- A + A (June 25): UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who survived a confidence vote just two weeks ago, is facing fresh threats to his leadership after his Conservative Party lost two key parliamentary seats, according to reports. Tory rebels seeking his ouster want to scrap the party’s rule that prevents another leadership poll from taking place for a year, the Times and the Telegraph reported. They’re organising to take over an internal panel of backbenchers known as the 1922 Committee that sets party rules on confidence votes, according to the reports. Andrew Bridgen, a Tory lawmaker, told GB News on Friday (June 24) that he would stand for the election to the executive of the 1922 Committee to try and change the rules. Nominations open next week and the vote could be the following week, he said. The rules can be altered at any time by a simple majority of the typically 18-member executive, according to the Telegraph. Graham Brady, the chairman of the … [Read more...] about UK PM Johnson may face new ouster effort after election loss
Uk economy under eu
MC Pro Weekender | A new narrative
(Representative image: Reuters) Dear Reader, A whiff of change wafted through the markets this week. The focus shifted from worrying over inflation to concerns about growth. The advance Purchasing Managers Indices (PMIs) for the current month for the US and the Eurozone showed slowing growth, but while they indicated inflation was cooling in the US, it continued to rise relentlessly in the Eurozone. They also reflected stalling demand and falling business confidence. The New York Fed’s economic model predicted an 80 percent chance of a hard landing for the US. UK consumer confidence hit a record low. In China, housing starts and property transactions reached extreme lows. The worries over an imminent recession in the US, the UK and the Eurozone sent commodity prices sharply lower. Copper prices have moved down dramatically. My colleague Ravi Ananthanarayanan wrote about the dark clouds hovering over steel . Crude oil prices too fell. That dissipated some of the … [Read more...] about MC Pro Weekender | A new narrative
Ukrainian city falls to Russia in one of war’s bloodiest fights
Ukrainian service members walk in the industrial area of the city of Sievierodonetsk, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, Ukraine June 20, 2022. (REUTERS/Oleksandr Ratushniak/File Photo) KYIV/POKROVSK, Ukraine — Russian forces have fully occupied Sievierodonetsk, the mayor of the eastern Ukrainian city said on Saturday, confirming Kyiv’s biggest battlefield setback for more than a month, after weeks of some of the war’s bloodiest fighting. Ukraine called its retreat from the city a “tactical withdrawal” to fight from higher ground in Lysychansk on the opposite bank of the Siverskyi Donets river. Pro-Russian separatists said Moscow’s forces were now attacking Lysychansk. The fall of Sievierodonetsk — once home to more than 100,000 people, now a wasteland — was Russia’s biggest victory since capturing the port of Mariupol last month. It transforms the battlefield in the east after weeks in which Moscow’s huge advantage in firepower had yielded only slow gains. Russia will … [Read more...] about Ukrainian city falls to Russia in one of war’s bloodiest fights
We need to shield climate target from energy shock
Economy: Threatened worldwide | Climate change is curbing growth and incomes and threatens trillions of dollars' worth of damage. Estimates cited in the report say high warming of 4C could drag down global GDP between 10 and 23 percent this century, compared to a world without warming. With no action, climate change could push between 35 and 132 million more people into extreme poverty by 2030. GDP per capita was 13.6 percent lower for African countries in 2010 than it would have been without global warming since 1991. Sub-Saharan Africa could lose a further 12 percent of GDP by 2050 and 80 percent by 2100 with high emissions. (Representative Image) As nations across the globe seek comfort in coal to mitigate the raging energy crisis, clouds are gathering over the GHG (greenhouse gas) emission targets set by different countries to cut the global carbon footprint within a stipulated time frame. Stoked by the Covid pandemic and fuelled by the Russia-Ukraine military conflict, there … [Read more...] about We need to shield climate target from energy shock
Resolving worker shortage woes
AS you’re aware, there is a serious manpower situation that Malaysia is facing. Some are saying Malaysia is at breaking point. It’s feared that our country is missing a golden opportunity to capitalise on high palm oil prices and will suffer production losses because of the acute shortage of workers. What has been done? According to the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) report in 2015, up to 78% of the oil palm plantation workers are foreign workers, with most of them coming from Indonesia. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there was no new arrival of foreign workers beginning from March 2020, and Malaysia recently opened its international borders on April 1, 2022. Due to the shortage of workers in the oil palm plantation sector, expected revenue losses are around RM20bil. ALSO READ: More foreign labour soon This has led to the Malaysian Cabinet to agree to a special exemption for the intake of 32,000 foreign workers for the palm oil sector in April 2022. As mentioned much … [Read more...] about Resolving worker shortage woes
The war in Ukraine hasn’t ended. Here’s how these founders continue to build their businesses
In those first few fraught hours of February 24th, after Russian forces invaded Ukraine, Anastasiia Smyk, CEO and co-founder of aviation software startup Input Soft , recalls being in a state of shock and incredulity. She was in Kyiv at the time, but her 11-strong team was scattered around the country. advertisement advertisement “The first week we were just thinking about how to survive at a human level,” says the 25-year-old entrepreneur. “So we decided to rent a house for our team in the Carpathian mountains, in the [safer] western part of Ukraine, and told them they could go there with their families to wait until we knew more about what was happening. Some of them went. Others were unable to get out.” One of those left behind was the startup’s accountant, whose home town of Kherson, in southern Ukraine, has been under Russian occupation since early March. On May 3rd, when the internet and mobile communications went down, she decided to risk her … [Read more...] about The war in Ukraine hasn’t ended. Here’s how these founders continue to build their businesses
Pink Floyd is seeking US$500mil for music catalog including ‘The Wall’
Members of the rock band Pink Floyd are seeking at least US$500mil (RM2.2bil) in a deal for their music catalog, according to people familiar with the talks, which would be one of the largest sales in music history. The group known for hits such as Money and Comfortably Numb is selling its recording and songwriting catalog, as well as the power to create merchandise based on the band, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are confidential. Patrick McKenna, who is representing the band in the process, didn’t respond to an email seeking comment. McKenna has winnowed the list of potential buyers to four, said the people. The names include Warner Music Group Corp., Sony Music Entertainment and BMG. Sony and Warner already distribute some of Pink Floyd’s music. The British rock band released some of the most popular records ever, including Dark Side Of The Moon and The Wall, two albums that defined music in the 1970s. The group has sold 75 million … [Read more...] about Pink Floyd is seeking US$500mil for music catalog including ‘The Wall’