UK public warned of ‘significant disruption’ from strikes involving teachers, civil servants, Border Force staff and train drivers
Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, speaking from a teachers’ picket line in Warwick, said:
I think Gillian Keegan [the education secretary] is hoping our strike is ineffective and people won’t do it again.
Continue reading...Embattled firm to launch £75m share buyback to bolster stock price after criticism of sales and marketing
The chief executive of Darktrace has launched a staunch defence of the embattled cybersecurity company saying it is run with the “greatest integrity”, after allegations of irregular sales, marketing and accounting practices raised by a US-based hedge fund.
Poppy Gustafsson published a 1,200 word defence of the company she co-founded in 2013, after its share price collapsed to a record low after the publication of a highly critical 70-page report by New York-based Quintessential Capital Management (QCM) on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Treasurer hits back at criticism of his essay that championed co-investment and economic inclusion
Jim Chalmers says Australia’s business and investment community has driven a shift to values-based capitalism, hitting back at a volley of criticism in some news outlets after the publication of the treasurer’s 6,000-word essay championing co-investment and economic inclusion.
Chalmers made the observation on Wednesday while leading a round of consultation with the investment community about a new framework for disclosing climate-related risk. The treasurer participated in a round table convened by the Australian arm of the UN Principles for Responsible Investment initiative.
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The deputy prime minister and defence minister, Richard Marles, spoke to ABC AM Radio from London following a meeting with the UK prime minister, Rishi Sunak.
Marles would not be drawn into whether he discussed with Sunak the possibility of Australia acquiring British built nuclear submarines under the Aukus deal but said when the announcement is made it will be a “genuinely trilateral effort.”
Prime Minister Sunak commented on just how full the agenda is between our two countries and how much that is making – perhaps our oldest and most historic relationship – one which is deeply relevant in in the contemporary moment and certainly Aukus is central to that.
And we’re close to announcement and I’m not about to preempt that now. But I think what you’ll see is when we ultimately do announce the optimal pathway that we’ve been working on with both the United States and United Kingdom, that what it really is, is a genuinely trilateral effort to see by the UK and the US provide Australia with a nuclear powered submarine capability.
We’re confident that what we will be announcing in the coming weeks is a pathway that will be able to be delivered by all partners on time.
Continue reading...Leaked tax records suggest subsidiaries of international gas field contractors continued to make millions after the coup
In the two years since a murderous junta launched a coup in Myanmar, some of the world’s biggest oil and gas service companies continued to make millions of dollars from operations that have helped prop up the military regime, tax documents seen by the Guardian suggest.
The Myanmar military seized power in February 2021 and according to the United Nations special rapporteur on Myanmar, it is “committing war crimes and crimes against humanity daily”. More than 2,940 people, including children, pro-democracy activists and other civilians have been killed, according to Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
US oil services giant Halliburton’s Singapore-based subsidiary Myanmar Energy Services reported pre-tax profits of $6.3m in Myanmar in the year to September 2021, which includes eight months while the junta was in power.
Houston-headquartered oil services company Baker Hughes branch in Yangon reported pre-tax profits of $2.64m in the country in the six months to March 2022.
US firm Diamond Offshore Drilling reported $37m in fees to the Myanmar tax authority during the year to September 2021 and another $24.2m from then until March 2022.
Schlumberger Logelco (Yangon Branch), the Panama-based subsidiary of the US-listed world’s largest offshore drilling company, earned revenues of $51.7m in the year to September 2021 in Myanmar and as late as September 2022 was owed $200,000 in service fees from the junta’s energy ministry.
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Jacob Rees-Mogg, the former business secretary, was not exactly on message in his Sky News interview with Kay Burley this morning. As well as implying that he thought the bullying inquiry into Dominic Raab was a mistake (see 10.37am), he made at least three other comments that suggest Rishi Sunak does not have the enthusiastic support of all his backbenchers.
Rees-Mogg said that Sunak was performing “perfectly competently” as PM. Asked how he was doing, Rees-Mogg replied: “I think he’s doing perfectly competently.” When Burley put it to him that that was not much of an endorsement, Rees-Mogg went on: “I made no bones about the fact I thought Boris Johnson was a better prime minister and I wanted him to remain.”
Rees-Mogg criticised the government for stalling the Northern Ireland protocol bill. The bill, which is popular with hardline Brexiters but widely seen as contrary to international law, because it would allow the UK to unilaterally ignore some of the provisions in the protocol treaty, passed through the Commons when Boris Johnson was PM. But it is stuck in the Lords, where it has not been debated since October and where a date has not been set for its report stage. Sunak has shelved it because he wants to negotiate a compromise on the protocol with the EU, and passing the bill would make agreement much harder. But Rees-Mogg said the government should pass it. He said:
The government has just got to get on with it. There’s a bill that has been through the House of Commons that is waiting its report stage in the House of Lords and I don’t understand why the government hasn’t brought it forward.
He renewed his criticism of the strikes (minimum service levels) bill. When MPs debated it last night, Rees-Mogg said he agreed with Labour criticisms of the Henry VIII powers in the bill.
The government doesn’t know what changes it will have to make once this bill is passed. Under clause 3, the secretary of state would be able to make regulations that “amend, repeal or revoke provision made by or under primary legislation passed before this act or later in the same session of parliament as this act”. This is a supercharged Henry VIII clause. Why should MPs or peers pay any attention to any related legislation that may be brought before them later in this session when they know that, unless they object, a secretary of state may simply amend, repeal or revoke it?
Continue reading...Abu Dhabi fund’s $400m investment in Indian group fails to stop fall in value after fraud allegations
The Indian billionaire Gautam Adani has fallen off the list of the world’s top 10 richest people as the value of shares in his companies continue to slide after an activist investor accused him of “pulling the largest con in corporate history”.
Before the accusations published last week on Twitter, Adani, 60, was the world’s third-richest person with an estimated $119.5bn (£97bn) fortune. He has fallen to 11th place in the daily-updated Bloomberg billionaires index after a personal wealth wipeout of $34bn in just four days of trading since the accusations were published.
Shares in Adani’s companies continued to slide on Tuesday despite a $400m investment from an Abu Dhabi investment fund linked to the country’s royal family.
Draft plan to loosen state aid rules follows Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and Chinese subsidies
The EU executive will loosen state aid rules and propose a new “European sovereignty fund” later this year, in response to the controversial US Inflation Reduction Act and China’s “unfair” green subsidies.
A leaked European Commission plan underscores the global green subsidy race is under way, although EU member states remain divided on how to respond.
Continue reading...Online betting firm finds best practices not followed in some areas, including anti-money laundering processes
Online betting group 888 has removed its chief executive and suspended VIP customer accounts in the Middle East amid an internal investigation into a failure to follow anti-money laundering processes.
Shares in the Gibraltar-headquartered group, which last year acquired William Hill’s operations outside the US in a £2.2bn deal, plunged by more than a quarter as investors fuelled 888’s biggest drop in share price since 2006. Its market value has slumped more than 70% over the last year.
Continue reading...Proposed use of tax credits follows pressure to respond to Biden’s $369bn green subsidy scheme in US
The EU is stepping up its green subsidy race with the US through plans to loosen state aid rules on tax credits for renewable energy projects.
European policymakers have been under pressure to respond to the US president Joe Biden’s $369bn (£298bn) Inflation Reduction Act, which aims to encourage renewables investment in everything from electric cars to wind turbines.
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The finance minister, Katy Gallagher, also spoke to ABC Radio this morning about how the government is balancing the budget with record high inflation, and all signs pointing to another rate hike from the RBA next week.
Gallagher says there will be mortgage pain for over a fifth of mortgage holders:
We’re expecting about 20% of mortgage holders to come off fixed rate loans this year.
We always said 2023 was going to be challenging year … Dealing with the inflation challenge is a key economic priority for the government.
What you’ll see is a continued focus on cost-of-living relief, funding those priority areas like health and aged care and making sure we’re getting the balance right in terms of spending restraint, banking upgrades and looking for sensible savings where we can.
There’s no doubt that migrants have been key to the formation of modern Australia.
I think [migrants] should be recognised for their contribution to this country. And I think that’s fair enough, but that’s not minimising the Indigenous.
Continue reading...Conglomerate responds to Hindenburg Research report that claimed it was the ‘biggest con in corporate history’
Adani Group has published a 413-page rebuttal of fraud allegations by Hindenburg Research, likening the US investment firm’s report to an attack on India amid mounting financial pressure on the coal conglomerate.
The lengthy response was an attempt to soothe investor concerns and stir nationalist fervour as Adani attempts to complete a US$2.5bn share sale, one of India’s largest ever fundraising campaigns, designed to finance capital expenditure and reduce debt.
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Continue reading...Campaign charity Rest Less says figures illustrate not only a national health issue but an economic one
More than 1.6 million adults aged 50 and over are unable to work because of long-term sickness amid ballooning NHS waiting lists and an exodus from the British workforce since the pandemic, according to the most detailed analysis yet of official data for this age group.
The number has increased 20%, or 270,000 in three years, according to an analysis of Office for National Statistics figures by Rest Less, a digital community and advocate for over fifties.
Continue reading...Some people due to fly with regional airline had booked tickets just hours before firm collapsed
“I got an email asking me to check in, and 10 minutes later they had gone into administration.”
Andrew Gibbins was one of hundreds of passengers across the UK who have expressed frustration at regional airline Flybe, which abruptly announced its collapse on Saturday morning, telling any passengers expecting to travel with it not to go to the airport.
Continue reading...Perrottet promises easier access to housing for domestic violence victims
NSW domestic violence victims will have easier access to housing through concessions on stamp duty and rental bond loans if the Perrottet government is re-elected, AAP reports.
Continue reading...Speech on ‘enterprise, education, employment and everywhere’ contained only vague, empty promises
Brexit will shake Britons out of their comfortable torpor, turn them into risktakers and put the UK at the forefront of the digital revolution – that was Jeremy Hunt’s message in his much-trailed speech on growing the UK economy.
The chancellor came to Bloomberg’s HQ in the City of London on Friday seeking to raise the country’s spirits, hail the split with Brussels and dispel the “declinism” he says saps Britain’s energy.
Continue reading...Presence of key distribution centres on list of more than 250 properties raises questions about grip on supply chain links
The Chinese government owns a vast network of UK real estate via offshore secrecy jurisdictions such as Luxembourg and the Isle of Man, the Guardian can reveal, raising questions about Beijing’s grip on links in the UK supply chain.
Disclosures made as part of a new government register of property owned via offshore entities show that China’s investment division owns more than 250 properties across Britain via dozens of companies. They include distribution centres that are key to the flow of food and goods in multiple regions of the UK including the south-west and south-east of England and the Midlands.
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Ukrainian loss would embolden leaders in Pacific region, ambassador says
The ambassador of Ukraine to Australia and New Zealand, Vasyl Myroshnychenko, stresses that the reason Australia’s assistance needs to continue is because it’s in Australia’s interests to support the Ukraine:
The reason why we need to keep up and step up that assistance because this war in Ukraine is disrupting everything. It’s really undermined security, regionally, globally.
It’s having a major impact on your partners here in the region. Look at Indonesia. I mean, they are really suffering from the lack of food that can get on their market. They have 275 million people to feed and they really rely on grain from Ukraine, which now they have a hard time getting hold of as the prices have surged. We’ve seen the impact on the energy markets on the volatility of the commodity markets.
What’s important is that Australia continues to support Ukraine. We are truly thankful for what Australia has done so far, especially the last package which was announced in October where another 30 Bushmasters were allocated and the troops which are now in Britain have already been able to train Ukrainian soldiers. It’s really a big help.
Continue reading...Hindenburg Research accusations denied by Adani as ‘baseless’ while activist investor claims legal action will reveal accounting fraud
The US investor targeting Indian conglomerate Adani Group over what it claims is the “biggest con in corporate history” has dared the company to sue, given it would open the coal producer to further scrutiny.
Hindenburg Research’s report has already wiped billions of dollars of value from the sprawling empire of Gautam Adani, the world’s third richest man, and drawn in the contentious Carmichael coal and rail project in Queensland.
Continue reading...Chancellor also expected to tell markets that government spending will remain within strict limits
Jeremy Hunt will defend the government’s vision for Britain’s economic future in a speech to City executives in London on Friday when he will lay out plans for investment and growth.
The chancellor will say he wants to promote policies that allow the private sector to re-tool the UK’s industrial base and re-skill the workforce to generate strong growth over the next decade.
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