‘Biggest compliment yet’: Greta Thunberg welcomes oil chief’s ‘greatest threat’ label

Activists say comments by Opec head prove world opinion is turning against fossil fuels

Greta Thunberg and other climate activists have said it is a badge of honour that the head of the world’s most powerful oil cartel believes their campaign may be the “greatest threat” to the fossil fuel industry.

The criticism of striking students by the trillion-dollar Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) highlights the growing reputational concerns of oil companies as public protests intensify along with extreme weather.

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US job growth rebounds as economy adds 224,000 jobs in June

  • Economy bounces back after disappointing May figures
  • Moderate wage gains could still encourage Fed to cut rates

US job growth rebounded strongly in June, but moderate wage gains and mounting evidence that the economy was slowing sharply could still encourage the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates this month.

Related: US beats forecasts with 224,000 new jobs created in June - business live

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Competition regulator pauses Amazon’s deal with Deliveroo

Enforcement order issued after online retailer bought stake in food courier service

The UK’s competition regulator has ordered Amazon and the food delivery company Deliveroo to pause any integration efforts pending an investigation into potential breaches of competition rules.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on Friday issued an initial enforcement order against the companies after Amazon bought a stake in Deliveroo.

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Who owns England? – podcast

It is a simple question with an incredibly complex answer – not even the Land Registry knows the exact ownership of all parts of the country. Guy Shrubsole set out to solve the mystery. Plus Alex Hern on the police’s use of facial recognition technology

For nearly 1,000 years, there has been no comprehensive answer to the question of who owns England. Ever since William the Conqueror ordered the “great survey”, the issue has not been satisfactorily resolved. Even the central body that should know, the Land Registry, can only pin down the ownership of about 80% of the country.

Using creative techniques and old-fashioned detective work, Guy Shrubsole set about solving the mystery. The author and campaigner looked at the prime suspects: royalty, the church, the aristocracy, foreign oligarchs and major companies. He tells Anushka Asthana that although some of the names have changed, we still live in a country recognisable from the middle ages, one in which a small elite owns the majority of the land.

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Wolf of Wall Street producer arrested on money-laundering charges

In Malaysia, Riza Aziz – ex-PM Najib Razak’s stepson – was detained then released on bail

Malaysia’s anti-corruption agency has arrested former prime minister Najib Razak’s stepson, a Hollywood producer who counts Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street among his credits.

Riza Aziz was detained on Thursday but released on bail, according to Malaysia’s Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief Latheefa Koya, who said the film producer would face money-laundering charges on Friday.

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George Osborne’s ambitions over IMF top job prompt criticism

Former UK chancellor’s austerity agenda will count against him, say opponents

George Osborne’s interest in running the International Monetary Fund has met immediate criticism because of the former chancellor’s austerity policies and Brexit-related question marks over the UK’s international standing.

Osborne, the editor of the Evening Standard, has signalled to friends that he views himself as a potential candidate to replace Christine Lagarde, the current head of the Washington-based fund, who was nominated to lead the European Central Bank this week.

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Christine Lagarde faces ECB test of legendary diplomatic skills

European Central Bank provides an arena split between anti-austerians and expansionists

Christine Lagarde will take up the position of head of the European Central Bank as a self-confessed economic outsider who has preferred to emphasise her ability as a listener and tough negotiator during her seven years as managing director of the International Monetary Fund.

A lawyer by training, the former French finance minister is credited with turning around the Washington-based IMF after it was thrown into turmoil by the abrupt resignation of her predecessor Dominique Strauss-Kahn following unproven allegations of sexual assault and attempted rape.

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Donald Trump threatens new tariffs on $4bn of EU products

Whisky, cheese and olives among items that could be hit in row over aircraft subsidies

Donald Trump has threatened fresh tariffs on $4bn (£3,2bn) of European products including cheese, scotch whisky and olives, ratcheting up pressure on the EU in a long-running row over aircraft subsidies.

The US trade representative’s office released a list of 89 additional items – including olives, Italian and Dutch cheese, Scotch whisky, Irish whiskey, pasta, coffee and ham – that could face tariffs. These join products worth $21bn that were announced as potential targets for tariffs in April, which included roquefort cheese, wine, champagne, olive oil and seafood such as oysters. The latest list also includes a number of copper products and other metals.

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‘There’s no way to stop this’: Oakland braces for the arrival of tech firm Square

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has signed a deal to move his payments company to Oakland – which activists say will only exacerbate an already brutal housing crisis

Photographs by Jason Henry

The knocks on Maria Espinoza’s front door became a nightly occurrence.

If the 60-year-old Oakland woman wasn’t home, her frightened partner would turn off the lights and TV and remain silent. On evenings Espinoza did answer the door, her new landlord would be outside with the same question: When are you moving out?

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Bob Collymore, Kenya’s telecoms mogul, dies aged 61

Tributes pour in for head of Safaricom, who helped east Africa pioneer cashless payments long before Apple Pay

Bob Collymore, the chief executive of east Africa’s largest and most profitable mobile network operator Safaricom, died on Monday aged 61, after a two-year battle with cancer.

Tributes poured in from across east Africa for the Guyana-born British businessman, who steered Safaricom through nearly a decade of innovative expansion during which its user base doubled and profits increased 380%, turning it into a $10.8bn company. According to the company’s most recent annual report, Safaricom’s business contributed 6.5% to Kenya’s total GDP in 2018.

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EU signs landmark trade deal with Vietnam

Agreement to cut 99% of tariffs is first with developing country in Asia and swiftly follows deal with South American bloc

The European Union has signed a landmark free-trade deal with Vietnam, the first of its kind with a developing country in Asia, paving the way for tariff cuts on almost all goods.

The EU has described the deal as “the most ambitious free trade deal ever concluded with a developing country”.

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Amazon’s Jeff Bezos pays out $38bn in divorce settlement

Ex-wife MacKenzie Bezos will become world’s fourth-richest woman but has promised to give away half of award

The world’s biggest divorce settlement will be made official this week as Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos hands over a 4% stake in the online shopping giant to his soon-to-be ex-wife MacKenzie Bezos.

A judge is expected to sign legal papers transferring the Amazon shares – worth $38bn (£29bn) – into MacKenzie Bezos’s name. It is by some distance the largest divorce settlement in history the previous record was $2.5bn paid to Jocelyn Wildenstein when she divorced art dealer Alec Wildenstein in 1999.

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Opec weighs up the risks if Russia goes it alone on prices

Vladimir Putin may relish his place at the table in Vienna but he will be tempted to cash in on rising prices

The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) will meet this week in Vienna under a familiar pretext: to act as stewards of oil market stability. In practice, oil ministers from the world’s most powerful oil-producing nations will thrash out a deal to limit the amount of oil flowing into the global market and avoid an oil price collapse.

The latest pact is expected to extend a milestone deal first struck between Opec and a Russian-led alliance of nations outside the cartel in the wake of the oil price crash.

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‘There’s no opposition now’: how a quiet Canada town became a world leader in growing weed

In an abandoned chocolate factory in Ontario, Canopy Growth is nurturing global ambitions. But could it thrive in Britain?

The musky aroma hits you from the car park at the headquarters of Canopy Growth, the world’s largest cannabis company.

Inside this nondescript warehouse – an abandoned Hershey’s chocolate factory in Smiths Falls, Canada – awaits the stuff of a stoner’s wildest dreams. Myriad rooms teem with row upon row of bushy marijuana plants at various stages of maturity, under intense lamplight, swaying in the breeze of dozens of fans.

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Canadians are paying sky-high prices for flights – and merger could make it worse

Air Canada’s planned C$520m purchase of Air Transat could be bad news for passengers who already pay double what Americans do

For most Canadians, flying from one corner of their country to the other can be a pricey endeavour – so expensive, in fact, that they could fly to Europe or Asia for nearly the same price.

Online travel agency Kiwi noted in its 2017 flight price index that Canadians pay more than twice the price Americans do for similar-distance domestic flights.

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Plan to sell 50m meals made from electricity, water and air

Solar Foods hopes wheat flour-like product will hit target in supermarkets within two years

A Finnish company that makes food from electricity, water and air has said it plans to have 50m meals’ worth of its product sold in supermarkets within two years.

Solar Foods is also working with the European Space Agency to supply astronauts on a mission to Mars after devising a method it says creates a protein-heavy product that looks and tastes like wheat flour at a cost of €5 (£4.50) per kilo.

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Trade war looms over G20 as Trump attacks India over tariffs – business live

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as US president blasts India for raising tariffs on American goods

Heads-up: One of Donald Trump’s top advisors has warned that America could press on and raise tariffs on Chinese imports.

Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council, has said America is insisting on ‘structural changes’ to China’s intellectual property laws, with effective enforcement for any breaches.

“If need be, we may move ahead – we may move ahead on additional tariffs.

We have word from the WH --> Kudlow says there are no preconditions set ahead of any trade talks with China. (per @Reuters, Fox News)

This G20 summit is Theresa May’s last big foreign trip before stepping down as PM.

She’s expected to hold meeting with Australian PM Scott Morrison, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa and Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Quite the lineup for Theresa May's one-to-one meetings at this G20 summit in Osaka - Putin, Mohammad bin Salman, Erdogan...And Trump will be here too, of course. So much for that "rules-based global order" she prizes.

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Vauxhall Astra to be built in UK if ministers avoid no-deal Brexit

PSA Group’s decision is boost to British car industry and workers at Ellesmere Port plant

PSA Group said it will build its new Vauxhall Astra car at its Ellesmere Port plant but only on the condition the government secures a good Brexit deal.

The decision is a major boost for the embattled British car industry and the 1,100 employees at the plant, whose future had been thought to be dependent on winning the Astra contract.

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Uncovered: the £200m theme park, the businessman – and the missing millions

A Guardian/ITV News undercover investigation raises concerns about Gavin Woodhouse, who is behind project endorsed by Bear Grylls

A new £200m outdoor adventure park, which is being launched with the support of the celebrity adventurer Bear Grylls, is being fronted by a financier who has raised millions of pounds from private investors and whose businesses have a multimillion-pound “black hole”.

Related: How Gavin Woodhouse raised millions for a string of stalled projects

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Super funds and investors with $34tn urge leaders to speed up climate action

Fund managers call on world leaders to bring in carbon pricing and phase out coal power ahead of G20

Superannuation funds and investors representing US$34tn in assets – nearly half of the total under management across the globe – have called on world leaders to bring in carbon pricing and phase out coal power to limit global heating to 1.5C.

Released ahead of a G20 leaders meeting in Osaka, Japan, the statement by 477 institutional investors urges world leaders to accelerate their response to the climate crisis to ensure the goals of the 2015 Paris climate deal can be met.

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