Yesterday’s feeble US embassy opening represented no less than a snub from Donald Trump January 17, 2018 The opening of the capital’s new US embassy should have been all cheerleaders and marching bands. The Americans spent $1.2bn (£880m) on the ultra-secure new building, which includes a moat, a security ditch and a 15cm thick, bomb-proof glass facade. But after Donald Trump’s Twitter outburst last week, in which he mistakenly lambasted Barack Obama [...]
Screws turn on Carillion executives as business secretary Greg Clark weighs in on misconduct probe January 17, 2018 Pressure was mounting on Carillion’s former top brass last night after the government promised a thorough investigation into the actions of the failed firm’s executives. A probe by the Official Receiver was ordered to be fast-tracked and widened by business secretary Greg Clark. “Any evidence of misconduct will be taken very seriously,” he said. Cabinet [...]
Newcastle United takeover talks between Amanda Staveley and Mike Ashley fall through January 16, 2018 Prominent businesswoman Amanda Staveley and Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley have ended talks over a deal for the club which could have been worth as much as £250m. The deal fell through when Staveley refused to match Ashley’s valuation of the club, according to the BBC. Staveley’s fund, PCP Capital Partners, made an offer to [...]
FTSE 100 firm Informa in talks to buy London events rival UBM in £3bn deal January 16, 2018 London-headquartered publisher and events company Informa is in talks to buy rival UBM in a deal which could be worth as much as £3bn. A tie-up between the two firms would create the world’s largest business-to-business events company, with well over 11,000 employees at the two firms. The firms were forced to reveal the “preliminary [...]
Sam Allardyce’s Everton close to finalising £20m deal for Arsenal forward January 16, 2018 Arsenal misfit Theo Walcott is expected to complete a £20m move to Everton this week after undergoing a medical at the Merseyside club’s Finch Farm training base. Walcott’s 12-year stay at the Gunners appears to be at an end, while Everton look to have beaten off competition from the 28-year-old’s former club Southampton for his [...]
Bank of England says Brexit trade deal including the City is possible but warns of tensions with EU over investment banks January 16, 2018 A post-Brexit free-trade deal with the EU which includes financial services could be completed in three years, according to the Bank of England’s chief banking regulator, countering the view of the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, Michel Barnier. Sam Woods, the Bank’s deputy governor in charge of the Prudential Regulation Authority, said it is “plausible” that [...]
Jacob Rees-Mogg to lead pro-Brexit group of UK MPs January 16, 2018 Jacob Rees-Mogg has been elected to lead the European Research Group, a group of Tory MPs who scrutinise the government’s handling of Brexit. Rees-Mogg, a leading Eurosceptic, stood unopposed in the election for the chairmanship. Read more: Bank of England warns of Brexit tensions on investment banks with EU The position became free when former [...]
Robot bookworms? Artificial intelligence (AI) can now read as well as humans after Microsoft and Alibaba made research breakthroughs January 16, 2018 The march of artificial intelligence continues… Researchers at Microsoft have hailed a “major milestone” for the technology after they managed to create a system using the technology that can read just about as well as a human. They used what’s known as the Stanford Questions Answering Dataset (SQuAD), a tool commonly employed in scientific research [...]
C: Citi shares rise after it takes humongous $22bn Trump tax hit but beats underlying earnings expectations January 16, 2018 Citigroup today announced an enormous $22bn (£16bn) charge from Donald Trump’s tax changes which pushed the US bank to its first loss since 2009, but distracted from otherwise above-expectations results. Banks with earnings overseas have been forced to account for a fundamental change to the way in which the US taxes profits. A tax credit [...]
Trevor Steven: Liverpool have shown the rest how to beat Manchester City January 16, 2018 Liverpool’s thrilling win over Manchester City on Sunday was more than just a mighty performance. In becoming the first team to beat the leaders in the Premier League this season they also established a blueprint for how to set up against Pep Guardiola’s team that I expect other managers to follow. The formula was simple: [...]