NRL open to buying Super League rugby after record revenues February 21, 2025 Australia’s rugby league competition the NRL could buy England’s Super League after posting record revenues of £377m. Australian Rugby League Commission chief Peter V’landys said they’d be open to buying the Super League if the cash-strapped English game approached the NRL. The NRL made a net profit of nearly £50m in their latest accounts, which [...]
FTSE 100 lenders pocket record total profit February 21, 2025 Standard Chartered was the last of the FTSE 100’s biggest banks to release its annual results, as analysts praised the strong performance across all of the Big Five. Barclays, HSBC, Natwest, Lloyds and Standard Chartered booked an all-time high of £50.3bn in profit in 2024 and returned £35bn to investors. Russ Mould, investment director at [...]
Andy Burnham slammed for Manchester tourist tax plans February 21, 2025 Andy Burnham has been slammed by the chief executive of UKHospitality after backing plans for a new tourist tax to be introduced in Manchester. The mayor of Greater Manchester said earlier this week that tourists visiting the city region should pay a “proper” mandatory “tourist levy”. He added that he wanted to see Manchester city [...]
Budget costing jobs and pushing up inflation, survey suggests February 21, 2025 Excluding the pandemic, employment fell at the fastest pace since the global financial crisis, the survey suggested.
New Look closes all stores in the Republic of Ireland February 21, 2025 High street fashion giant New Look will fully exit the Republic of Ireland, putting all of its workers in the country at risk of redundancy. The retailer’s Irish arm, which employs about 347 people, has entered into redundancy following years of losses at the high street chain. The privately-owned company said it has had to [...]
Ex-Lloyds executive wants to ‘fintech’ mortgages February 21, 2025 A former Lloyds executive wants to accelerate the mortgage process by bringing AI into the mix. Stuart Cheetham worked at Lloyds bank for over a decade, spanning senior roles across Asia. He was chief executive in Hong Kong and managing director in Japan. However, since departing the Big Four bank, Cheetham founded his own company [...]
Green shoots? UK retail sales beat expectations in January February 21, 2025 Brits returned to the shops in January as discount spending fueled the first monthly rise in retail sales volumes since last August. Retail sales volumes rose 1.7 per cent in January, following a fall of 0.6 per cent in December, according to the ONS. Analysts had expected growth of just 0.3 per cent. This was [...]
Standard Chartered shares jump after boosting annual profit February 21, 2025 Standard Chartered shares jumped over four per cent Friday morning after the lender posted its full-year results. It announced an overhaul on executive pay, as the multinational bank missed analysts’ profit estimates for the final quarter. Pre-tax profit fell 30 per cent to $800m (£631m) for the fourth quarter. Analysts had estimated the FTSE 100 [...]
Oscar nominated I’m Still Here review: a moving portrait of resilience February 20, 2025 I’m Still Here review and star rating: ★★★★ I’m Still Here has become the most successful film made in Brazil since the pandemic, and has garnered three Oscar nominations. Based on a true story, the film follows the Paiva family, whose patriarch Rubens is a politician fighting against the authoritarian government of the early 1970s. [...]
International trade in the era of Trump 2.0 – how will the ICC adapt? February 20, 2025 Philippe Varin, chair of the International Chamber of Commerce, is stewarding the kind of globalist institution which Trump instinctively distrusts. He speaks to Eliot Wilson about championing free trade in an era of protectionism The International Chamber of Commerce is the world’s biggest representative organisation for business and trade. To establish some sense of scale, [...]