Blinken’s unmistakable warning to China: US will fight aggression and defend rules-based system February 11, 2022 America and its allies must stand up for a rules-based system threatened by Chinese aggression, US secretary of state Antony Blinken has warned although he stressed a confrontation with China is not inevitable. Blinken spoke shortly before a meeting with the foreign ministers of Australia, India and Japan in Melbourne. The four nations form the [...]
Exclusive: The City’s hydrogen authority on Jeff Bezos’ first nuclear fusion plant in Britain February 11, 2022 Tower 42-based Gavin Watson, generally considered the City’s go-to lawyer for hydrogen projects, recently advised on the launch of a Jeff Bezos-backed, UK-first nuclear fusion plant, which uses hydrogen as an input. Given the growing investor interest in this gas and Boris Johnson’s claim that he intends for Britain to become the ‘Qatar of hydrogen’, time [...]
Can Volkswagen catch Tesla in the electric vehicle race? February 11, 2022 | City Talk Tesla raised some eyebrows last month as it unveiled an 87% year-on-year rise in vehicle deliveries to over 936,000. In terms of battery electric vehicles (BEVs), this puts it some distance ahead of its European rivals, including Volkswagen AG with less than a half of Tesla’s deliveries (452,900). There are three main reasons for Tesla’s [...]
Weak efforts to claw back stolen furlough money by HMRC to leave taxpayers with £4bn bill February 11, 2022 Weak efforts by the taxman to clawback Covid-19 support money stolen by fraudsters will result in taxpayers shouldering a £4bn loss, warns a new report published today by a group of cross-party MPs. “HMRC’s unambitious plans” to recover billions of misspent pounds through the furlough and business loan schemes could see taxpayers holding the bag, [...]
Brits flock back to country’s drinking holes in sign of normalising spending February 11, 2022 Brits are flocking back to the country’s drinking holes after Covid-19 restrictions were scrapped last month, revealed fresh figures released yesterday. Social spending is nearly back to pre-pandemic levels as the end of Plan B curbs encouraged consumers to return to their favourite pubs, bars and restaurants. According to data released by the Office for [...]
Mark Zuckerberg and team consider shutting down Facebook and Instagram in Europe if Meta can not process Europeans’ data on US servers February 10, 2022 If Meta is not given the option to transfer, store and process data from its European users on US-based servers, Facebook and Instagram may be shut down across Europe, the social media giants’ owner reportedly warned in its annual report. The key issue for Meta is transatlantic data transfers, regulated via the so-called Privacy Shield [...]
Travel stocks continue ascent as London markets post mixed open February 10, 2022 Travel stocks continued their ascent today in a positive day for London markets. The capital’s premier FTSE 100 index closed 0.38 per cent higher at 7,672.40 points, while the domestically-focused FTSE 250 index, which is more aligned with the health of the UK economy, added 0.11 per cent to finish at 22,207.75 points. Airline stocks [...]
Stateside inflation climbs to four decade high dialling up pressure on US Fed to go further and faster February 10, 2022 Stateside inflation is running at its hottest rate since the early 1980s, piling even more pressure on the US Federal Reserve to launch a stauncher and faster rate hike cycle. Prices in the US are 7.5 per cent higher than they were a year ago in January, according to fresh figures published today by the [...]
Gucci plots metaverse as it snaps up virtual real estate in The Sandbox February 10, 2022 Luxury fashion house Gucci is launching into virtual reality with plans to build its own metaverse on digital real estate platform The Sandbox
Crypto M&A value soared 5000 per cent in 2021, says PwC report February 10, 2022 The value of merger and acquisitions in the crypto industry skyrocketed by 4,846 per cent in 2021 according to PwC.