Group of junior bankers at Goldman Sachs claim ‘inhumane’ work conditions

First-year US analysts complete internal survey, describing ‘sleep deprivation’ and workplace ‘abuse’

Junior bankers at Goldman Sachs say they are facing “inhumane” conditions at the investment bank, including 100-hour work weeks and “abuse” from colleagues which has severely affected their mental health.

The responses from the poll participants – 13 investment banking analysts in the US – have shed light on the gruelling demands on first-year analysts, a cohort that features some of the brightest recruits hired annually by Goldman.

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US to send 4m AstraZeneca vaccine doses to Mexico and Canada

Biden administration has come under pressure to share vaccine, which has been authorized in other countries but not yet in US

The United States plans to send roughly 4m doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine that it is not using to Mexico and Canada in loan deals with the two countries.

Mexico will receive 2.5m doses of the vaccine and Canada will receive 1.5m doses, the official said.

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Why Japan’s carmaking heavyweights could be facing an electric shock

Analysis: The rapid development of battery-only cars is eclipsing petrol vehicles and even hybrids, leaving Japan’s big producers racing to catch up

Japan’s traditional carmaking giants need to raise their game in the race to develop pure, battery-driven electric vehicles or risk being left behind by Chinese, American and European producers, analysts have warned.

Despite dominating car production in Asia for decades, Japan’s big players have been slow to fully develop the battery-only technology that is now eclipsing hybrid vehicles as the most likely type of car to plug petrolheads into the automotive revolution.

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Mood killer killed off: NSW punters allowed to resume ‘vertical drinking’ in pubs and clubs

People have stood at bars once again – but there remains a fine line between standing and dancing, which is still banned

New South Wales residents are now allowed to stand with their drinks in bars, following the latest easing of Covid-19 restrictions.

“This is what life is all about,” the New South Wales treasurer, Dominic Perrottet, said while holding a Guinness on Wednesday.

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P&O to restart UK cruises this summer – but only for vaccinated passengers

Short-sailings around UK with dining and entertainment to restart but ships will not call at ports

Cruise operator P&O is to restart domestic holidays this summer, but only for UK residents who have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

After its fleet has been grounded for over a year, P&O is dipping its toes back in the water by offering passengers short sailings on two of its ships around the UK coastline. Coronavirus restrictions mean the ships will not call at any ports, although there will be the usual onboard dining and entertainment programme.

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From Tipperary to Silicon Valley: how Stripe became vital cog in digital economy

Brothers Patrick and John Collison’s online payments empire is now valued at $95bn

The latest fundraising round by the digital payments firm Stripe has boosted the net worth of its co-founders, Patrick and John Collison, to about $11.5bn (£8.3bn) each, catapulting them into the top bracket of the world’s millennial billionaires. Not bad for two brothers from the tiny Tipperary village of Dromineer, population: barely 100.

Related: Silicon Valley's Stripe valued at $95bn after fundraising

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Parliament and the culture of silence: making toxic workplaces ‘psychologically safe’

Too often leaders are out of touch with what is going on in their workplaces. Defining a set of values is the key to progress – and leaders must live by those values

Through the whorls of Canberra’s streets and up the sweep of Commonwealth Avenue, Parliament House sits as a testament to democracy and the rule of law.

It’s a place of many rules, rules about where you can go and when you can speak and how you should speak. The guide to the House of Representatives’ parliamentary procedures runs to more than 100 pages, and points to a further 24 sources of information on the rules. Then there are the standing orders, which run to 164 pages. And that’s not even including the Senate.

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China tells Alibaba to divest media assets to curb influence – report

Beijing fears ecommerce giant has too much sway over public opinion through stakes in platforms such as Twitter-like Weibo, Wall Street Journal says

Beijing has reportedly told the Chinese e-commerce conglomerate Alibaba to divest its assets in the media sector out of concern over the company’s growing public influence.

Its founder, Jack Ma, the ebullient and unconventional billionaire who officially retired from Alibaba in 2019 but remains a large shareholder, has been in authorities’ crosshairs in recent months.

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Elon Musk changes his Tesla job title to ‘technoking’

Company’s financial chief has been rebranded ‘master of coin’ following £1bn bitcoin investment

Elon Musk, the billionaire chief executive of Tesla with a penchant for eccentric behaviour, has changed his job title to “technoking” of the electric car manufacturer.

In addition to Musk, who also retains his position as chief executive, the company’s financial chief, Zach Kirkhorn, has been rebranded as “master of coin”.

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Cheese sales soar in French lockdown – but an Italian is biggest winner

Consumption at home rose sharply last year, with mozzarella up 21% and raclette machines in high demand

How did the French keep smiling through the Covid lockdown? Not by saying “cheese” but by eating it, figures suggest.

Researchers say cheese consumption at home soared last year as the confined sought comfort food. And in a nation that boasts 246 kinds of cheese, as the former president Charles de Gaulle once said, it was Italian mozzarella that benefited most, with a 21.2% rise in sales in 2020.

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What price a child’s life? India’s quest to make rare disease drugs affordable

Parents whose only hope was finding foreign sponsorship or a clinical trial are now looking for homegrown breakthroughs

For three years, Vidya tried to find the cause of her son’s recurrent fevers and low cognitive development. When she found out, she was devastated.

Vineeth, 10, has an incurable illness – mucopolysaccharidosis type 2 – that affects his organs. Afflicting just one in a million, the enzyme-replacement medication that can help stop the illness getting any worse costs £100,000 a year, far beyond the reach of even a wealthier Indian parent.

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Revealed: seafood fraud happening on a vast global scale

Guardian analysis of 44 studies finds nearly 40% of 9,000 products from restaurants, markets and fishmongers were mislabelled

A Guardian Seascape analysis of 44 recent studies of more than 9,000 seafood samples from restaurants, fishmongers and supermarkets in more than 30 countries found that 36% were mislabelled, exposing seafood fraud on a vast global scale.

Many of the studies used relatively new DNA analysis techniques. In one comparison of sales of fish labelled “snapper” by fishmongers, supermarkets and restaurants in Canada, the US, the UK, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand, researchers found mislabelling in about 40% of fish tested. The UK and Canada had the highest rates of mislabelling in that study, at 55%, followed by the US at 38%.

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Australia politics live: organisers of March4Justice rally reject PM’s offer of closed door meeting

More than 100,000 women are expected to march in Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to demand action in response to allegations of workplace abuse. Follow latest updates

Michael McCormack Michael McCormacked his way through an interaction with Janine Hendry this morning, when she asked him for action - and for change.

He ‘can’t give that assurance’.

#March4Justiceau organiser @janine_hendry bumped into Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack in the Parliament corridors ... here's how it ended. @10NewsFirst #auspol pic.twitter.com/fnkr3nam0h

Janine Hendry, a founder and organiser of the March4Justice, explained to the ABC this morning about why organisers turned down Scott Morrison’s offer of a private meeting with a small number of march delegates:

I think it is really quite disrespectful to the women whose voices need to be heard to have a meeting with our prime minister behind closed doors.

I have invited the prime minister, as I have all other sitting members of parliament, to come and march with us, to come and listen to our voices. I don’t think it is really a big ask – we have come to Canberra.

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Italian ex-prime minister Enrico Letta elected to lead Democratic party

Letta to lead second largest party in Draghi government as Giuseppe Conte in talks to lead Five Star Movement

A former Italian prime minister, Enrico Letta, has been elected leader of the centre-left Democratic party (PD), the second largest party in Mario Draghi’s government, as another former prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, was in talks to become leader of the Five Star Movement (M5S), its largest.

Letta takes over from Nicola Zingaretti, who abruptly quit the party’s leadership earlier this month over what he called an “unending stream” of criticism, and was elected on Sunday with 860 votes in favour and two against.

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Ireland suspends AstraZeneca Covid vaccine over blood clot concerns

Deployment of Oxford vaccine temporarily deferred after latest reports from Norway

Ireland is suspending use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine as a precautionary measure following further reports of blood clots in people who have received it, this time from Norway.

The deputy chief medical officer, Dr Ronan Glynn, said Ireland’s advisory body on vaccines had recommended that deployment of the AstraZeneca jab should be “temporarily deferred” with immediate effect. He stressed, though, that there was no proof that the vaccine had caused blood clots.

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Trade war fallout: how reliant is Australia’s economy on China?

China’s importance to the Australian economy has exploded in recent years – but data shows Australia is not nearly so important to China

China’s importance to the Australian economy has exploded over the past decade, fuelled by an apparently insatiable need for iron ore and helped along by increasing demand for luxury goods as the country became richer, analysis of UN trade data by Guardian Australia reveals.

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Primark supplier reportedly locks workers in factory to stop their anti-coup protest in Myanmar

Garment workers in Yangon say they were dismissed for breaking out to take part in civil disobedience movement

Garment workers in Myanmar who produce clothing for Primark were locked inside their factory by supervisors who tried to prevent them from joining anti-coup protests, testimonies given to the Guardian claim.

Workers employed by GY Sen, which supplies Primark, claimed to the Guardian that their supervisors had sought to prevent them from missing work to take part in protests in the main city Yangon on 18 February. Up to 1,000 workers were trapped inside, according to workers, who said they were able to break free after several hours.

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Mathias Cormann elected OECD chief despite climate record

Former Australian finance minister’s candidacy was dogged by complaints from environmental groups

Australia’s former finance minister Mathias Cormann has won a hard-fought election to become the new chief of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), despite grave concerns voiced by environmental groups over his record on climate change.

Cormann narrowly defeated the Swedish former EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmström in the election to lead the 37-member Paris-based organisation, which gives advice to member governments on economic trends, inequality, fighting corruption and trade and is seen as the world’s leading rulemaker on corporate tax.

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Netflix weighs up crackdown on password sharing

Streaming service tests feature that asks viewers if they share household with subscriber

Netflix has begun testing a feature that asks viewers whether they share a household with a subscriber, in a move that could lead to crackdown on the widespread practice of sharing passwords among friends and family.

Some Netflix users are reported to have received a message asking them to confirm they live with the account owner by entering a code included in a text message or email sent to the subscriber.

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Century-old olive trees felled as Spain’s farmers try to cut costs

Plunge in global olive oil prices means hard decisions for Spanish olive oil producers

Century-old olive trees are being chopped up to use as firewood or sold off as garden ornaments as some in Spain’s olive oil industry turn to younger, more productive trees in hope of lowering costs.

In recent years the sector in Spain has been left reeling; a plunge in global olive oil prices was followed by a punishing 25% tariff levied by the US on Spanish olive oil. After prices sank to levels that left many struggling to break even, the industry has slowly recovered, though prices remain shy of 2018 levels.

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