The Guardian Nachrichten

 

Greater optimism in PMI survey, adding to signs Bank of England will keep interest rates on hold this weekBusiness news – latest updatesBritish manufacturers enjoyed one of their best months since Labour came to power in January, according to a closely watched survey, adding to signs that the Bank of England will decide to keep interest rates on hold this week.The purchasing managers' index (PMI), which measures activity in the private manufacturing sector, rose to 51.8 in January from 50.6 in December, the best reading since August 2024. Any reading above 50 represents growth. Continue reading......

Dozens of eCourier workers who deliver vital NHS samples claim they are classed wrongly as self-employedDozens of drivers are taking legal action against a Royal Mail-owned courier service, arguing that they are entitled to workers' rights.The 46 drivers are classified as self-employed by eCourier. They work around the clock making deliveries, including transporting vital blood and tissue samples to and from NHS hospitals. Continue reading......

The US president tried to kill offshore wind projects – now four are back under constructionConstruction has resumed on four offshore wind mega-projects after they survived a near fatal attack by Donald Trump's administration thanks to rulings by federal judges. These are being seen as victories for clean energy amid a wider war being waged on it by the Trump administration.The wind farms are considered critical by grid planners as America faces an energy affordability crisis. Together, the four projects will contribute nearly five gigawatts of energy to the east coast, enough to power 3.5 million homes. Continue reading......

New Mexico attorney general accuses Meta of failing to safeguard children against trafficking and sexual abuseMeta's second major trial of 2026 over alleged harms to children begins on Monday.The landmark jury trial in Santa Fe pits the New Mexico attorney general's office against the social media giant. The state alleges that the company knowingly enabled predators to use Facebook and Instagram to exploit children. Continue reading......

Nationwide says average price of UK home rose by 0.3% last month after surprise fall in late 2025Business news – live updatesUK house prices bounced back in January after a surprise fall at the end of last year, and are predicted to improve during 2026, according to the UK's top mortgage lender.The price of the average UK home rose by 0.3% in January, according to the lender Nationwide. That marked an improvement compared with December, when prices unexpectedly slipped by 0.4% in the weeks after Rachel Reeves's budget in late November. Continue reading......

Waymo's cars were first rolled out in San Francisco, but the English capital's old roads, pelican crossings and jaywalkers may pose issues for AIAt the end of the 19th century, the world's major cities had a problem. The streets were flooded with manure, the unintended consequence of dependence on horses as the major form of transport. In this sea of filth, the infant car industry smelled an opportunity. The Horseless Age, a US car magazine, claimed in 1896 that, with the spread of motorcars, “streets will be cleaner, jams and blockades less likely to occur, and accidents less frequent, for the horse is not so manageable as a mechanical vehicle”. The streets did eventually become cleaner, but not safer. Cars brought huge benefits to society, but also huge challenges. By the end of the 20th century, cars and motorbikes were implicated in more than a million deaths a year around the world, as well as contributing to pollution and suburban sprawl.This story is often told to show that the inevitable ma...

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial newsThe US dollar is strengthening against some rival currencies today.It's jumped by 1% against the Norwegian crown, and is also up 0.65% against the Australian dollar – and 0.35% against the Canadian currency.The US dollar has been better bid since Friday, with the dollar index rebounding around 1% off four-year lows following news that the Federal Reserve may have a new Chair.Kevin Warsh was chosen to be the next Fed President and will replace Jerome Powell if confirmed. Continue reading......

Europe's India and Vietnam deals signal a historic shift away from coercion towards cooperation that respects developing countries' sovereignty For the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, the EU's trade pact with India was the “mother of all deals”. Seen from the other end of the telescope, it looked like the mouse of all deals, with just €4bn (£3.5bn) in tariff reductions – a rounding error in a €180bn trading relationship. But that misses the point: this is about economic heavyweights resetting the terms of their cooperation because of Donald Trump's use of tariffs as a tool of economic and political compulsion.Last week marked a turning point. In upgrading ties with Vietnam in the wake of its India deal, Europe is no longer trying to lock Asian partners into fixed industrial roles. The EU wants Hanoi to move into hi-tech production. That shift will probably displace Vietnam's labour-intensive manufacturing elsewhere. India is an obvious beneficiary, able to absorb that ...

Airports identified as biggest winners of government's £4.3bn support package with Heathrow alone taking £900m discountStruggling hotels, restaurants and nightclubs are calling for more financial help with business rates after it emerged that Heathrow is among the biggest beneficiaries of a multibillion-pound package of state support.The UK's biggest airport is in line for a discount of nearly £900m on its rates bill over the next three years. That is a fifth of the total £4.3bn “transitional relief” fund announced by the chancellor in the budget for all businesses facing big bill increases. Continue reading......

A lawsuit filed last week alleges tech firm 'can access virtually all' private communications, a claim the company has deniedUS authorities have reportedly investigated claims that Meta can read users' encrypted chats on the WhatsApp messaging platform, which it owns.The reports follow a lawsuit filed last week, which claimed Meta “can access virtually all of WhatsApp users' purportedly 'private' communications”. Continue reading......

Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation could also force ultra-rich to pay global wealth tax Fossil fuel companies could be forced to pay some of the price of their damage to the climate, and the ultra-rich subjected to a global wealth tax, if new tax rules are agreed under the UN.Negotiations on a planned global tax treaty will resume at the UN headquarters in New York on Monday, with dozens of countries supporting stronger rules that would make polluters pay for the impact of their activities. Continue reading......

Tim Martin makes Sunday Times Tax List top 10, paying £200m while Harry Styles is the highest-contributing celebritySir Tim Martin, Harry Styles, Ed Sheeran, Erling Haaland and Mo Salah are among the UK's 100 biggest taxpayers, according to new rankings.The billionaire brothers behind gambling giant Betfred, topped the Sunday Times 2026 Tax List. Fred and Peter Done paid £400.1m in tax, about half of which relates to gambling duty from their betting shop empire. Continue reading......

These across-the-board raises to all employees versus individual performance-based raises are simply lazyLooking forward to a raise in 2026? You may be getting “peanut butter”.A new report from compensation software and data provider Payscale predicts that in 2026, many employers will be giving “peanut butter raises” to their employees – increases given “across the board” as opposed to being calculated individually based on performance or merit. They're spread evenly, like peanut butter on a slice of bread. Continue reading......

App endured a major outage and user backlash over perceived censorship. Now it's facing an inquiry by the California governor and an ascendant competitorA little more than one week ago, TikTok stepped on to US shores as a naturalized citizen. Ever since, the video app has been fighting for its life.TikTok's calamitous emigration began on 22 January when its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, finalized a deal to sell the app to a group of US investors, among them the business software giant Oracle. The app's time under Chinese ownership had been marked by a meteoric ascent to more than a billion users, which left incumbents such as Instagram looking like the next Myspace. But TikTok's short new life in the US has been less than auspicious. Continue reading......

University researchers say growth of the hidden fast food industry may pose risks to public healthOne in seven food businesses on major delivery platforms, including Deliveroo and Just Eat, is now a “dark kitchen”, a university study shows.The findings, which shine a light on the scale of the hidden takeaway industry, found that 15% of all online food retailers in England were dark kitchens. Continue reading......

CIPS warns of 'cracks' in global supply chain affecting computers, electrical machinery and transport equipmentThe price of consumer goods including computers, electrical machinery and transport equipment could surge this year as a result of soaring shipping costs, an industry body has said, adding that “cracks [are] forming in the global trading system”.The cost of transport, energy and raw materials continues to rise and prices remain volatile, which could feed through to businesses and consumers during 2026, according to a study by the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS). Continue reading......

Labour's changes to the student loan system have turned frustration into full-blown fury, which its opponents are likely to reap at the ballot boxStudent loans: 'My debt rose £20,000 to £77,000 even though I'm paying'“It is not right that people who don't go to university are having to bear all the cost for others to do so,” Rachel Reeves remarked this week, amid the increasingly angry row about student loans.But if something is “not right” here, it's the complex and confusing loan system, and the debt burden borne by some recent graduates of English and Welsh universities. Continue reading......

About 20 countries including G7 states in talks on rare earths including calls for US to guarantee minimum priceMinisters from the US, EU, UK, Japan, Australia and New Zealand will meet in Washington this week to discuss a strategic alliance over critical minerals.The summit is being seen as a step to repair transatlantic ties fractured by a year of conflict with Donald Trump and pave the way for other alliances to help countries de-risk from China, including one centred on steel. Continue reading......

With a North American licensing deal under its belt, the reinvented high-street giant is growing again under new owners and a global strategyFrench Connection is back on the trail of global expansion with the aid of its cheeky initials-based slogan that made it so popular in the late 1990s.The label once known for clothes bearing FCUK is seeking to reinvent itself again under the ownership of a group of British entrepreneurs based in the north of England who rescued it in 2021. Continue reading......

Bar owners say they struggle to dissuade people from forming a line as behavioural experts point to post-pandemic 'new norms'“I'm not sure what else we can do to be honest,” Paul Loebenberg said, of the people lined up at his bar. “Maybe there's something I've missed, but we've tried everything.”To anybody who frequents pubs and dislikes feeling as if they are waiting at a bank, Loebenberg's exasperation is all too familiar. Continue reading......