Financial news

• Inheritance tax rules 'save richest families nearly £700m a year'

  02-06-2019 20:00
  Vast majority of UK business relief goes to those with more than £1m in assets, report findsA clutch of the wealthiest families in the UK are taking advantage of inheritance tax rules designed to help small businesses and landowners, saving themselves almost £700m a year, according to a report.The campaigning group Tax Justice UK found 234 families with more than £1m in business assets shared £458m in relief in the 2015-16 year thanks to inheritance tax breaks. Continue r
  
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• Donald Trump is lashing out at Mexico but his real fight is at home | Phillip Inman

  02-06-2019 14:49 via theguardian.com
  Democrats are turning a president enraged at the blocking of his border wall into an unhinged beast Donald Trump’s threats of higher import tariffs against Mexican goods can be better understood not as an escalation of his trade war with the rest of the world, but as the act of a desperate man, prepared to upset most US business leaders to achieve his aim of building a border wall with the country’s southern neighbour.His anger, which he will bring with him on a state visit to London
  
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• Global airline industry cuts profit forecast by more than a fifth

  02-06-2019 13:25 via theguardian.com
  Passenger numbers are up but US–China trade dispute poses major threat, says IataThe global airline industry is expected to record its lowest profits in five years as fuel costs rise and world trade weakens.The International Air Transport Association, the 290 members of which account for 82% of scheduled air traffic, cut its forecast for earnings across the industry this year by more than a fifth on Sunday. Continue reading...
  
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• Who needs coins? Now six-year-olds can spend pocket money on a card

  02-06-2019 09:00 via theguardian.com
  Parents can use smartphone apps to load money on to prepaid cards which children can spend in shops with a tapIt is not that long since pocket money was a handful of loose change handed over on a Saturday morning before being spent at great speed in the corner shop on a selection of luminous sweets. Now, it is increasingly possible that a child’s weekly budget will be handled via a smartphone and purchases made with a tap, instead of coins.Pocket money app RoosterMoney has become the lates
  
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• Ladbrokes owner GVC makes the running to beat pay revolt

  02-06-2019 09:00 via theguardian.com
  £150,000 salary cut for boss Kenny Alexander may be the bare minimum to get pay policy past the finishing postThe boss of the UK’s largest gambling company, GVC, which owns Ladbrokes, has announced he’s going to swallow a £150,000 pay cut in the hope it will quell a swelling shareholder rebellion at the firm’s annual meeting on Wednesday.The only problem is the cut in Kenny Alexander’s basic salary, from £950,000 to £800,000, doesn’t touch th
  
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• A 99, sprinkles and no diesel: here come the electric ice-cream vans…

  02-06-2019 09:00 via theguardian.com
  Battery equipment that can make 600 cones an hour being trialled as concerns over diesel pollution riseThe Mr Whippys of Britain have not had the best start to the year. Ice-cream vans have been facing mounting criticism after campaign groups and parents complained they were delivering their vanilla cones and 99s with a topping of diesel fumes.This weekend, however, they are savouring a double helping of good news: not only have temperatures been soaring, helping to boost custom up and down the
  
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• Trump’s banning of Huawei could be the beginning of the biggest trade war ever | John Naughton

  02-06-2019 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Don’t expect the Chinese government to roll over in the fight against the tech giantUntil recently, the only thing the average citizen could have told you about Huawei, the Chinese tech giant, was that s/he hadn’t the faintest idea of how to pronounce it (it’s “hwa-wei” btw, according to Wikipedia). And then, suddenly, this unpronounceable company seemed to be all over the news. Now it’s at the centre of a burgeoning geopolitical row. How did that happen?I bla
  
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• The five: robot farmers

  02-06-2019 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Will robots be the answer to labour shortages on farms? Our pick of the best planting, weeding and harvesting machinesLast week a startup based at Plymouth University unveiled the world’s first raspberry-picking robot. The machine can pick about 25,000 berries a day, which is 10,000 more than a human during an eight-hour shift. Raspberries are particularly challenging for machines to harvest because the robots have to identify ripe fruit and handle the soft berries without damaging them. T
  
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• Scotch on the rocks: distilleries fear climate crisis will endanger whisky production

  02-06-2019 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Scotland’s whisky-makers reveal they had to halt production in 2018 heatwave because they ran out of waterScotland’s nature conservation agency last week painted an apocalyptic vision of a country devastated by the climate crisis, from polluted rivers to eroded peatlands and forests devoid of birds. Now comes a warning about another part of Scottish culture which could, it is feared, also be hit by global heating: whisky.Scottish distilleries have revealed that during last year&rsquo
  
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• If Netflix decided to show ads, revenues really might start streaming in

  02-06-2019 08:00 via theguardian.com
  The company is pushing through a price rise as new rivals prepare to launch. But it could always fund itself another wayNetflix’s decision to raise prices for UK customers by up to 20%, following a similar move in the US, is the latest sign of the mounting financial pressure the streaming giant is facing to keep its balance sheet in shape as it prepares for the arrival of deep-pocketed rival Disney’s eagerly anticipated service later this year.The company’s breakneck pursuit of
  
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• Germany’s love of fast cars runs into the barricades in Berlin

  02-06-2019 08:00 via theguardian.com
  New road that requires demolition of homes and cultural spaces stirs fury in country where Greens recently surged in pollsThe cement mixer, decorated with disco ball glass, shimmered in the late afternoon sunlight, rotating gently as ravers danced at the foot of a Berlin bridge. Almost a thousand people showed up last weekend for what looked like an impromptu dance party but was actually a protest designed to draw attention to a €560m German government plan to plough a motorway through thre
  
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• Corbyn’s destructive ambiguity on Brexit has failed | William Keegan

  02-06-2019 08:00 via theguardian.com
  The consensus around Labour’s Euroscepticism is collapsing. The party must change its stance radically, and urgentlyI am told that, shortly before the elections for the European parliament, Jeremy Corbyn was flirting with the idea of being less hostile towards the Remain campaign. Even he could read the opinion polls. However, according to my informant, he was immediately sat upon by his spin doctor, Seumas Milne, and other members of the politburo of what passes for the modern Labour part
  
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• The gig is up: America’s booming economy is built on hollow promises | Robert Reich

  02-06-2019 07:00 via theguardian.com
  Contract workers prop up big earners but under Trump’s anti-labor administration are ruthlessly exploited themselvesUber just filed its first quarterly report as a publicly traded company. Although it lost $1bn, investors may still do well because the losses appear to be declining. Related: The Uber drivers forced to sleep in parking lots to make a decent livingContinue reading...
  
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