Financial news

• The Observer view on poverty: promises won’t get children off the breadline | Editorial

  19-04-2025 20:30 via theguardian.com
  It’s not good enough for Labour to say that there’s no money to tackle the problem – raising taxes risks losing a few votes but for the greater goodOne of the crowning achievements of the last Labour government was a significant reduction in child poverty. This was achieved not only by supporting more parents into work, but through significantly increasing the generosity of financial support paid by the state to low-income parents. Today, that ambitious New Labour goal to
  
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• It’s not poverty that’s breeding the new populism. It’s wealth | Phillip Inman

  19-04-2025 16:00 via theguardian.com
  Analysts trace a link between financial security and a troubling, increasingly devil-may-care, attitude to political risk Steve Coogan wants ­people to see his new film, The Penguin Lessons, and think about how they might be living in a wealthy cocoon, disengaged from the world.The film’s central character – a Briton teaching expat children in Argentina – rescues a penguin and tries to help local people persecuted by the rightwing government. Re-enacting a true story, Cooga
  
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• US chocolate prices surge amid soaring cocoa costs and tariffs

  19-04-2025 12:00
  
  Price of cocoa – chocolate’s key ingredient – has climbed over past year and tariffs on imports will keep prices highFor many Americans celebrating Easter, the holiday is incomplete without chocolate: chocolate bunnies and eggs, bars tucked into Easter baskets, candy hidden in plastic eggs for Easter egg hunts.But the rocketing cocoa costs will mean higher prices for chocolate candy this year, and Donald Trump’s tariffs on all imports will likely keep prices high for the
  
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• ‘I’d named my autistic son in my will – I didn’t realise that would only cause problems’

  19-04-2025 12:00
  
  In this extract from her book, Rhiannon Gogh says parents often aren’t aware specialist planning is needed if you leave money to a vulnerable dependantAs parents to an autistic son, my husband and I found it hard to accept his diagnosis. Developmental milestones were missed, and the difference between Tristan and others became stark. It could not be ignored, denied or explained away – our beautiful son was profoundly autistic.Tristan was offered a place at a school for children
  
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• Carrot-shaped lights, bunny wreaths and beauty boxes – forget Easter, welcome to 'Eastermas' | Amelia Tait

  19-04-2025 10:00
  
  Social media is turning the spring festival into yet another opportunity for lavish spending. What’s in your #EasterBasket? As a child, I was keenly aware of the inequitable practices of the tooth fairy, Santa Claus and the so-called Easter Bunny. How could it be that my teeth were less valuable than Abbie Smith-Arthur’s? Why was my stocking sock-sized, and the Walter boys next door had novelty sacks the size of their sofa? For what reason did I get but one big Easter egg, and Bethan
  
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• UK banks expected to win shareholder approval for big pay rises for bosses

  19-04-2025 09:00
  
  Proxy advisory firms back plans for hikes in maximum payouts 18 months after removal of banker bonus capUK banks are expected to win approval for massive pay increases in the coming weeks after convincing influential shareholder advisers that hiking maximum payouts for chief executives by more than 40% would give them a competitive edge.ISS and Glass Lewis, two prominent proxy advisory services that suggest how shareholders should vote on company policies at annual meeting, have backed NatWest,
  
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• Peri-peri patron: how Nando’s amassed a huge collection of South African art

  19-04-2025 09:00
  
  Chicken chain has been buying up art since 2004, which it displays on walls of its restaurantsOn a weekday lunchtime the Nando’s restaurant in Maponya Mall in Soweto, the sprawling former Black township on Johannesburg’s outskirts, was busy with couples, white-collar workers and older women dining alone. Behind them, a vivid graffiti portrait of a young Black woman filled the wall.The mural, by the Cape Town artist Kilmany-Jo Liversage, is part of one of the largest private art colle
  
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• No Glastonbury 2025 ticket? Here’s how to still find the party

  19-04-2025 08:00
  
  Europe and the UK have stacks of festivals for all tastes and budgets, from free or low-budget bashes to high-end eventsThose who missed out in the Glastonbury tickets scrum last November have two more chances to strike it lucky next week when the official resales take place. On Thursday 24 April, at 6pm, tickets with coach travel will go on sale, while from 9am on Sunday 27 April general admission tickets are up for grabs.These are tickets bought by people who can no longer attend or who were u
  
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• Gangnam Style to Baby Shark: YouTube’s 20 greatest viral hits

  19-04-2025 08:00
  
  After two decades of video sensations, here’s a reminder of the streaming platform’s most unforgettable clips – year by yearFrom weird elephant videos to revolutionising TV: 20 years of YouTubeYouTube is 20 years old. Although video had existed online before, YouTube’s ease of use – for the first time sites could easily embed video into their content – made it revolutionary. As such, we now live in a world where people watch more YouTube than anything else. Bu
  
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• Could Trump’s tariffs give a green light for corporate profiteering?

  19-04-2025 07:00
  
  Expectations of inflation, and recent waves of price rises, could be self-fulfilling and fuel ‘greedflation’ – and it may not only apply to US consumersOver the past few years consumers have grown used to seeing prices rise at an exorbitant rate. The cost of everything – from used cars to utility bills and the humble loaf of bread – has rocketed in the worst inflation shock across advanced economies since the 1980s.While inflation has cooled in the past year, talk o
  
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• Growers criticise UK supermarkets for heavy Easter discounts on vegetables

  19-04-2025 06:00
  
  Fears produce could be permanently devalued by price war, as it ‘creates unrealistic expectations about costs’Supermarkets have been criticised for using vegetables as the latest weapon in their burgeoning price war, charging as little as 8p for a 2kg bag of potatoes in an attempt to lure shoppers over Easter.Growers said they feared the massive discounts, which are also deployed at Christmas, could permanently devalue their produce. Continue reading...
  
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