Financial news

• World needs economic stability after a tough few years, but if Trump wins we’re unlikely to get it | Larry Elliott

  16-07-2024 17:56
  
  The attempt on the former president’s life may well result in a new era of trade tariffs, protectionism and a weak dollarOpinion polls conducted since the weekend suggest Donald Trump’s narrow escape from the attempt on his life in Pennsylvania has made his return to the White House more likely. Until now, little attention has been paid to what Trump 2.0 would mean for the US and wider global economy. That will now change.What the world needs is a period of stability after the repeat
  
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• Microsoft deal with AI startup to be investigated by UK competition watchdog

  16-07-2024 17:48
  CMA ‘has enough evidence’ to start full probe into tech giant’s hiring of Inflection’s top staffThe Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has launched a full investigation into Microsoft’s deal with AI startup Inflection.Earlier this year, Mustafa Suleyman – who started Inflection in January 2022, two months after leaving Google – and a number of his colleagues were hired by Microsoft to lead the tech company’s new AI division. At the same time,
  
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• Southern Water boss handed £183,000 bonus despite huge rise in bills

  16-07-2024 17:22
  
  Award for Lawrence Gosden comes after criticism of business plan and attempts to increase bills by 73%Every water firm in England and Wales under investigation over sewage spillsThe chief executive of Southern Water has received a £183,000 bonus despite submitting a business plan that has been criticised by the industry regulator and attempting to raise bills more than any other English water company.Lawrence Gosden received the bonus as part of a £764,000 pay package, up from £
  
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• Cumbria project will be ‘net zero’, coalmine firm tells high court

  16-07-2024 16:58
  
  Company insists project should go ahead despite new government saying it had been unlawfully approvedThe company behind the first new coalmine in the UK for 30 years has argued in the high court on Tuesday that it would be a “unique net zero” mine.West Cumbria Mining (WCM) continued to defend the legality of its mine, which will produce 60m tonnes of coking coal in its lifetime, in the court days after the government said its planning permission was unlawful because it had not taken
  
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• UK interest rates will stay high unless service sector inflation falls, says IMF

  16-07-2024 15:29
  
  Warning comes as Bank of England policymakers say price growth in service sector could become embeddedLarry Elliott: World needs economic stability, but if Trump wins we’re unlikely to get itThe UK faces the prospect of interest rates being higher for longer unless there is more progress in reducing service sector inflation, the International Monetary Fund has warned.While the Washington-based IMF nudged up its 2024 growth forecasts for the UK, it identified the stickiness of price growth
  
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• From magic acts to Goldman Sachs and beyond: the US finance whiz helping kickstart UK growth

  16-07-2024 15:00
  
  Tracy Blackwell, boss of the Pension Insurance Corporation, has worked her way from up Baskin-Robbins and survived a shipwreck disaster (for her possessions), to lead a company set to work closely with the new chancellorShortly before Christmas 1997, Tracy Blackwell found herself in New York with nothing but two suitcases and the sinking feeling that she would have to make another fresh start. At 30, she had just moved there from London with her employer, Goldman Sachs. And while she safely made
  
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• Ocado shares jump as it narrows losses and boosts technology business

  16-07-2024 14:38
  Revenues from tech arm, which sells robots to retailers, climbed by nearly 22% in six months to JuneShares in Ocado jumped by as much as 18% after the UK online grocer reported narrowing losses and raised its annual guidance for its technology arm, which sells warehouse robots to other retailers around the world.Technology revenues climbed by nearly 22% year on year in the six months to 2 June, while retail revenues were also up by 11%. Ocado sells groceries in the UK through its joint venture w
  
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• Biden housing plan seeks to curb rent increases by penalizing landlords

  16-07-2024 11:30
  
  President to unveil rent control plan for larger landlords that would restrict increases to 5%, or risk losing tax breaksPresident Joe Biden wants to curb rent increases by penalizing landlords who hike rents beyond 5% each year, but he needs the help of Congress to put the plan into action.The Biden administration will announce the idea in Nevada on Tuesday along with a host of other housing-related policies, including an influx of funds to add more housing in Nevada and elsewhere and a plan to
  
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• Woman wins payout after boss coughed in her face during Covid pandemic

  16-07-2024 09:02
  
  Judge says Kevin Davies, father of Wales rugby star, set out to ‘ridicule and intimidate’ former employeeAn employer has been told to pay more than £26,000 to a former worker for deliberately coughing in her face during the Covid pandemic.Kevin Davies – the father of the Wales rugby player Gareth Davies – set out to “ridicule and intimidate” the woman over her health concerns, a tribunal heard. Continue reading...
  
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• Debt collectors are chasing my 84-year-old mother over a water bill

  16-07-2024 08:00
  
  Water Plus wants £500 it says a tiny Methodist church in Cheshire owesI’m the treasurer of a tiny Methodist church in Cheshire and have been trying to contact Water Plus for several months about our estimated bill. It did not respond and now debt collectors are chasing my 84-year-old mother to pay £500.I contacted the company in early April because the chapel did not have enough money in its current account to pay a £180 bill. The chapel is only used twice a month from Ma
  
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• Will heat pumps cause blackouts?

  16-07-2024 07:00
  
  In the latest in our series, we look at claims heat pumps will cause a risky surge in electricity demand Will my heat pump be a noise nuisance to my neighbours?Will I need to spend a lot insulating my home to get a heat pump?Can heat pumps be installed in older properties?Do heat pumps work at freezing temperaturesAre heat pumps more expensive to run than gas boilers?The pathway to meeting the world’s climate targets is electric: fossil fuel boilers and vehicles will make way for electric
  
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• UK ready to build ‘closer, more mature’ trade links with EU

  16-07-2024 06:00
  
  New business secretary set to tell international counterparts at G7 meeting ‘Britain is back on world stage’ Britain is taking its first steps towards forging closer trading links with the EU in meetings between the new business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, and international counterparts in Italy.In his first overseas visit since Labour’s election landslide, Reynolds will tell a G7 meeting of trade ministers in the Italian city of Reggio Calabria that the new UK government wan
  
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• The secret social housing scandal: when your parent dies – and you are evicted in days | Kwajo Tweneboa

  16-07-2024 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  It doesn’t get more morally wrong than losing a parent and immediately being made homeless, but surprising numbers of young people are affected. It is time to end this gross injusticeIn 2022 I was contacted by a friend of a friend – let’s call her Tiana – who was distraught. Her mum had become sick a few months earlier, so Tiana, who was her mum’s only child, had moved out of her own house and into her mum’s flat in south London, to care for her. Then, in Marc
  
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• Can the climate survive AI’s thirst for energy? – podcast

  16-07-2024 06:00
  Artificial intelligence companies have lofty ambitions for what the technology could achieve, from curing diseases to eliminating poverty. But the energy required to power these innovations is threatening critical environmental targets.Madeleine Finlay hears from the Guardian’s energy correspondent, Jillian Ambrose, and UK technology editor, Alex Hern, to find out how big AI’s energy problem is, and whether it can be solved before it is too late Continue reading...
  
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• Elon Musk reportedly plans to give $45m a month to pro-Trump Super Pac

  16-07-2024 04:17
  
  Tech billionaire to donate extraordinary monthly sum to group focused on helping Trump win election, report saysElon Musk has said he plans to give $45m a month to a Super Pac focused on electing Donald Trump, starting in July, the Wall Street Journal has reported.The tech billionaire, who endorsed Trump two days ago, has already donated what was described as “a sizable amount” to the America Pac, though the actual amount of the donation will not be made public in election filings un
  
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