Friday newspaper round-up: Rail strikes, homeowners, Activision/Microsoft

(Sharecast News) - A fresh round of rail strikes is expected to disrupt national networks during July, after the RMT union announced that 20,000 workers would stage three days of stoppages. The move dashes any hopes of an imminent resolution to a bitter labour dispute that has caused frequent disruption to rail lines across the country throughout 2023. - Guardian Poor countries will be able to pause their debt repayments if hit by climate disaster, under plans announced by the World Bank at the finance summit in Paris. The international development organisation said it would insert new clauses in any agreements with developing countries, allowing them to suspend debt payments in the case of extreme weather events, starting with some of the poorest and most vulnerable nations.- Guardian

Homeowners are facing three more years of mortgage pain after Andrew Bailey warned that price rises were "much more persistent" than the Bank of England predicted. The Governor of the Bank said decisive action was needed to keep a lid on inflation as policymakers surprised economists with a 0.5-point increase in interest rates to 5pc. Mr Bailey said: "The economy is doing better than expected, but inflation is still too high and we've got to deal with it." - Telegraph

Buying Activision Blizzard would hand Microsoft the ability and incentive to damage competition, America's top watchdog claimed at the start of a courtroom showdown. The technology company denied the allegation as it fights to save the $68.7 billion takeover, its biggest acquisition to date and the largest yet in the video games industry. It countered that the deal would be "good news for consumers". - The Times

The former boss of Vodafone who was ousted after failing to revive the struggling telecoms group and its share price was paid almost £4 million last year. Nick Read, 58, whose departure was announced in December after four years in charge, received almost £3.9 million last year, including a £900,000 annual bonus. He also was paid about £270,000 in the first three months of this year when he was an adviser to the board and will be paid more than £730,000 over the remainder of his 12-month notice period. - The Times