “They should have allowed due process.”

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NatWest boss Alison Rose resigns over Nigel Farage Coutts account row

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Former Ukip leader obtained report suggesting media coverage of his political views was considered in Coutts closure decision

Dame Alison Rose, the chief executive of NatWest Group, has stood down after a row over the closure of Nigel Farage’s bank account with the private bank Coutts, which NatWest owns.

Rose has resigned from the banking group after the former UK Independence party leader complained to the BBC about a report that claimed his accounts with Coutts were closed for commercial reasons. The broadcaster has since apologised and amended its story.

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Nigel Farage calls for NatWest bosses to go after chief executive resigns over Coutts row – business live

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Live coverage of business, economics and financial markets as UK bank replaces leader following late night board meeting

The minister in charge of overseeing the UK’s financial services has said that “it is right” that Alison Rose has resigned from NatWest Group, calling the closure of Nigel Farage’s bank account “unacceptable”.

Andrew Griffith, the City minister, said the resignation “would never have happened” had NatWest Group’s subsidiary, Coutts, not withdrawn the account “due to someone’s lawful political views”.

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Tottenham Hotspur owner Joe Lewis charged with ‘brazen’ insider trading

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Billionaire allegedly gave friends, employees and romantic partners information on companies in which he was investor

The billionaire owner of Tottenham Hotspur football club was charged with orchestrating “brazen” insider trading by US federal prosecutors on Tuesday.

According to Damian Williams, the US attorney for the southern district of New York, Joe Lewis gave friends, including his personal pilots, assistants and romantic partners, inside information from companies in which he was an investor.

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Ofgem to clamp down on rogue energy brokers ‘ripping off’ care homes and faith groups

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Exclusive: Move follows outcry from small firms, charities and others about hidden commission fees

Rogue energy brokers are to be brought to heel by the industry regulator in a crackdown seeking to stop small firms being ripped off by their strongarm tactics and hefty fees.

Under proposed rules to be put forward by Ofgem on Wednesday, energy suppliers would be forced to come clean on the billions in secret broker commissions they load on to business contracts.

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Sciensus’s licence partly suspended after death of cancer patient

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Regulator acts after firm paid millions by NHS for healthcare gave patients wrong chemotherapy dose

Britain’s health regulator has partly suspended the manufacturing licence of Sciensus, a private company paid millions by the NHS to provide vital medicines, after the death of a cancer patient who was given the wrong dose of chemotherapy.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said it had taken “immediate” action under regulation 28 of the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 law “where it appears to the MHRA that in the interests of safety the licence should be suspended”.

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Rhodes wildfires are climate wake-up call, says UK minister

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Patrick Courtown sounds warning as evacuation flights head to Greek island to rescue stranded Britons

Wildfires in Rhodes are a “wake-up call” on the effects of the climate crisis, a UK government minister has said, as empty planes were sent to the Greek island to help bring home stranded Britons.

After a mass evacuation from parts of Rhodes, members of the House of Lords were told the situation was “stabilising” and there was no immediate need for the government to advise people to stop travelling there.

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New cryptocurrency offers users tokens for scanning their eyeballs

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Worldcoin, launched by CEO of ChatGPT developer OpenAI, says scheme will distinguish between ‘verified humans’ and AI

Members of the public are being invited to have their eyeballs scanned by a silver orb as part of cryptocurrency project that aims to use biometric verification to distinguish humans from AI systems.

People signing up to the Worldcoin scheme via an app this week will receive a “genesis grant” of 25 tokens, equivalent to about £40, after having their iris scanned by one of the bowling ball-sized devices.

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UK interest rates need to stay higher for longer to beat inflation, says IMF

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US Fed will also have to raise rates more aggressively than forecast, says Washington-based body

Interest rates in the UK will need to stay higher for longer than previously forecast in order to tackle stubbornly high inflation, the International Monetary Fund has warned.

The IMF’s regular update on the state of the global economy singled out the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England as two central banks that will need to raise official borrowing costs more aggressively than it assumed only three months ago.

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AI bots could replace us, peer warns House of Lords during debate

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Crossbencher asks Lords to imagine bots with ‘higher productivity and lower running costs’ as example of risk to UK jobs market

The House of Lords could be replaced by bots with “deeper knowledge, higher productivity and lower running costs”, said a peer during a debate on the development of advanced artificial intelligence.

Addressing the upper chamber, Richard Denison hypothesised that AI services may soon be able to deliver his speeches in his own style and voice, “with no hesitation, repetition or deviation”.

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Elon Musk reveals new Twitter logo X

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Experts warn that rebranding of 15-year-old app may be a risky move at a time when competitors are upping their game

Elon Musk has revealed a new logo for Twitter, choosing a “minimalist art deco” X as part of a rebrand of the platform.

The Twitter owner indicated that the design would be altered, tweeting that it “probably changes later, certainly will be refined”. Twitter’s CEO, Linda Yaccarino, confirmed the choice on Monday by tweeting the design and writing: “X is here! Let’s do this.”

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‘A near-death experience’: UK tourists describe escape from Rhodes wildfires

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Travellers say they faced ‘absolute chaos’ as they were forced to flee with luggage still at hotels

Dean Mason, 56, from Rothley in Leicestershire, described getting caught up in the Rhodes wildfires as a “near-death experience”.

Mason arrived at a hotel in Kiotari beach a week ago with his wife, daughter, and four-year-old granddaughter.

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Chocolate prices soar as cost of cocoa rises 25%

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World heads into a potential third year of supply deficit as major growing regions inundated by flooding

In bad news for chocolate lovers, confectionery makers are increasing prices as cocoa beans trade at near decade highs with no respite on the horizon.

Food companies have been grappling with rising costs for the main chocolate ingredient, with cocoa prices up more than 25% in a year amid widespread flooding in some of the world’s main growing regions.

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MPs launch inquiry into prosecution of Norton Motorcycles pension fraud

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Regulators to be asked about how £10m scam was investigated, as Guardian Today in Focus podcast raises fresh questions about case

Financial regulators are to be summoned to parliament to explain how they prosecuted the case of a multimillion-pound pensions fraud whose victims have yet to receive compensation and which has not led to anyone serving prison time.

Sir Stephen Timms MP, chair of the work and pensions committee, said he was launching an inquiry into how watchdogs and prosecutors handled the case, in which £10m of pension savings disappeared after being invested in the heritage brand Norton Motorcycles.

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MPs challenge VC firms over record on female and minority-led firms

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Treasury committee finds huge majority of venture capital funding goes to companies run by white men in south-east England

The venture capital industry has come under fire from MPs for its “unacceptable failure” to invest in businesses located outside London or south-east England, or those run by women and ethnic minorities.

Businesses founded exclusively by women were revealed to have received just 2% of all venture capital funding in 2022, while even less investment went to companies led by black or other minority ethnic executives.

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Lechyd Da! Welsh whisky to gain UK’s special protected origin label

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Coles, Da Mhile, In the Welsh Wind and Penderyn distilleries awarded label in scheme brought in to replace EU version

Welsh whisky is to join its Scottish and Irish counterparts in being officially awarded protected origin status under the UK’s post-Brexit regime.

Single malt from four distilleries in south and west Wales – Coles, Da Mhile, In the Welsh Wind and Penderyn – has been awarded protected geographical indication (UK GI) status, the scheme brought in to replace the EU’s protected designation of origin label.

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‘We’re going to see workers die’: extreme heat is key issue in UPS contract talks

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Teamsters union members are prepared to hold the largest single-employer strike in US history over heat protections

As a UPS delivery driver in Dallas, Texas, Seth Pacic is intimately familiar with the dangers of extreme heat. After a long day’s work through record-breaking temperatures in summer 2011, he found himself dry heaving in the parking lot, incapable of driving home until he spent an hour and a half in the air-conditioned office.

“It was one of the worst feelings I’ve ever had in my entire life,” he said. “I didn’t feel like I fully recovered for a couple of weeks.”

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Billionaire climate activist Mike Cannon-Brookes and wife Annie to separate

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The couple pledged in 2021 to spend $1.5bn of their approximately $25bn personal fortune on projects to tackle the climate crisis

Software billionaire and high-profile climate change activist Mike Cannon-Brookes, the founder of Australian company Atlassian, is separating from his wife, Annie.

Cannon-Brookes married the American fashion designer Annie Todd in January 2010 and the pair have four children together.

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Bankman-Fried planned to buy Nauru and build apocalypse bunker – lawsuit

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Lawsuit filed against FTX founder, 31, includes memo that detailed plans to purchase Pacific island in case world came to an end

The disgraced cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried, who founded the FTX exchange, had planned to purchase the small Pacific island nation of Nauru in case the world came to an end, according to a new lawsuit.

The lawsuit, filed on Thursday by FTX against its 31-year-old founder and three other former executives, and seeking $1bn, included a memo created by Bankman-Fried’s younger brother Gabriel and an FTX Foundation executive. The memo detailed plans to buy Nauru.

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Private equity pioneer Guy Hands to leave Terra Firma ‘when I’m 64’

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Dealmaker and ardent Brexit critic to leave senior posts at firm he founded more than 20 years ago

Private equity tycoon Guy Hands referenced a Beatles song as he informed staff of his decision to leave the buyout firm he founded two decades ago.

The billionaire dealmaker told staff on Friday he would leave the posts of chairman and chief investment officer at Terra Firma Capital Partners in August, drawing to a close a high-profile, chequered career.

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