Financial news

• Warren Buffett backs Apple after firm sells millions of shares in iPhone maker

  04-05-2024 21:10
  
  Berkshire Hathaway CEO stressed relationship at annual meeting attracting Apple CEO Tim Cook, Bill Gates and Bill MurrayThe billionaire investment tycoon Warren Buffett has stressed his empire will remain a key investor in Apple after it sold billions of dollars’ worth of shares in the iPhone maker.Thousands of shareholders in Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett’s sprawling conglomerate, have flocked to Omaha, Nebraska, for the firm’s annual meeting – dubbed Woodstock for Capital
  
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• Anger over burst main that deprived 31,000 East Sussex properties of water

  04-05-2024 19:33
  
  Water bottle stations set up in St Leonards-on-Sea and part of Hastings as Southern Water customers face days without serviceSouthern Water was criticised this weekend for overseeing a “debacle” after a mains pipe burst, leaving 31,000 properties in Hastings and St Leonards without water.There were long traffic queues leading to just four bottled water stations after supplies were cut off on Thursday. Businesses are expected to lose thousands of pounds, with the firm likely to face c
  
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• Spending cuts are often false economies that end up costing society dearly | Torsten Bell

  04-05-2024 19:00
  
  New research has found that every pound saved in closing police stations costs the rest of us £3Every government looks to save money. Sometimes, it’s a priority to reduce spending, as with post-2010 austerity. Even when overall spending is rising, politicians may reduce spending in one area to make progress on a priority elsewhere. Doing things more efficiently is always a good idea.But announcing a spending cut is not the same as reducing spending, let alone achieving value for taxp
  
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• UK flower industry thrown into chaos by new Brexit border checks

  04-05-2024 18:05
  
  Firms said food and plant checks and Latin names causing costly delays with lorries waiting hours in first week of post-EU regimeOf all the effects of Brexit, probably the least anticipated was that flower exporters and customs officials would have to learn Latin.But that is one of the problems that confronted British businesses in the first week after the government introduced physical checks on some food and plants from the EU. Continue reading...
  
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• Europe must find a way to help fund the fight against Putin – for its own sake

  04-05-2024 18:00
  
  Reticence over the seizure of Russian state assets in Europe betrays a fatal underestimation of the threat Moscow posesEurope has plotted an elegant decline that suits the needs of its ageing population, and the Ukraine war cannot be allowed to interfere with that plan.That is how it seems when EU countries consider circumventing the financial rulebook to offer Ukraine what it needs to overcome waves of drones and break the deadlock on its eastern front. Continue reading...
  
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• Britain’s most overrated food? No chance … fish and chips is a marvel

  04-05-2024 18:00
  
  So a Michelin-starred chef said he loathed our one truly globally renowned dish. I beg to differAcross Britain today, hundreds of thousands of us will tuck into one of the world’s most perfect dishes. Crispy batter encasing flaky fish; a steaming pile of chips, some soft, some crunchy, some large, some merely a scrap; acidic condiments and sides to balance the salt and fat.Yet the Michelin-starred chef Dominic Chapman, of eponymous restaurant in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, caused a stir
  
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• The internet is in decline – it needs rewilding | John Naughton

  04-05-2024 17:00
  
  The online world was meant to be an open system but has become dominated by huge corporations. If we are to revive it, that must endBrowsing through a history of online public messaging last week, I came across a magical photograph from 1989 or 1990. It shows the world’s first web server. It was Tim Berners-Lee’s NeXT workstation in Cern, the international physics research lab, where he worked at the time. On the case is a tattered sticky label, on which is scribbled, in red ink, &ld
  
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• Manchester United to tighten up checks to avoid misuse of disabled fans’ tickets

  04-05-2024 16:20
  
  Concerns aired that tickets were falling into the wrong handsClub to work with United’s Disabled Supporters’ AssociationManchester United are to tighten up identification spot-checks to ensure tickets for disabled fans do not fall into the wrong hands.The club have stressed that their No 1 priority for disabled supporters is to ensure only the appropriate people enter designated areas after a report in the Daily Mail claimed some fans were guilty of falsely gaining entry into disable
  
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• Hawaii to limit vacation rentals in response to tight housing market

  04-05-2024 15:16
  
  Last year’s deadly Maui wildfire revealed the extent of short-term rentals and their contribution to the state’s housing shortageHawaii lawmakers have voted to put limits on short-term rentals such as Airbnbs. On Friday, the governor, Josh Green, signed a bill that would give counties the power to regulate short-term rentals and even phase them out to become long-term housing for local residents.The move on short-term rentals was one of several legislative decisions to come out of Fr
  
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• Capacity crunch: why the UK doesn’t have the power to solve the housing crisis

  04-05-2024 15:00
  
  Our inadequate electricity network is stopping the building of thousands of new homes. And the necessary move to low-carbon heating and cars is only increasing demandOxford has a severe housing problem. With house prices 12 times the average salary, it has become one of the least affordable cities in the country. Its council house waiting list has grown to more than 3,000 households, with many having to live in temporary accommodation.An obvious solution is to build more homes, but those trying
  
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• Tories might not hold autumn statement pledging more tax cuts before election

  04-05-2024 14:00
  
  With public finances in a worse position than expected, chancellor Jeremy Hunt is considering pushing back further pledgesJeremy Hunt and his team are considering not holding another tax-cutting autumn statement before the next election, amid uncertainty about the public finances.The chancellor has already hinted that he plans to pledge further tax cuts – including another down payment on Rishi Sunak’s ambition to abolish national insurance – before a general election, which is
  
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• ‘There are so many benefits’: why more and more Britons are building a home sauna

  04-05-2024 12:00
  
  What was once a niche product is being embraced by more people. We examine the options at a range of pricesThey are de rigueur in Scandinavian and Nordic countries, with as many as one for every household in Finland, where the old saying goes: “First build the sauna, then the house”, and it appears Britons are now following suit. Google UK searches for “home sauna” rose by 84% between January and March 2024 and the same period in 2020, according to the marketing company S
  
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• Should the Bank of England cut interest rates with Britain’s economy in bloom?

  04-05-2024 12:00
  
  The UK is expected to come out of recession, but it would be wise not to expect a reduction any time soonIt would come as a shock to most economists if the Bank of England opted to cut interest rates at its policy meeting this week.Financial markets, which were baying for a cut last May, are these days betting that August or possibly September will be the point at which the Bank starts to lower interest rates from their current level of 5.25%. Continue reading...
  
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• Danger and opportunity for news industry as AI woos it for vital human-written copy

  04-05-2024 11:00
  
  With large language models needing quality data, some publishers are offering theirs at a price while others are blocking accessOpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, knows that high-quality data matters in the artificial intelligence business – and news publishers have vast amounts of it.“It would be impossible to train today’s leading AI models without using copyrighted materials,” the company said this year in a submission to the UK’s House of Lords, adding that limit
  
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• My two adult kids have had to move back home. Should I be charging them rent – and if so, how much? | Sue Elliott-Nicholls

  04-05-2024 10:00
  
  They face spiralling costs and insecure work, so I’m glad to help them. But I can’t afford the big rise in my cost of livingThank goodness for the “bank of mum and dad”: now there’s an expression to make me a bit sick in my mouth. I am the parent of two adult children who have moved back home in recent years because they can’t afford to rent somewhere to live. And they are not alone. In January, the Office for National Statistics reported that rental prices ha
  
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• VW owners claim ‘poor design’ left cars open to parts theft costing £1,600

  04-05-2024 09:00
  
  Cruise control sensors taken by thieves, forcing drivers to pay to replace them or face higher insurance premiumsVolkswagen owners targeted by thieves who have stolen cruise control sensors from cars across London are furious after discovering the car’s “poor design” that makes them so easy to steal is set to cost them £1,600 each.The sensors, which cost about £700 each, are fitted behind the VW badge, and appear to be a popular target for thieves. Continue reading.
  
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• Super-rich spending up to $500,000 on exclusive Paris Olympics packages

  04-05-2024 08:00
  
  Third-party hospitality packages are outlawed, yet agency part-owned by associates of Rafael Nadal and LeBron James promises access to top events as well as to starsMembers of the global super-rich are spending as much as $500,000 (£400,000) on “ultra-exclusive” packages for the Paris 2024 Olympics that promoters claim include meeting athletes, access to the athletes’ village and “the chance to be part of the opening ceremony”.GR8 Experience, an “interna
  
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