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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: Microsoft, energy price cap, benefits

(Sharecast News) - Microsoft has filed an appeal against the UK competition watchdog's decision to block its $69bn (£56bn) acquisition of the Call of Duty creator Activision Blizzard. The US tech company confirmed that it had formally lodged an appeal against the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) verdict against the deal last month. Its case will be argued before the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT). - Guardian The founder of Monzo has quit London in favour of San Francisco as he said the US was "much more accepting" of tech companies than Britain. Tom Blomfield, who co-founded the banking app in 2015 and left the company in 2021, said Britain was "not always favourable to ambitious founders who want to do something unusual". - Telegraph

Nearly 4 million people are being paid jobless benefits without ever having to look for work following a surge in claims of mental health and joint pain during lockdown. Around 3.7 million of the 5.2 million people currently claiming out of work benefits have been granted an exemption from finding a job, meaning that taxpayers face bankrolling their benefits indefinitely. - Telegraph

Energy bills will fall by 17 per cent to an average of £2,074 a year for a typical household from July, Ofgem has announced. Households have been paying record high prices since October - equivalent to £2,500 a year based on typical usage - under the government's energy price guarantee. - The Times

A lawsuit against the former boss of Barclays alleging that he hid what he knew about Jeffrey Epstein while working at a US bank has been allowed to proceed by a New York judge. Jes Staley, 66, faces a claim that could run to tens of millions of dollars from JP Morgan, the US bank where he filled senior roles between 1999 and 2013, before joining Barclays in 2015. - The Times

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(Sharecast News) - Bars, clubs and restaurants will offer up to 100,000 jobs to young people not in employment, education or training (Neet) over the next three years in an effort to give them a first step on the ladder into work. The move comes before the publication of a report on Neets by the former health secretary Alan Milburn, who has warned that the number of young people not in work or education in the UK could rise to 1.25 million over the next five years unless ministers intervene. - Guardian
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(Sharecast News) - The global economy "could soon test the limits of resilience", as emergency oil stocks run low and government budgets become overstretched, the International Monetary Fund has warned. In its twice-yearly World Economic Outlook, the IMF said global growth had withstood the Middle East conflict better than feared over the past six months. It said the rerouting of oil supplies away from the strait of Hormuz, and the release of strategic energy stocks, had helped to contain the impact on oil prices from the US-Iran war. - Guardian
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(Sharecast News) - John Healey has been warned by Britain's leading tax and spending experts that his budget risks being a "work of fiction" unless he sets out plans to cover £35bn in spending pressures. As the war in the Middle East rattles the public finances, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said the damage from higher inflation meant the chancellor would need to either top up funds for his current government spending plans or impose deep real-terms cuts by the end of the decade. - Guardian

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