Category Archives: Business

Amsterdam to ban ‘disrespectful’ tours of red-light district

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Move is just one of measures taken to limit impact of mass tourism on historic city centre

Amsterdam is to ban guided tours of its red-light district as part of an effort to restrict the increasing throngs of visitors in its historic city centre, and because “they are not respectful” to sex workers.

“It is no longer acceptable in this age to see sex workers as a tourist attraction,” city councillor Udo Kock said. A survey has shown that 80% of sex workers say gawping tourists are bad for their business and councillors last year suggested moving the red light district to another part of the city.

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Global stock markets gain as investors predict cautious Federal Reserve – business live

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Central banks in spotlight amid Brexit uncertainty and growth concerns

The Bank’s reticence to raise rates has been hinted at by Gertjan Vlieghe and Silvana Tenreyro, two of the nine-member monetary policy committee.

Weaker growth prospects have come on top of concerns about Brexit, according to Martin Beck, lead UK economist at Oxford Economics, a consultancy. He expects a 9-0 vote to keep policy unchanged, saying:

The economy’s recent performance has been broadly in line with the MPC’s expectations. But public pronouncements by some committee members on downside risks have indicated a dovish shift around the pace of future rate hikes.

In light of the continued failure to get a Brexit deal through Parliament, Brexit uncertainty remains a key block on action by the MPC.

The Bank of England will also be in action later this week, with a monetary policy announcement on Thursday at midday.

Anything other than a unanimous vote to keep interest rates on hold would be a shock, for fairly obvious reasons.

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Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank confirm merger talks

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Unions warn merger of two German lenders could put up to 30,000 jobs at risk

Deutsche Bank has confirmed it is in merger talks with rival Commerzbank, putting an end to months of speculation over a potential tie-up that stands to unsettle the German banking landscape.

While the move has been touted as a route to greater profitability for the troubled lenders, unions have warned that the merger could put up to 30,000 jobs at risk.

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Buyer beware: Amsterdam seeks to ban buy-to-let on newbuild homes

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London and others will be watching closely as Dutch city tries to tackle housing shortage

Amsterdam has drawn up plans to ban the rental of new-build homes on city land, as part of a spate of policies to combat spiralling house prices, housing shortages and over-saturation of tourism.

The plan from its housing chief states: “Investors are buying Amsterdam homes more and more frequently, intending to rent them out. This means that ‘normal’ house-buyers have less of a chance in the housing market, and Amsterdam is not happy with this.”

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After two deadly disasters in five months, can Boeing survive?

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The global grounding of its bestselling model after 346 deaths has created a genuine crisis for the company and its clients

Within three minutes of takeoff, Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 had accelerated to unusually high speeds. Captain Yared Getachew knew something was wrong as the aircraft, a Boeing 737 Max 8, erratically dipped and climbed by hundreds of feet. He radioed air traffic control, requesting a return to Addis Ababa airport.

He was cleared to return and the aircraft began to turn right, climbing even higher. A minute later, flight 302 disappeared from the radar.

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Move over, McDonald’s: French taco poised for global expansion

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Pile-up of meats, fries and cheese sauce has become a fast-food phenomenon

At lunchtime on a street near the Gare du Nord in Paris, queues were forming at a fast-food restaurant. Construction workers jostled with schoolchildren for what has become a business phenomenon: the hefty, cheesy slab of indulgence known as the French taco.

France has always had a huge market for takeaways, from kebabs to McDonald’s, and fast food accounts for more than half the nation’s restaurants. Now the homegrown French taco is challenging the burger’s imperialist success and plotting its own global expansion.

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Boeing’s 737 Max fleet ‘will remain grounded for weeks’

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US politicians say ban will last through April, as data from Ethiopian Airlines flight arrives in France

Boeing’s 737 Max 8 and 9 planes will remain grounded for weeks at a minimum, US politicians said on Thursday, as flight data and cockpit voice recorders from the crashed Ethiopian Airlines plane arrived in France.

After a briefing with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), congressman Rick Larsen said the planes, which have been involved in two fatal crashes in the last five months, would be banned from flying “at least through April” while new software is installed and investigations continue.

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MPs told to pass Brexit deal by next Wednesday or face long article 50 extension – as it happened

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MPs vote by 321 to 278 to rule out no deal despite government whipping Tory MPs against motion, following 312-308 win for Spelman amendment

Folks, it’s time to wrap up the blog for the night.

I’ll be back in a few hours to launch a new Politics live blog, bringing you all of Thursday’s Brexit and other political news. A reminder of what’s on the agenda for Thursday:

There have been some remarkable turns of phrase from commentators and politicians in their attempts to capture just what exactly has gone on in British politics in the last few days.

This is a turd of a deal, which has now been taken away and polished, and is now a polished turd. But it might be the best turd that we’ve got.

The House of Commons was a Benny Hill chase on acid, running through a Salvador Dali painting in a spaceship on its way to infinity.

A vague, and vain attempt to make sense of the great mad nights in British political history.

Sketch here.https://t.co/4zCw505yNv pic.twitter.com/ZENHV8wTnz

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Boeing and US under pressure to ground 737 Max as further bans brought in

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Federal Aviation Administration increasingly isolated in maintaining plane is safe as EU countries halt flights

Boeing and the US aviation authorities have come under increasing pressure to ground the 737 Max despite repeated reassurances as the European Union and numerous other countries halted flights and Donald Trump weighed in following a second fatal crash involving the plane in less than five months.

US regulators, airlines and the manufacturer have become increasingly isolated in maintaining that the plane is safe.

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Ethiopian flight 302: second new Boeing 737 to crash in four months

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Confidence that a newer plane inevitably means a safer plane in danger of being shaken

The crash of Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 from Addis Ababa to Nairobi is a tragedy that threatens to leave fresh questions hanging over the aircraft manufacturer Boeing.

Few details about the crash are yet available, but according to Ethiopian Airlines the pilot, who was experienced with an excellent flying record, reported difficulties and asked to turn back.

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Elizabeth Warren is right – we must break up Facebook, Google and Amazon | Robert Reich

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The titans of the new Gilded Age must be busted and the idea has bipartisan support. It’s time big tech was brought to heel

The presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren announced on Friday she wants to bust up giants like Facebook, Google and Amazon.

America’s first Gilded Age began in the late 19th century with a raft of innovations – railroads, steel production, oil extraction – but culminated in mammoth trusts run by “robber barons” like JP Morgan, John D Rockefeller, and William H “the public be damned” Vanderbilt.

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‘I hear it in my sleep’: CVS to update hold music that ‘haunted’ psychiatrist

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Pharmacy chain says plans were under way to change telephone system before doctor’s open letter sparked national debate

The US pharmacy giant CVS has said it will update the jingle it plays to telephone customers placed on hold, a tune which was the subject of a viral open letter from a Boston child psychiatrist who said it haunted him “day and night” and to an extent that was “not healthy”.

“I know,” Dr Steven Schlozman wrote. “I’m a doctor.”

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Hotel giant Accor accused of segregating Aboriginal guests into lower-quality rooms

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Australian government to investigate claims French-owned Ibis Styles in Alice Springs reserved poorest accommodation for Indigenous visitors

The international hotel giant Accor has launched an investigation into allegations that staff at one of its Australian hotels have been segregating Aboriginal guests in lower quality rooms.

The French multinational company said on Friday it was “extremely saddened and disappointed” at the revelations, which were reported by the ABC’s Background Briefing program.

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UK vulnerable to money laundering on a massive scale, find MPs

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‘Fragmented’ system inadequate to prevent influx of dirty money, says Treasury committee

Hundreds of billions of pounds could be being laundered through the UK every year, but the government is unable to give a precise figure of the scale of the problem, MPs have found.

In a report on economic crime, the Treasury committee said the scale of the problem in the UK was very uncertain, with estimates ranging from tens of billions of pounds upwards.

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Superyachts and private schools: Britain’s dirty money problem

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Russian money – some legitimate, some the proceeds of fraud – was channeled through a Lithuanian bank into the UK, according to a major leak of banking documents. The Guardian’s Juliette Garside has been investigating for months and describes how Prince Charles and some of England’s most exclusive schools have benefited. Plus: Ben Beaumont-Thomas on the legacy of the Prodigy’s Keith Flint

The leak of more than 1m bank transactions has shown how an estimated $4.6bn (£3.5bn) was sent to Europe and the US from a Russian-operated network of 70 offshore companies with accounts in Lithuania.

The Guardian’s Juliette Garside has been investigating the network and where the money ended up. She tells India Rakusen that money linked to major Russian fraud cases was laundered with funds from legitimate enterprise, making it impossible to trace the original source. It could then be spent on luxury goods, private school fees and property.

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UK firms cut staff; Greek debt auction success; Carney on Brexit – business live

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Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as China sets its lowest growth target in almost three decades

Mark Carney is then asked about activist investor Edward Bramson, who has used a $1.4bn loan from Bank of America to buy his stake in Barclays (and agitate for a board seat),

Q: Would that loan affect his ability to meet the City’s ‘fit and proper person’s test’?

Earlier in the hearing, Mark Carney suggested that that City has underestimated future interest rate hikes.

The governor pointed out that Bank of England’s most recent economic forecasts - based on market expectations of borrowing costs - showed inflation above the BoE’s target over its three-year forecast period

“In other words, the path of interest rates is not firm enough, it’s not quite high enough for us to be fulfilling our mandate, which sends a broad signal in terms of the stance of policy.”

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Kylie Jenner’s makeup makes her the world’s youngest billionaire

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Youngest of the Kardashian-Jenner reality TV family tops Mark Zuckerberg by two years

Kylie Jenner, the youngest member of the Kardashian-Jenner American reality TV family, has become the world’s youngest billionaire at the age of just 21.

Jenner, who grew up under the watch of TV cameras filming Keeping Up with the Kardashians, was on Tuesday admitted to the “nine-zero” fortune club by Forbes. The business magazine ranked Jenner as the world’s 2,057th richest person. She became a billionaire two years younger than the Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, who took the title at the age of 23 in 2008.

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Banking leak exposes Russian network with link to Prince Charles

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Exclusive: investigation reveals how Troika Dialog channelled $4.6bn to Europe and US

A charity run by Prince Charles received donations from an offshore company that was used to funnel vast amounts of cash from Russia in a scheme that is under investigation by prosecutors, the Guardian can reveal.

Money flowing through the network included cash that can be linked to some of the most notorious frauds committed during Vladimir Putin’s presidency.

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Brazilian mining CEO steps down amid anger over dam collapse

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Fabio Schvartsman and other executives resign after claims firm knew dam was unstable

The boss of the Brazilian iron ore mining firm Vale has resigned, following growing public and political anger over the collapse of a dam in which at least 186 people died.

Fabio Schvartsman and several other senior executives resigned on a “temporary” basis on Saturday after prosecutors recommended their dismissal. The move came after a leak of official documents suggested that Vale knew the dam was at a heightened risk of collapse.

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Donald Trump asks China to abolish tariffs on US farm produce

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The US president says it is ‘very important for our farmers’ while adding that trade talks are ‘moving along nicely’

Donald Trump has urged China to abolish tariffs on agricultural products imported from the United States – adding that trade talks between the rival powers were going well.

“I have asked China to immediately remove all Tariffs on our agricultural products (including beef, pork, etc.),” the US president wrote on Twitter.

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