Category Archives: Business

Woolworths expands self-checkout AI that critics say treats ‘every customer as a suspect’

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Supermarket says cameras used to detect accidental wrong scans while experts say the technology is ‘punitive’ and call for reforms to protect privacy

Woolworths has expanded the use of technology that films customers scanning items at self-checkouts to 110 stores in three states, as critics say the functionality could make people feel they are under constant surveillance.

For the past year, Woolworths has trialled new self-checkouts with cameras installed overhead to observe customers scanning items. The company said artificial intelligence is used to detect when items are not scanned correctly, with footage of the scan recorded and played back to the customer instructing them to re-scan.

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Over 100 children illegally employed by US slaughterhouse cleaning firm

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Labor department investigation finds Packers Sanitation Services Inc employed children between ages of 13 and 17 in eight states

More than 100 children have been discovered to be illegally employed by a slaughterhouse cleaning firm across the country, federal authorities said.

The Department of Labor announced that a federal investigation found Wisconsin-based Packers Sanitation Services Inc (PSSI) employed at least 102 children, ranging from 13 to 17 years old, to work overnight shifts at 13 meat processing facilities in eight states.

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India accuses BBC of tax evasion amid Modi documentary row

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Country’s finance ministry claims broadcaster has not fully declared its income and profits

India’s finance ministry has accused the BBC of tax evasion, saying that it had not fully declared its income and profits from its operations in the country.

Indian tax authorities ended three days of searches of the British broadcaster’s Delhi and Mumbai offices on Thursday night. Opposition political parties and other media organisations have criticised the searches as an attempt to intimidate the media.

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NatWest accused of ‘unjust’ profiteering after CEO paid £5.2m

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Alison Rose becomes group’s second-highest-paid boss as bank reports largest profits since 2007

NatWest has been accused of “unjust” profiteering as it handed its boss Alison Rose a £5.2m pay package and upped its bonus pool for bankers, after the bailed out lender made its biggest profit since 2007 on the back of higher mortgage costs for customers.

The bank – which is still 44% owned by the taxpayer – revealed on Friday that Rose’s pay had soared by 46% from £3.6m a year earlier, partly because of the higher value of shares doled out as part of her long-term incentive plan.

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TransPennine Express cancellations almost three times higher than reported

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Office of Rail and Road figures expose how train companies use legal loophole to under-report cancellations

One of the north of England’s main railway companies has a cancellation rate almost three times higher than officially recorded, figures show.

A government body that collates information about train reliability released the stats on Friday after it wrote to train companies over concerns that they were taking advantage of a legal loophole to vastly under-report cancellations.

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Chinese billionaire tech banker Bao Fan goes missing

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Disappearance of China Renaissance chair raises fears of fresh crackdown on China’s finance industry

A billionaire Chinese dealmaker has gone missing, plunging one of the country’s top investment banks into turmoil.

Bao Fan, the founder and executive director of China Renaissance, is a major figure in the Chinese tech industry and has played an important role in the emergence of a string of large domestic internet startups.

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RMT announces further national rail strikes

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Strikes to begin on 16 March after union rejects offers from train operators and Network Rail

The RMT union has announced further national strikes and wider action on the railways after rejecting offers from both train operators and Network Rail last week.

The union’s 40,000 members across Network Rail and 14 train operators will strike on 16 March. Train staff will walk out for three further days, on 18 and 30 March and 1 April.

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Profits of British Gas owner Centrica triple to ‘obscene’ £3.3bn

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Figure angers campaigners calling for tougher windfall taxes and follows prepayment meter scandal

The profits of the scandal-hit owner of British Gas have more than tripled to a record £3.3bn, boosted by soaring wholesale gas prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and as many households in Britain struggle with the cost of living.

Centrica’s “monster” profits immediately angered campaigners who are calling for tougher windfall taxes, lower bills and better treatment of vulnerable customers against the backdrop of the prepayment meter scandal.

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Collapse in new home listings in Sydney and Melbourne hits real estate company profits

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Domain chief Jason Pellegrino says decline is worse than during Covid lockdowns and banking royal commission

A collapse in the number of new homes on the market, especially in Sydney and Melbourne, is outpacing even the shaky listing rates recorded during pandemic lockdowns, weighing on the profits of real estate companies.

The chief executive of property portal company Domain Group, Jason Pellegrino, said on Thursday that the scale of listings declines during the last three months of 2022 also eclipsed pullbacks recorded during the banking royal commission, which scrutinised lending practices in public hearings in 2018.

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China’s provinces spent almost £43bn on Covid measures in 2022

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Third of provinces yet to publish data as country looks to revive economy after zero-Covid policy ends

Chinese provinces spent more than £42.8bn on tackling Covid-19 in 2022, according to data released by local governments, with the figure expected to rise as the huge cost of the pandemic hits the world’s second-largest economy.

Although national statistics are not yet available, at least 20 of China’s 31 provinces have published figures on how much money they spent on measures to control the pandemic.

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British Gas owner expected to reveal record profits of £3bn

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Britain’s largest energy supplier only recently ended its much-criticised forced installation of prepayment meters

The owner of British Gas is poised to reveal record annual profits of more than £3bn just weeks after suspending the forced installation of prepayment meters due to concerns over its treatment of vulnerable customers.

Analysts expect Centrica, which owns Britain’s largest energy supplier, to post underlying profits of £3.3bn in 2022 on Thursday, up from £948m in 2021.

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Lufthansa IT failure leaves thousands of passengers stranded

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Outage causes flight delays and cancellations after cables damaged during construction work

Thousands of passengers worldwide have been stranded after an IT fault at Germany’s flagship carrier Lufthansa caused flight delays and disruption at airlines across the group.

The company said the problem was caused by damage to several of Deutsche Telekom’s glass-fibre cables during construction work in Frankfurt. Repairs would take until Wednesday afternoon, Lufthansa said.

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Glencore shareholders to receive almost £6bn after record profits

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Mining and commodities firm’s pre-tax profit climbed 60% to £28.2bn last year, up £10.6bn on 2021

Glencore will give almost £6bn to shareholders after the mining and commodities company reported record pre-tax profits of more than £28bn in 2022, boosted by rocketing oil and coal prices.

The Switzerland-based group, whose market capitalisation makes it one of the largest FTSE 100 companies, announced a payout of £5.9bn ($7.1bn) to shareholders, including dividends and a new £1.2bn share buyback programme.

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Ikea Foundation sends shelters to Syria and Turkey as firms offer earthquake aid

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First relief housing units arrive in Hatay province, Amazon sends food and blankets and Allianz donates €6m

The Ikea Foundation has sent 5,000 flatpack shelters to southern Turkey and northern Syria to house people left homeless by the earthquake last week, as companies around the world pledge help.

The Swedish homeware multinational’s philanthropy arm said on Tuesday it had donated €10m (£8.8m) to the NGO Better Shelter, with which it developed the robust, award-winning 17.5 sq metre shelters that fit in two boxes and can be assembled without tools.

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Ford to cut nearly 4,000 jobs in Europe, including 1,300 in UK

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US carmaker blames losses on rising costs and need to switch to electric vehicle production

The British car industry faces the prospect of further steep job cuts without urgent government support for electric vehicle investment, a union leader has warned, after Ford revealed 1,300 UK redundancies in its internal combustion operations.

The US carmaker said it planned to eliminate 3,800 product development and administration jobs across Europe, citing rising costs and the need to speed up its switch from petrol and diesel engines to electric vehicles.

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Sub-prime lender Amigo avoids £73m fine after claiming hardship

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FCA finds company put customers at high risk of harm by failing to assess whether they could repay loans

The sub-prime lender Amigo has dodged a £73m fine despite having put consumers at a “high risk” of harm, amid fears that the financial penalty could have led to its collapse.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) investigation found Amigo put business interests ahead of its customers, by failing to properly assess whether customers, or their guarantors, could afford to repay loans they applied for – noting faults in both its automated tech and human oversight between November 2018 and March 2020.

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Lilt to vanish from UK, rebranded as a totally tropical Fanta

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We haven’t touched the taste, only the packaging, promises owner Coca-Cola

The soft drink Lilt has vanished from the UK after 48 years and has been rebranded as a new type of Fanta.

The tangy drink was launched in 1975 with the strapline “the totally tropical taste” and was sold only in the UK, Ireland, Gibraltar and Seychelles.

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Number of days lost to strikes is highest since the Thatcher era

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Squeeze on households as pay growth falls at among fastest rates for 20 years

The number of working days lost to strike action last year reached the highest level since 1989, according to official figures showing that wage growth failed to keep pace with inflation amid the biggest real-terms fall on record.

The figures from the Office for National Statistics further highlight the squeeze on households in the cost of living crisis.

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US firm Liberty Global buys stake in Vodafone after tumultuous year

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‘Cable cowboy’ John Malone rules out takeover bid but says he believes UK telecoms company is undervalued

The US telecoms group chaired by “cable cowboy” John Malone has snapped up a stake in Vodafone in a bet on the UK company’s revival – but has ruled out making a takeover bid.

Liberty Global, which is an investor in ITV and Virgin Media O2, told investors on Monday it had acquired a 4.92% stake in Vodafone, saying it believed the shares were undervalued.

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No questions asked: money laundering thrives in Australia because of professionals willing to facilitate it

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Lawyers, accountants and real estate agents face can little scrutiny and there is as yet no action from government to increase regulation

Raids earlier this month by the Australian federal police provided a rare window into the shady world of international money laundering. Australia is far from a model global citizen when it comes to cracking down on money laundering – and property has become a favoured vehicle for organised crime to hide and transfer dirty money.

The AFP arrested nine people, including the alleged head of the money-laundering organisation, Stephen Xin, at his Vaucluse home. They have now been charged with multiple money-laundering and proceeds-of-crime offences, allegedly carried out in support of the organisation’s extensive activities.

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