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Friday newspaper round-up: News Corp, Shell, Stamp Duty tax

(Sharecast News) - Media conglomerate News Corp said on Thursday that it would cut 1,250 jobs after it missed estimates for second-quarter earnings due to weakness in its news and digital real estate businesses. Rising inflation and higher interest rates are forcing companies to curb their ad and marketing spend, denting one of the major sources of revenue for companies such as News Corp, which has major publishing platforms including the Wall Street Journal and New York Post in the US, the Sun and the Times in the UK, and the Australian. - Guardian British companies have been banned from paying ransomware hackers after a spate of attacks on businesses including Royal Mail and the Guardian newspaper. Foreign Secretary James Cleverly on Thursday unveiled sanctions on seven Russian hackers linked to a gang called Conti, effectively banning any payments to the group. - Telegraph

Shell investors are backing legal action against the company's directors, claiming they are failing to do enough to tackle climate change. Nest, the UK pension fund, and Danske Bank Asset Management, the Danish asset manager, are among those supporting a case brought by ClientEarth, an environmental charity that owns a small number of Shell shares. - Telegraph

A judge in New York yesterday extended a ban on the ability of Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, to contact employees of companies he once controlled and to use encrypted messaging technology while out on bail awaiting trial on fraud charges. This month District Judge Lewis Kaplan temporarily barred Bankman-Fried from contacting any present or former employees of FTX or Alameda Research, his hedge fund, after prosecutors raised concerns that the 30-year-old former billionaire may be trying to tamper with witnesses. As a condition of his release on a $250 million bond, the judge also prevented Bankman-Fried from using messaging apps such as Signal that allow users to auto-delete messages. - The Times

One of Britain's biggest investment platforms has added its voice to a campaign to scrap stamp duty on investment trust share purchases after calculating that its clients alone had paid £30 million in the tax over the past three years. Interactive Investor, which has about 400,000 clients, called the levy on investment trusts "anti-competitive and unfair" and it wants Jeremy Hunt to change the rules in the budget next month. - The Times

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Monday newspaper round-up: Service charge, BP, Heathrow, Elon Musk
(Sharecast News) - An increasingly complex tax system is burdening the government and businesses with hundreds of millions of pounds more in administration costs, Whitehall's spending watchdog has warned. The report by the National Audit Office (NAO) also said "poor levels of service" meant some taxpayers and their representatives were "finding it more difficult to deal with their tax matters and are losing trust in HM Revenue & Customs [HMRC]". - Guardian
Sunday newspaper round-up: Etihad float, Shein, Thames Water
(Sharecast News) - Abu Dhabi based carrier Etihad is planning to float a stake of up to 20% on the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange. Sources indicate that it could command a valuation of $5bn (£4bn). It would be the second such transaction for its boss, Antonoaldo Neves. In 2017, the former McKinsey partner floated Azul, Brazil's third-largest airline, on the New York Stock Exchange. For Neves, any airline that aspires to be "relevant" needs to tap into different sources of capital. Its goal is to fly 170 jets by 2030, up from 93 at present. - The Sunday Times
Friday newspaper round-up: Gambling sector, FOS, Amazon
(Sharecast News) - The gambling regulator has accidentally handed over more than 4,000 sensitive documents to lawyers acting for the media tycoon Richard Desmond, in an "unprecedented" blunder during its legal battle over the £6.4bn national lottery contract, the Guardian understands. Northern & Shell (N&S), the investment group owned by Desmond, is suing the Gambling Commission for £200m in damages over its handling of the lottery licence award process. - Guardian
Thursday newspaper round-up: CMA, Riverford, Lloyds, Arm Holdings
(Sharecast News) - The appointment of the former boss of Amazon UK to lead the competition watchdog poses a threat to its independence and pledge to hold big tech to account, according to a group including tech companies and the former business secretary Vince Cable. The group - which includes the News Media Association, the Firefox developer Mozilla, the consumer group Which? and the Future of Technology Institute - has written to the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, to raise concerns about the appointment of Doug Gurr as the interim chair of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). - 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.

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