Financial news

• No work for me after training as a midwife | Letter

  28-03-2025 18:46 via theguardian.com
  
  Zoe Green says it is unethical to expect students to pay almost £10,000 and have little prospect of finding work, while the NHS continues to hire staff from abroad As a second-year midwifery student, I have been told by the NHS trust where I am placed that there will not be any jobs at the end of my three-year training due to high levels of international recruitment. I wrote to Wes Streeting’s health department back in October with my concerns and was told that “decisions about
  
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• ‘Down to the wire’: inside the UK’s crunch talks with the US as it bids to avoid Trump tariffs

  28-03-2025 18:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Ministers seek carve-out from import taxes before 2 April deadline – but critics believe they may have offered too many concessionsUK ministers and senior officials at every level are holding talks with US counterparts this weekend in a last-ditch effort to secure a carve-out from swingeing import taxes.Government sources said ministers were raising Donald Trump’s looming tariffs as the “No 1” issue in every conversation with the US. Continue reading...
  
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• Chief finance officer of under-fire Thames Water quits £1.3m-a-year role

  28-03-2025 17:41 via theguardian.com
  
  Alastair Cochran’s successor to be appointed ‘in due course’ at critical time for cash-strapped companyThames Water’s chief financial officer has quit his £1.3m-a-year job, the cash-strapped water company has announced.Alastair Cochran, who had also recently served as interim chief executive at Thames, will leave his role within days. His departure comes at a critical time for the UK’s largest water company amid close scrutiny of its fragile finances. Continue
  
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• Chelsea FC owner in talks over bid for the Daily Telegraph

  28-03-2025 17:24 via theguardian.com
  
  Todd Boehly is understood to be talking to David Montgomery, the executive chair of National WorldThe Chelsea FC owner and chair Todd Boehly is in talks over a bid for the Daily Telegraph, in a plan that has seen him team up with the Fleet Street veteran David Montgomery.Boehly is understood to be talking to Montgomery, the executive chair of National World and former boss of the parent of the Mirror, about mounting a bid, in an attempt to bring an end to two years of uncertainty over the newspa
  
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• My boss treats me like a lazy teenager. How can I set some boundaries? | Ask Annalisa Barbieri

  28-03-2025 15:30 via theguardian.com
  The sad truth is that most people with ‘bad bosses’ leave, but it’s early days and you want to make it work, so here are some options you could pursue• Every week Annalisa Barbieri addresses a relationship problem sent in by a readerI’ve recently shifted careers and started a new job in a big company, which is great in terms of salary and professional development. But as I approached the end of my trial period, my manager told me she’d taken a big gamble and pu
  
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• Santander eases mortgage rules so it can lend up to £35,000 more

  28-03-2025 14:36 via theguardian.com
  
  Bank cuts its stress testing rate for home buyers after FCA urged lenders not to be ‘unduly restricting’Business live – latest updatesOne of the UK’s largest mortgage lenders has relaxed its rules and will offer some borrowers up to £35,000 more to fund their home purchases.Santander said it had adjusted the way it calculated affordability, meaning many customers applying for a mortgage would be able to borrow between £10,000 and £35,000 more from Friday
  
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• Ofgem to crack down on energy suppliers that botch smart meter installations

  28-03-2025 14:17 via theguardian.com
  
  Millions of devices have been left to go into ‘dumb’ mode, where they stop automatically transmitting readingsThe energy regulator for Great Britain plans to crack down on suppliers that bungle smart meter installations after millions of the devices have been left to go into “dumb” mode, where they stop automatically transmitting readings.Ofgem said households that request a smart meter should have one fitted within six weeks, and if the installation failed they should au
  
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• The best cordless vacuum cleaners for a spotless home: 10 tried and tested favourites

  28-03-2025 14:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Stick vacuums are a convenient alternative to corded designs, but which model wins for overall cleaning prowess? Our expert reveals all• The best robot vacuums to keep your home clean and dust freeChoosing a cordless vacuum isn’t a decision that should be taken lightly. You’re likely to keep a vacuum cleaner for years, relying heavily on its ability to suck up dust, crumbs, mud, pet hair and any other dry spillages or sheddings that end up on your floor. Choosing the right model
  
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• Calvin Klein jeans for free! Branded clothes dumped in the desert snapped up on anti-fast fashion website

  28-03-2025 14:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Items taken from a mountain of discarded garments in the Atacama desertwere sold for the price of shipping in a fightback against the ‘racist and colonialist’ dumping of unwanted clothingEvery week, Bastián Barria ventures into the Atacama desert in northern Chile looking for items of discarded clothing in the sand. About half of the hundreds of garments he finds are in perfect condition. He collects what he can and adds them to the two-tonne pile of clothes he has stored at a
  
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• So many souvenirs for JD Vance to take home from Greenland: oil, gas, minerals – and that’s just the start | Marina Hyde

  28-03-2025 13:55 via theguardian.com
  
  The widely reviled veep and his wife may not see much of the island they’d like to annex, but the US military base will be lovely at this time of yearThere’s a Gerard Butler movie called Greenland, which – via a series of cataclysmic events handled incredibly Butlerishly – ends with Gerard cocooned in a remote secure bunker in Greenland. As the week has worn on, this has increasingly become the mood of today’s supposedly super-fun tourist trip to Greenland by the se
  
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• Retail sales in Great Britain given lift as shoppers splash out

  28-03-2025 12:21 via theguardian.com
  Sales volumes rise 1% in February after City economists had predicted fall amid weak consumer confidenceRetail sales in Great Britain rose last month amid a sharp increase in consumers spending at department stores, hardware shops and clothes outlets.Reflecting a stronger economic backdrop than feared, figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed sales volumes rose by 1% on the month, although spending at supermarkets fell after a bumper month in January. Continue reading...
  
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• Global anti-Elon Musk protests planned at nearly 200 Tesla showroom locations

  28-03-2025 11:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Tesla Takedown’s Global Day of Action will be the largest in a series of demonstrations that began after Trump term 2.0Hundreds of protests at Tesla showrooms are planned across the US and internationally on Saturday. Organizers have dubbed it Tesla Takedown’s Global Day of Action, the latest and largest in a series of demonstrations that began shortly after Donald Trump was inaugurated. Organizers say the rallies will take place in front of more than 200 Tesla locations worldwide, i
  
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• Fired corporate regulator sounds ‘blinking red alarm’ over apparent rise of billionaire power under Trump

  28-03-2025 11:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Alvaro Bedoya, who was involved in cases against firms such as Amazon, warns of apparent ‘quid pro quo’ dealsThe US is in the midst of an extraordinary battle between “the rule of law versus the rule of billionaires”, a top Democratic government official and attorney has warned, after his unprecedented firing by Donald Trump.Alvaro Bedoya, abruptly terminated as a commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) last week, sounded a “blinking red alarm” over
  
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• Heathrow boss: better power supply to avoid outage repeat could cost £1bn

  28-03-2025 10:30 via theguardian.com
  
  Airlines could face higher charges to help fund new system at airport, which was shut down by substation fireThe chief executive of Heathrow has said it could cost about £1bn to install a more resilient power supply system to prevent a repeat of the outage that shut Europe’s busiest airport last week, and that airlines could pay higher charges to help fund it.Thomas Woldbye, who has been criticised for going to bed on the night of the crisis so he could be “better rested”
  
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• WH Smith name to disappear from high street in agreed £76m sale to Modella

  28-03-2025 09:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Under terms of deal with Hobbycraft owner, 233-year-old brand will become TGJonesWhat does WH Smith’s new high street name TGJones actually mean?Business live – latest updatesWH Smith is to sell its 480 high street stores to the Hobbycraft owner, Modella Capital, in a deal worth £76m, and has confirmed that the 233-year-old brand will disappear from town centres after a “short transitional period”.Under the terms of the deal, the high street business, which employs
  
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• Homes for sale in foodie towns in England – in pictures

  28-03-2025 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Property to suit all tastes and budgets, from a terraced cottage in Essex to a manor house in Somerset Continue reading...
  
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• UK bill payers still vulnerable to another energy crisis, watchdog warns

  28-03-2025 07:00 via theguardian.com
  
  PAC says country still lacks safeguards to shield households facing ‘worryingly high’ energy debtsBritish bill payers remain exposed to another energy crisis while facing “worryingly high” energy debts and some of the highest electricity costs in the world, parliament’s spending watchdog has warned.The public accounts committee (PAC) said ministers had not put in place sufficient safeguards to shield households against another energy crisis or taken steps to permane
  
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• Which UK carmakers will be hit hardest by Trump’s latest import tariffs?

  28-03-2025 06:00 via theguardian.com
  
  Eight in 10 cars produced in Britain are exported, with high-end manufacturers much more reliant on the US marketThe UK’s automotive sector describes itself as “the engine room of Britain’s international trade”, boasting how it generates “£1 in every £8 the UK earns from exporting goods”.But the UK’s carmakers – including Jaguar and Land Rover owner JLR, the BMW-owned Rolls-Royce and Mini, and Aston Martin – are weighing up the po
  
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• End of an era for Canada-US ties, says PM Carney – video

  28-03-2025 05:32 via theguardian.com
  
  Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, has said the era of deep ties with the US 'is over', as governments — from Tokyo to Berlin and Paris — sharply criticise Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on car imports. 'We will respond forcefully,' Carney said. 'Nothing is off the table to defend our workers and our country.'End of an era for Canada-US ties, says Carney, as allies worldwide decry Trump’s car tariffs Continue reading...
  
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