Category Archives: Business

Australia Covid live update: NSW records 233 cases and two deaths, including man in 20s; one new case in both Victoria and WA

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Two deaths overnight in Sydney and 233 new local cases in NSW; Queensland to reschedule public holiday as 17 cases recorded. Question time returns. Follow latest updates

About 2,500 students and staff at a school in Melbourne’s west will need to self-isolate and get tested after a teacher caught Covid-19.

Jeroen Weimar, Victoria’s Covid-19 commander, told ABC Melbourne the Al Taqwa College teacher got tested yesterday and her positive result came back today.

Let’s take a look at the market at the close of play, via AAP.

The ASX200 has closed higher than 7500 points for the first time in its history as traders continue to look beyond coronavirus lockdowns.

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Suspected tanker hijacking off UAE coast is over, says British military

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Armed group has left the Panama-registered Asphalt Princess, says British navy, after initial reports Iranian-backed forces had raided vessel

A group of armed men who boarded a tanker off the coast of the United Arab Emirates in the Gulf of Oman have left the targeted ship, the British navy has said without elaborating.

The notice on Wednesday came after the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) warned of a “potential hijack” under unclear circumstances underway the night before.

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Australia politics live: parliament resumes; Victoria records four new Covid cases; Westmead hospital worker tests positive

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Anthony Albanese wants the Morrison government to provide a one-off $300 payment to every person who has been fully vaccinated by 1 December. Follow latest updates

The RBA is meeting today to discuss Australia’s cash rate.

I don’t want to spoil anything for you...but expect, no change.

For those interested, you can find the daily legislation schedule for the house, here

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Is remote working better for the environment? Not necessarily

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Companies have a rare moment to reset working models. But climate calculations of remote v office work are complex

Stacy Kauk was finalizing Shopify’s 2019 sustainability report when the pandemic forced the company into remote work.

“I kind of stopped in my footsteps and went, ‘Uh oh, what’s going to happen if we’re closing our offices during Covid and staying remote in the long term? What does that mean for Shopify’s corporate carbon footprint?’” said Kauk, who directs the Canadian e-commerce company’s $5m annual sustainability fund.

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As Delta spreads, Pfizer and Moderna get set for a booster shot to profits

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The firms are already taking the lion’s share of earnings from the market, as this week’s results will show

Praised for preventing hundreds of thousands of deaths and allowing a return to more normal life, Covid vaccines will also substantially benefit some pharmaceutical companies.

In June, analysts estimated the global market for the vaccines could be worth $70bn (£50bn) this year, but the figure could be even higher as the Delta variant of coronavirus spreads and scientists debate whether people will need booster shots.

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US consultants lined up to run fund that owns Israeli spyware company NSO

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Investors in talks to transfer management of Novalpina Capital to Berkeley Research Group, following long-running dispute

Public investors in the private equity firm that owns a majority stake in the Israeli spyware company NSO Group are in talks to transfer management of that fund to Berkeley Research Group, a US consulting firm.

Related: US voices concern with Israeli officials about Pegasus revelations

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Out of control and rising: why bitcoin has Nigeria’s government in a panic

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As leaders around the world grapple with cryptocurrencies, what happened when the African country tried to ban them?

When the Nigerian government suddenly banned access to foreign exchange for textile import companies in March 2019, Moses Awa* felt stuck. His business – importing woven shoes from Guangzhou, China, to sell in the northern city of Kano and his home state of Abia, further south – had been suffering along with the country’s economy. The ban threatened to tip it over the edge. “It was a serious crisis: I had to act fast,” Awa says.

He turned to his younger brother, Osy, who had begun trading bitcoins. “He was just accumulating, accumulating crypto, saying that at some point years down the line it could be a great investment. When the forex ban happened, he showed me how much I needed it, too. I could pay my suppliers in bitcoins if they accepted – and they did.”

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Clubbers shun reopened venues in England amid confusion over Covid safety

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Owners blame ‘low consumer confidence’ and confused government messages for poor post-‘freedom day’ attendances

Nightclubs in England have seen low attendances and been forced to cancel events as the pandemic continues to disrupt the nightlife industry almost two weeks on from “freedom day”.

Many operators blamed “low consumer confidence” in the face of confusing government messages about whether it was safe to attend.

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How Games Workshop grew to become more profitable than Google

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Tabletop gaming, based on a mix of science fiction and fantasy worlds, has seen sales surge during lockdown

It started in a small flat in west London, with three friends selling board games and a fanzine via mail order; now Games Workshop is worth more than Marks & Spencer and Asos and is more profitable than Google.

This week the Nottingham-based company, which produces the Warhammer fantasy role-playing brand, announced all of its workers would get a £5,000 bonus after sales and profits surged during the pandemic.

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Drug firm that hiked prices by 6,000% paid shareholders £400m

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Advanz Pharma and former private equity owners were fined £100m by markets watchdog

A pharmaceuticals firm that inflated thyroid drug prices by up to 6,000% over a decade paid out more than £400m to shareholders and directors during the same period.

London-based Advanz Pharma – and its former private equity owners HgCapital and Cinven – were fined a combined £100m by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on Thursday.

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Australia Covid live news update: Gladys Berejiklian confirms 170 new local cases in NSW; Victoria records three cases and Queensland one

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NSW will vaccinate 20,000 year 12 student over five days, premier says, as state records 170 local Covid-19 cases overnight; three local cases recorded in Victoria; Queensland student in community for three days while infectious; national cabinet meeting. Follow latest updates

Back to the student vaccinations for a second, Gladys Berekijlian says the vaccination hub will be available for AstraZeneca doses after the 20,000 year 12’s have got their Pfizer jabs.

We are keen, in those eight local government areas of concern, to get year 12 face-to-face from the 16 August and that’s why I’m pleased to say we’ve moved heaven and earth to get what’s available from the 9 August.

During that week, we will be vaccinating around 19,200 HSC students in those eight local government areas...

NSW has enlisted the help of the ADF to patrol the streets and enforce lockdown compliance in the eight hotspot LGA’s in Syndey’s southwest.

This area has a high population of people who are immigrants and refugees, including many who have travelled to Australia to escape war town countries.

It’s sensitive but we’ve working through the ADF with the bushfires and floods and they been involved in hotel quarantine and other parts of the state so this is just an extension of our compliance of its buses is that Police Commissioner said, we have thousands and thousands of close contacts and can’t afford to have at least one of them out there in the community in case they have the virus.

We have wanted to people infectious can cause a spiral, a ripple effect which causes a major setback. That’s why I’m so strongly appealing to everybody, please don’t go to the protest activity tomorrow, it’s going to prolong the pain for all of us. Surely care about your loved ones. Don’t give them a death sentence.

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The truth about fast fashion: can you tell how ethical your clothing is by its price?

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To find out the true production cost of a garment is a tortuous process. Here is what you need to know to buy clothes with a clear conscience

What is the true cost of a Zara hoodie? In April 2019, David Hachfeld of the Swiss NGO Public Eye, along with a team of researchers and the Clean Clothes Campaign, attempted to find out. They chose to analyse a black, oversized top from Zara’s flagship Join Life sustainability line, which was printed with lyrics made famous by Aretha Franklin: “R-E-S-P-E-C-T: find out what it means to me”. It was an apt choice, because the idea was to work out whether any respect had been paid to the workers involved in the garment’s production, and how much of the hoodie’s average retail price, €26.66 (£22.70), went into their pockets.

This was no simple assignment. It took several people six months, involved badgering Zara’s parent company, Inditex, over email, slowly getting limited information in return, and interviewing dozens of sources on the ground in Izmir, Turkey, where the garment was made. The researchers analysed financial results and trading data, and consulted with experts in pricing and production. It was, Hachfeld says on the phone, with dry understatement, “quite a huge project”.

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Facebook reports fastest quarterly growth in five years

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  • Social media company beats forecasts and hits $29bn revenue
  • Network condemned for allowing vaccine misinformation

Facebook saw its fastest growth this quarter since 2016, the company revealed in its earnings report on Wednesday, despite regulatory concerns and criticisms surrounding misinformation on the platform.

Related: Remington offers $33m to settle lawsuit by families of Sandy Hook massacre

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‘The Queen’s bank’ Coutts joins the ranks of ethical brands

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Despite chequered history the 329-year-old private bank has secured the sought-after B Corp status

Private bank Coutts will offer carbon credits and green mortgages to its ultra-wealthy clients after becoming one of the largest UK banking brands to secure B Corp status.

Coutts, known as the Queen’s bank for having served every member of the royal family since George IV, is trying to bolster its environmental and social reputation after being dogged by a series of scandals in recent years, including sexual harassment allegations against its former star banker Harry Keogh, who was sacked in 2018. The bank was also fined by Swiss regulators in 2017 over alleged money laundering and for illegally profiting from transactions associated with the 1MDB scandal.

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London court reopens $7bn Brazil dam collapse lawsuit against BHP

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Six years after deadly Fundao dam rupture, lawsuit against Anglo-Australian mining giant proclaimed as ‘an opportunity for real justice’

London’s court of appeal made a U-turn on Tuesday by agreeing to reopen a US$7bn lawsuit by 200,000 claimants against Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP, reviving a case over a dam rupture behind Brazil’s worst environmental disaster.

Lawyers for one of the largest group claims in English legal history have been pushing to resurrect the £5bn ($6.9bn) lawsuit against BHP since a lower court struck out the lawsuit as an abuse of process last year – and a court of appeal judge upheld that decision in March.

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Failure to help poor countries fight Covid ‘could cost global economy $4.5tn’, says IMF

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Fund calls on rich nations to help halt spread of infectious variants through countries with low vaccination rates

The world economy risks losing $4.5tn (£3.3tn) from highly infectious variants of Covid-19 spreading through poor countries where vaccination rates are lower, the International Monetary Fund has warned.

Calling on rich countries to take urgent action to share at least 1bn doses with developing nations, or risk severe economic consequences, the Washington-based fund said the gap between rich and poor economies had widened during the pandemic and risked worsening further next year.

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Tesla second-quarter profits top $1bn even as it struggles to handle demand

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A global shortfall of semiconductors has affected the Tesla supply chain as well as car manufacturers across the world

Tesla made a profit of more than $1bn in the last three months even as it struggled to keep up with demand for electric cars in the face of a global chip shortage.

The company announced Monday that it has made a profit of $1.14bn in its second quarter, 10 times what it made a year ago and its eighth quarter of back-to-back profits.

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Australia Covid live update: Sydney to open walk-in AstraZeneca clinics as NSW records 145 cases; Victoria records 11; Queensland and SA record one new local case each

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NSW reports 145 local Covid-19 cases overnight; no lockdown announcement for Victoria today after 11 new local cases recorded; SA to lift lockdown from midnight tomorrow and another vaccine record. Follow the latest updates

Brittany Higgins has welcomed the government’s decision to accept all 10 recommendations of the Foster review into how federal parliament responds to serious incidents.

The government put out a press release announcing this earlier today.

I am so pleased to hear that all 10 recommendations of the Foster Review will be implemented.

These reforms, most notably the independent complaints mechanism, will ensure Parliament House is a safer workplace for all future employees. https://t.co/wNNkVy4y9D

Sydney Covid crisis could take months to recede if other outbreaks are anything to go by - depressing read (but with good charts) from @joshcnicholas looking at peaks and troughs of covid waves https://t.co/slr3A5O9gX pic.twitter.com/4zR7STbB3i

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Blue ticked off: the controversy over the MSC fish ‘ecolabel’

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The MSC’s coveted blue tick is the world’s biggest, and some say best, fishery ecolabel. So why is it in the headlines – and does it really do what it says on the tin?

This month, two right whales in the Gulf of St Lawrence were found entangled in fishing gear. One, a female, was first spotted entangled off Cape Cod last year, but rescuers were not able to fully free her; the other, a male, is believed to have become entangled in the Gulf.

Hunted to near extinction before a partial whaling ban in 1935, North Atlantic right whales are once more critically endangered, with only 356 left. The main threat remains human contact: entanglement in fishing gear, and ship strikes. Fatal encounters, caused in part by the whales’ migratory shift into Canada’s snow crab grounds, have soared: more than a tenth of the population died or were seriously injured between 2017 and 2021, mostly in Canada and New England.

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Tobacco firm Philip Morris calls for ban on cigarettes within decade

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CEO Jacek Olczak says product should be treated like petrol cars, which will be outlawed from 2030

The chief executive of tobacco business Philip Morris International has called on the UK government to ban cigarettes within a decade, in a move that would outlaw its own Marlboro brand.

Jacek Olczak said the company could “see the world without cigarettes … and actually, the sooner it happens, the better it is for everyone.” Cigarettes should be treated like petrol cars, the sale of which is due to be banned from 2030, he said.

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