Page 152 - Round Up News Today

HSBC boss Noel Quinn has warned that a "global reckoning" may be approaching after debt ballooned in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis and during the Covid pandemic. That is because the world economy's rate of growth is too slow to handle the pace at which government debt is rising. Inflation and the interest rate increases that go with it are hampering the bounce-back following the pandemic. Those higher rates also mean that government's borrowing costs are going up...

The recent rise in interest rates has been blamed for ending Britain’s wealth boom and causing total household wealth to plunge by a quarter since the Covid-19 pandemic. A report by the Resolution Foundation, a thinktank, and Abrdn, the asset manager, said the fall was due to a drop in house prices and pension pots, which account for about £4 out of every £5 of total wealth, and played a leading role in rising wealth across the country over the 40 years leading up to the pa...

Profits almost tripled at Amazon in the latest quarter as consumers continued to spend heavily despite the sharp rise in interest rates. The world’s largest retailer forecast that sales would continue to rise at a robust pace for the rest of the year. Growth had been knocked by surging prices and customers returning to bricks-and-mortar stores. – Guardian

Movember: How to get involved and support men’s health

Every November, men around the world grow out their moustaches for Movember in a bid to bring awareness to men's healt

The former NatWest chief executive breached data protection laws when she spoke to a BBC journalist about the planned closure of Nigel Farage’s bank accounts, the UK’s information watchdog has ruled. An Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) report seen by the Guardian said that Alison Rose broke rules on two counts: first by revealing that Farage had a banking relationship with its private bank, Coutts; and secondly by providing “misleading information&a...

Here's what the critics think - With Mario and Sonic's latest releases now available, the focus this week turns to Konami'...

British Steel is planning to let go 2,000 employees amid a push by its Chinese owners to radically overhaul its operations and cut pollution. As many as 2,000 people could be let go as part of the turnaround plans, two people familiar with the company's thinking said, although no final decisions had yet been taken. The cost reductions are understood to be a critical part of plans to convert from blast furnaces to electric ark furnaces, which could unlock over £1bn in fresh funding fro...

The influential Tory donors behind the JCB digger empire could be hit with a bill for more than £500m to settle a longrunning investigation by HM Revenue and Customs, the Guardian can reveal. The investigation into Anthony Bamford, a Tory peer, and his brother Mark, the director of a subsidiary of the Conservative party, is understood to span a complex network of offshore tax havens and companies. – Guardian

Many more councils in England are at risk of bankruptcy, town hall leaders have warned, as unprecedented financial pressures force local authorities to prepare drastic cuts to services to cope with a collective £4bn deficit. The bleak message, set out in a letter to the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, said council budgets were “under pressure like never before” because of the rapid deterioration in their finances caused by inflation and soaring demand for social care. &nda...