South Africa upbeat as battle of the Covid mutations rages: Omicron deaths still zero despite new coronavirus variant spreading twice as fast as deadly Delta December 8, 2021 Scientists and policy makers in South Africa and across the region are cautiously optimistic that the rapidly spreading Omicron variant is not going to cause a bloodbath as, so far, no deaths have been linked to the new Covid mutation. Despite a record number of new infections – more than 40,000 people tested positive in [...]
Major Amazon Web Services outage hits Prime Video, Netflix and Disney+ December 7, 2021 Amazon and services including Prime Video and Alexa have been hit by network outages affecting thousands of users.
SSE defends renewables plan after activist calls for governance changes December 7, 2021 SSE has hit back at continued criticism from activist investor Elliott Management (Elliott) over its renewables plans.
Grassroots ESG: Retail activist investment platform Tulipshare raises $11m December 7, 2021 Tulipshare is targeting the next generation of shareholders by tapping into their booming interest in retail investment and demand for a corporate ESG overhaul. After launching in July, the London-based startup has raised $10.8m in seed funding from investors including Eurazeo, Speedinvest and Frst, and received backing from the co-founders of friend locator app Zenly [...]
Outlook 2022: Global economy December 7, 2021 2022 is set to be another good year for growth, albeit the recovery is likely to remain unbalanced. Anticipated withdrawal of emergency levels of support will play important role in shaping outlook. Risks include higher-than-expected inflation and weaker growth. The emergence of the Omicron Covid variant has reminded us of the uncertainties which remain around [...]
Growth of property values hits 15-year high: House prices rise for fifth straight month amid 8.2 per cent annual jump December 7, 2021 Average UK property price hits a new record high of £272,992 last month, rising in November by 8.2 per cent compared to the same month a year earlier, according to Halifx, publishing its monthly index this morning. Prices increased by 1 per cent month-on-month in November while quarterly house price inflation is now at its [...]
Remembering GameStop and the troublesome currency of information December 7, 2021 At the beginning of this year, a seismic event shook markets and uprooted the status quo. It birthed a thousand explainers and even more commentary about the relative perils and benefits of retail investing. Yes, I’m talking about GameStop, if our minds, muddied by a year of heavy news, can reach back that far. In [...]
Breakthrough: Scientists able to measure how well each Coronavirus vaccine binds to any Covid variant, including Omicron December 6, 2021 UK scientists have developed a new test will be able to demonstrate how well different Coronavirus vaccines “bind” to spike proteins in different Covid mutations, including the new Omicron variant. The main aim is to determine how each individual responds to Covid-19 and to different vaccines, and to establish whether someone needs a booster. In [...]
Next pandemic could be more lethal than Covid-19 warns vaccine creator December 6, 2021 The global community must learn from the Covid-19 crisis as the next pandemic could be even worse a creator of the AstraZeneca vaccine said.
HMRC: We are ‘actively challenging’ multinationals on tax with additional £94bn raked in during last decade December 6, 2021 HMRC told City A.M. this afternoon that it is “very actively challenging” multinationals when it comes to tax as the taxman secured £94bn in additional revenue from large businesses in the last decade. HMRC was responding to claims that big businesses’ underpaid tax has risen by another £1bn in a year to £35.8bn, up from £34.8bn [...]