Lawsuit accuse tech company of abusing its position to dominate search and search advertising
The US justice department filed a lawsuit against Google on Tuesday, accusing the tech company of abusing its position to maintain an illegal monopoly over search and search advertising.
“Two decades ago, Google became the darling of Silicon Valley as a scrappy startup with an innovative way to search the emerging internet. That Google is long gone,” the suit alleged.
Continue reading...Spain’s tourist sector – including the new Four Seasons hotel – is bearing the brunt of Covid, with the capital’s occupancy rates at 15%
Madrid’s first new grand hotel in almost half a century has more than enough to recommend it to even the most discerning and demanding of visitors.
As well as a presidential suite for VIPs and their bodyguards, there is a spa, a handy branch of Hermès, and a restaurant by the three Michelin-starred chef Dani García, whose rooftop terrace appears to float high above the busy streets of the city centre.
Continue reading...Minister battles to rescue retailers amid fears for 50,000 shops and hundreds of thousands of jobs
The stakes for Germany’s high streets could not be greater when the economics minister, Peter Altmaier, summons trade representatives across the country this month for a series of crisis workshops to discuss how to save them from collapse.
In Germany, as elsewhere across Europe and beyond, the coronavirus pandemic has blown a huge hole in street retail – accelerating the decline in footfall precipitated by the rise of online shopping.
Continue reading...Beijing was fast to respond and increased public investment; it has not faced a second wave
By its own standards, China’s economy is having a bad year. After four decades of stellar growth, the east Asian country will barely expand at all in 2020.
But just about every country – big or small – has faced a hit from the Covid-19 pandemic, and China has suffered less than most. Whereas most western industrialised nations are still struggling to get back to where they were before the virus struck, Beijing has reported that there was year-on-year growth in the third quarter.
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Shoppers numbers across the UK fell 3.1% last week from the week before, as the new Covid-19 restrictions took their toll. The latest numbers from retail consultants Springboard show larger cities continue to be hit hardest, with footfall in regional cities down 5.7% compared with declines of 2.1% in market towns and 1.2% in coastal towns.
The 10pm curfew meant that high street footfall post 6pm fell 4.5% – nearly double the drop seen during the day, between 9am and 6pm, of 2.4%.
The additional Covid tiered restrictions had an immediate impact on footfall in retail destinations last week with an across the board week on week decline; the fourth consecutive drop and also greater than that in previous weeks.
US stock futures are pointing to a higher open on Wall Street later, with the Dow Jones seen opening 0.8% higher, the Nasdaq up 1.2% and the S&P 500 0.9% ahead.
Continue reading...On Saturday, Paris went under a night-time curfew that will last at least a month. France has reported another record for new coronavirus cases, with more than 32,000 registered in 24 hours
A bar on the Rue de Seine
Continue reading...Documents reveal UAE president owns multibillion-pound property portfolio spanning London’s most expensive neighbourhoods
The row of 1960s-built houses with untidy gardens on a quiet cul-de-sac near Richmond upon Thames appears to have little in common with Ecuador’s red-brick embassy in Knightsbridge, where Julian Assange spent seven years in hiding, just across the road from Harrods.
Continue reading...CommonPass aims to create common standard proving a traveller is Covid-free or vaccinated
A new digital “health passport” is to be piloted by a small number of passengers flying from the UK to the US for the first time next week under plans for a global framework for Covid-safe air travel.
The CommonPass system, backed by the World Economic Forum (WEF), is designed to create a common international standard for passengers to demonstrate they do not have coronavirus.
Continue reading...Farmers and meat lobbyists accuse plant-based food producers of ‘cultural hijacking’
The terms “veggie burger” and “veggie sausage” could be banned under proposals being voted on by the European parliament next week. Also banned would be terms such as “yoghurt-style” and “cheese-like” for plant-based alternatives to dairy products.
Sales of these products are growing fast but farming and meat lobbyists say the terms mislead people and amount to a “cultural hijacking” of the meat industry. Opponents, backed by major food companies including Unilever and Nestle, say the claims of consumer confusion are ridiculous. They say a ban would also contradict the EU’s drive to help consumers choose more sustainable food and cut climate-heating emissions.
Continue reading...Tasters compile league table of items such as turkey, gravy and yule logs from 52 UK stockists
Marks & Spencer and Waitrose have swept the board in an independent taste test of this year’s Christmas food and drink, both clinching first place in three categories of the UK’s festive favourites.
M&S was awarded top spot for its Christmas pudding, gravy and frozen turkey in the annual exercise by the Good Housekeeping Institute, while its rival, Waitrose, triumphed in the Christmas cake, champagne and yule log listings and was also rated for a vegan centrepiece.
Continue reading...Charities such as the NSPCC should not accept money from the machinery firm, writes Annie O’Gara, while Nick Georges has witnessed the use of JCB equipment in the destruction of Palestinian infrastructure
JCB is rightly under close scrutiny (JCB challenged over machinery used to demolish Palestinian homes, 12 October).
You highlight JCB’s donations to the Conservative party. But JCB also donates to a leading children’s charity, the NSPCC, effectively sanitising the company’s reputation.
Continue reading...Public asked to leave anonymous tips about emergency loan and grant scheme fraud
The UK government has launched a Covid fraud hotline, after being criticised for failing to act on warnings about risks linked to emergency business loans.
The hotline, run by Crimestoppers, allows the public to leave anonymous tips about suspected fraud linked to the government’s emergency Covid-19 loan and grant schemes for UK businesses. That could include identity theft to obtain loans, false grant claims and the use of so-called mule bank accounts to cover the tracks of money launderers.
Continue reading...World economic outlook says 2020 impact is less than thought but there will be deep scars
The International Monetary Fund has scaled back its estimate of the hit to the global economy from Covid-19 this year but warned that the final bill for the pandemic would total $28tn (£21.5tn) in lost output.
Gita Gopinath, the IMF’s economic counsellor, described coronavirus as the worst crisis since the Great Depression, and said the pandemic would leave deep and enduring scars caused by job losses, weaker investment and children being deprived of education.
Continue reading...Governments are not doing enough to prevent rapid rebound, says agency’s report
The coronavirus pandemic is expected to cause a record 7% decline in global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in 2020, but governments are not doing enough to prevent a rapid rebound, according to an influential report.
Carbon dioxide emissions from energy use are expected to fall to 33.4 gigatonnes in 2020, the lowest level since 2011 and the biggest year on year fall since 1900 when records began, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its annual world energy outlook.
Continue reading...Company is unclear about whether patient was receiving vaccine or placebo in 60,000-patient study
Johnson & Johnson has paused its Covid-19 vaccine trial due to an “unexplained illness” in a participant, the company confirmed.
The pharmaceutical giant was unclear if the patient was administered a placebo or the experimental vaccine, and it’s not remarkable for studies as large as the one Johnson & Johnson are conducting – involving 60,000 patients – to be temporarily paused.
Continue reading...Victoria’s premier weathers upset after his top public servant resigned and NSW premier holds on after Icac revelations. In Queensland, opposition leader Deb Frecklington faces questions over event with Peter Dutton. Follow live
The Queensland Liberal National Party has categorically denied claims it referred its own party leader, Deb Frecklington to the electoral commission over concerns about her fundraising events.
The ABC reported this morning that the party referred Frecklington to the Electoral Commission of Queensland over a series of events, one where Peter Dutton was a guest, involving property developers.
NSW Health have set up a pop-up testing clinic, and alerted to more venues, after two GPs in the Sydney suburb of Lakemba tested positive for Covid-19.
Both doctors worked at the A2Z Medical Clinic, and are linked to a patient who was previously diagnosed with Covid-19, who attended Lakemba Radiology.
Continue reading...Diners paid up to £360 to eat onboard in latest sign of public appetite for aircraft experience
Diners have rushed to pay up to £360 per head to eat a meal on a stationary plane, in the latest sign of public appetite to recreate the onboard experience without travelling.
Singapore Airlines launched a waiting list after tickets rapidly sold out for two weekends of sittings onboard two stationary A380 superjumbos, with meals at seats and the chance to watch a movie, albeit no longer in-flight.
Continue reading...Foreign Office quango says some of NGO’s claims against machinery firm ‘merit further examination’
The British heavy machinery firm JCB’s sale of equipment used in the destruction of Palestinian villages in the Israeli-occupied West Bank is being examined by a UK government body to determine whether its due diligence process complies with human rights guidelines set by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
The case is likely to test the degree to which multinationals are responsible if their export goods are sold by local distributors in ways that infringe human rights.
Continue reading...Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel is awarded
Earlier:
In the 1960s, Robert Wilson began to investigation auctions with a common value - one that is unknown beforehand, but is the same to all bidders, the Academy continues.
That could be bidding for fishing quotas - where the value is determined by not only the quota, but the future value of the fish. Bidders need to estimate that value, so they could potentially overpay.
This is something known as the Winner’s Curse.
Auctions are everywhere. People use auctions to buy and sell items on internet sites, explains the Royal Academy.
Electricity markets are organized as auctions. Financial assets, CO2 emissions allowances and radio spectrum are all organised as auctions.
The auction theory provided by Paul Milgrom and Robert Wilson is key for understanding how these objectives can be reached.
Continue reading...Carrie Lam to consult Beijing in attempt to protect city’s status as international finance hub
Hong Kong’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, has postponed a key annual policy address scheduled for Wednesday, claiming she must consult Beijing on some of her proposals.
The unprecedented delay to the speech was also attributed to plans by the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, to visit Shenzhen to mark the 40th anniversary of the special economic zone on Wednesday, which was announced only on Monday and which Lam would also attend.
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