The Guardian Nachrichten

 

ABF to demerge fashion chain from firm that owns Kingsmill, Twinings and Patak's, plus a sugar companyBusiness live – latest updatesPrimark is to break free from its sister food company which owns Twinings, Kingsmill and Patak's next year despite warning that the conflict in the Middle East was likely to hit consumer spending.The fashion chain's owner, Associated British Foods (ABF), confirmed the plan to split off Primark from the rest of the group, first mooted last year. Continue reading......

Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial newsEconomists are not convinced that the UK's labour market is a healthy one. Thomas Pugh, chief economist at the audit and tax firm RSM, notes that the drop in the unemployment rate was mostly driven by people dropping out of the labour force.Indeed, employment only rose by 24,000 in the three months to February, well below population growth. What's more, the number of people on payrolls contracted slightly in February. Private sector pay growth ex-bonus also slowed slightly from 3.3% to 3.2%. All this suggests that despite the fall in the headline unemployment rate, the labour market remained weak going into the energy crisis.The provisional data for March suggests the labour market weakened last month. Payrolls dropped by 11,000 and the number of vacancies fell again. The risk is that rising energy prices prompt a big pull back in consumer demand while simultaneously pushing up input costs for businesses, which would push the unemployment rate ev...

ONS data for three months to February is not expected to alter Bank of England's decision on interest ratesUnemployment in the UK unexpectedly fell in the three months to February, according to official figures – but the fallout from the conflict in the Middle East is expected to cause a rise in job cuts.The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said that the rate of unemployment was 4.9% in the three months to February. This compares with 5.2% in the three months to January, a rate that economists had expected to also see in February. Continue reading......

Cook exported the smartphone revolution from the US to the world and turned Apple into one of the most powerful and profitable companies on EarthAfter 15 years, Tim Cook is stepping down as Apple's top executive. At age 65, he leaves behind a hardware juggernaut that, under his leadership, brought about a global smartphone revolution and transformed Apple into one of the most profitable publicly traded companies in history.With a reputation for logistical management, Cook first joined Apple in 1998, overseeing its worldwide sales and operations. In 2009, he temporarily began running day-to-day operations when the company's legendary co-founder, Steve Jobs, took medical leave due to complications from pancreatic cancer. In 2011, just a few months before Jobs' death, Cook took over as CEO. Continue reading......

'Stone age' system of booking cross-border rail tickets holding back climate action by consumers, says thinktankEurope's “stone age” system of booking train tickets makes it needlessly difficult for travellers to avoid polluting flights, a report has found.Booking equivalent train tickets is “difficult or impossible” on almost half of the EU's busiest international air routes, analysis from the Transport & Environment (T&E) thinktank shows. Continue reading......

The trial between the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and the supermarket giant began in the federal court in Sydney on TuesdayFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastWoolworths engaged in “marketing magic” to trick customers into thinking they were getting genuine discounts as part of the supermarket's “Prices Dropped” promotion, the consumer regulator has told a court.The landmark trial between the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) and Woolworths began in the federal court in Sydney on Tuesday, almost two months after hearings ended in its very similar case against Coles. Continue reading......

Ed Miliband has a rare chance to do for the climate what Nye Bevan did for health: create something future generations will be proud ofIt looks unlikely that Labour will emerge as the largest party at the next general election (though it's by no means impossible). If just one term is Labour's destiny, what legacy will it leave behind? There is already in the making one great success that can't be reversed, the transition to homegrown clean energy. This is a true “taking back control” escape from the clutches of febrile oil and gas markets. Indeed it might become such a political success that it could rescue Labour's electoral fortunes.Historically it may come to be recognised as equivalent to the 1948 creation of the NHS, with Ed Miliband the Nye Bevan of our day. He has fought his cause in much the same ruthless way Bevan did. He faces the same ferocious (and politically deranged) opposition from the right, who will have to eat their hats over rejecting renewables. Just as the NHS is a prime reas...

Publicans say celebrity-backed brands have helped the take-up of a 'slightly lighter alternative' to the classic G&TA crisp gin and tonic has for many British people been just the ticket as the weather gets warmer, but new consumer data shows tequila is overtaking gin for the first time as a summer tipple of choice.Spicy margaritas, which are a piquant twist on the classic tequila, lime and triple sec cocktail, have taken the UK by a storm in recent years and now the country is firmly hooked on tequila, with many ordering a tequila and tonic instead of a G&T. Continue reading......

The previously redacted messages were unveiled as part of an antitrust battle with California attorney general Rob BontaEmails released on Monday by California's attorney general show Amazon allegedly colluding with other companies to raise the prices of pet treats, khaki pants, eyedrops and other products sold online.According to a newly unsealed court filing released by attorney general Rob Bonta, Amazon employees have repeatedly worked with vendors using its platform to push retail vendors including Walmart and Chewyto set higher prices collectively.The ones that went up on Amazon immediately went up on Chewy Continue reading......

Cook, who will stay on as executive chair, praises head of hardware engineering, who will take over on 1 SeptemberApple announced on Monday that it had named a replacement for Tim Cook as CEO after nearly 15 years, with head of hardware engineering John Ternus succeeding him on 1 September. Cook will stay at the company in the role of executive chair.“It has been the greatest privilege of my life to be the CEO of Apple and to have been trusted to lead such an extraordinary company. I love Apple with all of my being,” Cook said in a press release. Continue reading......

Move marks government's most radical attempt to weaken impact of soaring wholesale gas prices on electricity costsClean energy generation exceeded rise in global electricity demand in 2025The government has confirmed plans to move older wind and solar farms which make up almost a third of Great Britain's power market on to fixed-price contracts to help protect households and businesses from future gas market shocks.Under the plans, first revealed by the Guardian, renewable energy projects that earn subsidies on top of the market price will be asked to sign up to contracts that pay a set price for electricity as part of the government's plan to “delink the price of electricity from the price of gas”. Continue reading......

Advocates expressed alarm as new project drills deeper into ocean bed, pointing to company's failures at Deepwater Horizon spillSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxEnvironmental groups have sued the Trump administration over its approval of BP's huge new ultra-deep oil drilling project in the Gulf of Mexico, 16 years to the day since the company's Deepwater Horizon disaster caused the worst oil spill in US history. Continue reading......

Government amendment to children's wellbeing and schools bill to replace existing guidance with statutory banA ban on mobile phones in schools in England is to be introduced by the government to ensure that “critical safeguarding legislation” is passed.The government will table an amendment to the children's wellbeing and schools bill in the House of Lords after the bill was held up by peers on opposition benches. Continue reading......

Islamabad has seized chance to act as mediator in Iran war and hopes to reap diplomatic and economic benefitsMiddle East crisis – live updatesAs Pakistan works frantically to narrow differences between Iran and the US in its newfound role as global peacemaker, it is also seeking to recast its diplomatic standing and attract business.Pakistani officials, mediating between an unpredictable US president and hardliners in Tehran, were on Monday trying to coax both sides to put the conditions in place for a second round of talks in Islamabad this week, including easing the standoff in the strait of Hormuz. Pakistan was optimistic that the meeting would happen, viewing objections voiced by the Iranian side and Donald Trump's threats as posturing for domestic audiences. Continue reading......

Economic historian and politician who was a leading authority on the life and work of John Maynard KeynesIn the summer of 2008, Robert Skidelsky, who has died aged 86, thought he was done with John Maynard Keynes. Having devoted two decades to writing his biography of the foremost British economist of the 20th century, he was turning his attention to other interests.For Skidelsky, completing the three volumes had been a labour of love. He had moved into Keynes's Sussex home so that he would pick up the right vibes, configuring the study so that it looked as it had in the 1930s. He wrote at the same desk that Keynes had used. Continue reading......

Benjamin Netanyahu has brushed aside European concerns over Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon. A tougher approach from Brussels is overdueIn recent months, European expressions of concern over the actions of Benjamin Netanyahu's government have regularly hardened into outright condemnation. Last September, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, expressed horror and outrage at aid restrictions that she said created a “man-made famine” in Gaza. Brussels has inveighed against settler violence and land grabs in the West Bank, which undermine the possibility of a viable Palestinian state. Responding to the bombing of Lebanon following the US-Israeli ceasefire with Iran, the EU's foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said: “Israel's right to self-defence does not justify this destruction.”The angry words and exhortations have achieved nothing. Mr Netanyahu and his ministers have generally treated European critics with barely concealed contempt, presumably reassured by the fact that their...

FTSE 100 slides and UK gas prices up amid fears strait of Hormuz will be closed for extended periodMiddle East crisis – live updatesBusiness live – latest updatesOil prices have risen sharply and European stock markets have fallen after the US seizure of an Iranian vessel dented hopes for a peace deal.Brent crude, the international benchmark for oil prices, rose by 4.8% on Monday to $94.69 (£70.07) a barrel. Continue reading......

Bets placed on Middle East conflict has led to US firm experiencing big increase in volumePolymarket, the online prediction platform that hosts bets on events such as the Iran war, is in talks to raise $400m (£296m) at a valuation of up to $15bn.The company has gained notoriety in recent months over wagers placed on the Middle East conflict, including on the timing of US-Israel strikes against Iran, and on a US-Iran ceasefire, some of which appeared to bear signs of insider trading. Continue reading......

Claims system launches months after supreme court ruled Trump had no legal authority to impose tariffsSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxThe Trump administration began on Monday accepting applications from businesses seeking refunds for more than $166bn in tariffs, months after the supreme court ruled that the president had no legal authority to impose them.The administration launched on Monday the digital claims system, named Cape, which they said in court filings could handle about 63% of affected import filings, with the remainder to follow. Continue reading......

Conservationists in Denbighshire 'angry and heartbroken' after Nant-y-Ffrith site emptied during breeding seasonMore than 1,000 toads may have died after a reservoir important to the local ecosystem was drained by a water company, conservationists in north Wales have said.Volunteers at Wrexham Toad Patrols help toads returning to the Nant-y-Ffrith reservoir on the Llandegla moors in breeding season, this year assisting 1,500 of the amphibians to cross busy roads to help protect the declining species. Continue reading......