The pound steadied on Wednesday after Boris Johnson hit “pause” on his Brexit deal legislation.
Sterling fell back from $1.30 after MPs refused to back Boris Johnson's plan to push through the deal through the House of Commons in just three days.
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By Henry Saker-Clark, PA City Reporter
Three building firms have been fined more than £36m for their roles in an illegal price-fixing cartel.
FP McCann, Stanton Bonna Concrete and CPM Group colluded to fix concrete prices for almost seven years, the competition watchdog said..
The Competition and Markets Authority said the three firms illegally shared competitively sensitive information to keep prices artificially high.
(Press Association) Sports Direct has condemned Goals Soccer Centres, accusing its management of wiping out shareholders through "skulduggery".
Mike Ashley's retail firm hit out at the five-a-side-football pitch operator, two days after confirming he had no intention to buy the business.
The retail tycoon said Goals and its board "did not truly engage" with the offer process, describing their co-operation as "limited and fitful".
Sports Direct, which is Goals' largest shareholder, had been mulling a £4m swoop for Goals.
The retail giant denied reports that Goals said it provided Sports Direct with all the information needed.
In the statement, Sports Direct said: "From the beginning, the attitude of the Goals board made no sense, including proclamations to senior management of Sports Direct that the issues impacting on, and leading to the catastrophic failure of, the business had only been perpetuated by one person.
Grant Shapps' plan for electric cars will make China a motoring giant
The problem – well, challenge – is how ever-more ambitious targets for going carbon neutral are practically compatible with the widespread desire for personal transportation. We just can’t make enough electric cars now, even with our present modest ambitionsAdam Neumann, the eccentric co-founder of WeWork, will leave the board of the crisis-stricken company pocketing over $1bn (£778m), while thousands of his ex-colleagues face losing their jobs. Their reaction: “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
That was one of the comments posted on the staff-wide communications system at the co-working company, reflecting a broader mood throughout its headquarters in New York.
Dozens of employees expressed indignation in interviews and messages to colleagues on company Slack channels that were relayed to Bloomberg. They requested anonymity in a bid to protect their jobs, as management weighs the dismissal of thousands of employees.
WeWork’s board agreed on Tuesday to take a bailout from SoftBank, which will secure an 80 per cent stake. The Japanese conglomerate will provide $6.5bn to the business that is on the verge of running out of money.
WeWork staff outraged at payout for former CEO while they face job cuts
Adam Neumann set to leave with over $1bn while management considers dismissing thousands of employeesFuller’s buys Cotswold Inns & Hotels for £40m
Fuller, Smith & Turner has agreed to buy Cotswold Inns & Hotels in a £40m deal.
Cotswold owns seven freehold country inns, eight freehold cottages and two leasehold bars in Birmingham, Fuller's said.
Fuller's Chief Executive Simon Emeny said: "The inns and hotels being acquired are all iconic, character properties in sought-after locations in the Cotswolds.
Fuller's sold its beer business, including the the historic Griffin Brewery in Chiswick, to Japan's Asahi in January.
Some 11 per cent of 11 to 16 year olds have spent their own money on gambling in the past seven days, compared with 14% in 2018, survey findings have suggested.
The Gambling Commission said the percentage of young people classified as "problem" gamblers was unchanged from last year at 1.7 per cent, although the percentage classified as "at risk" has risen from 2.2 per cent to 2.7 per cent.
It said the latest results "do not represent a significant increase over time".
The survey found the most common type of gambling activity that young people are taking part in is private bets for money, played by 5 per cent of those surveyed, and playing cards with friends for money (3 per cent).
The research also shows that 3 per cent report buying National Lottery scratchcards in a shop and a further 4% say they have played fruit or slot machines in the past seven days.
Press Association
Continued uncertainty around Brexit has left businesses "at a loss" with how to prepare, according to the Chartered Management Institute (CMI).
CMI chief executive Ann Francke said: "Businesses are again lost as to what Brexit preparations they should be making, creating economic uncertainty. Are we deal or no-deal? Clearly we should deal.
"To do so, the Prime Minister needs to take a pragmatic, co-operative approach to his work with both Parliament and the European Union, to ensure the UK secures a deal.
"Only then can we build a future relationship with the EU that is good for jobs and the economy."
UK companies should have a new “duty of care” to ensure they take legal responsibility for deforestation and other environmental damage linked to their operations overseas, the Liberal Democrats have proposed.
The law would make it more difficult for UK-based firms to shirk responsibility for damage caused by their suppliers – by applying a minimum set of standards to all of their operations globally.
That would mean companies could be held liable in the UK for problems caused elsewhere, even where local laws have been complied with.
UK firms must have global 'duty of care' to stop environmental damage, say Lib Dems
Businesses must take greater responsibility for damage caused overseas, says Jo SwinsonBoeing has replaced the senior executive in charge of the doomed 737 Max plane.
The aircraft manufacturer has replaced president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, Kevin McAllister, who was in charge of the Boeing 737 Max programme.
Mr McAllister is the most senior executive to leave the company since the jet was grounded in March.
The worldwide fleet of Max jets was grounded following two fatal crashes that claimed the lives of 346 people.
The Manoeuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) was later blamed for the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines crashes.
Boeing replaces senior executive in charge of 737 Max after two fatal crashes
Kevin McAllister was in charge of the Max programmeThe Musicians’ Union, which represents more than 30,000 musicians working across the industry, found some 85 per cent of victims did not report the harassment.
Researchers said their silence was predominantly due to the “culture of the industry”.
Almost two-thirds of performers considered themselves more vulnerable to such treatment because they were freelance workers rather than on permanent employees, the research found.
Some 90 per cent of the Music Union’s members work on a freelance basis. Only one in five of those surveyed for the study said their contracts contained procedures to handle sexual harassment.
Half of musicians suffer sexual harassment in the workplace, damning report claims
‘The incidents occurred when we were performing on tour. I was told this was just “lad culture” by the person investigating my complaint,’ says victimThe Official Receiver said:
“While discussions with Ataer are continuing, discussions with other parties who have expressed continued and renewed interest in acquiring the whole British Steel business will now be possible. I have instructed the Special Managers to engage with these additional interested parties.
"Diligence team members from these parties are expected to visit the company’s sites over the coming days and weeks. Meanwhile Ataer remain very much interested in acquiring the business and we remain in detailed discussions with them to conclude a sale.
“I remain focussed on achieving a sale of the business and assets of British Steel as quickly as possible, to achieve the best possible outcome for the Company’s creditors. The conclusion of the exclusivity period allows us to consider all of the options available at this point in the process. I would like to thank the team at British Steel for their continued support and hard work during this period of uncertainty.”
How to get £20 compensation for the Three network going down
Customers of Three mobile network could get a £20 refund on their bill after last week’s outage left users without phone signal or internet connections for hours.
The company won’t be contacting its 10 million UK customers, they have to get in touch in order to claim compensation with each claim assessed individually.
A Three spokesperson said: "If you’d like to talk to us about compensation, please call us and we will consider each case on an individual basis. Please be patient because we are experiencing high call volumes."
The company has not specified how much money it will refund, but MoneySavingExpert reports that some customers have received £20 credit towards their bill.
Official confirmation of the breakthrough in quantum computing came in a paper here published in science journal Nature, after weeks of controversy following the leak of a draft, over whether Google's claim of "quantum supremacy" was valid.
Computer scientists have for decades sought to harness the behavior of sub-atomic particles that can simultaneously exist in different states - in contrast to the “real” world that people perceive around them.
So, whereas traditional computing relies on bits, or ones and zeros, quantum computing uses quantum bits, or qubits, that can be both one and zero at the same time.
This property, called superposition, multiplies exponentially as qubits become entangled with each other. The more qubits that can be strung together, the vastly more powerful a quantum computer becomes.
But there’s a catch: Quantum researchers need to cool the qubits to close to absolute zero to limit vibration - or “noise” - that causes errors to creep into their calculations. It’s in this extremely challenging task that the research team at Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc, has made significant progress.
