Financial news

• US parents: how much do you spend on childcare?

  14-02-2025 23:32 via theguardian.com
  Childcare costs in the US are soaring, and families are under increasing financial stress. We want to hear from youChildcare is one of the biggest expenses for families – often surpassing what they pay for rent.In Washington DC, for example, the average annual cost of infant care tops $24,000, according to the Economic Policy Institute, more than a quarter of the median family income and more than three-quarters of a full-time minimum wage salary there. It’s also nearly five times th
  
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• Be in the market to spot a real bargain | Letter

  14-02-2025 19:21 via theguardian.com
  Market trader Andrew Spooner says secondhand buyers should bear in mind the time traders spend sourcing and authenticating goodsAs a street market trader at Portobello market, London, I thought the trader’s perspective might be of interest regarding your article (Barter, bid and bag a bargain! Vintage experts on 21 ways to buy secondhand treasures, 13 February).Your guide is spot-on with the tip that, if you are a buyer, being polite and friendly is always the way to go. Also, if you find
  
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• ‘Crystal Methodist’ fails to show for Manchester sentencing hearing

  14-02-2025 17:38 via theguardian.com
  Judge issues arrest warrant for disgraced former cleric and ex Co-operative Bank boss Paul FlowersA judge has issued an arrest warrant for a disgraced former church minister and banking group boss who acquired the nickname “Crystal Methodist”.Paul Flowers, 74, was due to be sentenced for fraud at Manchester crown court but failed to turn up. Continue reading...
  
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• Vivienne Westwood fashion house faces questions over homophobic bullying claims against CEO

  14-02-2025 16:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Exclusive: Independent investigation in 2023 upheld five allegations against Carlo D’Amario, the Guardian understandsFrom her 1975 “gay cowboys” T-shirt to pioneering catwalk collections that challenged gender norms, the late Vivienne Westwood has long been heralded as an LGBT+ icon.But the fashion house she built over five decades faces serious questions about whether the late designer’s values have endured, after allegations about homophobic bullying by its chief execut
  
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• Why are diversity, equity and inclusion policies in the news?

  14-02-2025 16:05 via theguardian.com
  
  Many large US corporates including Google, Amazon and Walmart have scaled back DEI after Trump push within governmentCo-op: ditching diversity policies ‘risks undoing decades of progress’Last month Donald Trump signed a slew of executive orders overturning diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes in the federal government, signalling a backlash against measures to help underrepresented groups.Since then many large US corporates have followed suit and announced they are droppi
  
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• What is the DEI rollback and where will it spread next?

  14-02-2025 16:05 via theguardian.com
  Which US firms have ditched the diversity and inclusion policies opposed by Donald Trump and will UK follow suit?Co-op: ditching diversity policies ‘risks undoing decades of progress’Last month Donald Trump signed a slew of executive orders overturning diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes in the federal government, in a backlash against measures to help underrepresented groups.Since then, many large US corporates have followed suit and announced they are dropping or overh
  
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• Uniqlo’s Kendrick Lamar coup is part of effort to be a serious fashion force

  14-02-2025 16:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Super Bowl appearance continues the retailer’s vibe shift from slightly boring staples into a raved-about brandAlmost a week on from the Super Bowl, Kendrick Lamar’s half-time performance is still being talked about. In particular, the pair of boot-cut jeans worn by the American rapper as he commanded the stage. But while those came from the luxury fashion brand Celine and cost £830, the scores of backup dancers surrounding him wore a high street label – to be precise, &p
  
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• Arm looks to launch its own chip after landing Meta contract

  14-02-2025 15:42 via theguardian.com
  
  Plan represents move away from SoftBank-owned group licensing its chip blueprints to firms such as Apple and NvidiaThe British semiconductor designer Arm is reportedly planning to launch its own chip this year, after landing Meta as one of its first customers.The move represents a major overhaul of the SoftBank-owned group’s business model of licensing its chip blueprints to the likes of Apple and Nvidia. Continue reading...
  
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• UK could face Trump VAT tariff hit; pound hits 2025 high – business live

  14-02-2025 15:27 via theguardian.com
  Live, rolling coverage of business, economics and financial markets as sterling rises on surprisingly weak US retail sales and Thames Water appeals to raise bills furtherCustomers will be “incensed” that Thames Water has asked to raise bills further, according to the official advocate for water consumers’ rights.Mike Keil, chief executive of the Consumer Council for Water (CCW), said:Customers of Thames Water are already facing steep bill rises and they will be incensed the com
  
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• Royal Society urged to expel Elon Musk as fellows sign open letter

  14-02-2025 14:42 via theguardian.com
  
  More than 1,700 academics complain about X owner’s behaviour, citing his ‘assault on scientific research’Pressure is growing on the Royal Society to expel Elon Musk from its fellowship after more than a thousand scientists signed an open letter expressing dismay at its lack of action on the matter.Musk, who owns the social media platform X, leads the US “department of government efficiency” (Doge). He was elected a fellow of the UK’s national academy of scienc
  
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• Sound investment: John Lewis teams up with Rough Trade to sell vinyl

  14-02-2025 14:26 via theguardian.com
  Decision to stock records in some stores and also sell online dovetails with rising demand for turntables in its shopsA lot of adjectives have been used to describe the middle-class favourite John Lewis but rock’n’roll is probably not one, until now. The department store chain is teaming up with the indie music retailer Rough Trade to sell records.In doing so it becomes the latest big high street name to bring back vinyl as Britons swap Spotify playlists for the crackle and warmth of
  
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• No 10 cleaning and catering staff to begin month-long strike over pay

  14-02-2025 14:10 via theguardian.com
  
  Union also wants government to take workers on to staff and end outsourced contracts• UK politics live – latest updatesDowning Street could become a notably less appealing place to work in the coming weeks, with cleaners and catering staff at No 10 scheduled to begin a month-long continuous strike over pay and conditions.The strike, scheduled to last from 24 February to 25 March in No 10 and the Cabinet Office, is an extension of a wider dispute that has already taken place in a serie
  
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• ‘Butter is a perception’: inside the UK’s first plant-based Michelin-starred restaurant

  14-02-2025 14:05 via theguardian.com
  Plates in east London is a meat and dairy-free space, but its chef and owner hates the word ‘vegan’Kirk Haworth, the owner and head chef of the east London restaurant Plates, hates the word vegan. “At least seeing the word on a menu,” he says. “​Plant-based cooking ​i​s not a trend. Not for me, anyway. I’ve been doing it for eight years and it’s just in my soul now.” And yet this week, Haworth became the first UK chef to win a Mic
  
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• UK could face 24% tariffs if Trump adds VAT retaliation on top – business live

  14-02-2025 13:10 via theguardian.com
  
  Live, rolling coverage of business, economics and financial markets as markets calm despite tariff threat and Thames Water appeals to raise bills furtherCustomers will be “incensed” that Thames Water has asked to raise bills further, according to the official advocate for water consumers’ rights.Mike Keil, chief executive of the Consumer Council for Water (CCW), said:Customers of Thames Water are already facing steep bill rises and they will be incensed the company now has the
  
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• Trump thinks antagonising China will help save the US economy. He couldn’t be more wrong | Melanie Brusseler

  14-02-2025 13:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Politicians believe tariffs will revive a lost era of American manufacturing. But they won’t improve people’s everyday livesDonald Trump appears to be testing the boundaries of the power he can accumulate and then exert upon his allies, with a singular ambition: to coerce them into submitting to US supremacy. Though the president temporarily walked back his threat to unleash severe universal tariffs on Mexico and Canada, he has since imposed 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminium imp
  
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• NatWest wants to raise CEO’s maximum pay by more than 40%

  14-02-2025 12:10 via theguardian.com
  Paul Thwaite could earn up to £7.7m, and move comes as bank prepares to return to full private ownershipNatWest wants to increase its chief executive’s maximum pay by more than 40%, as the banking group prepares to return to full private ownership 17 years after it was bailed out by taxpayers during the 2008 financial crisis.The high street lender, previously known as Royal Bank of Scotland, paid its chief executive, Paul Thwaite, £4.9m in his first full year in the role in 202
  
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• ‘No one wants to pay $25 for breakfast’: US restaurants are cracking under inflation

  14-02-2025 12:00 via theguardian.com
  
  It’s not just eggs, but coffee, orange juice and bacon, making life especially hard for diners, bakeries and brunch spotsMost menu items at the popular Philadelphia breakfast chain Green Eggs Cafe are – true to its name – made with eggs.Co-owner Stephen Slaughter said that about 90% of its dishes depend on eggs, ticking off a short list: “Our French toast, our pancake batters, our hollandaise sauce, obviously eggs and omelets.” So when his vendors started charging $
  
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• Nationwide issues £1,200 warning to all members

  14-02-2025 11:35 via express.co.uk
  
  Nationwide has said many people could be left out of pocket if they don't act accordingly.
  
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• Wheated Shreds: a short history of knock-off cereal brands – the Stephen Collins cartoon

  14-02-2025 11:30 via theguardian.com
  
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• British Gas, Octopus, EON and EDF customers given £338 after daily fee axed

  14-02-2025 11:29 via express.co.uk
  
  UK households could slash hundreds of pounds off their energy bills on certain tariffs.
  
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• Thames Water launches appeal for permission to raise bills even higher

  14-02-2025 10:45 via theguardian.com
  
  Struggling firm to appeal to CMA to increase water bills by more than Ofwat-approved 35% over next five yearsBusiness live – latest updatesThames Water is to appeal to the UK’s competition regulator to be allowed to raise customers’ bills over the next five years even higher than previously granted.The water company, which serves 16 million customers in London and south-east England, will ask the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for permission to raise bills from 2025 to
  
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• UK watchdog proposes sweeping changes for baby formula industry

  14-02-2025 09:49 via theguardian.com
  
  Suggestions include standardised packaging in hospitals to tackle power of branding but CMA decides against price capBaby formula could be placed in standardised packaging in hospitals, the UK competition watchdog has suggested, while parents should be allowed to use gift vouchers and loyalty card points to buy formula milk, as part of efforts to combat soaring prices and lack of choice in the market.Labelling of infant formula in hospitals or other healthcare locations should be standardised, t
  
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• Savings provider launches 'excellent' account paying £458 interest

  14-02-2025 09:00 via express.co.uk
  
  The savings account is aimed at those with larger deposits to invest.
  
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• Thames Water to appeal to competition regulator for even higher bills – business live

  14-02-2025 08:23 via theguardian.com
  Live, rolling coverage of business, economics and financial markets as struggling UK water company says it needs more money for investmentGood morning, and welcome to our live coverage of business, economics and financial markets.Thames Water has said it will appeal to the UK’s competition regulator to ask to raise bills even higher than previously granted, a in a move likely to prove controversial with politicians and campaigners.We have taken the decision to refer our final determination
  
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• ‘Prints don’t lie’: a platinum printer’s craft – in pictures

  14-02-2025 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Photographer Christopher Thomond joins artisan printer Robert Aguilar to find out how he creates platinum palladium prints as he makes one of Alford Gardner, the Windrush pioneer who died in 2024, aged 98 Continue reading...
  
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• I met the ‘godfathers of AI’ in Paris – here’s what they told me to really worry about | Alexander Hurst

  14-02-2025 08:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Experts are split between concerns about future threats and present dangers. Both camps issued dire warningsI was a technophile in my early teenage days, sometimes wishing that I had been born in 2090, rather than 1990, so that I could see all the incredible technology of the future. Lately, though, I’ve become far more sceptical about whether the technology that we interact with most is really serving us – or whether we are serving it.So when I got an invitation to attend a conferen
  
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• Homes for sale in England with links to TV and film – in pictures

  14-02-2025 08:00 via theguardian.com
  From the country home of Oscar-nominated actor Sir John Hurt to a London street that featured in EastEnders and James Bond Continue reading...
  
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• TikTok returns to Apple App Store and Google Play in US

  14-02-2025 07:45 via theguardian.com
  Chinese social media platform again available for download in US as Donald Trump continues to mull its future there amid security concernsTikTok returned to the US app stores of Apple and Google on Thursday as President Donald Trump delayed a ban on the Chinese-owned social media app and assured the tech giants they would not be fined for distributing or maintaining it.The popular short video app used by nearly half of all Americans went dark briefly last month, before a law took effect on 19 Ja
  
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• Japan releases 200,000 tonnes of emergency rice stockpile as prices soar

  14-02-2025 07:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Agriculture minister says rising prices have ‘had a significant impact on people’s lives’ amid record heat, surges in demand and distribution problemsJapan is to flood the market with almost a quarter of a million tonnes of stockpiled rice in an unprecedented attempt to arrest soaring prices caused by record summer heat, panic buying and distribution problems.The government will release up to 210,000 tonnes of rice, the agriculture minister, Taku Eto, said on Friday, as consume
  
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• Pensioners hit with £7,550 warning as Hargreaves Lansdown issues urgent alert

  14-02-2025 07:06 via express.co.uk
  
  Sales of annuities, which offer people to use their pension pots to buy an income for life, have skyrocketed by 24% in the last year.
  
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• James Bond in battle to keep hold of 007 super spy’s name

  14-02-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Exclusive: Dubai-based property developer is challenging trademark registrations, including the saying ‘Bond, James Bond’ The owners of the multibillion-pound James Bond franchise are embroiled in a fight to keep control of the super spy’s name, after a Dubai-based property developer filed claims in the UK and Europe that they are not using the trademark across a range of goods and services.The Austrian businessman Josef Kleindienst, who is building a $5bn luxury resort complex
  
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• ‘It’s hard to survive’: why UK private hire drivers are striking on Valentine’s Day

  14-02-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  About 200 drivers got in touch with the Guardian to share their views on the industrial actionWhen Simon Waite began working as a private hire driver in 2017, it gave him the flexibility and income to spend time with his children, then aged five, 12 and 18. “One of the reasons I loved Uber was because I could now go to the school plays, my son’s football, I could earn my money around life,” he says.But over the past few years, Waite, a 41-year-old in Hertfordshire, says he has
  
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• EVs and datacentres driving new global ‘age of electricity’, says watchdog

  14-02-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Forecast for rising global electricity use likely to stoke fears of rising costs and stalled efforts to fight climate crisisThe world’s electricity use will grow every year by more than the amount consumed annually by Japan because of a surge in electric transport, air conditioning and datacentres, according to the world’s energy watchdog.The International Energy Agency has raised its predictions for the world’s rising demand for electricity, pegging the growth at almost 4% a y
  
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• Angela Rayner insists workers’ rights package is ringfenced

  14-02-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Deputy prime minister dismisses suggestions of Labour rift, saying employment protections will boost growthAngela Rayner has insisted Labour’s flagship package of workers’ rights will be ringfenced from a bonfire of regulation being pursued by the government to reboot economic growth.The deputy prime minister said that company bosses who were critical of the proposals needed to “get on board” because bolstering employment protections was good for workers and growing the e
  
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• Global disunity, energy concerns and the shadow of Musk: key takeaways from the Paris AI summit

  14-02-2025 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  AI Action Summit ends with US vice-president criticising European regulation and warning against cooperation with ChinaPolitical and business leaders descended on Paris this week for the third annual artificial intelligence summit with the technology causing tensions across the globe.Emmanuel Macron, who opened the summit with a montage of deepfakes of himself, acknowledged AI’s potential to “disrupt”. A day later, the schism threatened by the rapidly developing technology was
  
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• Thousands on Universal Credit could be owed £5,000 in compensation

  14-02-2025 05:56 via express.co.uk
  
  A legal challenge against the Department for Work and Pensions has resulted in the Universal Credit claimants receiving a significant payout
  
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• DWP is using AI to check applications for these benefits

  14-02-2025 04:12 via express.co.uk
  
  Claimed by millions, Universal Credit and PIP are among the key benefits designed to support those in financial hardship or with long-term disabilities.
  
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• Warning to anyone listening to voicemails while on holiday

  14-02-2025 04:00 via express.co.uk
  
  Catching up on voicemails while you are abroad may seem like an obvious thing to do - but phone users are being warned to think before they dial.
  
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• Finance expert warns mistake at 55 could leave retirees 'running out of cash in old age'

  14-02-2025 04:00 via express.co.uk
  
  Short-term tax-savings could be leading people to make a major mistake just before they retire
  
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• Ofgem warning to 600,000 energy customers over major changes to electricity meters

  14-02-2025 02:49 via express.co.uk
  
  Energy regulator Ofgem has confirmed that Radio Teleswitch Service meters will be shut down across the UK in a few months
  
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