Category Archives: Business

Switzerland’s attorney general to investigate Credit Suisse takeover

Posted on by

Inquiry to focus on whether emergency state-backed UBS takeover breached criminal law

Switzerland’s federal prosecutor has launched an investigation into whether last month’s state-backed takeover of the stricken bank Credit Suisse by its bigger rival UBS broke Swiss criminal law.

The office of the attorney general said it was looking into potential breaches by government officials, regulators and executives at the two banks who thrashed out an emergency merger over a frantic weekend in mid-March to prevent a wider financial meltdown.

Continue reading...

British cows could be given ‘methane blockers’ to cut climate emissions

Posted on by

UK’s 9.4m cattle produce 14% of human-related emissions, mostly from belching, but green groups remain sceptical

Cows in the UK could be given “methane blockers” to reduce their emissions of the greenhouse gas as part of plans to achieve the country’s climate goals.

Farmers welcomed the proposal, which follows a consultation that began in August on how new types of animal feed product can reduce digestive emissions from the animals.

Continue reading...

Pacific trade deal is more useful to Joe Biden than it is to the UK’s economy

Posted on by

Hailed by Tory MPs as a Brexit benefit, CPTPP membership actually turns the UK into a willing pawn in Washington’s geopolitical game

Tory MPs hailed the UK’s entry last week into the Indo-Pacific trading bloc as a major step on the road to re-establishing Britain as a pioneer of free trade.

It was a coup for Rishi Sunak, said David Jones, the deputy chairman of the European Research Group of Tory Eurosceptics, who was excited to be aligned with “some of the most dynamic economies in the world”.

Continue reading...

Planning applications in England fall to record low in housing blow

Posted on by

Experts say developers deterred by changes to planning system brought in by successive Tory governments

Planning applications in England have fallen to their lowest level in at least 16 years, according to figures published this week by the levelling up department that highlight the scale of the country’s housing crisis.

Local authorities received fewer applications to build new buildings or improve old ones in 2022 than at any point since before 2006, the earliest year for which the government provides statistics.

Continue reading...

Canada’s approval of major telecoms takeover condemned as ‘dark day’

Posted on by

Anti-monopoly consumer groups slam multibillion-takeover of Shaw by Rogers that will create a media and sports behemoth

Canada has approved a major telecoms takeover that would create a media and sports behemoth in an already concentrated media landscape, in a landmark deal that anti-monopoly consumer groups slammed as “a dark day” for competition in Canada.

On Friday the industry minister, François-Philippe Champagne, said he had approved a multibillion-dollar takeover of Shaw by Rogers.

Continue reading...

Recycling rubble can help rebuild Syria faster, scientists show

Posted on by

Tests show recycled concrete could safely be used in new buildings in war- and quake-stricken country

Concrete rubble from destroyed buildings in Syria can be safely recycled into new concrete, scientists have shown, which will make the rebuilding of the war-hit country faster, cheaper and greener.

Syria, which was also hit by a huge earthquake in February, has a vast amount of concrete rubble, estimated at 40m tonnes. The key barrier to recycling this waste is ensuring that the new concrete is as strong and safe as conventional concrete.

Continue reading...

Kemi Badenoch casts doubt on growth projections for Asia-Pacific trade deal

Posted on by

Comments threaten to worsen already tense relationship between senior ministers and civil servants

Kemi Badenoch has cast doubt on her department’s projections for how much the Asia-Pacific trade deal the UK government has signed will help economic growth.

The government announced overnight it had joined the 11-member Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTTP), which includes Australia and Japan, after two years of negotiations.

Continue reading...

AMP shareholders vote against executive pay packets over concerns bonuses too high

Posted on by

Shareholders at Sydney AGM say remuneration excessive for a financial institution that has dramatically shrunk in recent years

AMP shareholders have voted against executive pay packets at the troubled financial institution over concerns bonuses are too high for a company delivering lacklustre performance and a weak share price.

AMP has lost about three-quarters of its market value in the five years since the banking royal commission disclosed numerous poor practices at the company, including its willingness to charge insurance premiums to dead customers.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Laura Tingle becomes ABC staff-elected director – as it happened

Posted on by

The 7.30 political correspondent will sit on the broadcaster’s board alongside chair Ita Buttrose. This blog is now closed

Report of new gas tax for Australia

The Australian Financial Review is this morning reporting that a new gas tax looms as the government tries to raise revenue to begin budget repair.

Major companies such as Woodside Energy, Santos and Shell and their tax advisers have signed confidentiality agreements with Treasury on the PRRT consultation.

Since Treasury resumed the stalled work for Labor late last year, it has cast the net wider to probe other PRRT areas, such as deductions, in an attempt to raise revenue sooner for the government from the profits-based tax.

Continue reading...

Abusive working conditions endemic in Spain’s strawberry farms, report claims

Posted on by

UK supermarkets heavily reliant on strawberries from southern Spain, where workers allege they are regularly underpaid, have passports withheld and are forced to live in unsanitary shacks

Abusive conditions are endemic in parts of Spain’s fruit sector, a new report alleges, with workers telling the Guardian they have been regularly underpaid and forced to live in dilapidated shacks.

During the winter, at least 60% of strawberries eaten in the UK are likely to be from vast farms across the south-west Spanish province of Huelva. In 2020, the UK imported €310m (£272m) worth of the fruit from the Andalucia region, of which 91% is believed to be grown in Huelva.

Continue reading...

Major Australian home builder Porter Davis collapses leaving customers in the lurch

Posted on by

Another construction firm specialising in government projects has gone into voluntary administration

One of Australia’s largest home builders Porter Davis has collapsed and construction firm Lloyd Group has gone into voluntary administration in a hit to the sector.

Grant Thornton Partners confirmed it had been appointed liquidators of the Porter Davis Homes Group, covering 14 companies.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Brazil may sue VW amid claims firm used ‘slave labour’ under military rule

Posted on by

Prosecutors seek compensation for workers kept on cattle ranch owned by German carmaker during dictatorship from 1973 to 1987

Brazil is threatening to take the German carmaker Volkswagen to court over allegations that it used slave labour on a vast ranch in the Amazon, after talks on compensating workers ended without agreement.

Public prosecutors in Brazil are seeking compensation for men who they say were forced to work in “humiliating and degrading” conditions, with no clean water or sanitation, on the Fazenda Vale do Rio Cristalino cattle ranch, which was owned by the company in the northern Pará state, between 1973 and 1987.

Continue reading...

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried pleads not guilty to bribery charges

Posted on by

Bankman-Fried, 31, has already pleaded not guilty to eight counts over collapse of cryptocurrency exchange last year

The FTX cryptocurrency exchange founder Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty on Thursday to new US criminal charges, which include conspiring to violate campaign finance laws and bribe Chinese authorities.

Bankman-Fried, 31, had earlier pleaded not guilty to eight counts of fraud and conspiracy for allegedly stealing billions in FTX customer funds to plug losses at his hedge fund, Alameda Research.

Continue reading...

People in Cheshire village will not be forced to join hydrogen energy trial

Posted on by

Backlash prompts companies to give residents option of keeping natural gas rather than joining pilot project

Energy firms will no longer force people in a village in Cheshire to stop heating and cooking with natural gas and swap to lower-carbon hydrogen after a local backlash to a planned government-backed pilot.

British Gas and Cadent had been prepared to cut off gas supplies to nearly 2,000 homes in the village of Whitby, just outside Ellesmere Port on the south bank of the Mersey, as part of their proposals to create the UK’s first hydrogen-fuelled village.

Continue reading...

Plans for rail pass for UK staycationers axed over cost concerns

Posted on by

Exclusive: extensive consultations since idea was proposed 18 months ago have found it would not be commercially viable

Plans to boost domestic tourism by introducing a rail pass for British staycationers have been axed, the Guardian can reveal.

The idea was initially heralded by the government as a way to help struggling businesses get back on their feet as the final Covid restrictions were being lifted in the summer of 2021, but extensive consultations since have found that the plan would not be commercially viable.

Continue reading...

Bernie Sanders accuses ex-Starbucks chief of unprecedented union-busting

Posted on by

Howard Schultz defends company’s practices before Senate committee, while Republicans condemn Sanders’ ‘witch-hunt’

Starbucks’ former chief executive Howard Schultz was accused at a Senate hearing on Wednesday of running “the most aggressive and illegal union-busting campaign in the modern history of our country”.

The hearing, “No Company is Above the Law: The Need to End Illegal Union Busting at Starbucks,” was chaired by Senator Bernie Sanders, a longtime critic of Starbucks’ anti-union activities.

Continue reading...

‘Simply about survival’: ACTU calls for 7% pay rise for lowest-paid workers to keep pace with inflation

Posted on by

Minimum hourly rate would rise to $22.88 – or $45,337 a year – if the Fair Work Commission grants the increase

Australian unions have called for a pay rise of 7% for the lowest-paid workers, a raise in the national minimum wage of $1.50 an hour to keep pace with inflation.

The Australian Council of Trade Unions made that submission to the Fair Work Commission’s annual minimum wage review, which sets the pay of more than 2.6 million employees on the national minimum or award wages.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Australia politics live: rate rises must stop with inflation coming down, Greens say; Brereton named anti-corruption commissioner

Posted on by

Commission appointments must be signed off by the governor general. Follow live

Sorry – I am told by a couple of senators that it was “technically” 4.13am.

So expect to see a few bleary-eyed senators in the coffee lines this morning.

Continue reading...

Adidas asks US to bar Black Lives Matter from using three stripes in trademark

Posted on by

The sportswear company claims the BLM Global Network Foundation’s yellow-stripe design would be confused with its three-stripe logo

Sneaker giant Adidas AG has asked the US trademark office to reject an application for a Black Lives Matter trademark featuring three parallel stripes, arguing it could mislead the public.

Adidas told the office in a Monday filing that Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation Inc’s yellow-stripe design would create confusion with its own famous three-stripe mark. It sought to block the group’s application to use the design on goods that the German sportswear maker also sells, such as shirts, hats and bags.

Continue reading...

Bulb bailout may cost UK government billions less than feared, says watchdog

Posted on by

National Audit Office estimates bill of £246m for saving energy supplier as result of sharp fall in gas prices

The bailout of the bust energy supplier Bulb is expected to cost the government billions of pounds less than originally feared because of a sharp fall in wholesale gas prices, according to the National Audit Office.

The public spending watchdog said the government may end up spending £246m on saving the supplier, which has 1.5 million customers and was acquired by Octopus Energy late last year.

Continue reading...