Financial news

• BP ‘abandoning plan to cut oil output’ angers green groups

  07-10-2024 20:22 via theguardian.com
  
  Reports of strategy reset leave campaigners saying company is prioritising profits over planetGreen groups have reacted with fury to reports that BP has dropped a target to cut its oil output in the next five years, saying the company was prioritising profits over the health of the planet.Campaign groups including Greenpeace and Reclaim Finance slammed the move that would potentially result in the oil company scrapping its plan to reduce oil and gas output by 25% by 2030 under a strategy reset b
  
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• The Guardian view on privatised care failures: a service crying out for change | Editorial

  07-10-2024 20:00 via theguardian.com
  
  The poor record of for-profit care homes must lead to a rethink on how public services are organisedThe government has yet to respond in detail to the latest, shocking findings about the poor performance of for-profit social care providers, and what a report from Oxford University calls the “astounding pace” of children’s home privatisation. But the revelation that almost all the residential care settings forced to close by regulators in the 12 years to 2023 were privately run
  
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• Warren and Dean demand Coke, Pepsi and General Mills stop ‘shrinkflation’

  07-10-2024 19:59 via theguardian.com
  
  Democratic lawmakers accuse companies of shrinking product sizes while charging consumers the same priceIt’s becoming a common experience for Americans going to the grocery store: your bag of chips seems lighter, your favorite drink comes in a slimmer bottle, and you’re running out of laundry detergent more quickly than usual. And yet things are staying the same price.On Monday two Democratic lawmakers launched an attempt to get to the bottom of the phenomena, accusing three major co
  
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• TGI Fridays secures rescue deal but more than 1,000 UK jobs lost

  07-10-2024 18:46 via theguardian.com
  Private equity groups Calveton and Breal Capital to buy 51 restaurants, although 35 outlets will closeA rescue deal for the UK arm of TGI Fridays has been struck, with two private equity groups to buy 51 restaurants – although a further 35 outlets are to close with the loss of more than 1,000 jobs.Calveton UK and Breal Capital, which own upmarket restaurants including Le Pont de la Tour, Quaglino’s and Coq d’Argent, have bought 51 sites from the joint administrators Teneo, whic
  
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• Bet365: gambling with people’s lives for profit | Letters

  07-10-2024 18:46 via theguardian.com
  
  Readers including a Bet365 employee respond to an article on how its founder, Denise Coates, became Britain’s richest woman, and express concerns over the impact of its successAs an employee of Bet365 and native resident of Stoke-on-Trent, I was naturally attracted to your article on Denise Coates and her gambling empire (The ultimate gambler? How Denise Coates became Britain’s richest woman, 2 October). The success of the company presents an ethical quandary: do the taxes, the chari
  
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• Heat pump transition is nothing but a money grab | Letter

  07-10-2024 18:45
  
  Adam Halawi says the high quotes he got to install a heat pump made it much more expensive than a boiler, despite a higher government grantTim Bradley quite rightly wonders why heat pumps are so expensive in the UK (Letters, 1 October). He can’t be alone. The simple answer surely must be price gouging, partly due to the heat pump grant.I received two quotes from the same supplier for the same house, one with a £5,000 grant and another with the new higher £7,500 grant. The first
  
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• Telegraph takeover: ‘concern’ in newsroom over Dovid Efune talks

  07-10-2024 17:57 via theguardian.com
  New York Sun owner’s hardline stance about Middle East prompts fears over editorial independenceConcern is mounting across the Telegraph newsroom over the threat to editorial impartiality and influence, as the New York Sun owner, Dovid Efune, is poised to enter exclusive talks to buy the Daily and Sunday Telegraph.British-born Efune regularly posts hardline views about the situation in the Middle East, sparking alarm among staff as it looks increasingly likely that he will become their new
  
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• Euston is a problem without a good solution | Nils Pratley

  07-10-2024 17:30 via theguardian.com
  
  The final irony of the HS2 fiasco would be the next blueprint for the station looking like the one rejected as unaffordable in 2020Prepare for the next instalment of the great HS2 fiasco. Stories suggest the chancellor is preparing to shuffle the off-balance sheet financing deck, find £1bn-plus and give a thumbs up to start boring the tunnel from Old Oak Common to Euston. That decision will be motivated mainly by the sense that the high-speed line, already stripped of its northern legs by
  
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• Martin Lewis urges state pensioners 'make one phone call' for £11,600 handout

  07-10-2024 17:01 via express.co.uk
  
  Martin Lewis says state pensioners should make a phone call and get as much as £11,600 this winter.
  
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• Woman has stunt rider job application returned 48 years later

  07-10-2024 16:56
  
  Application returned with handwritten note saying it had been found behind a post office drawerA woman in Lincolnshire has had her application for her dream job as a stunt rider returned 48 years after applying for the role.Tizi Hodson, 70, from Gedney Hill, opened the post to find a letter she had sent applying for to be a motorcycle stunt rider in January 1976, with a note explaining it had been stuck behind a post office drawer ever since. Continue reading...
  
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• Credit card users warned over purchases under £100

  07-10-2024 16:55 via express.co.uk
  
  Many people use credit cards for better protection on certain transactions, but there are some rules you need to be aware of.
  
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• DWP to send text message warnings benefits claimants over ‘earnings limit’

  07-10-2024 16:53 via express.co.uk
  
  The DWP could start texting people over their benefits earnings limit
  
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• Reeves opts to not raise tax on pension contributions in October budget

  07-10-2024 16:25
  
  Public sector unions had warned rise would hurt their members, erasing pay increases government has just agreedRachel Reeves has decided not to raise tax on pensions contributions in this month’s budget, after public sector unions warned that doing so would hurt their members.The chancellor is understood to have decided against the move, which had been considered as one of a number of tax rises designed to repair the hole in the public finances. Continue reading...
  
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• Labour plotting stealth tax raid on pensions – but there's one thing it will never do

  07-10-2024 16:17 via express.co.uk
  
  As the autumn Budget looms, PM Keir Starmer and chancellor Rachel Reeves have got their greedy eyes on our pension savings. But there's one line they won't cross.
  
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• Inheritance problem could leave beneficiaries 'waiting years' expert warns

  07-10-2024 15:50 via express.co.uk
  
  One expert is warning Brits against three common mistakes people make when it comes to inheritance, which could see them waiting years
  
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• Every handout state pensioners can claim in October after losing £300 Winter Fuel Payment

  07-10-2024 15:45 via express.co.uk
  
  While some payments are made to state pensioners automatically, others will need to be claimed.
  
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• ‘Doesn’t feel fair’: young Britons lament losing right to work in EU since Brexit

  07-10-2024 14:48
  
  Once seen as a rite of passage, seasonal jobs in the rest of Europe are off limits for many – but some still make it workGrowing up near the Peak District in Glossop, Derbyshire, gave 18-year-old Seb Kinsey a passion for geography, geology and the outdoors. After finishing his A-levels this summer, and before heading to university, Kinsey sought to take a gap year working in the French Alps.“I’m fortunate enough to have been skiing before, and that was my dream – to go in
  
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• I followed simple Martin Lewis tip and saved £423 - and it only takes minutes

  07-10-2024 14:35 via express.co.uk
  
  As the cost of living continues to rise, everyone is looking for ways to cut costs - and Martin Lewis' MoneySavingExpert tips are a great place to start
  
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• State Pension National Insurance deadline issued to get £328 extra a year

  07-10-2024 14:32 via express.co.uk
  
  Paying £907.48 to cover one year of missed NI payments will boost the annual pension by some £328.64, which rises in line with inflation.
  
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• Martin Lewis issues £79,000 warning to state pensioners born in these years

  07-10-2024 14:13 via express.co.uk
  
  Martin Lewis says time is running out for state pensioners born in these years who could be missing out on as much as £79,300.
  
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• How new rules to protect the victims of text and email fraud will work

  07-10-2024 10:00 via theguardian.com
  As push payment fraud balloons, a scheme is coming into force to help those tricked by criminals’ increasingly sophisticated tacticsCriminals who targeted Françoise Schorosch’s father knew how to lull the elderly man into a false sense of security. “The sender of the email was someone impersonating me and asking for money,” she says.By mimicking how his daughter opens and signs off emails in German, but otherwise writes mostly in English, the fraudsters led him to
  
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• UK house prices rise for third month in a row to near record high

  07-10-2024 09:24 via theguardian.com
  
  Halifax says rising pay and falling interest rates help make mortgages more affordable for some homebuyersBusiness live – latest updatesUK house prices climbed for the third month in a row in September to about £100 short of a record high as rising worker pay and falling interest rates helped make mortgages more affordable for some homebuyers, according to a leading index.Data released by Halifax, Britain’s biggest mortgage lender, showed that prices climbed by 0.3% last month,
  
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• Tipping culture is annoying, unfair and worst of all American – and now it’s coming to Paris | Alexander Hurst

  07-10-2024 08:00
  
  In the US, I was asked to tip after buying a single banana. To my horror, tip-creep is spreading in French bars and restaurantsAs an American living in Paris, I’m not exactly sure when I first started having moments of culture shock on my visits back to the US. But there are two American practices that I now find irritate me no end: sales tax not being included in the sticker price of items, and tipping. (OK, three if you count non-detachable shower heads.)In fact, Americans on the whole,
  
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• BA ruined a £13,000 trip to St Lucia for my grieving daughters

  07-10-2024 08:00 via theguardian.com
  After the death of my wife, the luxury holiday was to help after a tough time, but we didn’t get what we paid forMy wife died late last year. As it has been such a tough time for me and my two young daughters, I decided to take the three of us on a really special holiday in July. After an extensive search I paid more than £13,000 for 12 nights in a penthouse suite in a resort in St Lucia, via British Airways.We arrived to be told by the resort that no penthouses were available due to
  
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• Post Office Horizon IT inquiry: the issues that CEO Nick Read needs to explain

  07-10-2024 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Outgoing boss faces three days of testimony from Wednesday into Horizon IT scandal and culture of Post OfficeThis week is set to be the most keenly watched of the final phase of the long-running public inquiry into the Horizon IT scandal and the state and culture of the Post Office.Nick Read, the outgoing chief executive of the Post Office, will give three days of testimony from Wednesday amounting to a grilling by counsel for the inquiry of about 16 hours. Continue reading...
  
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