Financial news

• No more Mr Tracksuit: the rise and rise of the House of Ashley

  11-08-2018 16:59 via theguardian.com
  Mike Ashley’s purchase of House of Fraser is part of the controversial Sports Direct mogul’s efforts to shed his image as a bargain sportswear retailer‘My ambition is to transform House of Fraser into the Harrods of the high street,” trumpeted Mike Ashley, sportswear billionaire, as he added the stricken department store to his multibillion-pound retail empire.House of Fraser has been a target for years for the controversial owner of Sports Direct, and he f
  
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• Construction and retail get warmer

  11-08-2018 16:15 via feedproxy.google.com
  BRITAIN’S economy gathered momentum in the second quarter after a warm weather boost for construction and services. Gross domestic product grew 0.4 per cent between April and June compared with the first three months of 2018, when the Beast from the East restricted growth to 0.2 per cent.
  
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• Bitcoin price LIVE: BTC in danger of dropping to $4,000 - Is this the end of bitcoin?

  11-08-2018 14:46 via feedproxy.google.com
  BITCOIN enters the weekend suffering more heavy losses, with the digital token losing more than $1,000 in just one week. Here are the latest news and live updates.
  
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• Monsanto ordered to pay $289m as jury rules weedkiller caused man's cancer

  11-08-2018 13:34 via theguardian.com
  Court finds in favor of Dewayne Johnson, first person to take Roundup maker to trial
  Monsanto suffered a major blow with a jury ruling that the company was liable for a terminally ill man’s cancer, awarding him $289m in damages.Dewayne Johnson, a 46-year-old former groundskeeper, won a huge victory in the landmark case on Friday, with the jury determining that Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller caused his cancer and that the corporation failed to warn him of the health hazards from exposu
  
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• Seven more M&S stores close as restructuring continues

  11-08-2018 12:07 via theguardian.com
  The high street chain is aiming to reduce costs by £350m over the next three yearsSeven Marks & Spencer clothing stores will close their doors for the last time on Saturday as the high street chain pushes ahead with a radical transformation plan.The retailer announced in May that it plans to close 100 stores by 2022, putting hundreds of jobs at risk. Continue reading...
  
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• UKTV channels to return to Virgin Media

  11-08-2018 11:08 via theguardian.com
  Dave, Gold and other channels to reappear after companies reach agreement
  Virgin Media users will get back UKTV channels, including Dave and Gold, after the two companies reached an agreement, it has been announced.Customers lost all 23 of UKTV’s channels last month in a row over fees but the channels that were removed had already started to reappear, Virgin Media said on Saturday. Continue reading...
  
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• Wonderful windmills for sale – in pictures

  11-08-2018 09:00 via theguardian.com
  Living in the round from Anglesea to Essex Continue reading...
  
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• Switch on to LED lightbulbs before September’s halogen ban

  11-08-2018 09:00 via theguardian.com
  The average home has 10 halogen lights – here’s all you need to know about their greener alternativeFrom the end of this month halogen lightbulbs are to be removed from the market across Europe, with households expected to switch to LED lights – which cost more but last far longer and use much less electricity than energy-hungry halogens.According to Philips, the lighting manufacturer, the average UK household has 10 halogen bulbs and uses them for 2.7 hours a day. If that is c
  
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• Super-commuters: a London salary, with lower living costs … and a beach

  11-08-2018 09:00 via theguardian.com
  Three women reveal the benefits and pitfalls of travelling long distances to work, while their partners look after the childrenNice, France, to London every week“I pinch myself every time I drive the kids to school on a Friday, when I see the glorious view of the Mediterranean sea from the school gate, before heading off on a hike in the mountains with the dog,” says Kate Simon. She lives in Nice, southern France, with her husband, Antoine, and their two primary school-aged children,
  
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• Should we leave our hot water on constantly, or on timer?

  11-08-2018 09:00 via theguardian.com
  We’ve been told that leaving it on all the time hardly costs any more than just twice a dayEvery week a Guardian Money reader submits a question, and it’s up to you to help him or her out – a selection of the best answers will appear in next Saturday’s paper.Should we keep our hot water on constant, or on the timer? We have a factory-insulated hot water cylinder, and a friend insists it costs hardly anything extra to leave it on all the time (which we’d like) rather
  
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• Rail commuters squeezed further as season tickets rise faster than wages

  11-08-2018 09:00 via theguardian.com
  As if daily rail travel is not stressful enough, the latest retail price index figures will trigger the next price risesGet ready for another big rise in train fares. This Wednesday we’ll see the publication of the latest retail prices index (RPI). The Office for National Statistics thinks it is such a poor indicator of prices that it now designates it as “Not a National Statistic.” Yet this non-statistic, which is nearly always significantly higher than the CPI (consumer price
  
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• ‘Following Liverpool FC gives me a greater sense of wellbeing than buying things for the house’

  11-08-2018 08:59 via theguardian.com
  Research information and systems manager Kevin Pogorzelski spends £3,500 a year following his favourite football teamMy trips to Liverpool probably started when my dad left. I was 14 and obsessed with Liverpool FC. The person who used to take me to see them play had disappeared, but I was determined to keep going. Mum was on a low wage, so I started selling things to classmates, from sandwiches she had made to sweets bought from wholesalers, just to afford the journey from Havant in Hampsh
  
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• Engine failure left VW owners picking up a surprise £6,700 bill

  11-08-2018 08:59 via theguardian.com
  Polo is among the latest Volkswagens with a TSI engine to have failed catastrophicallyA couple from Durham were left with a £6,650 bill after the engine on their VW Polo catastrophically failed three months after the car’s warranty expired – in a problem that appears to affect many car owners with TSI engines but which VW ignores once a warranty is no longer valid.Paul Bennett and Andrew Tibbs were on holiday in Dorset when their three-year-old Polo, with just 22,000 miles on t
  
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• Amazon to be told to ditch 'guaranteed next-day delivery' claim

  11-08-2018 01:14 via theguardian.com
  Advertising Standards Authority set to rule on claims about retailer’s Prime serviceAmazon is to be told to stop claiming its Prime service guarantees next-day delivery by the UK advertising regulator after customers complained it was failing to provide their goods on time in the run-up to Christmas, it has been reported.The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is expected to rule that the firm’s claims to be able to operate an “unlimited one-day delivery” service are mi
  
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• MTR's woes highlight weakness of UK rail franchise system - Financial Times

  11-08-2018 01:08
  Financial Times
  MTR's woes highlight weakness of UK rail franchise system
  Financial Times
  Losing your chief executive and facing a criminal investigation might harm most companies' chances of winning a public tender. But even after that happened this week to MTR, the Hong Kong-based transport operator, the company still has a strong chance ...
  
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• Huge disparity in care by funeral companies, report reveals

  11-08-2018 01:01 via theguardian.com
  Report highlights lack of refrigeration and inadequate storage on some premises in UKSome funeral companies are failing to take proper care of bodies, with lack of refrigeration, inadequate storage and general disregard for the individual, say doctors and other professionals in a new report.Most people are unaware that the funeral industry is unregulated and that mortuary facilities provided by companies vary widely, the report says. Continue reading...
  
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