UK consumers seek £382m from salmon producers in price-fixing case

Law firm’s case against six Norwegian-owned fish companies is over alleged breaches of competition law

A legal firm is seeking £382m on behalf of British consumers from some of the world’s largest salmon producers, which are accused of price fixing.

Legal action filed this week at the Competition Appeal Tribunal said UK consumers overpaid for at least four years because of alleged breaches of competition law by the fish firms Mowi and its subsidiary Mowi Holdings, SalMar, Lerøy, Scottish Sea Farms and Grieg.

Continue reading...

Former post office operators’ leader denies ‘betraying’ his membership

George Thomson tells inquiry he was ‘too trusting’ of Post Office bosses about faulty Horizon IT system

The former leader of an association representing post office operators has told a public inquiry that he was “too trusting” of information given by the Post Office about its faulty Horizon IT system, but he denied being “too close” to the state-owned body and “betraying” his own membership.

George Thomson, a former general secretary of the National Federation of SubPostmasters (NFSP), an association that represents post office operatives, was testifying to a public inquiry that is examining why hundreds of operatives were prosecuted after the Post Office blamed them for financial shortfalls. It has since emerged that the Post Office’s Horizon IT system was not reliable and contained bugs, errors and defects.

Continue reading...

Shadow energy minister says system in ‘dire trouble’ – as it happened

This blog is now closed.

Australia needs more gas supply on east coast, Albanese says

Anthony Albanese is speaking to the ABC from Devonport.

We’ll work those issues through with Aemo.

We need more gas supply. We announced our future gas strategy a short while ago because we understand that we need more supply. Gas has an important role to play in manufacturing in particular. But also in providing firming capacity for the renewables rollout.

Continue reading...

Winklevoss twins donate $1m each to Trump as champion of cryptocurrency

Crypto tycoons claim Biden has ‘openly declared war against crypto’ in lengthy critique of administration policy

Cryptocurrency tycoons the Winklevoss twins have each donated $1m in bitcoin to Donald Trump’s campaign and pledged to vote for the former president in November, claiming Joe Biden had “openly declared war against crypto”.

Trump is “pro-Bitcoin, pro-crypto, pro-business”, Cameron Winklevoss declared on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday. “And he will put an end to the Biden Administration’s war on crypto.”

Continue reading...

Nuclear engineer dismisses Peter Dutton’s claim that small modular reactors could be commercially viable soon

Hugh Durrant-Whyte says 2045 is a realistic timeframe, adding it was likely to be ‘more expensive than anything else you could possibly think of’

Australia would need “many decades” to develop the regulations and skills to operate a nuclear power plant, and the experience gained at the existing Lucas Heights facility won’t help much, according to New South Wales’ chief scientist and engineer.

Hugh Durrant-Whyte said he stood by comments made to a 2019 NSW upper house inquiry into uranium mining and nuclear facilities that running a plant and its fuel supply chain would require skills “built up over many decades”.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

DS Smith’s £5.8bn takeover by US rival going ahead despite competition

Merger with International Paper moving at ‘absolutely full steam’ in face of separate interest from Brazil’s Suzano

The boss of the FTSE 100 company DS Smith has said its £5.8bn takeover by a US rival is going at “absolutely full steam”, despite concerns it could be derailed by another packaging sector merger.

Miles Roberts, DS Smith’s chief executive, said merger work with International Paper was “going very well” and that he definitely expected the deal to complete.

Continue reading...

France urged to step in to spur TotalEnergies’ transition from oil

Commission recommends 33-point plan to ensure oil giant complies with state climate commitments

The French government should intervene in TotalEnergies and spur faster climate action, a senate inquiry commission has concluded.

The commission, set up to explore ways the state could guarantee that the oil conglomerate complies with French climate commitments, recommended 33 steps the government should take to “encourage a rapid, orderly and effective transition”.

Continue reading...

Expert economists back Labour’s plan to end economic stagnation in UK

Nobel prize winners and former Bank of England officials believe Rachel Reeves and Keir Starmer can bring about ‘desperately needed’ change

Labour’s plans for ending Britain’s long-term economic stagnation have been backed by a group of leading economists, including three Nobel prize winners and a former Bank of England deputy governor.

In a boost to the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, the 16 UK and internationally based economists said change was “desperately needed” after the policy mistakes and failures of the past 14 years since the Conservatives took power.

Continue reading...

Ex-Fujitsu executive says he feels ‘aggrieved’ by damage done to Horizon’s reputation

Richard Christou tells public inquiry that real failure in Post Office scandal was the way prosecutions had been handled

A former executive of Fujitsu, the company that developed the Post Office’s Horizon IT system, has told a public inquiry he felt “aggrieved” that what he thought was a “good system” had been placed into such disrepute by the scandal, and said he believed that the “real issue” was the way criminal prosecutions of post office operators had been handled by the state-owned body.

Richard Christou, the former chief executive and executive chairman of Fujitsu Services Holdings, was testifying at the inquiry, which is examining why the Post Office prosecuted and ruined hundreds of people, alleging financial shortfalls in their post office branch accounts. Despite campaigns, it took years for the Post Office to admit that faults with Horizon were behind many of the shortfalls.

Continue reading...

Typical Aldi grocery bill 25% cheaper than at major supermarkets, Choice research finds

Undercover shopping study on 14 common items part of move to provide transparency after Coles and Woolworths accused of price gouging

A basket of Aldi groceries is typically 25% cheaper than an equivalent purchase at major chains Coles and Woolworths, according to government-funded research conducted by consumer group Choice.

The price comparison of 14 common grocery items is part of an initiative to provide better transparency of the supermarket sector, which has faced allegations of anti-competitive price gouging during a cost-of-living crisis.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Australia news live: Dutton announces Coalition’s nuclear policy and proposed sites, but no costs

Sites named at Collie, Mt Piper, Callide, Tarong, Liddell, Northern energy in South Australia and Loy Yang. Follow the day’s news live

Sussan Ley says Coalition nuclear policy will be a ‘sensible proposition’

I just wanted to return to Sussan Ley’s appearance on Sky News this morning, where she was asked how a potential future Coalition nuclear policy would circumvent nuclear bans:

We’ll work through all that. We have a sensible proposition to put to the Australian people and I know that when we talk about nuclear people are starting to tune in, understanding that if 19 of the 20 biggest economies in the world are using nuclear, if it makes sense for cleaner baseload power, because it’s zero emissions, if it helps us get to 2050 net zero, if it does all of the things that we want it to do in terms of emissions, and in terms of securing affordable cheaper power for Australians … why would people not consider it? And I believe they will.

Now, the government says it’s renewables only. We can see that that’s actually not going to happen. The government talks about hydrogen, it’s not at scale. It’s not even something they can demonstrate works in that short timeframe and they talk about batteries that aren’t going to provide the storage for their renewables.

So, they are in a complete mess over this, and they need to be put on the sticky paper and asked what they are going to do for families, households and manufacturing businesses.

Continue reading...

HSBC’s Swiss private banking arm breached money-laundering rules, regulator finds

Finma watchdog says bank failed to carry out adequate checks of two high-risk business relationships

HSBC’s Swiss private banking arm breached money-laundering rules by failing to carry out adequate checks on the high-risk accounts of two politically exposed individuals, Switzerland’s banking regulator has found.

HSBC Private Bank (Suisse) has been banned from taking on any new high-risk customers until it has completed a full review of its business relationships, Switzerland’s Financial Market Supervisory Authority (Finma) said.

Continue reading...

Indian engineers warn of prolonged blackouts amid searing heatwave

Increasing use of fans, air coolers and air conditioners is placing ‘serious’ strain on grid in north of country

Engineers in India have warned of the possibility of prolonged power outages in the north, where a heatwave has brought misery for millions of people.

Demand for electricity has soared due to fans, air coolers and air conditioners being run constantly, placing a strain on the grid in Delhi and elsewhere in the north. Manufacturers of air conditioners and air coolers report sales rising by 40-50% compared with last summer.

Continue reading...

RBA governor says inflation still above target; Matt Kean to retire from politics – as it happened

This blog is now closed

Liberals criticise treatment of journalist by Chinese officials at press conference

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham has condemned the treatment of journalist Cheng Lei at federal parliament yesterday.

This was an entirely counterproductive and inappropriate act by Chinese officials that should have been called out by our prime minister and government officials.

It is a reminder that we have two very different systems, the Chinese system and the Australian system, different systems of government, of course as a democracy, different respect when it comes to media, to freedom of speech, but this visit is taking place in Australia.

It is concerning, I think a lot of this comes from so many Australians genuinely doing a tough at the moment, having to make really tough decisions, from telling their kids that they can no longer play basketball or be part of the scouts group because they can’t afford the … 500 bucks a year that costs, to other Australians who are deciding between going to see the GP or fulfilling a script and putting food on the table.

People are doing it tough and so when they hear politicians talk about these targets in the future … I think Peter Dutton use this to whip up fear.

Continue reading...

Australian online seller Booktopia enters share trading halt a fortnight after major job cuts

Bookseller tells ASX it will announce outcomes from strategic review, including ‘progress in seeking additional funding’

Australia’s largest online bookseller has entered into a voluntary share trading suspension, just two weeks after axing 50 jobs and losing its chief executive.

Booktopia Group Ltd notified the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) on Monday, saying its securities would be suspended from quotation immediately pending an announcement on “further outcomes” from a strategic review, “including its progress in seeking additional funding”.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Investment in UK has trailed other G7 countries since mid-1990s, IPPR says

Institute for Public Policy Research urges Labour and Conservatives to reverse planned cuts

Investment in the UK has trailed other G7 countries including the US and Germany since the mid-1990s, according to a report that urges Labour and the Conservatives to reverse planned cuts to investment or risk long-term damage to economic growth.

The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) thinktank found the UK was bottom of the G7 league for investment in 24 out of the last 30 years, using figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Continue reading...

Seven hires comedian Mark Humphries to parody weekly news

Humphries’ weekly satirical sketches ran for five years on the ABC before being axed last year

Less than a year after the ABC dropped the regular satirical segment on 7.30, Seven News has hired comedian Mark Humphries to continue the tradition of making fun of the news at the end of the week.

Seven’s new director of news and current affairs, Anthony De Ceglie, has recruited Humphries to perform a segment for the Sydney bulletin, with a view to expanding the spot nationally.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Virgin Australia plane makes emergency landing – as it happened

This blog is now closed

Ex-Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann arrives at a Toowoomba court

Bruce Lehrmann arrives at a Toowoomba court for a committal hearing into allegations he raped a woman in 2021.

Continue reading...

UK manufacturers expecting boost in second half of 2024

Make UK survey foresees growth in sector, but warns next government must tackle skills shortage

Britain’s largest manufacturers are expecting orders and output to increase dramatically in the second half of the year, even as a chronic shortage of skilled workers is threatening the ability of some companies to do business.

Manufacturing is returning to normal business conditions after wild swings in demand during the pandemic, disruptions in prices after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the effect on supply chains of blockages and conflict around the Suez canal, according to a survey of 320 companies by the trade body Make UK.

Continue reading...

Third UK sandwich maker recalls product, saying it is a precaution

Plant-based food company This has not detected E coli in the wrap but is concerned about possible contamination

A third sandwich and wrap manufacturer has recalled one of its products after an E coli outbreak that has left 67 people in hospital and more than 200 in total seriously ill.

On Sunday evening the Food Standards Agency (FSA) said This had “taken the precautionary step of recalling its This Isn’t Chicken and Bacon wrap because of possible contamination with E coli”.

Continue reading...