UK tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch and daughter among those thought to have been trapped when storm hit off Sicily
Six people are now presumed dead after the super yacht they were onboard sank in a violent storm off the coast of Sicily.
Divers tried in vain on Tuesday to gain access to the inside of the sunken 56-metre Bayesian luxury vessel, where rescue crews believe those missing may have been trapped.
Continue reading...Chancellor insists she still has large black hole to fill despite stronger-than-expected growth in first half of 2024
Rachel Reeves is planning to raise taxes, cut spending and get tough on benefits in October’s budget amid Treasury alarm that the pickup in the economy has failed to improve the poor state of the public finances.
With the latest official set of borrowing figures out on Wednesday, the chancellor is insisting she will still have a substantial black hole to fill despite stronger than expected growth in the first half of 2024.
Raising more money from inheritance tax and capital gains tax.
Sticking to plans for a 1% increase in public spending even though it would involve cuts for some Whitehall departments.
Rejecting pressure to scrap the two-child benefit cap.
Changing the way debt is measured to exclude the Bank of England.
Continue reading...Spot price increases to $2,522.99, with record run meaning standard gold bar is worth more than $1m
Gold prices have hit a fresh high as increasing hopes of US interest rate cuts from the Federal Reserve prompted investors to buy more of the precious metal.
The spot price of gold rose to a record $2,522.99 (£1,941.69) on Tuesday morning, up 0.7% on the day. Gold bars generally weigh 400 troy ounces (12.4kg), so a standard gold bar is now worth more than $1m.
Continue reading...State-backed body EDC has reportedly sold at deep discount two loans made to debt-ridden UK utility
Canada’s state-backed export credit agency is reportedly nursing steep losses after lending debt-ridden Thames Water hundreds of millions of pounds.
The British utility, which has said it could run out of cash by next June, received two loans from Export Development Canada (EDC) in 2018 and 2019 at the behest of the Canadian pension fund Omers.
Continue reading...Design with bees on reverse, part of collection inspired by plants and animals, was voted people’s favourite
The first £1 coin bearing the official portrait of King Charles III has entered general circulation as part of a collection inspired by plants and animals found across the four nations of the United Kingdom.
The latest design, featuring two bees, has been issued to Post Offices and banks, with nearly 3m coins making their way into tills and pockets.
Continue reading...Bank officials signal readiness to start interest rate-cutting cycle to ease pressure on households and businesses
Kamala Harris’s hopes of victory in the looming US presidential election have been given a boost by mounting expectations that the US Federal Reserve will cut interest rates from as early as September.
As Democrats gather for the party’s national convention in Chicago starting on Monday, economists on Wall Street said the world’s most powerful central bank was poised to begin a cycle of interest rate cuts before the end of the year.
Continue reading...Reece forecasts further ‘softness’ in the building and renovation markets over the coming year
Australians’ love affair with their home has been unshakeable, with property owners usually willing to upgrade, detonate and renovate even during financial downturns.
But according to major plumbing and bathroom products supplier Reece, that is now being tested.
Continue reading...Proposal to Tokyo-based Seven & i by ACT could become biggest foreign takeover of a Japanese firm
The owner of the global convenience store chain 7-Eleven has received an offer from a Canadian rival to buy the company, in what could be Japan’s biggest ever foreign takeover.
The Tokyo-based Seven & i revealed on Monday that it had received a bid from the Canadian convenience store multinational Alimentation Couche-Tard (ACT) to buy its stake in the company.
Continue reading...Figures from Rightmove show inquiries to estate agents since 1 August up 19% compared with a year ago
The first Bank of England rate cut in four years has triggered an immediate upturn in the UK property market, as cheaper mortgages prompt interest among buyers and drive up house prices.
Figures from the property website Rightmove show the number of potential buyers contacting estate agents about homes for sale since 1 August jumped by 19% compared with the same time a year ago. Contacts in July were up 11% on the previous year.
Continue reading...The UK Statistics Authority’s chair says linking data sets from departments could aid growth and improve services
• We need to make data sharing across government the rule
Ministers could find ways to boost the economy and improve public services by combining data from separate government departments, according to the head of the UK’s statistics watchdog.
Sir Robert Chote, the chair of the UK Statistics Authority, said that too often government data was “siloed” because departments and other bodies were worried that people may uncover weaknesses in the data or even reach inconvenient conclusions.
Continue reading...Lord Jim O’Neill says small businesses could lose out from merger of local government schemes to create large fund
Government plans to create one of the largest pension schemes in the world from a merger of 87 local authority retirement funds could undermine investment in groundbreaking businesses across the north of England, according to former Treasury adviser Lord Jim O’Neill.
Innovative startup businesses, many of them spun out of universities in Manchester, Leeds and Sheffield, could lose out if the Treasury creates a big fund interested only in backing large companies, he said.
Continue reading...Michele Bullock keeps telling us productivity is flatlining. How it changes may well determine if the Reserve Bank will tolerate wage rises beyond 3%
If the Reserve Bank’s GDP forecasts about the Australian economy are right, we should be close to a nadir with a sustainable upswing on the way – provided we can get more efficient at what we do.
Productivity growth – a concept that quickens the pulse of economists and almost nobody else – has slowed in Australia and most other developed nations for years.
Continue reading...The economist behind the Covid furlough scheme has called for ‘unfair’ council tax and stamp duty to be axed
Council tax and stamp duty are “unfair and unpopular” taxes that should be abolished, says the economist who devised the Covid furlough scheme.
Tim Leunig, who has advised a series of cabinet ministers, including Rishi Sunak during his prime ministership, said it was time for a new and radical approach that would axe the two taxes and replace them with proportional levies.
Continue reading...Online dating industry in crisis as shares fall and nearly half of all users report negative experiences on the apps
In May, the dating app Bumble, launched as the feminist Tinder in 2014, ran what it called an anti-celibacy advertising campaign. It featured a woman attempting to “swear off dating” and become a nun – only to find herself lusting after a hunky convent gardener.
The backlash to the “Bumble fumble” was swift. Lainey Molnar, a celibacy-forward Instagram personality, said the company was “gaslighting women who refuse to participate in hook-up culture”.
Continue reading...Transport for London confirms 330 vehicles approved for donation to help country’s war effort
More than 200 vehicles that fell foul of London’s ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) have been sent to Ukraine to aid the country’s war effort, despite initial legal concerns over the plan.
Transport for London (TfL) said on Friday that 330 vehicles had been given the green light to be sent to Ukraine under the Ulez vehicle scrappage scheme. More than 200 are already in the eastern European country.
Continue reading...‘MPower’ would be Australia’s largest scheme of its kind – with neighbouring councils invited to join in
Melbourne residents and business owners could have their electricity bills slashed by hundreds of dollars each year in a radical plan proposed by the city’s lord mayor.
Nick Reece has pledged to facilitate Australia’s largest community-led bulk purchasing scheme for renewable energy if he is re-elected.
Continue reading...ONS data shows strong performance in second quarter with service sector helping drive growth
Britain’s economy has extended its recovery from recession after recording growth of 0.6% in the three months to June, handing a boost to the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, in the run-up to the autumn budget.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show gross domestic product continued to grow in the second quarter, after a rise of 0.7% in the first three months of 2024. The reading matched the forecasts of City economists.
Continue reading...Brian Niccol, who was poached from Chipotle, will get package worth four times that of his predecessor
The new chief executive of Starbucks is in line for a sign-on pay package worth up to $113m (£88m), in one of the largest such executive deals in corporate history and which is four times larger than that of his predecessor. .
The American coffee chain poached the boss of Chipotle Mexican Grill, Brian Niccol, naming him as its new chief executive this week in a surprise management shake-up, ousting Laxman Narasimhan from the job after just 17 months.
Continue reading...News follows scrapping of two other Atlantic windfarms and axing of hundreds of jobs as costs surge
The Danish company developing the world’s largest offshore windfarm in the North Sea has been forced to delay a major project off the north-east coast of the US, months after cancelling two nearby developments and cutting hundreds of jobs.
Ørsted has pushed back the start of commercial operations at its 704 megawatt Revolution Wind project off the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut by a year, to 2026.
Continue reading...Pay-as-you-go simcard seller often filed late returns, had accounts queried by auditors and was embroiled in eight-year VAT battle
Lycamobile, a telecoms company that has given more than £2m to the Conservative party, has been issued with a winding-up petition by HM Revenue and Customs, amid a long-running VAT dispute.
The company, founded by businessman Allirajah Subaskaran in 2006, sells pay-as-you-go sim cards that are popular with low-paid workers wanting to make cheap phone calls to family overseas, as well as in the UK.
Continue reading...