Labour Party Conference: Scottish referendum was “near death experience” for Westminster, says McCluskey September 22, 2014 The Scottish referendum should act as a wake up call to Westminster politicians that “you ignore the hopes of working people at your political peril”, Unite general secretary Len McCluskey told Labour MPs today. Opening with a quote from Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin, the union leader told delegates that the independence referendum had been [...]
City Moves for 22 September 2014 | Who’s switching jobs September 21, 2014 Altium The mid market financial advisory group has announced two appointments to its UK debt advisory practice. Simon Chambers (pictured) and Richard Clark both join as managing directors from DC Advisory. Clark has also held roles at Close Brothers, Houlihan Lokey and JP Morgan. Chambers has previously worked at Barclays, and also as an engineer [...]
Everton win big on Europa return September 18, 2014 EVERTON boss Roberto Martinez felt his team were rewarded for embracing their participation in the Europa League last night with a 4-1 win over Wolfsburg. A packed Goodison Park enjoyed a first European encounter in five years as an own goal from Ricardo Rodriguez, plus a Seamus Coleman strike, Leighton Baines’ penalty and Kevin Mirallas [...]
Ukraine crisis: Petro Poroshenko calls for US military aid September 18, 2014 The Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko has called upon the US to provide his country with military assistance as it attempts to combat pro-Russian separatist forces. Poroshenko described Ukraine as being at the “forefront of the fight against terrorism”. President Barack Obama has condemned Russia’s involvement in the conflict, but has so far limited [...]
Elon Musk’s SpaceX wins Nasa commercial flight contract September 17, 2014 It’s a good day for PayPal founder Elon Musk; his SpaceX corporation has been selected by Nasa as one of the two firms to design crew capsules for transporting astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). The Commercial Crew Development programme has awarded SpaceX and Boeing a combined sum of $6.2bn to develop the capsules. [...]
Boeing and SpaceX will share a $6.8bn space taxi Nasa contract September 16, 2014 NASA yesterday revealed Boeing and SpaceX will share a $6.8bn (£4.2bn) contract to fly astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). Massive aerospace and defence company Boeing will get $4.2bn from Nasa to use its CST-100 capsule to ferry astronauts to the ISS. Meanwhile SpaceX, founded in 2002 by former Paypal entrepreneur and Tesla Motors [...]
Petropavlovsk share price tanks 15 per cent on rights issue to pay bonds September 16, 2014 Shares in Russia-focused gold mining company Petropavlovsk plummeted 15 per cent yesterday on news the indebted miner was seeking a rights issue to placate its senior lender banks and bond holders. A decline in the price of gold in recent years has hit the London-listed miner, which had net debt of $924m (£568m) as of [...]
Mail.ru share price up as Arsenal shareholder Alisher Usmanov takes full stake in “Russian Facebook” VKontakte for $1.47 billion September 16, 2014 Moscow-based internet company Mail.ru has bought a remaining 48 per cent stake in the social network VKontakte, Russia's answer to Facebook, for $1.47bn (£909m) taking full ownership of the business. Mail.ru said in addition to the sale, all legal action among itself, United Capital Partners which sold the stake and VK founder Pavel Durov had [...]
Rouble falls to record low against the dollar on ceasefire worries September 15, 2014 Scottish independence may be hitting the headlines over here, but morning trading showed markets' main concerns are still over the situation in Ukraine and the associated sanctions hitting Russian businesses. While the pound fell slightly against the dollar – 0.02 per cent – on jitters over what will happen north of the border on Thursday, [...]
Who have the US and EU put on their Russian sanctions hit lists (and why)? September 12, 2014 Further sanctions against Russia came in today, and it's safe to say that if you are in President Putin's inner circle you've probably been affected. A number of companies – including Gazprom – have also been targeted by the punitive measures for the first time. Here is our round up of who the [...]