Met Police reveals time-wasting 999 calls December 30, 2019 The Metropolitan Police has released details of some of the more than 25,000 hoax 999 calls it received this year. Among the calls received this year that were not an emergency was a woman that rang 999 to complain about being sent three saveloys from the chip shop instead of one. The hoax calls also [...]
Brazil fines Facebook over data breach December 30, 2019 Brazil has fined US tech giant Facebook 6.6m reais (£1.24m) for improperly sharing data after the information of more than 400,000 users was made available to app developers. Brazil’s Ministry of Justice said it found that data from 443,000 Facebook users was made improperly available to developers of an app called “thisisyourdigitallife”. Read more: Facebook [...]
Mortgage approvals jump in November December 30, 2019 Mortgage approvals jumped 6.8 per cent last month, reaching the highest level in almost two years. Remortgage approvals soared 12.7 per cent during the month while gross mortgage lending dipped 3.3 per cent last month compared to the same month last year. Read more: First time buyer mortgage approvals increase in October EY Item Club [...]
Monzo closes in on £100m funding round December 30, 2019 Digital bank Monzo is close to securing up to £100m of funding to drive forward its growth plans. New and existing investors are involved in the ongoing fundraising talks, and the move could be followed by a larger funding round next year. Read more: Challenger bank Monzo launches loans The new investment, which was first [...]
Tesla delivers first electric cars made in China December 30, 2019 Electric car firm Tesla has delivered its first vehicles made in China as its billionaire founder Elon Musk targets a bigger share of the country’s car market. Fifteen Model 3 cars were handed over to employees at the firm’s Gigafactory near Shanghai, meaning deliveries have started just over a year after construction of the factory [...]
High street crisis: 16,000 shops closed in 2019 December 30, 2019 More than 16,000 stores have closed this year, according to the latest research, as retailers battle the ongoing challenges facing the high street. In total, 16,073 shops have shut down in 2019 – around 61 each working day – with the rate of store closures forecast to rise next year. Read more: All the big [...]
Mark Carney warns financial sector over climate change December 30, 2019 Bank of England governor Mark Carney has warned that the financial sector must stop investing in fossil fuels faster in order to avoid irreversible global warming. Carney, who will step down from his central bank role next year, said pension fund analysis showed that “if you add up the policies of all of companies out [...]
China denies forced labour accusations after Tesco Christmas card discovery December 23, 2019 China has denied accusations of forced labour at a prison in Shanghai after a Christmas card sold at Tesco was reportedly found containing a message from an inmate. Six-year-old Florence Widdicombe in London discovered a note in charity card sold at the supermarket saying “We are foreign prisoners in Shanghai Qingpu Prison China”. Read more: [...]
Ryanair fails to block operation chief’s move to Easyjet December 23, 2019 Budget airline Ryanair has failed to delay its former operation chief’s move to rival company Easyjet after a court rejected its claim. The Irish High Court has rejected Ryanair’s attempt to stop Peter Bellow from joining Easyjet until 2021, saying a 12-month non-compete clause was not enforceable. Ryanair has instructed its lawyers to immediately appeal, [...]
‘Super Saturday’ fails to deliver retail footfall spike December 23, 2019 So-called Super Saturday failed to deliver for high street retailers this year after footfall dropped more than seven per cent. According to the latest figures for the week to 21 December, footfall on the last Saturday before Christmas fell 7.6 per cent year on year and rose just 2.3 per cent compared to the rest [...]