DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ The UK and Germany have very different ideas about the future of nuclear energy
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Joumanna Bercetche | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

As the price of oil increased, energy independence became a priority, and Germany started commissioning more nuclear reactors. It took the nuclear disasters in Chernobyl in 1986, which was then part of the Soviet Union, and Fukushima, Japan, in 2011 to shift German public opinion against nuclear energy. Germany's decision to end its reliance on nuclear energy made it reliant on Russian pipeline gas. The UK's first nuclear power station was built in the 1950s, but it was Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher who, in the 1980s, proposed constructing a nuclear power station every year for a decade as part of the country's industrial strategy. A study by market research firm YouGov in 2022 showed that almost half of Britons back the use of nuclear energy, compared with 31% who are opposed.

☆ What Is Coronation Chicken? The History Behind the Dish.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Melissa Clark | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

This steep ascent was fueled by what the British food writer Gurdeep Loyal, author of “Mother Tongue: Flavours of a Second Generation,” calls a revival of Raj nostalgia that set in with Margaret Thatcher’s tenure as prime minister. Coronation chicken “wants to evoke the peacocks and rubies, the grandeur and spice of regal Indian dynasties, without actually delivering any strong flavors,” Mr. Loyal said. His version, which uses a complex Punjabi masala with black and green cardamom, ajwain, fennel and tamarind, alludes to the beloved 1980s version of his childhood while celebrating Mr. Loyal’s identity as a second-generation British Indian. Still, the 1980s version is delightful, and a snap to make.

☆ From one of Britain's most popular toys to the target of police raids: how a children's doll became a symbol of racism
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-16 | by ( Isobel Van Hagen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

A police raid on a bar just outside of London renewed a debate over racist dolls. But despite the long history of the racist trope, the debate over the doll's place in British culture continues. Revellers take part in the Children's Parade at Notting Hill Carnival in London, Britain, August 28, 2022. But it does appear that there is some gradual shift in public opinion happening with the dolls. Nevertheless, the enduring popularity of the blackface doll creates the impression "that we live in a post-racial society," Scott said.

☆ Clarence Thomas' benefactor, the billionaire megadonor Harlan Crow, has a collection of Hitler artifacts and Nazi memorabilia: report
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-08 | by ( John L. Dorman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Clarence Thomas benefactor Harlan Crow has an art collection that includes Nazi memorabilia, the Washingtonian reported. A bombshell ProPublica report revealed that Thomas had taken undisclosed trips funded by Crow for more than 20 years. "I still can't get over the collection of Nazi memorabilia," an individual who has remained anonymous and who attended an event at Crow's home told the magazine. When the Morning News reporter finally saw the garden of dictator statues, Crow described it as an acknowledgment of the inhumanity that some men have shown to others. The news of Crow's collection comes after a bombshell ProPublica report, which detailed how Thomas has taken luxury vacations funded by the megadonor for more than 20 years without disclosing the excursions.

☆ Nigel Lawson, U.K. Chancellor Under Margaret Thatcher, Dies at 91
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( Joseph Pisani | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Nigel Lawson, who was chancellor under U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher , has died. His death was confirmed Monday by House of Commons Speaker Lindsay Hoyle, who paid tribute in a statement on Twitter. No other details were given.

☆ Nick Clegg led Meta's decision to reinstate Trump to Facebook and Instagram. Here's how the former UK deputy prime minister charmed his way into Mark Zuckerberg's inner circle.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Philip Webster | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +18 min

Nick Clegg has risen quickly to become one of Mark Zuckerberg's closest confidants at Meta. Clegg, a former UK deputy prime minister, led the decision to reinstate Donald Trump to Facebook. It was updated on February 16, 2022 following the news that Nick Clegg had been promoted to the role of President for Global Affairs. In a challenging economic climate, the Lib Dems and their Conservative coalition partners voted to raise tuition fees. Nick Clegg (left) and Chris Huhne appearing on the BBC's "The Andrew Marr Show" in October 2007.

☆ In pictures: Amazon faces first strike in Britain as workers walk out
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Jillian Kumagai | ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

People hold up a banner during a rally in support of Amazon workers on strike, outside the Amazon warehouse, in Coventry, Britain, January 25, 2023. The walk-out is just the latest in Britain, which is facing its worst industrial unrest since...morePeople hold up a banner during a rally in support of Amazon workers on strike, outside the Amazon warehouse, in Coventry, Britain, January 25, 2023. The walk-out is just the latest in Britain, which is facing its worst industrial unrest since Margaret Thatcher was prime minister, with staff from key sectors, including nurses and ambulance workers as well as from the railways and the legal profession staging strikes in fights for better pay. REUTERS/Henry NichollsClose

☆ Amazon warehouse workers at Coventry walk out over pay in UK first
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Muvija M | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Brendan McDermid./File Photo/File PhotoLONDON, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Amazon (AMZN.O) workers at a warehouse in central England will walk out on Wednesday in a months-long wrangle over pay, marking the first time the U.S. tech giant's operations in Britain have faced strike action. About 300 employees in Coventry are expected to take part in the industrial action, according to the trade union GMB. Amazon increased starting pay by 50 pence to a minimum of between 10.50 and 11.45 pounds ($12.95 to $14.12) per hour last year. The country's minimum wage, which is currently 9.50 pounds an hour, is set to rise to 10.42 in April. Amazon, which employs thousands of workers across its 30 warehouses in the UK, had then responded to say its pay was competitive.

☆ France hit by nationwide strike as unions fight Macron’s plan to raise retirement age
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

French workers would have to work longer before receiving a pension under the new rules — with the nominal retirement age rising from 62 to 64. Many French workers expressed mixed feeling about the government’s plan and pointed to the complexity of the pension system. For those who do not fulfil that condition, like many women who interrupted their career to raise their children or those who studied for a long time and started working late, the retirement age would remain unchanged at 67. Those who started to work early, under the age of 20, and workers with major health issues would be allowed early retirement. Protracted strikes met Macron’s last effort to raise the retirement age in 2019.

LONDON, Jan 3 (Reuters) - British rail workers kicked off the new year with a week-long strike on Tuesday, disrupting the return to work for millions of commuters in the latest bout of industrial action to hit the country. Repeated rail strikes have crippled the network in recent months while nurses, airport staff, paramedics and postal workers have also joined the fray, demanding higher pay to keep pace with inflation that is hovering around 40-year highs, reaching 10.7% in November. "Due to industrial action, there will be significantly reduced train services across the railway until Sunday 8 January," Network Rail said. "Trains will be busier and likely to start later and finish earlier, and there will be no services at all in some places." Mick Lynch, the head of the RMT rail union, said the government seemed content for the strikes to go ahead.

☆ Pioneering U.S. television journalist Barbara Walters dead at 93
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-31 | by ( Bill Trott | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

[1/2] Television personality Barbara Walters arrives for the premiere of the film "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" in New York September 20, 2010. "I asked Yeltsin if he drank too much, and I asked Putin if he killed anybody," Walters told the New York Times in 2013. "These two men were really quite brutal to me and it was not pleasant," Walters told the San Francisco Examiner. The New York Times called her "arguably America's best-known television personality" but also observed that "what we remember most about a Barbara Walters interview is Barbara Walters." Walters' three marriages - to businessman Robert Katz, theatrical producer Lee Guber and television executive Merv Adelson - ended in divorce.

☆ Factbox: Key facts about pioneering broadcast journalist Barbara Walters
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON, Dec 30 (Reuters) - The following are key facts about the life and career of pioneering broadcast journalist Barbara Walters, the first woman to anchor an American network evening newscast, who died on Friday:* Walters was born in Boston on Sept. 25, but she did not like to reveal the year, which reportedly was 1929, 1930 or 1931. * Walters started at NBC's "Today" show as a writer in 1961 and in 1976 became the first woman to co-anchor a network evening news broadcast on U.S. television. * Walters singled out her "Today" co-host Frank McGee and Reasoner on ABC News for making her life miserable. * Walters felt she was unfairly mocked for her asking actress Katharine Hepburn what kind of tree she would like to be. * Walters' marriages to businessman Robert Katz, theatrical producer Lee Guber and television executive Merv Adelson all ended in divorce.

☆ Vivienne Westwood, Britain's provocative dame of fashion, dead at 81
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Marie-Louise Gumuchian | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/4] Designer Vivienne Westwood poses for a portrait before her catwalk show at London Fashion Week Men's in London, Britain June 12, 2017. "Vivienne Westwood died today, peacefully and surrounded by her family, in Clapham, South London. Instantly recognisable with her orange or white hair, Westwood first made a name for herself in punk fashion in 1970s London, dressing the punk rock band that defined the genre. Westwood used her public profile to champion issues including nuclear disarmament and to protest against anti-terrorism laws and government spending policies that hit the poor. "I've used fashion to challenge the status quo."

☆ In Finance, as in Our Universe, Big Bangs Only Happen Once
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Jon Sindreu | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Britain aspires to a second “Big Bang” in financial services such as the one famously unleashed by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s. But the point of a Big Bang is that it only happens once. Earlier this month, British Treasury chief Jeremy Hunt unveiled the so-called Edinburgh Reforms, an ambitious loosening of financial regulations aimed at restoring some of the international competitiveness lost by the U.K. in recent years. This includes easing the “ring-fencing” separating retail and investment banking, scrapping the cap on bankers’ bonuses, overhauling the regime that makes senior managers responsible for infractions and repealing aspects of European Union rules. Officials also want to lower taxes on asset managers and make it easier to raise capital in the U.K.

☆ A bombing suspect in the 1988 explosion aboard Pan Am Flight 103 has been taken into US custody. Here's what has happened in the decades since the deadly attack.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Lauren Frias | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

The day after the bombing, then-British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher visited Lockerbie to meet with residents impacted by the tragedy. "The damage to this town is worse in daylight than we could possibly have seen at night," Thatcher said at the time. "The destruction of the houses near the road and the crater and the amount of metal and debris all around, and the many houses that must have been affected is far worse than I thought, and one had no idea until one came here." British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher talks to local residents in the town of Lockerbie, Scotland, shortly after the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, December 1988. Tom Stoddart Archive/Getty ImagesSource: ITN

☆ Premarket stocks: Betting on a market bounce? You may be waiting a while
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

New York CNN —‘Tis the season for Wall Street strategists to pack their clients’ inboxes with market predictions for 2023. Market analysts aren’t alone. “US equity returns will be driven by earnings against a backdrop characterized by elevated market volatility,” write JPMorgan analysts. The effort was initially touted as a “Big Bang 2.0” — a nod to the rapid deregulation of UK financial markets under former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1986. The changes are a bid to maintain London’s role as a global financial hub after Brexit, which, alongside political turmoil, has boosted uncertainty for companies thinking about where to invest.

☆ The UK just had a major market scare. Now it wants to relax financial rules
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Julia Horowitz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

London CNN —Just two months after UK markets suffered their worst meltdown since the global financial crisis, the British government is promising a major relaxation of financial regulation in a bid to shore up the country’s banking and insurance industries against growing competition from cities such as Amsterdam and Paris. “We are committed to securing the UK’s status as one of the most open, dynamic and competitive financial services hubs in the world,” Jeremy Hunt, the UK finance minister, said in a statement. The effort was initially touted as a “Big Bang 2.0” — a nod to the rapid deregulation of UK financial markets under former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in 1986. Yet they also come on the heels of a major financial shock. The industry lobby representing UK’s financial services, TheCityUK, said the measures should “help boost the UK’s attractiveness as a place for businesses to list, invest, grow and do business.”But there are some in the sector who back regulations such as the “ring-fencing” rules.

☆ How did Democrats make it so close in the House midterm elections?
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +18 min

While the GOP did still take the House, the close margin of victory was a performance well below what was possible. Here are eight perspectives from across the ideological spectrum on why the Democrats were able to make it so close. And this reality was essential given the defection of Black and Latino voters to the Republican Party and its candidates. America can credit Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin’s obstruction of a democracy bill and an economic bill for the narrow Republican House majority. But now, America needs to deal with a Republican House, thanks in good part to Manchin’s obstruction.

☆ Britain's electric grid transformation was sparked by political cooperation
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( James O'Malley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Sign up for our newsletter to get the latest on the culture & business of sustainability — delivered weekly to your inbox. That didn't happen by accident: They are the result of a profound transformation of Britain's national grid. "The revenues you got as a wind generator were still tied to the market price, which is set by gas," Lord said. "The risk does not go away," Rahmat Poudineh, the director of research at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies' electricity program, said. "Cornerstone of decarbonization"In any case, Britain's national grid today is in a much greener position than it once was, and the scale of the transformation is striking.

☆ Union Boss Becomes U.K.’s Surprise Media Star
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-05 | by ( James Hookway | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

In the heat and bluster of Britain’s summer rail strikes, there is one man keeping his cool—gruff-talking union boss Mick Lynch . Over the past few days, Mr. Lynch, 60 years old, has earned a cult following, making him the highest-profile union leader since the days when Margaret Thatcher tried to break the labor movement in the 1980s.

☆ How U.N. climate conferences have tackled global warming
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Andrea Januta | Kim Harrisberg | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

REUTERS/Russell Cheyne/File PhotoNov 2 (Reuters) - This year’s U.N. climate conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, marks the 27th time since 1995 that world leaders have gathered to confront global warming. Here are some key moments in the global climate conversation:1800s - Throughout the 1800s, several European scientists study how different gases and vapours can trap heat in the Earth’s atmosphere. 1990 - At the U.N.’s so-called Second World Climate Conference, scientists highlight the risks of global warming to nature and society. 2015 - Global warming passes 1 degree Celsius. Signatories promise to try to keep global warming within 1.5 degrees C of the preindustrial average.

Average two-year and five-year fixed rates hit 6.65% and 6.51% on Thursday, according to Moneyfacts, the highest since 2008. FALLING PRICESA drop in gilt yields following Rishi Sunak's victory in the Conservative Party leadership race could potentially feed through to lower mortgage rates. But the number of loans available for first-time buyers remains at less than half those on offer before the mini-budget, according to Moneyfacts. NEW FIXESAs well as first-time buyers, brokers are dealing with thousands of people whose fixed rate mortgages are due to expire in the coming months. Redmond, who has had an offer accepted in east London, said it felt as though every turn of political event only made the fixed interest rate higher.

☆ How 'trickle-down economics' backfired on Britain's shortest-serving prime minister
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Karen Gilchrist | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

On October 20th, 2022 — after just 44 days in office — British Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned. Trickle-down economics, a term most closely associated with Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. So just why did the U.K. try to revive trickle-down economics? Watch the video above to find out why the U.K. attempted to revive trickle-down economics and how it caused the country's fiscal strategy to implode. Disclaimer: CNBC conducted the interviews in this feature prior to Liz Truss' resignation on October 20.

☆ Who Is Rishi Sunak, Front-Runner to Become Britain’s Next Prime Minister?
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( David Luhnow | Max Colchester | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Rishi Sunak’s economic plans are seen as more pragmatic and less ideological than those of former U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss. In early September, Rishi Sunak narrowly lost a race to lead the Conservative Party and become prime minister. The person he lost to, Liz Truss , went on to have a tumultuous premiership and was forced to resign, becoming the shortest serving British prime minister in history and paving the way for a new leadership contest. Mr. Sunak’s rise to the top of British politics is one of the more spectacular “I told you so” stories in modern politics. To do that, she promised sweeping tax cuts, along with new spending, that she claimed would boost economic growth without damaging public finances.

Then, the former finance minister repeatedly described his predecessor's ideas as "fairytale" economics that would spook the markets. He will also be the first person of colour to become Britain's prime minister. "I grew up in the 80s and 90s, and I could not even imagine a non-white prime minister in my lifetime... COVID CHAMPIONSunak rose swiftly up the ranks of the Conservative Party, becoming, in 2020, one of the youngest finance ministers. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Britain, Sunak dropped the Conservatives' small-state instincts to borrow massively and stave off the risk of an economic depression.

Search resuls for: "Margaret Thatcher"

25 mentions found