Several Conservative backbenchers argue that focus must be on supporting a continued economic recovery
The chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has been urged not to introduce tax hikes in his November budget by Conservative backbenchers who argue they would damage economic recovery.
The intervention followed speculation the Treasury could raise £20bn through extra levies to deal with the fallout from Covid-19.
Continue reading...Activist groups work towards improving labor conditions in textile factories but abolishing the industry’s ‘norms’ is an uphill battle
Mehedi Mehedi, a 36-year-old Bangladeshi garment worker who had spent 14 years working in Jordan, left the country forever last December. It was not an easy decision to make: Mehedi had met his wife in Jordan, he had no guarantees of finding a job back in Bangladesh, and he was desperate to work in order to support his chronically ill father.
In Jordan, Mehedi had been working for a subcontracting factory that supplies apparel to brands like Ralph Lauren, Under Armour, and American Eagle. But after spending his last six months without regular pay, he had reached a breaking point.
Continue reading...Bloc sources say Britain is trying to water down EU geographical protections
The UK government has renewed its attempt to reopen the chapter of the Brexit divorce treaty protecting specialty food and drink, such as Parma ham, roquefort cheese and champagne, in a move that left the EU chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, “a little bit flabbergasted”.
The British proposal on protected status for food and drink was included in a draft free-trade agreement handed to Barnier by his opposite number, David Frost, last week, according to two EU sources.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Third-party reports set out allegations at 18 Leicester suppliers
The fast-fashion retailer Boohoo has been selling clothes made by at least 18 factories in Leicester that audits say have failed to prove they pay the minimum wage to workers, a Guardian investigation has found.
Third-party audit reports produced over the past four years make claims of “critical” issues over record-keeping and working hours at the time they were written, suggesting that in parts of the supply chain workers may be paid as little as £3-£4 an hour.
Continue reading...Queensland cancels schoolies events after three new coronavirus cases. Follow live
Coatsworth says he agrees with Scott Morrison’s comments that, even with a vaccine, there is not a “zero risk” of Covid-19.
“It is not simply me agreeing with the prime minister, every chief health officer agrees with that,” he says.
Coatsworth is asked about the Liberal MP Craig Kelly, who has been pushing the discredited drug hydroxychloroquine online as a treatment for Covid-19.
He is asked: “Are you concerned about him using his social media to promote those views against the scientific advice?”
Continue reading...Rolling live coverage of business, economics and financial markets as investors anticipate new approach to inflation
Something to sink your teeth into before lunch: more discounts on dining out.
Related: Eat out to help out scheme to be extended by some restaurants
Mark Haefele, chief investment officer, UBS Global Wealth Management, said:
While we expect the Fed to shy away from more radical easing measures, such as explicit controls on government bond yields, we believe Powell will likely outline other dovish measures. These could include a move toward average inflation targeting, giving the central bank more leeway to allow inflation to overshoot the 2% target while keeping rates pegged close to zero.
Maybe the age of the independent, activist central bank head is also coming to an end. Fiscal policy is more powerful and monetary policy needs to work in harmony with it. Monetary policy is being asked to do things (like tackle economic inequality) that it really isn’t suited to. But, here we are, waiting for Jay Powell to turn up at Grafton’s Saloon. He’s already done everything he can, he’s almost out of bullets and he may even have already won the fight, but we have placed our faith in him and desperately want fresh encouragement.
Continue reading...Several production sites to close after slump in demand for jet engines
The jet engine maker Rolls-Royce made a record loss of £5.4bn in the first half of the year, after the collapse in international travel during the pandemic led to to a slump in demand.
The Derby-based company said it had originally expected to manufacture 450 engines during 2020 but now planned to deliver only 250.
Continue reading...Data showing fiscal deficit rose to £15bn in 2019-20 sparks row over case for independence
Scotland’s deficit has risen to nearly £2,000 per person after the gap between tax income and spending widened to become more than three times larger than the UK as a whole.
Data released on Wednesday showed Scotland’s fiscal deficit rose to £15bn in 2019-20, fuelling a row over the case for independence at first minister’s questions between Nicola Sturgeon and the Scottish Labour leader, Richard Leonard.
Continue reading...Critics say plan for fields off Svalbard threatens ecosystem and relations with Russia
Norway is planning to expand oil drilling in previously untouched areas of the Arctic, a move campaigners say threatens the fragile ecosystem and could spark a military standoff with Russia.
A public consultation on the opening up of nine new Norwegian oilfields closed on Wednesday. The areas in question are much further north in the Arctic than the concessions the US president, Donald Trump, announced for Alaska this month.
Continue reading...Nationwide the need for aid at food banks and pantries has surged amid worst unemployment rate in modern times
Neisha Davis cradles brown paper lunch bags in the crook of one arm, while holding on to Demitri, her wriggling baby son, in the other and keeping a careful eye on Naya, her four-year-old daughter, as she runs around the church car park with another little girl.
It’s hectic but the free packed lunches have become a crucial part of their daily nutrition. So everyday at noon the family make the two-mile journey from Homewood, a low income predominantly African American Pittsburgh neighbourhood with no grocery stores, to the East End Community Ministry’s pop-up lunch stall in East Liberty.
Continue reading...Covid-19 has exposed the fragility of supply chains, which rely on the labour of black and brown workers. The deep inequalities won’t be fixed by injecting funds at the top
Is the UK governed by parliamentary democracy or big businesses? It is a question that should concern us all, yet it is becoming increasingly hard to differentiate between the two, as the government hands out multimillion-pound contracts to private firms with dubious track records, and ministers revolve between roles at big banks and government. Last week, the line between UK aid and private businesses was called into question, as the Department for International Development (DfID) announced the decision to direct £4.85m of taxpayers’ money towards the work of large retailers including M&S, Tesco and Primark.
The DfID funding is intended to support large companies to fix vulnerable supply chains and ensure that “people in Britain can continue to buy affordable, high-quality goods from around the world”. These aims, along with the fact that UK brands have been entrusted to deliver them, set off alarm bells for labour rights campaigners like myself, who advocate for better working conditions in the global garment industry.
Continue reading...In the short term, probably not, but with China weaponising the yuan stern challenges lie ahead
The recent sharp depreciation of the US dollar has led to concerns that it may lose its role as the main global reserve currency. After all, in addition to the Federal Reserve’s aggressive monetary easing – which threatens to debase the world’s key fiat currency even further – gold prices and inflation expectations have also been rising.
But, to paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the dollar’s early demise are greatly exaggerated. The greenback’s recent weakness is driven by shorter-term cyclical factors. In the long run, the situation is more complicated: the dollar has both strengths and weaknesses that may or may not undermine its global position over time.
Continue reading...Star calls for live music to challenge social distancing rules, but faces fan backlash
Van Morrison has denounced the supposed “pseudoscience” around coronavirus and is attempting to rally musicians in a campaign to restore live music concerts with full capacity audiences.
The 74-year-old Northern Irish singer launched a campaign to “save live music” on his website, saying socially distanced gigs were not economically viable. “I call on my fellow singers, musicians, writers, producers, promoters and others in the industry to fight with me on this. Come forward, stand up, fight the pseudo-science and speak up,” he said.
Continue reading...App says in blogpost it strongly disagrees with White House position that it is a national security threat
TikTok, the fast-growing video sharing app, announced it was suing the US government on Monday over an executive order banning transactions with the Chinese company in the US.
In a blogpost, TikTok said it strongly disagreed with the White House’s position that the company was a national security threat, saying it had “taken extraordinary measures to protect the privacy and security of TikTok’s US user data”.
Continue reading...AstraZeneca insists it has not discussed ‘emergency use authorisation’ with the US
The company manufacturing the Oxford University coronavirus vaccine has said it is not in talks with the Trump administration about fast-tracking its vaccine for emergency use ahead of November’s presidential elections.
With both Russia and China pressing ahead with inoculations involving experimental vaccines yet to pass final efficacy and safety trials, the Trump administration has become increasingly frustrated with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which the president has tried to suggest is slowing approval of a vaccine for “political reasons”.
Continue reading...Brisbane watches hotspots after youth detention centre outbreak, Victoria’s hotel inquiry continues and politicians gather in Canberra for the first time in 10 weeks. Follow today’s latest updates
Virtual parliament has so far gone off without a hitch.
Malcolm Roberts has been spotted on a screen - which means that no, he is not in Canberra. No sighting of Pauline Hanson either.
"I'm very proud to be the first senator to be using our remote facilities as the chamber finally enters the 21st century."
Greens Senator @larissawaters @SBSNews #auspol pic.twitter.com/XSV41x91WQ
The ACT has reported no new cases of Covid in the last 24 hours.
Continue reading...Recently introduced tax would have raised £500m, helping to reduce Britain’s huge Covid bill
The UK government is preparing to drop a recently introduced tax on global technology companies such as Facebook, Google and Amazon, due to fears that the so-called “Facebook tax” could jeopardise a post-Brexit trade deal.
Rishi Sunak is reportedly planning to ditch the digital services tax which was expected to generate about £500m to help pay towards the huge cost of the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Continue reading...Worker alleges she was unfairly sacked from Covid-19 testing site, but G4S disputes claims
A mixed race woman was disciplined and later sacked from a G4S coronavirus testing centre after suggesting colleagues could adopt the black power salute for a photo in support of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement.
The outsourcing giant said Kenya Scarlett had previously been confrontational and demanding; it claimed no one had taken issue with expressing support for BLM.
Continue reading...At $114bn, its market value is above HSBC – but questions remain about business model and if it will ever be profitable
It is a company that is just about to turn five years old but is valued more highly than the oil giant Shell, or HSBC, one of the largest banks in the world.
Pinduoduo is the latest behemoth produced by China’s tech machine, an online shopping site that specialises in extraordinary discounts on everything from tissues to Teslas. And its market value has more than doubled in recent months to $114bn (£87bn).
Continue reading...Serco and Sitel paid more than £200m to test and trace but reach just over half of infected people’s contacts
Outsourcing companies running the government’s flagship test-and-trace system have failed to reach nearly half of potentially exposed people in areas with the highest Covid infections rates in England, official figures show.
In the country’s 20 worst-hit areas, Serco and Sitel – paid £200m between them – reached only 54% of people who had been in close proximity to an infected person, meaning more than 21,000 exposed people were not contacted.
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