Financial news

• Huawei 'prepared to sign no-spy agreement with UK government'

  14-05-2019 16:16 via theguardian.com
  Chinese telecoms company’s chairman says concerns about surveillance are overblownHuawei’s chairman has said the Chinese company would be prepared to sign a “no-spy agreement” with the British government to reassure politicians that it has no intention of allowing its technology to be used for surveillance.Speaking on a visit to London, Liang Hua said the company did not want to spy on western consumers and that concerns about Chinese laws requiring the company to coopera
  
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• Coca-Cola most common source of packaging pollution on UK beaches – study

  14-05-2019 15:16 via theguardian.com
  Soft-drink brand’s products make up nearly 12% of litter found, says Surfers Against SewageCoca-Cola bottles and cans are the most commonly found items of packaging pollution on British beaches, making up nearly 12% of all litter, research by Surfers Against Sewage (SAS)has found.The results came from a series of 229 beach cleans organised by the anti-pollution campaigning group in April, which found close to 50,000 pieces of waste. About 20,000 of these carried identifiable brands, of whi
  
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• Greggs' vegan sausage rolls fuel profit boom

  14-05-2019 15:05 via theguardian.com
  Baker says snack lured in more shoppers, prompting a surge in salesGreggs has raised its profit guidance for the third time this year, boosted by demand for its vegan sausage rolls and an increase in customers.The bakery chain said a strong start to 2019 had continued in recent weeks after it ramped up production of its best-selling Quorn-filled roll following a failure to keep up with demand when it first launched in January. Continue reading...
  
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• Trade war: Trump promises deal with China 'when the time is right' - business live

  14-05-2019 13:39 via theguardian.com
  Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, including the latest developments in the US-China trade rowLatest: UK jobless rate now lowest since 1975Basic pay growth slows to 3.3%Inactivity down as more women join labour marketEarlier:Introduction: Trade war fears aboundAsian markets hit againLast night: Wall Street’s biggest fall in months 12.38pm BST Donald Trump has now tweeted that a trade deal with China will be struck, “when the time is right”.In another ea
  
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• UK wage growth stalls despite record employment

  14-05-2019 12:15 via theguardian.com
  Rising vacancies and falling unemployment fail to push firms into raising wagesWage growth has slowed in the UK to put a squeeze on living standards despite unemployment falling to its lowest level for more than 40 years.The fall in pay growth to 3.3% on the year in the three months to March, from 3.5% in the three months to February, also came as the buoyant labour market recorded a rise in employment to a new high of 32.7 million. Continue reading...
  
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• Vodafone slashes payout to shareholders as 5G costs bite

  14-05-2019 11:42 via theguardian.com
  Telecoms group reveals it has swung to a £6.6bn full-year loss as its debts continue to mountVodafone has slashed its dividend payout to shareholders for the first time in its history as the ballooning cost of buying 5G spectrum in Europe hit its balance sheet.The company – which traditionally hands investors one of the most generous payouts in the FTSE 100 – cut its full-year dividend by 40% as the company swung to a €7.6bn (£6.6bn) loss for the year to the end of M
  
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• Richer Sounds founder hands over control of hi-fi and TV firm to staff

  14-05-2019 10:48 via theguardian.com
  Chain joins John Lewis in employee ownership as staff get £1,000 for each year they have workedThe founder of Richer Sounds is handing control of the hi-fi and TV retail chain to staff, in a move that will also give employees large cash bonuses.Julian Richer will announce to staff on Tuesday that he has transferred 60% of his shares into a John Lewis-style trust. Richer, who recently turned 60, said the “time was right” to pass the baton to the chain’s 531 employees. Cont
  
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• Huawei founder 'would shut it down' if China asked it to eavesdrop

  14-05-2019 10:32 via theguardian.com
  Telecoms firm insists it has never been asked to spy after political row over 5G networkThe founder of the Chinese telecoms equipment firm Huawei would “shut the company down” if he was asked by the country’s communist regime to eavesdrop on mobile phone calls, according to a senior executive at the fast-growing multinational.Tim Watkins, the company’s vice-president for western Europe, said Huawei had never been asked by the Chinese government to conduct surveillance des
  
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• A vegetarian has a beef with Tesco’s labelling

  14-05-2019 08:00
  The product contained meat – but this was only disclosed in the small printI am a 55-year-old man who has eaten no meat or meat products for six years (for welfare reasons) until recently. During this period I have regularly purchased Tesco raspberry and white chocolate meal replacement bars. But Tesco has recently replaced the product. I have just eaten a new bar and found to my horror that it now contains beef, whereas the previous product had no beef. I last purchased the old product at
  
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• 'Lunch on the go' habit generates 11bn items of packaging waste a year

  14-05-2019 07:00
  More people in UK are eating lunch on the go, report finds, in turn generating more wasteBritain’s growing “lunch on the go” habit is generating nearly 11bn items of packaging waste a year, much of which is not recycled, a survey has found.Workers are buying takeaway and fast food lunches more than they did five years ago, according to research from the environmental charity Hubbub, generating 10.7bn separate items of waste over a year, the charity estimates, from sandwich boxe
  
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• 'You can’t really win': 4m Britons in poverty despite having jobs

  14-05-2019 01:01
  Unemployment is at its lowest since the 70s but some workers struggle to make ends meet“I’m a bit scatty with things like this,” Gemma admits when talking about her finances. It was not scattiness that meant she struggled to make ends meet when taking home £399.69 a month for working 18 hours a week as a cashier at Betfred.Even with tax credits and child benefit topping up her meagre wages, it was a constant struggle to pay for the essentials and Gemma fell behind on her
  
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• City investors push for BP to be more open on climate change policy

  14-05-2019 01:01 via theguardian.com
  Shareholder resolution to be voted on at the company’s annual meeting next weekA coalition of major City investors have emerged as key players in forcing BP to be more transparent in how it fights climate change.Investors holding just under a tenth of all BP shares, equivalent to more than £10bn in value at Monday’s prices, put their names to the shareholder resolution, to be voted on at the company’s annual meeting next week, the Climate Action 100+ investor group reveal
  
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• Britain risks heading to US levels of inequality, warns top economist

  14-05-2019 01:01
  Sir Angus Deaton says UK is at risk of extreme inequality in pay, wealth and healthRising inequality in Britain risks putting the country on the same path as the US to become one of the most unequal nations on earth, according to a Nobel-prize winning economist. Sir Angus Deaton is leading a landmark review of inequality in the UK amid fears that the country is at a tipping point due to a decade of stagnant pay growth for British workers. The Institute for Fiscal Studies thinktank, which is work
  
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• Ex-Autonomy CFO jailed for five years over Hewlett-Packard fraud

  14-05-2019 00:50 via theguardian.com
  Sushovan Hussain also fined $4m by US district judge over role of sale in British firm to Hewlett-PackardThe former chief financial officer of Autonomy has been jailed for five years, after a US jury found him guilty of fraud over the $11.1bn (£8.5bn) sale of the British software company to Hewlett-Packard in 2011.Sushovan Hussain, 55, was also fined $4m and ordered to forfeit $6.1m in a sentence imposed by US district judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco. Continue reading...
  
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• Monsanto must pay couple $2bn in largest verdict yet over cancer claims

  14-05-2019 00:28 via theguardian.com
  California jury holds makers of Roundup weedkiller responsible for couple contracting non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma A California jury has ordered Monsanto to pay more than $2bn to a couple that got cancer after using its weedkiller, marking the third and largest verdict against the company over Roundup.A jury in Oakland ruled Monday that Monsanto, now owned by the German pharmaceutical corporation Bayer, was liable for the non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) cancer of Alva and Alberta Pilliod. The
  
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