Mercedes-Benz owner bids to slash €1bn from wage bill as industry switches towards electric vehicles
Mercedes-Benz owner Daimler has announced plans to cut at least 10,000 jobs worldwide in the latest sign of stress in the German automotive industry as it invests billions in electric cars.
Daimler, which also makes lorries, vans and buses, said in a statement on Friday it planned to cut “thousands of jobs” by the end of 2022, but later made it clear the toll would be higher.
Continue reading...Proposal would have forced firms to reveal profits made and taxes paid in each EU country
Twelve EU countries, including Ireland, have blocked a proposed new rule that would have forced multinational companies to reveal how much profit they make and how little tax they pay in each of the 28 member states.
The proposed directive was designed to shine a light on how some of the world’s biggest companies – such as Apple, Facebook and Google – avoid paying an estimated $500bn a year in taxes by shifting their profits from higher-tax countries such as the UK, France and Germany to zero-tax or low-tax jurisdictions including Ireland, Luxembourg and Malta.
Continue reading...An avalanche of recent books and articles about the “crisis of capitalism” is predicting its demise or dépassement. For those who remember the 1990s, there is a strange similarity between this and the literature of the time, which argued that the Hegelian “end of history” had arrived. That theory was proved to be wrong. The former, I believe, is also factually wrong and misdiagnoses the problem.
The facts show capitalism to be not in crisis at all. It is stronger than ever, both in terms of its geographical coverage and expansion to areas (such as leisure time, or social media) where it has created entirely new markets and commodified things that were never historically objects of transaction.
Continue reading...The territory’s recession is getting deeper and the US is threatening its special trading status, bringing serious consequences for Beijing
Almost six months after the protest movement that has upended life in Hong Kong began, the region is now facing serious questions about its future as Asia’s leading international business centre.
The most recent violence in the autonomous Chinese region have been the worst disturbances of the six-month long pro-democracy protests. US lawmakers have passed legislation threatening Hong Kong’s special trading status and the territory has slumped into its worst recession for 10 years.
Continue reading...Tesla chief executive Elon Musk said on Saturday there had been about 150,000 orders for the electric carmaker’s cybertruck, which was unveiled in Los Angeles on Thursday.
Related: Cybertruck: Tesla unveils new pickup truck but windows break during demo
Continue reading...Consumption has fallen to record lows, but candy superstores in the neighbouring country are booming as the levy rises again
It seems unfair to call it a sweet shop. In the shopping centre north of Charlottenberg in south-western Sweden, barely four miles from Norway and less than 90 minutes’ drive from Oslo, is a candy superstore.
Arrayed across 3,500 sq metres of floor space – half a football pitch – are aisle upon aisle of sugary treats, more than 4,000 products in all, from sour strawberries, liquorice laces and fruity gumballs to red rockets, Lion bars, M&Ms, Milky Ways and Oreos.
Continue reading...The Westpac scandal has brought the role of financial institutions in enabling child sexual abuse into sharp relief
On 25 October plainclothes police barged through the red door of a family home in a dense neighbourhood in Rizal, a province two hours away from Manila.
There they arrested a mother who was allegedly sexually exploiting her own 12-year-old daughter. The 45-year-old woman was clutching her phone. Police took it and then handcuffed her.
Continue reading...President of the European Central Bank says US/China tariff war should be seen as an opportunity
Christine Lagarde has called for European governments to boost innovation and growth with higher rates of public investment, in her first major speech as president of the European Central Bank.
Speaking to an audience of bankers in Frankfurt, Lagarde said that rising trade barriers triggered by the US/China tariff war should be grasped by European governments as an opportunity to build a stronger internal market.
Continue reading...Elon Musk has said he wants to build ‘supertruck with crazy torque’ as Ford and GM plan offerings of their own
Elon Musk has talked for years about building an electric pickup truck that would threaten Detroit’s automakers, and on Thursday he will finally take off the wrapping.
Tesla’s so-called “cybertruck” will debut at an evening event in Los Angeles.
In a tweet on Thursday, Musk referenced his longtime ambition to build “a Tesla supertruck with crazy torque, dynamic air suspension” that “corners like its on rails” (sic).
Continue reading...‘Investment blitz’ promised as experts taken aback by scale of Labour’s tax and spend plans
Jeremy Corbyn has urged the public to vote for his “manifesto of hope” as he unveiled plans for the most dramatic increase in tax and spending in more than half a century if Labour wins power next month’s general election.
In an upbeat launch event at Birmingham City University, the Labour leader said he welcomed the hostility of the billionaires, bad bosses and dodgy landlords who would lose out from his policies.
Continue reading...Prospect of crashing out of EU leaves UK more exposed to global financial risks, thinktank says
The UK’s GDP growth rate will slip to 1% next year even if a no-deal Brexit is avoided, according to the Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation.
The OECD said the economy would slow down from growth of 1.2% this year if parliament passes Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal before the 31 January deadline, before returning to 1.2% in 2021.
Continue reading...The case was launched on behalf of 700 women who had pelvic mesh and tape products implanted to treat common complications of childbirth
Hundreds of women left in debilitating pain by faulty transvaginal mesh devices have won a landmark case against multinational giant Johnson & Johnson.
The Australian class action against companies owned by Johnson & Johnson – watched closely across the world – was won on behalf of 1,350 women who had mesh and tape products implanted to treat pelvic prolapse or stress urinary incontinence, both common complications of childbirth.
Continue reading...Murdoch was responding to a question at AGM about time given to ‘climate deniers’ by News Corp outlets in Australia
News Corp executive chairman Rupert Murdoch has said “there are no climate change deniers around I can assure you” after he was asked at the corporation’s AGM why his company gives them “so much airtime” in Australia.
Murdoch was speaking in New York on Wednesday when he received a question from a proxy for Australian activist shareholder Stephen Mayne.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Survey reveals almost all are paid per delivery and a quarter of riders have been in an accident
Food delivery bike couriers are being underpaid by up to $322 a week compared with minimum rates of pay and superannuation in the transport award, according to new union statistics.
The Young Workers Centre – an initiative of the Victoria Trades Hall Council – conducted a survey of more than 240 riders, revealing most are engaged on a “take-it-or-leave-it” basis and almost all are paid per delivery, with no minimum rates of pay.
Continue reading...Phillip Williams argues he wouldn’t have bought the burger if he’d known it was ‘covered in meat by-products’
When Burger King announced the Impossible Whopper (a vegan alternative to their bestselling burger), they did so with the tagline: “100% Whopper, 0% Beef.”
Turns out, the statement may have been misleading. At least, that’s what customer Phillip Williams, who is vegan, has claimed in a lawsuit filed against the fast-food giant in south Florida on Monday.
Continue reading...Taylor Swift has been cleared to perform Shake It Off and her older hit songs at Sunday’s American Music Awards (AMAs) after her former record label backed away from an increasingly bitter row with the music star.
Related: Taylor Swift's former label denies blocking her from performing
Continue reading...Accountancy firm not renewing sponsorship, it emerges, after much-criticised TV interview
The accountancy giant KPMG is not renewing its sponsorship of Prince Andrew’s entrepreneurial scheme Pitch@Palace, it has emerged, in the wake of his much-derided interview in which he defended his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.
The Duke of York has been heavily criticised as having shown neither contrition nor sympathy for Epstein’s child victims in the BBC Newsnight interview and his suitability as patron to scores of charities and organisations has been called into question as a result.
Continue reading...The country’s traditional powerhouses on the centre-left and the centre-right face a moment of reckoning
Postwar German politics has a reputation for being moderate, consensual and a touch on the dull side. But there have been moments of high drama. In November 1959, for example, the Social Democratic party (SPD) abandoned its historic ambition to replace capitalism with socialism, dropped the Marxist account of class struggle and began to pitch itself as a broad-based Volkspartei (people’s party). History vindicated the decision. For the next 50 years or so, the SPD vied for power with the country’s other great political force, the CDU (and its CSU Bavarian ally), as both parties regularly achieved a vote share of over 40%.
Famed for their practice of big-tent politics, what the CDU and SPD would give for such numbers now. The agonies of Brexit and the rise of rightwing populism have claimed the political limelight around Europe. But those looking for clues to the continent’s future would do well to watch Germany closely over the coming weeks.
Continue reading...Some retailers are giving inaccurate advice to shoppers in states where it is illegal to ride e-scooters on public roads or footpaths
Retailers are preparing for a Christmas boom in the sale of electric scooters, even though it is illegal to ride them on public roads or footpaths in several states.
Federal and state regulation has struggled to keep up with the technology, leaving consumers at risk of inadvertently breaking the law.
Continue reading...Interior minster says authorities will intervene if public properties are damaged in protests that have spread across country
Iran’s interior minister has warned that security forces will act to restore calm if those protesting against the 50% increase in petrol prices “damaged public properties”, as anti-government protests spread across Iran.
Protesters blocked traffic in major cities and clashed with police after a night of demonstrations punctuated by gunfire. At least one person has reportedly been killed.
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