Bank files its defence to an Austrac lawsuit that accuses it of more than 23m breaches of anti-money laundering laws
Westpac has admitted to breaking the law by failing to monitor whether a dozen customers were making transactions consistent with child exploitation.
The admission is contained in Westpac’s defence to a lawsuit brought by Australia’s financial intelligence agency, Austrac, in which the bank is accused of more than 23m breaches of anti-money laundering laws.
Continue reading...French drugmaker criticised for giving US priority; Gordon Brown says Covid-19 solution is global
More than 140 world leaders and experts have called for future Covid-19 vaccines to be made available to everyone free of charge, amid growing tensions between drug companies and governments and a boycott of vaccine summits by the US.
Vaccines and treatments for the virus should not be patented, say the signatories to an open letter published in the run-up to next week’s meeting of the World Health Assembly, the policy-setting body of the UN’s World Health Organization. Instead, scientific breakthroughs must be shared across borders, they urge.
Continue reading...World’s largest cruise company declines to give details for extent of redundancies
Cruise ship company Carnival has announced a wide-ranging programme of job losses and pay cuts as it desperately seeks to cut costs in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.
The world’s largest cruise company said it would save “hundreds of millions of dollars” over the course of a year after making the cuts but declined to give details of the extent of redundancies and furloughs.
Continue reading...Two former chief executives and four police officials among 15 individuals charged in case
Ikea’s French subsidiary and 15 individuals including former executives and police officials are to go on trial on charges of spying on employees and customers, prosecutors have announced.
Two former Ikea France CEOs are among those charged in a case dating back to 2012 when the Swedish-based home furnishings firm was accused of paying for illegal access to police files.
Continue reading...Each will liaise over safely reopening businesses and places such as churches and libraries
The government has unveiled five new taskforces devoted to vulnerable sectors of the economy, intended to liaise with unions and others to see how soon each sector can safely resume work with coronavirus distancing measures.
The five areas covered are all ones that have to wait before even limited reopening efforts can begin, in most cases until at least July. They are pubs and restaurants; non-essential shops; recreation and leisure; places of worship; and international air travel.
Continue reading...The government’s revised lockdown advice is muddled and rife with contradictions, but their priorities are crystal clear
Boris Johnson has urged the public to rely on their “British common sense” as lockdown restrictions are progressively eased over the coming months.
But as estate agents joined nannies and cleaners on the list of workers allowed to enter people’s homes, while friends and family can’t come round for a cup of tea or to visit their grandchildren, questions are being raised about whether the latest rules make any sense, British or otherwise.
Continue reading...More evidence of how the coronavirus pandemic is widening income inequality has emerged after the Federal Reserve announced 40% of households earning less than $40,000 included someone who has lost a job since February.
Related: Coronavirus US live: gap grows between White House and experts over safety of reopening
Continue reading...Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou seeks ‘whistleblower’ to help scupper airline’s £4.5bn, 107-plane deal
EasyJet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou is offering £5m to any “whistleblower” providing him with information that scuppers the budget airline’s 107-plane order from Airbus.
Haji-Ioannou, who has been attempting to force easyJet’s board to cancel the order for months, says the £4.5bn deal will leave the carrier without enough cash to survive the coronavirus crisis.
Continue reading...Lockdowns are starting to ease but travel and migration will be disrupted for longer
Our globalised world has been brought to a crashing halt by coronavirus.
By April, over 90% of the world’s population – 7.1 billion people – lived in countries with coronavirus-related travel restrictions on people arriving from abroad, a Pew study found.
Continue reading...Billionaire puts more than fifth of stake up for sale to help prop up airline and rest of group
Sir Richard Branson is to sell $500m (£405m) in Virgin Galactic shares in order to prop up his airline and leisure interests, which have been ravaged by the coronavirus crisis.
In a statement to the New York Stock Exchange, Branson’s Virgin Group said it intended to sell 25m shares via a series of transactions, prompting a 5% fall in the share price of Virgin Galactic during pre-market trading.
Continue reading...European commission has warned of possible legal action over constitutional court ruling
Angela Merkel has stepped in to try to find a way out of a damaging clash between Germany and Brussels after the EU threatened to bring infringement proceedings over a ruling by the country’s constitutional court.
The German chancellor stressed that the dispute was solvable, after the European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, issued an unusual statement on Sunday warning of possible legal action against Berlin.
Continue reading...Air travel bosses want assurances that science is driving the move, and that a clear exit strategy is in place
A two-week quarantine period for all travellers arriving in Britain risks devastating an aviation industry already crippled by the Covid-19 outbreak, Boris Johnson is being warned.
It is understood that the 14-day quarantine period will be announced by the prime minister, alongside a slight loosening of the lockdown measures that were introduced to slow the spread of the virus. Mass quarantine upon arrival has not previously been used as part of Britain’s response.
Continue reading...The US and Europe have taken different approaches to tackling pandemic-induced unemployment but which is best long term?
In two, terrible, months the coronavirus pandemic has driven unemployment in the US to levels unseen since the 1930s Great Depression. Did it have to be this way?
Covid-19 has cost more than 33 million Americans their jobs in the last seven weeks – 10% of the entire US population. The official unemployment rate had shot up from 4.4% to 14.7% on Friday – a figure that probably wildly underestimates the true scale of job losses.
Continue reading...Unemployment rate rose to 14.7% from just 4.4% in March as the coronavirus pandemic shuttered the global economy
More than 20 million people in the US lost their jobs in April and the unemployment rate more than trebled as the coronavirus pandemic shuttered the world’s largest economy, triggering a financial crisis unseen since the Great Depression.
The Department of Labor announced Friday that the US unemployment rate rose to 14.7% from just 4.4% in March and a near 50-year low of 3.5% in February before the US was hit by the virus.
Continue reading...Travel industry could see an 80% decline in international arrivals for 2020 amid crisis that threatens livelihood of up to 120 million people
International tourism faces its worst crisis since records began, with up to 1.1bn fewer people taking trips globally in 2020. The scale of the coronavirus pandemic’s impact is outlined in a report by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), which predicts a decline in international arrivals of between 58% and 80% this year.
This is due to widespread travel restrictions and the closure of airports and borders worldwide. The prediction of a 58% decline is based on the gradual reopening of international borders and easing of travel restrictions in early July; the 80% figure is based on early December.
Continue reading...Styrene gas leaked from the LG Polymers plant, part of the Korean conglomerate LG, in Andra Pradesh state
A gas leak at a chemical factory in southern India has killed at least nine people and led to hundreds being taken to hospital, amid fears that the death toll could climb higher.
Styrene leaked from the Korean-owned LG Polymers plant during the early hours of Thursday morning when families in the surrounding villages were asleep, a local official in Andra Pradesh state said.
Continue reading...Researchers link exposure to mining pollutants to greatly increased risk of conditions such as spina bifida and limb abnormalities
Thousands of people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are being exposed to dangerous levels of toxic pollution that is causing birth defects in their children as they mine for cobalt used to make rechargeable batteries for smartphones, laptops and electric cars, a new medical study has found.
Research published in the Lancet last week found that local people working in mines in the African “copperbelt”, a mining region stretching across Zambia and the DRC, are at significantly higher risk of having children born with serious birth defects.
Continue reading...At least six workers who have participated in protests or advocated for safer conditions have been fired during the pandemic
Amazon’s revenues topped $33m an hour in the first three months of the year as the coronavirus pandemic locked down large parts of the world. The sales boost has handed Amazon the biggest dilemma of its 25-year life: how to deal with a growing chorus of critics within the company. So far its reaction has only made matters worse.
Last week an Amazon vice-president, Tim Bray, resigned in protest at what he called the company’s “chickenshit” decision to fire colleagues in the company’s warehouse division who had highlighted safety issues. “Remaining an Amazon VP would have meant, in effect, signing off on actions I despised,” wrote Bray.
Continue reading...The Australian government has passed legislation for a $1,500 per fortnight wage subsidy for eligible employers amid the coronavirus. Check your eligibility, how much you’ll get, when it will be paid and how it works with the jobseeker payments
The Morrison government has passed a $130bn support package with a new jobkeeper payment – a wage subsidy to keep Australians in work.
So who exactly is eligible for this payment and how much will they receive?
Continue reading...Increasing links with US will aid recovery after coronavirus crisis, says Liz Truss
Liz Truss has claimed bolstering transatlantic trade could help the economy bounce back from the Covid-19 crisis, as negotiations with Washington over a free trade deal begin by video link.
Despite the government’s negotiating objectives for the deal pointing to a modest economic gain of 0.16% of GDP over 15 years, the international trade secretary said she was keen to “make it even easier to do business with our friends across the pond”.
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