Category Archives: Business

British banks under pressure over £45m loans to firm with links to Myanmar military

Posted on by

Campaigners say the deals revealed in new report are a breach of firms’ human rights responsibilities

Human rights groups are demanding that two of Britain’s biggest banks explain why they have lent tens of millions of pounds to a technology company building a telecoms network that is part-owned and used by the Myanmar military.

HSBC and Standard Chartered have loaned $60m (£44.5m) to Vietnamese telecom giant Viettel in the last four years, a period when the Myanmar military has been accused of committing war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. Viettel is a major investor in Mytel, a Myanmar mobile network that, since its launch in June 2018, has grown to become the second-biggest operator in the country with over 10 million users.

Continue reading...

Trickle-down economics doesn’t work but build-up does – is Biden listening? | Robert Reich

Posted on by

A new study confirms tax cuts for the rich do not benefit the rest. Recovery from the pandemic is a chance to change course

How should the huge financial costs of the pandemic be paid for, as well as the other deferred needs of society after this annus horribilis?

Related: Jeff Bezos became even richer thanks to Covid-19. But he still won't protect Amazon workers | Robert Reich

Continue reading...

Ten billionaires reap $400bn boost to wealth during pandemic

Posted on by

Covid-19 pushed many into poverty but brought huge benefits for some of the wealthiest, renewing calls for fairer taxes

Ten of the richest people in the world have boosted their already vast wealth by more than $400bn (£296bn) since the coronavirus pandemic began as their businesses were boosted by lockdowns and financial crises across the globe.

The extra wealth accumulated by the 10 men – approximately $450bn, using Forbes figures – over the past nine months is more than the £284bn the British government is estimated to have spent on tackling the pandemic and the economic damage it has wrought on its 66 million people.

Continue reading...

‘There’s nobody here’: Covid turns Wall Street into a ghost town

Posted on by

Exodus that started after 9/11 has accelerated — and many fear New York’s financial district will not recover

“They used to stand at the bar three deep,” says John Moran, surveying the long, empty counter at Killarney Rose, a Wall Street bar that would, in another era, have been stuffed with early-shift construction workers and, at lunch and late into the evening, suited bankers.

The world’s pre-eminent financial thoroughfare – at least throughout the 20th century – is a ghost of what it once was. The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq are still located here, but dozens of financial institutions have emptied out from New York’s financial district in an exodus that started in the wake of 9/11 and has been hastened by Covid.

Continue reading...

Cyberpunk 2077: how 2020’s biggest video game launch turned into a shambles

Posted on by

Starring Keanu Reeves and hyped to the heavens, Projekt Red’s dystopian but glitchy romp has been pulled from sale. What went wrong?

Cyberpunk 2077, one of the most-anticipated video games of the year was released last week. A dystopian romp around a Blade Runner-inspired city, it had all the ingredients for a perfect storm of hype: it’s been nearly a decade in the making; its creator, Warsaw’s CD Projekt Red, was behind one of the greatest games of the last decade (The Witcher 3 – think Game of Thrones but grimier); it stars Keanu Reeves, who is as popular with gamers as he is with everybody else. Eight million people had pre-ordered and paid for the game before it came out. But since 10 December, it’s all gone horribly wrong.

On launch day, the reviews were good – great, even. Many critics praised the fictional Night City’s realism, its striking skyscraping architecture and grubby alleys; they loved the invigorating gunplay, ballsy characters and neon swagger. Some expressed reservations about the game’s rather adolescent tone and its eagerness to objectify women’s bodies – neither of which were a surprise to anyone who’d been keeping an eye on the game’s marketing.

Continue reading...

‘Humanitarian crisis’: UN panel decries Covid rules that trapped crews at sea

Posted on by

‘Legally and morally wrong to expect seafarers to work indefinitely while depriving them of their fundamental rights’

Governments around the world have breached the rights of seafarers during the Covid-19 pandemic, creating a “humanitarian crisis” in which hundreds of thousands of workers are stranded onboard ships, said a UN panel on labour rights in a landmark ruling.

Seafarers had reported physical and mental exhaustion, anxiety and sickness after spending months on board ship during the pandemic. There were also cases of people taking their own lives. Hundreds of people were denied medical care ashore, resulting in a number of deaths, said the UN’s International Labour Organization’s committee of experts.

Continue reading...

Floating ‘mini-nukes’ could power countries by 2025, says startup

Posted on by

Danish company plans to fit ships with small nuclear reactors to send energy to developing countries

Floating barges fitted with advanced nuclear reactors could begin powering developing nations by the mid-2020s, according to a Danish startup company.

Seaborg Technologies believes it can make cheap nuclear electricity a viable alternative to fossil fuels across the developing world as soon as 2025.

Continue reading...

Alibaba offered clients facial recognition to identify Uighur people, report reveals

Posted on by

Software could be used to identify videos filmed and uploaded by Uighur person, says IPVM

The Chinese tech company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd offered facial recognition software to clients which can identify the face of a Uighur person, according to a report.

The US-based surveillance industry research firm IPVM said on Thursday it had found the detection technology in Alibaba’s Cloud Shield service, which offers content moderation for websites.

Continue reading...

UK and US close to deal on cutting tariffs, says White House trade chief

Posted on by

Talks on reducing charges on items such as Scotch whisky follow UK move to drop levy on Boeing

The UK and the United States are hoping to reach an agreement on reducing trade tariffs, according to Robert Lighthizer, the US trade representative in Donald Trump’s outgoing administration.

In an interview with the BBC, Lighthizer said he was in talks with the UK’s international trade secretary, Liz Truss, which could remove hefty tariffs imposed by the US on goods including Scotch whisky.

Continue reading...

Australia news live: NSW authorities scramble after three cases of local Covid transmission

Posted on by

State breaks 12-day streak with no local transmission as Sydney airport driver test positive and two mystery cases emerge in the northern beaches. Follow latest updates

Late morning the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, will release the mid-year economic and fiscal update which is expected to show that the budget deficit will be less than $200bn due to a $11bn saving on jobkeeper and rising iron ore prices boosting revenue.

Asked about the $11bn jobkeeper saving, the finance minister Simon Birmingham told Channel Nine:”Look, it is really encouraging to see the strength of the recovery in the Australian economy. Now, there is still a long way to go but we’ve seen more than 650,000 jobs created across Australia in recent months. More Australians back in work, fewer Australians on JobKeeper - this is a trend that we want to see continue but we know that there are always threats present.

The Victorian Ombudsman has tabled an investigation into the detention and treatment of public housing residents at the onset of the second wave in the state.

Ombudsman's Investigation into the detention and treatment of public housing residents arising from a COVID-19 'hard lockdown' in July 2020 tabled today, a non-sitting day https://t.co/cXTFf4wPIy #springst

Continue reading...

Texas and other states sue Google for abusing ‘monopolistic power’

Posted on by

Lawsuit accusing company of ‘tremendous violation of justice’ is latest bid to rein in big tech

Google is facing a new multi-state lawsuit, led by Texas, that accuses the company of abusing its “monopolistic power”, the latest in a slew of major legal efforts to rein in big tech.

In a video announcing the suit on Wednesday, the Texas attorney generalcharged Google with engaging in anticompetitive behavior, particularly in the online advertising market. Texas argues that the company dominates the pathways by which an advertisement gets from the agency that produces it on to a web page or mobile app.

Continue reading...

Facebook’s attempt to vilify Apple tastes like sour grapes

Posted on by

Analysis: Facebook says objections to Apple feature that affects apps are bid to defend small businesses – but do we believe it?

Never afraid of a challenge, Facebook appears to have embarked on a campaign to convince the world to hate Apple, love targeted advertising, and believe the social network when it says it is doing it all out of a desire to defend small businesses.

On Wednesday, the company launched a series of full-page newspaper adverts and a press conference where the company put forward small businesses who said they relied on app-tracking to find customers. It also announced it would be siding with the Fortnite developer Epic Games in the latter’s lawsuit over control of the iOS App Store.

Continue reading...

UK ports disruption – importers call for urgent inquiry by MPs

Posted on by

Retailers and manufactures demand action after delays caused by pandemic and Brexit

Retailers and food and drinks companies have called for MPs to launch an urgent inquiry into disruption at British ports, with delays to goods deliveries possibly set to last for months.

The delays mean consumers may have to pay higher Christmas prices and companies may be unable to build up stockpiles of goods to see them through Brexit disruption, the retail and food and drinks industry warned, in a letter to the chairs of parliament’s transport and international trade committees.

Continue reading...

Canadian cannabis firms Tilray and Aphria reveal £2.8bn merger

Posted on by

All-share deal will create world’s largest weed company, as industry hopes for further liberalisation in US

Two of the leading players in Canada’s booming cannabis sector have announced merger plans that will create the world’s largest weed company, as the industry hopes for further liberalisation in the US under Joe Biden.

Tilray and Aphria announced an all-share deal giving the new entity a stock market value of C$4.8bn (£2.8bn), with the two companies’ combined revenues over the past 12 months amounting to an industry-leading £507m.

Continue reading...

British American Tobacco wins approval to test Covid vaccine on humans

Posted on by

Treatment grown on tobacco plants gets US backing for clinical study

British American Tobacco has moved a step closer to producing a vaccine for coronavirus using tobacco plants, as it won approval in the US to begin testing on humans.

The company behind cigarette brands including Lucky Strike, Rothmans and Benson & Hedges said the US Food & Drug Administration had given it clearance to begin a clinical study with adult volunteers.

Continue reading...

China tariffs offset by rising Australian iron ore prices due to ‘fear tax’

Posted on by

Boosted iron ore prices due to anxious markets are likely to help federal budget’s bottom line, Deloitte says

Australia’s losses from trade tensions with China are being offset by rising iron ore prices, according to new analysis, which also predicts the Morrison government will announce a smaller budget deficit than originally forecast.

Deloitte Access Economics said Chinese government moves against wine, beef, barley, lobsters and thermal coal have cost Australia money “but we’ve more than made that up in overall terms thanks to iron ore – and the taxman will be a considerable beneficiary of that”.

Continue reading...

Going for a song: why music legends are lining up to sell their rights

Posted on by

Stars follow Bob Dylan’s lead as streaming boom and Covid-19 upheaval fuels gold rush in song rights

Bob Dylan just made more than $300m (£227m) doing it, Dolly Parton says she might do the same, while the singer-songwriter David Crosby says he is being forced to do it. Musicians are queuing up for big paydays by selling the publishing rights to their songs, as the streaming boom and industry upheaval wrought by the Covid-19 pandemic redefines the economics of music.

Dylan’s surprise move this week to sell the publishing rights to his 600 songs, from Blowin’ in the Wind to Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door, was described by the buyer, Universal Music, as one of the most important deals of all time. 

Continue reading...

EU leaders approve sanctions on Turkish officials over gas drilling

Posted on by

Bloc defers decision on trade tariffs and arms until consultation with Biden administration

EU leaders have agreed to impose sanctions on an unspecified number of Turkish officials and entities involved in gas drilling in Cypriot-claimed waters – but they deferred bigger decisions such as trade tariffs or an arms embargo until they have consulted with the upcoming Biden administration.

The decision reached by the EU council after hours of heated debate disappointed hardliners such as France, Cyprus and Greece, which had pressed for more urgent and substantive action to express EU disapproval of Turkish foreign policy.

Continue reading...

Sub-Saharan Africa named riskiest investment region due to violence

Posted on by

Annual global terror index highlights attacks in Mozambique and DRC and says human rights abuses are driving violence

Militant violence and abuses by security forces have made sub-Saharan Africa the riskiest region in the world for business and investors, a new report says.

Seven of the world’s 10 highest-risk countries for militant violence are in the region with significant deteriorations in Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to the annual Terrorism Intensity Index released on Friday by risk consultants Verisk Maplecroft.

Continue reading...

Australia live news: Queensland border opens to New Zealand and UQ Covid vaccine trial abandoned

Posted on by

Australia had ordered 51m doses of the UQ/CSL vaccine. Follow latest updates

In better news for Victoria, another doughnut day:

Yesterday there were 0 new local cases, 0 new cases acquired overseas and 0 lost lives reported. Thanks to all who were tested: 9,760 results received #EveryTestHelps #StaySafeStayOpen
More info https://t.co/lIUrl0ZEco#COVID19Vic #COVID19VicData pic.twitter.com/6Ts9mijiD9

So it looks like the website to apply for the Victorian government’s tourism vouchers is still down.

The site crashed after being inundated as holidaymakers rushed to snap up the first batch of the $200 vouchers.

Continue reading...