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Important information: The value of investments can go down as well as up so you may get back less than you invest. Investors should note that the views expressed may no longer be current and may have already been acted upon. This is a third-party news feed and may not reflect Fidelity’s views.

Thursday newspaper round-up: Business rates, Barclays, Moonshot

(Sharecast News) - Business rates will be cut by 20% for pubs, clubs and live music venues across England from April next year, Downing Street has announced. The discount will apply to nearly 32,000 hospitality businesses and is expected to save a typical pub about £1,100 annually, but will not be available to the very largest live music venues. - Guardian The leading US senator Elizabeth Warren has called for urgent answers from Barclays over what she claimed was its "apparent failure to meaningfully investigate" ties between the bank's former boss, Jes Staley, and the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. In a letter sent privately to Barclays's chair, Nigel Higgins, and seen by the Guardian, Warren - the most senior Democrat on the US senate banking committee - said it was "deeply unclear how Barclays, supposedly investigating Staley's connection to Epstein, failed to uncover this decades-long relationship". - Guardian

A former PR executive for Lloyd's of London has threatened to sue the insurance market after an investigation found "no conclusive evidence" she had a romantic relationship with its former chief executive. Rebekah Clement, a former adviser to New Zealand's prime minister, is considering taking legal action against Lloyd's after a long-running review failed to find that she had a workplace affair with John Neal, the former chief executive. - Telegraph

The White House has threatened China with sanctions after accusing one of its top AI companies of stealing American technology. Scott Bessent, the Treasury Secretary, said claims that Chinese start-up Moonshot had extracted trade secrets from US company Anthropic could trigger retaliatory actions including a new round of levies on Beijing. - Telegraph

Alphabet beat second-quarter sales forecasts for its Google Cloud business as the technology company hoped to reassure investors about its huge investments in artificial intelligence infrastructure. The US company said Google Cloud revenue in the second quarter rose 82 per cent from a year ago to $24.8 billion, beating Wall Street's forecast of $22.4 billion. - The Times

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Wednesday newspaper round-up: Donald Trump, Airbus, Heathrow
(Sharecast News) - Donald Trump must divulge detailed financial information from his many businesses as part of his $10bn defamation lawsuit against the British Broadcasting Corporation, a federal judge ruled during a discovery hearing on Tuesday, according to news reports. The ruling by US magistrate judge Enjoliqué Lett could open a unique window into the hundreds of businesses owned by Trump's family trust. It also highlights a potential drawback for Trump's strategy of bludgeoning critical media with multibillion-dollar lawsuits. - Guardian
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Wealth tax, Paramount, UK pension funds
(Sharecast News) - Andy Burnham has announced a fresh tax cut to remove VAT from domestic electricity bills from 1 October, a move that will funded from cancelling the Digital ID programme. The prime minister said in a statement: "Westminster has not been working for people for too long, with families struggling with the cost of living. That needs to change. I said I wanted to give people breathing space, and that's what I'm announcing on my second day as prime minister." - Guardian
Monday newspaper round-up: Pay gap, Thames Water, Boohoo
(Sharecast News) - The bosses of Britain's largest listed companies received record pay last year, fuelling the widest earnings gap with workers in eight years. Median pay for FTSE 100 chief executives hit £5.06m in the last financial year, according to data released by the High Pay Centre, an 8.6% increase on £4.66m the previous year and the highest level on record. Executive remuneration has been rising steadily since the pandemic, when CEOs took pay and bonus cuts as the lockdowns affected business performance. - Guardian

Important information: This information is not a personal recommendation for any particular investment. If you are unsure about the suitability of an investment you should speak to one of Fidelity’s advisers or an authorised financial adviser of your choice. When you are thinking about investing in shares, it’s generally a good idea to consider holding them alongside other investments in a diversified portfolio of assets. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future returns.