Tesco, M&S and Sainsbury’s face allegations of worker exploitation in India November 17, 2020 UK retailers including Marks & Spencer (M&S), Tesco and Sainsbury’s are facing calls to apologise following allegations of worker exploitation in their supply chains. Supermarket supplier workers in India reportedly said they do not get toilet breaks or sufficient breaks to drink water or eat lunch. One member of staff told the BBC they were [...]
Online publishers curb revenue decline as pandemic drives up subscriptions November 17, 2020 Online publishers suffered a less steep decline in revenue than feared at the height of the coronavirus lockdown, as surging demand for news drove up subscriber numbers. Digital publishing revenue fell 14.3 per cent year on year to £96.6m in the second quarter — a smaller drop than anticipated. The fall was driven by lower [...]
BoE governor Andrew Bailey: Vaccine ‘a big step forward’ for UK economy November 17, 2020 Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has called the development of seemingly effective coronavirus vaccines “a big step forward” for the economy that could help lower uncertainty and get firms investing again. Speaking at lobby group The City UK’s conference, Bailey said both coronavirus and Brexit had “increased uncertainty” and “restrained investment”. He also said [...]
Watch it grow November 17, 2020 Beating Congestion Bitcoin continued to edge higher, making steady progress through the congestion area between $16,100-17,150. The risk on sentiment shows no sign of abating and the trend higher is therefore expected to remain in place. With that in mind, the aggregate open interest (OI) rose yet again to a new record high and continuing [...]
Buying the hype – Are baskets a solution to bubbles? November 17, 2020 The events and turbulence of this year need no explanation. The global pandemic, US election and everything in between have sent dramatic waves across the markets. With so much volatility and uncertainty rocking the markets, stocks have continued to break records and climb to new highs and equal lows throughout the year. In response, increasing [...]
Rishi Sunak ‘pushing’ for cut in UK’s aid budget in spending review November 17, 2020 The Treasury is reportedly pushing Number 10 to slash the UK's annual foreign aid budget of 0.7 per cent of gross national income
Swissport axes 3,000 jobs after ‘refusing’ to access furlough scheme November 17, 2020 Baggage handler Swissport is making 3,000 employees redundant after refusing to put them on furlough, according to a leading union. There was a wave of redundancies ahead of the 31 December deadline for the furlough scheme, which sees the government pay 80 per cent of employees’ wages. The Chancellor Rishi Sunak belatedly extended the scheme [...]
Transport for London to begin e-scooter trials in the spring November 17, 2020 Transport for London (TfL) will begin trialling rental e-scooters in the spring, it was announced today. The transport network will work with London Councils to select three companies for the trials, which will take place across all London boroughs that wish to take part. Trials will last for 12 months, with roughly a third of [...]
Huawei sells Honor smartphone brand as US sanctions bite November 17, 2020 Huawei is selling its budget smartphone brand Honor to a newly-formed consortium of Chinese buyers after US sanctions pushed the division to the brink of collapse. The Chinese tech giant said it will offload Honor’s business assets to Shenzhen Zhixin New Information Technology Co, a group of over 30 agents and dealers, including several state-owned [...]
Ban EY from public contract bids following professional misconduct, urges charity November 17, 2020 The government should consider banning big four auditor EY from bidding on public contracts for three years following a number of recent scandals, charity Spotlight on Corruption has said. The charity has written a 17-page letter to government that accuses EY of “grave professional misconduct” that “renders its integrity questionable”, and suggests there should be [...]
