Category Archives: Business

Trump to meet with China for talks aimed at ending trade war

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China’s vice-premier, Liu He, to lead delegation in 13th round of talks as Trump tweets: ‘They want to make a deal, but do I?’

Donald Trump will meet China’s negotiating team at the White House on Friday for the latest round of talks aimed at ending a 15-month trade battle that is weighing on the global economy.

“Big day of negotiations with China. They want to make a deal, but do I?” the president tweeted. On Wall Street stocks moved higher on hopes that there would be a breakthrough in the dispute.

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Zantac in global recall over ‘unacceptable’ levels of potential carcinogen

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Heartburn medicine pulled by GlaxoSmithKline while it investigates source of impurity

GlaxoSmithKline is recalling the popular heartburn medicine Zantac in all markets, days after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found “unacceptable” levels of probable cancer-causing impurity in the drug.

Zantac, also sold generically as ranitidine, is the latest drug in which cancer-causing impurities have been found. Regulators have been recalling some blood pressure and heart failure medicines since last year.

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HSBC plans to cut 10,000 more jobs worldwide, says report

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Bank forced to shed jobs due to low interest ratess, Brexit and global tariff wars

HSBC plans to lay off up to 10,000 staff, more than 4% of its global workforce, as it embarks on a fresh cost-cutting drive, according to reports.

The cuts will affect mostly high-paid roles and come as the UK-based bank grapples with falling interest rates, Brexit and global tariff wars, the Financial Times reported. HSBC declined to comment.

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IMF accused of ‘reckless lending’ to debt-troubled states

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Jubilee Debt Campaign says the Fund broke its own rules by not ensuring sustainable debt burden

Debt campaigners have accused the International Monetary Fund of encouraging reckless lending by extending $93bn (£75bn) of loans to 18 financially troubled countries without a debt restructuring programme first.

In advance of the IMF’s annual meeting in Washington next week, the Jubilee Debt Campaign (JDC) said the the Fund was breaking its own rules by providing financial support without ensuring that the debt burden was sustainable.

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Trump’s trade tactics imperil the jobs of those who might vote for his second term

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The only tool he has to placate US consumers is successive interest rate cuts – but the whole world is playing at that game

Donald Trump’s cunning plan to make America great again by launching a trade war with China has officially backfired. Last week, a keenly watched measure of US manufacturing showed firms cutting back on production and jobs at a rate not seen since 2009. Recession warning lights are flashing and the outlook seems a world away from the cheery one presented by the president when he entered the White House in 2017.

It is quite something for a president to impose a trade policy that weighs heavily on parts of a crucial sector for the US economy – and it’s a bizarre tactic given that the votes of manufacturing workers delivered him his first term in office.

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‘Serious blow’ to north-east as Ineos plans to shut chemical plant

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Closure of plant could threaten 220 jobs after being deemed ‘no longer viable’

Ineos is preparing to shut a chemical plant in Teesside which it has owned for the past 10 years in a blow to hundreds of workers in the north-east of England.

The chemicals company, owned by the billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe, said “nothing can be done” to save the plant at Seal Sands, which is no longer economically viable.

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Scotch whisky and French wine hit by $7.5bn US tariffs

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The 25% levies also include British knitwear and EU cheese and aircraft as White House retaliates for subsidies given to Airbus

The US is set to impose $7.5bn (£6.1bn) of tariffs on exports from the EU including scotch whisky, French wine and cheese and aircraft in retaliation for subsidies given to the aerospace group Airbus after a World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling..

Related: Airbus on course to overtake Boeing as biggest planemaker

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Revealed: Jennifer Arcuri got visa from scheme run by former Johnson official

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Exclusive: Whistleblower tells of links between Paola Cuneo, PM and US businesswoman

A Whitehall official who ran the scheme that granted Jennifer Arcuri a coveted entrepreneur visa had worked for Boris Johnson when he was mayor, the Guardian has learned.

The US businesswoman, who is at the centre of a conflict of interest row over her friendship with the prime minister, beat nearly 2,000 applicants to gain one of 200 sought-after tier 1 entrepreneur visas on the government’s Sirius programme after Johnson helped promote her firm, Innotech, by giving keynote speeches at her events.

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Senior Credit Suisse executive quits over ‘extraordinary’ spying scandal

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Bank rules surveillance of outgoing head of wealth management Iqbal Khan was ‘wrong and disproportionate’

Credit Suisse has sacked its chief operating officer over an “extraordinary” James Bond-style corporate espionage scandal in which the bank hired private detectives to tail a senior executive and his wife through the streets of Zurich following a row with his boss at a cocktail party.

Switzerland’s second-biggest bank said on Tuesday that Pierre-Olivier Bouée had left with immediate effect after the board of directors ruled that the seven-day spying operation was “wrong and disproportionate and has resulted in severe reputational damage to the bank”.

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Forever 21, global fast fashion retailer, files for bankruptcy

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Struggling empire is the latest bricks-and-mortar outfit to suffer as shopping moves online

Fashion retailer Forever 21 has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, joining a growing list of bricks-and-mortar players who have failed to navigate the shift towards online shopping.

Since the start of 2017, more than 20 US retailers, including Sears Holdings Corp and Toys ‘R’ Us, have filed for bankruptcy as more customers shift to online retailers such as Amazon.

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Australia’s relationship with China in a ‘terrible’ state after Morrison’s US visit, Labor says

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Richard Marles accuses PM of taking ‘pot shots against our largest trading partner’ amid US-China tensions

Labor’s shadow defence minister, Richard Marles, says Australia’s relationship with China is in a “terrible” state following Scott Morrison’s visit to the United States.

Speaking fresh from a visit to Beijing, Marles said that Morrison’s “megaphone diplomacy” alongside Donald Trump about China’s status as a developing country had inflamed tensions.

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Thomas Cook staff and European tourist trade left reeling after collapse

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Former staff waiting for pay plan to take protests to Tory conference, and Greek hoteliers face a €500m hit

Staff from Thomas Cook are to hold protests at this week’s Tory party conference in Manchester and later at Downing Street over the government’s decision not to step in and save the company from liquidation.

Staff were due to get their monthly salaries on 30 September but are instead among Thomas Cook’s creditors, and it is now unclear when they will be paid. Some 150,000 UK holidaymakers are being repatriated at taxpayers’ expense following the demise of the world’s oldest tour operator. On 28 September, a further 16,700 customers were set to be flown home.

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UK ‘needs billions a year’ to meet 2050 climate targets

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Report estimates up to £20bn a year in investment needed to build net-zero carbon economy

The UK will need investment worth billions of pounds every year to remove enough greenhouse gases from the air to meet its 2050 climate targets, according to a report commissioned by the government.

The report, by analysts at Vivid Economics, estimated that the UK would need as much as £20bn a year to remove up to 130m tonnes of carbon dioxide from the air.

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PM Boris Johnson referred to police watchdog over Jennifer Arcuri allegations

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Case involves possible conflict of interest when Boris Johnson was mayor of London

Boris Johnson has been formally referred for potential investigation into whether he committed the criminal offence of misconduct in public office, over allegations about a conflict of interest with a US businesswoman while he was mayor of London.

An official from the Greater London Authority, the city’s devolved government, has written to the prime minister noting claims he had “on more than one occasion” used his position as mayor to “benefit and reward” Jennifer Arcuri, a tech entrepreneur.

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When Donald met Scott: a reporter’s view of Trump and his White House wonderland

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Australian PM Scott Morrison received a full-blown welcome from the US president. Katharine Murphy was on hand for an inside account

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Scott Morrison has made his first visit to the United States as prime minister. It was a trip that included a close encounter with the unpredictability of the Trump White House, a foreign policy pivot, and a backlash about a lack of climate policy action. Guardian Australia’s political editor, Katharine Murphy, travelled, with the prime minister. Here is what she witnessed:

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Canary Islands hold their breath for Thomas Cook fallout

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Tour giant’s collapse leaves big hotel debts and staff fearing for jobs just before winter season

Under a late September sun that blisters white northern European skin with ease, Playa de las Américas offers its visitors a bounteous blend of the familiar and the exotic.

On the palm-lined main thoroughfare of the Tenerife resort town, tourists have an array of choice, from buying a pint for €1.50 (£1.33) to watching football matches, taking jetski trips and even Harley-Davidson tours of the island.

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McDonald’s to debut new plant-based burger

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Small-market test rolls out months after rival Burger King began testing the plant-based Impossible Foods burger

McDonald’s is finally taking a nibble of the plant-based burger.

McDonald’s said Thursday that will sell the PLT, or the plant, lettuce and tomato burger for 12 weeks in 28 restaurants in south-western Ontario by the end of the month.

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Inquiry urges Bishop and Pyne ministerial standards probe be reopened

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Senate committee says investigation into former ministers Julie Bishop and Christopher Pyne was flawed and should be reopened

A Senate inquiry has called for the reopening of an investigation into the former ministers Julie Bishop and Christopher Pyne taking industry jobs connected with their portfolios, saying the initial probe had failed to ask “crucial questions”.

The Senate inquiry into Bishop and Pyne’s post-political appointments delivered its report on Thursday, urging that the incoming secretary of the department of prime minister and cabinet reopen an investigation into whether ministerial standards were breached.

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Thomas Cook collapse: financial regulator may investigate – business live

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Failure of world’s oldest travel company leaves bosses facing tough questions over their pay and performance

A lot of people face losses because of Thomas Cook’s collapse.

The companies suppliers could be left with unpaid bills, while employees need to submit claims to obtain the redundancy payments and wages they’re entitled to.

If you are an employee or creditor affected by #ThomasCook, we have useful information about how to make claims in the liquidation https://t.co/UpfHpctze5 pic.twitter.com/E8RfjuVpve

Here’s our news story about the accountancy watchdog sniffing around Thomas Cook’s collapse:

Related: Thomas Cook collapse: accounting watchdog weighs up investigation

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MPs criticise ‘dramatic increase’ in aid spending over lack of transparency

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Questions over rise in funds to ministries outside Department for International Development, with little clarity on value for money

MPs have criticised a “dramatic increase” in aid spending in ministries outside the Department for International Development, because they have not put in place adequate measures to assess value for money.

A report, by the House of Commons public accounts committee, questioned the doubling of the Newton Fund, managed by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, to £735m, despite the department’s “weak understanding” of how funds were spent, where and with what results.

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