Financial news

• Reduce clothing waste by buying less, but better | Letters

  01-05-2025 19:00 via theguardian.com
  Readers respond to an article on consumer frustrations with recycling used clothingRe your article (‘You sold it – now recycle it’: the protesters mailing worn-out clothes to the shops they bought them from, 29 April), a significant percentage of the used-clothing waste stream consists of plastic zips and buttons, nylon ribbons and mile upon mile of polyester sewing thread, which will still be plastic even when it breaks up into microfibre. This is all devastating to wildlife,
  
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• Even gen Z are resorting to cash – and I'm clinging to my own handful of it | Gaby Hinsliff

  01-05-2025 18:47 via theguardian.com
  Power outages, the needs of vulnerable people and a general descent into dystopia are all reasons to resist banks’ dream of a cashless societyOpening my wallet, I’m down to my last five dollars. Dog-eared leftovers from a foreign holiday that I keep forgetting to take to the bank, they have somehow ended up being the only physical money I always carry, now there are so few places to use the British folding stuff.Our village pub was for years a cash-only enterprise, possibly as a mean
  
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• The best eco-friendly baby products: 11 sustainable substitutes, from reusable nappies to wipes

  01-05-2025 16:00 via theguardian.com
  Small swaps can make a big difference to a baby’s carbon footprint, but where to begin? We asked parents for the planet-friendly products they swear by• ‘It gave us both freedom’: parents on the baby gear they wouldn’t go withoutIn the first 100 days of my daughter’s life, the app my wife and I use to track every feed, pee and poo revealed that we had changed almost 800 nappies: 769, to be precise. Each of these required a baby wipe (or three or four), a cotton
  
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• UK regulator could ban vet chains from linking incentives to certain treatments

  01-05-2025 15:40 via theguardian.com
  Policies that limit clinical freedom come under scrutiny and surgeries may be told to put their prices online British vets could face price caps on prescribing medicines to pets and a ban on financial incentives linked to offering certain treatments.The Competition and Markets Authority has been investigating the £2bn veterinary sector after a review in 2023 sparked an unprecedented response from 56,000 people worried about rising costs. Continue reading...
  
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• UK mortgage lending at four-year high amid rush to avoid stamp duty rise

  01-05-2025 15:04 via theguardian.com
  Figures show a 290% rise in mortgage borrowing, but approvals for new home purchases fell for the third monthA rush to get property purchases over the line before last month’s stamp duty rise pushed UK mortgage lending to a four-year high in March, official data shows.Bank of England figures show that the then-imminent changes to stamp duty in England and Northern Ireland triggered a 290% surge in mortgage borrowing. Separately, Lloyds Banking Group, one of Britain’s biggest home loa
  
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• British men urged to join ‘Dad strike’ calling for more paternity leave

  01-05-2025 15:00 via theguardian.com
  Exclusive: Fathers planning protest with babies in London on 11 June to highlight UK’s ‘rubbish’ statutory leave, least generous in EuropeBritish fathers are being urged to join the world’s first “Dad strike” to protest about the UK’s statutory paternity leave, which campaigners say is the least generous in Europe.Fathers are planning to protest with their babies outside the Department for Business and Trade in London on 11 June in an effort to force the
  
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• UK banks put £75bn into firms building climate-wrecking ‘carbon bombs’, study finds

  01-05-2025 13:00
  Exclusive: Britain is key financial hub for destructive fossil fuel mega-projects, according to researchBanks in the City of London have poured more than $100bn (£75bn) into companies developing “carbon bombs” – huge oil, gas and coal projects that would drive the climate past internationally agreed temperature limits with catastrophic global consequences – according to a study.Nine London-based banks, including HSBC, NatWest, Barclays and Lloyds are involved in fin
  
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• Trump tariffs cause fastest slump in British factory export orders in five years – business live

  01-05-2025 12:51
  Live, rolling coverage of business, economics and financial markets as UK manufacturers report falling export orders and China signals openness to US trade talks Fhaheen Khan, senior economist at Make UK, a lobby group for British manufacturing, said:UK manufacturers are caught in the eye of a perfect storm, with rising costs and international trade uncertainty undermining growth prospects. While actual changes in trade have been limited, the unpredictability, particularly around US tariff polic
  
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• Family owners of Bet365 weigh up potential £9bn sale of gambling empire

  01-05-2025 12:50
  Exclusive: Company headed by Denise Coates holds talks with Wall Street banks about full or partial sale of assetsThe billionaire Coates family behind Bet365 are weighing up a sale of their online gambling empire that could value the business at £9bn, the Guardian has learned.The company, headed by Denise Coates, has held talks with Wall Street banks and US advisers in recent weeks about a full or partial sale, sources familiar with the matter said. Continue reading...
  
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• Trump’s tariffs: ‘It feels like Covid 2.0. So many things are getting disrupted’

  01-05-2025 12:00
  Pittsburgh residents, workers and business owners react to the increasingly fraught trading reality now upending supply chains and hitting prices“In a lot of ways it feels like Covid 2.0. So many things are getting disrupted so quickly.” Like so many businesses across Donald Trump’s America, Matt Katase’s craft brewery, Brew Gentleman, is having to contend with a bafflingly uncertain trading environment.The brewery’s chief operating officer, Alaina Webber, says: &ld
  
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• Lloyds Banking Group profits slip 7% amid Trump tariffs concern

  01-05-2025 11:21
  Chief finance officer says it remains ‘vigilant’ as it sets aside more money than expected to cover possible bad debtProfits at Lloyds Banking Group have fallen as the high street bank set aside more money than expected to deal with possible bad debts arising from Donald Trump’s trade war.The group, whose brands include Lloyds Bank, Halifax and Bank of Scotland, reported a 4% increase in net income to £4.39bn compared with the same period last year, but its pre-tax profit
  
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• Solar panels to be fitted on all new-build homes in England by 2027

  01-05-2025 10:17
  Government to press ahead with net zero plans as Keir Starmer rejects Tony Blair’s criticisms of climate policyAlmost all new homes in England will be fitted with solar panels during construction within two years, the government will announce after Keir Starmer rejected Tony Blair’s criticism of net zero policies.Housebuilders will be legally required to install solar panels on the roofs of new properties by 2027 under the plans. Continue reading...
  
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• Tesla denies report claiming board looked to replace Elon Musk

  01-05-2025 10:03
  Wall Street Journal article saying headhunters were contacted is ‘absolutely false’, says company chairTesla has denied a report that its board sought to replace Elon Musk as its chief executive amid a backlash against his rightwing politics and declining car sales.Robyn Denholm, the chair of the board at the electric carmaker, said in a statement on Tesla’s social media account on X: “Earlier today, there was a media report erroneously claiming that the Tesla Board had c
  
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• The truth is finally dawning on Britain: toadying to Trump has got us nowhere | Emma Brockes

  01-05-2025 09:00
  Jolly humouring and kind words guarantee nothing from this White House. Right now Walmart has more clout than the UKIt’s not funny, of course – livelihoods if not actual lives depend on reaching a workable accord. But the news that President Trump has probably stiffed the UK into a second- or third-tier boarding group for trade talks, behind South Korea and Japan, triggers at least a snort of recognition for anyone who has experienced versions of that dynamic. The phrase “Briti
  
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• How ‘native English’ Scattered Spider group linked to M&S attack operate

  01-05-2025 07:00
  Cybersecurity expert says group are ‘unusual but potently threatening’ coalition of ransomware hackersIf there is one noticeable difference between some members of the Scattered Spider hacking community and their ransomware peers, it will be the accent.Scattered Spider has been linked to a cyber-attack on UK retailer Marks & Spencer. But unlike other ransomware assailants, its constituents appear to be native English speakers and are not from Russia or former Soviet states. Conti
  
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