Category Archives: Business

MacKenzie Bezos pledges at least half her wealth to charity

Posted on by

Jeff Bezos’ former wife, known as world’s 22nd richest person with $36.6bn fortune, signs up to the Giving Pledge

MacKenzie Bezos, who recently became the world’s fourth richest woman after her divorce from Jeff Bezos, founder and chief executive of Amazon, has promised to give away at least half her $36.6bn (£28.4bn) fortune.

The 49 year-old novelist and founder of the anti-bullying group Bystander Revolution said on Tuesday that she had “a disproportionate amount of money to share” and promised to work hard at giving it away “until the safe is empty”.

Continue reading...

A sweet tale: the son who reinvented sugar to help diabetic dad

Posted on by

The natural substitute helps diabetics, combats obesity and tackles climate change

Javier Larragoiti was 18 when his father was diagnosed with diabetes. The teenager had just started a degree in chemical engineering in Mexico City. So he dedicated his studies to a side project: creating an acceptable alternative to help his father and millions of Mexicans like him avoid sugar.

“It’s only when you know someone with this sickness that you realise how common it is and how sugar intake plays a huge role,” he says. “My dad tried to use stevia and sucralose, just hated the taste, and kept cheating on his diet.”

Continue reading...

Fiat Chrysler proposes merger with Renault to reshape car industry

Posted on by

Deal would create world’s third-largest automaker and ‘save €5bn a year’ by sharing research

Fiat Chrysler has proposed a merger with France’s Renault that would create the world’s third-largest carmaker and save billions needed to invest in the race to make electric and autonomous vehicles.

The merged company would produce 8.7m vehicles annually and save €5bn ($5.6bn or £4.4bn) each year by sharing research, purchasing and other activities, according to a statement released by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA). It said the deal would involve no plant closures but did not address potential job cuts.

Continue reading...

Robocrop: world’s first raspberry-picking robot set to work

Posted on by

Autonomous machine expected to pick more than 25,000 raspberries a day, outpacing human workers

Quivering and hesitant, like a spoon-wielding toddler trying to eat soup without spilling it, the world’s first raspberry-picking robot is attempting to harvest one of the fruits.

After sizing it up for an age, the robot plucks the fruit with its gripping arm and gingerly deposits it into a waiting punnet. The whole process takes about a minute for a single berry.

Continue reading...

Trump arrives in Japan for ceremonial visit and trade talks

Posted on by

Visit will stress ties between the two countries as tensions over exports rise amid the US-China trade war

Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, landed in Japan on Saturday for a largely ceremonial visit meant to showcase strong ties with Tokyo even as trade tensions loom.

The Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, will treat Trump to an imperial banquet and front-row seats at a sumo tournament during the trip, which lasts until Tuesday.

Continue reading...

Global markets rocked as US-China trade and tech rift deepens

Posted on by

Shares fall sharply in Asia, Europe and North America in intensifying war of words

The deepening trade and technology war between the US and China has sent global stock markets sharply lower and prompted a warning from the IMF of the increasing risks to the global economy.

Shares fell sharply in Asia, Europe and North America on a day that saw investors alarmed by the intensifying war of words between Washington and Beijing, poor news on the American economy, and political chaos in Britain.

Continue reading...

Uber to launch Jump bike hire scheme in Islington borough

Posted on by

Ride-hailing company hopes to expand to other London boroughs if local trial goes well

Uber is to launch its electric bike hire scheme in the UK, trialling Jump bikes in London through its app.

The global ride-hailing firm will be battling with Lime for the e-bike market, after the retreat of dockless bicycle firms from the UK.

Continue reading...

UK negotiates loophole in Saudi export ban to sell planes to Yemen

Posted on by

Government will continue to supply aircraft to be used in war, says Jeremy Hunt

The UK government has negotiated a loophole in a German arms export ban to Saudi Arabia that will ensure UK-supplied planes will continue to be used in the war in Yemen, the foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has confirmed.

The news is contained in two unpublished letters from cabinet ministers to the parliamentary Committee on Arms Export Controls (CEAC). The aircraft, Tornado fighter bombers and Eurofighter Typhoons, are used in the Saudi bombing raids designed to push back the Houthi rebellion in the four-year civil war in Yemen. The aircraft were developed by consortiums of European companies and Germany supplies spares for them.

Continue reading...

McDonald’s investigated over racism and harassment claims in Brazil

Posted on by

Federal prosecutors say complaint presents ‘worrying evidence’ of sexual harassment and discrimination

It was a busy day at a McDonald’s branch in São Paulo. Marcelo says he was struggling to keep up with demand while manning the chips and white meat stations when the shift boss called him a “damned stupid blackie”.

Marcelo protested and said he would pursue legal action for racism. The store manager fired him the next day, according to his statement in court documents seen by the Guardian.

Continue reading...

Trump’s China trade war risks damaging US economy, says OECD

Posted on by

Intensification of tariff dispute also likely to knock almost $600bn off world economy

Donald Trump has been warned by the west’s most influential economics thinktank that further escalation of the US-China trade war would unleash significant damage for the American economy, as well as the rest of the world.

The Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said that an intensification of the dispute between Washington and Beijing would likely knock as much as 0.7% off the level of global GDP by 2021-22.

Continue reading...

Trump reacts angrily to New York Times report on Deutsche Bank transactions

Posted on by
  • Paper detailed staff concerns over Trump and Kushner entities
  • President claims he doesn’t need banks or money from Russia

Donald Trump sought on Monday to discredit a New York Times report that Deutsche Bank employees flagged concerns over transactions involving legal entities controlled by the president and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

Related: Deutsche Bank staff saw suspicious Trump and Kushner activity – report

Continue reading...

From bleak to bustling: how one French town beat the high street blues

Posted on by

Mulhouse has turned around its image and now boasts more shops opening than closing, thanks to smart planning, investment and community efforts

On a lane in what was once considered eastern France’s grimmest town, a street artist is up a ladder finishing a mural, the independent bookshop has a queue at the till, the organic cooperative is full of customers and Séverine Liebold’s arty independent tea shop is doing a brisk trade.

When Liebold opened Tilvist in Mulhouse three years ago, in a space that had been vacant for years, friends tried to persuade her against it. “They said: ‘Not Mulhouse, look elsewhere,’” she recalls. “But I stuck with my instinct, and I was right.”

Continue reading...

Turkey insists on right to drill for energy reserves off Cyprus

Posted on by

Dispute likely to escalate after Nicosia said it would seek to arrest anyone caught drilling

Tensions over energy resources in the eastern Mediterranean have risen sharply after Turkey said it would “exercise its sovereign rights” to drill off Cyprus in flagrant defiance of warnings from western allies.

As the dispute over potential gas reserves intensified, Ankara insisted its state-of-the-art drilling ship, the Fatih, and its support vessels would begin operations in waters viewed by the EU as being within the island’s exclusive economic zone.

Continue reading...

Trump cools trade war by lifting North American metal tariffs

Posted on by
  • Steel and aluminium imports from Mexico and Canada affected
  • Trump pauses implementation of auto tariffs on EU and Japan

The Trump administration moved to cool the simmering trade war with its major trading partners on Friday, ending tariffs on metal imports from Canada and Mexico and announcing a pause on planned tariffs on cars and car parts.

“I’m pleased to announce we’ve just reached agreement with Canada and Mexico,” Donald Trump said. “We’ll be selling our product into those countries without the imposition of tariffs.”

Continue reading...

Soaring oil prices cast shadow on US ahead of Opec meeting

Posted on by

Risk to oil market of three simultaneous disruptions becomes lobbying point for Iran and Libya

In November 2018, Donald Trump tweeted: “Oil prices getting lower … a tax cut for America and the world! Enjoy! $54 … Thank you to Saudi Arabia.”

Five months on, with oil prices more than $70, Trump will be in a less celebratory mood as Opec’s oil ministers and their allies gather in Jeddah on Friday, without Iran. The main agenda item will be the implications for oil of three interconnected American foreign policy crises – in Venezuela, Iran, and Libya. Together these crises, being played out simultaneously, have the potential to scrub as much as 3.5m barrels of oil per day from the markets.

Continue reading...

European companies can’t compete against global giants

Posted on by

Finance ministers say Europe is increasingly dependent on Chinese and US technology

It boasts the world’s second biggest economy, a huge consumer market of about 500 million people and prodigious pools of talent and capital, not to mention two of the world’s most important financial centres.

But Europe is struggling to match its great rivals, the US and China, in creating the kind of global firms that increasingly dominate the 21st-century marketplace.

Continue reading...

Trump pardons fraudster Conrad Black after glowing biography

Posted on by

Former media mogul who owned Daily Telegraph spent more than three years in prison

Conrad Black, the former media mogul who owned the Daily Telegraph and the Spectator before being jailed for fraud, has been pardoned by Donald Trump – shortly after writing a book praising the US president.

The Canadian-born British citizen was once known for his extravagant lifestyle as he ran an international newspaper empire that included the Chicago Sun-Times and the Jerusalem Post. But he ended up serving three and a half years in prison after being convicted in 2007 of siphoning off millions of dollars from the sale of newspapers owned by the company he controlled.

Continue reading...

Tax authorities mount raids on 19 German banks and homes

Posted on by

Investigation is linked to Panama Papers and part of money laundering allegations

Eleven banks and eight private homes and offices across Germany have been raided by police and tax investigators as part of a wide-ranging investigation into tax evasion.

The raids, which began at dawn on Wednesday and went on into the afternoon, were part of the same investigation started last November over money laundering allegations linked to the so-called Panama Papers scandal, alleged to involve Deutsche Bank.

Continue reading...

Pilots confronted Boeing with 737 Max fears after first fatal crash, audio reveals

Posted on by
  • Boeing appeared to play down concerns of a second crash
  • Audio release comes as House committee reviews FAA role

American Airlines (AA) pilots angrily confronted a Boeing official about an anti-stall system suspected in two fatal crashes of the manufacturer’s 737 Max aircraft, according to a new recording.

Related: Boeing boss rejects accusations about 737 Max jets that crashed

Continue reading...