Author: Press Room

Liz Truss, UK prime minister, is set to dismiss chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng as she prepares to carry out a dramatic U-turn on his “mini” Budget, according to government insiders. Two senior government figures said Kwarteng would be sacked on Friday. Downing Street declined to confirm that the chancellor would remain in his post, refusing to comment on “speculation”.Truss is due to hold a press conference in which she is expected to announce the U-turn on Kwarteng’s £43bn package of unfunded tax cuts.The chancellor arrived back in London from IMF talks in Washington on Friday morning and headed straight to Downing…

Wolves are in talks with former boss Nuno Espirito Santo over a return to the club just 17 months after leaving, according to reports.The club sacked manager Bruno Lage at the beginning of October after a woeful start to the season, and Nuno is understood to be on a shortlist of successors with discussions ongoing with his representatives.Nuno signed a two-year deal with Saudi Arabian side Al-Ittihad in July, and while getting him out of his contract is understood to be a sticking point, both sides are willing to discuss options, according to The Athletic and football journalist Fabrizio Romano.Premier…

CNN  —  In opening statements of Nikolas Cruz’s death penalty trial, his defense laid out their plan to persuade the jury to spare his life. They planned to present him as a disturbed, mentally ill human being. “In telling you Nik’s story, in telling you the chapters of his life, we will give you reasons for life,” public defender Melisa McNeill said in opening statements. “That is called mitigation. Mitigation is any reason that you believe that the death penalty is not an appropriate penalty in this case.” And on Thursday, after months of disturbing evidence and tear-filled witnesses, the…

Rival grocers Kroger and Albertsons on Friday announced plans to team up.The companies said Kroger agreed to buy Albertsons for $34.10 a share in a deal valued at $24.6 billion. Albertsons shares had closed Thursday at $28.63 after surging on reports that a deal was imminent.Kroger is the second-largest grocer by market share in the United States, behind Walmart, and Albertsons is fourth, after Costco. Together, Kroger and Albertsons would be a closer second to Walmart.Both companies’ boards unanimously approved the agreement, which will also need regulatory approval.Albertsons and Kroger supermarketsBridget Bennett | Bloomberg | Getty Images; Brandon Bell |…

Pedestrians pass a Wells Fargo bank branch in New York, U.S., on Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022.Victor J. Blue | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesWells Fargo said Friday that it is still seeing historically low loan delinquencies, but it made a decision to build up reserves as the economy slows, cutting into its third-quarter profits.Wells Fargo shares were up more than 3%, as its results topped expectations.Here’s how the bank did compared with Refinitiv estimates:Earnings per share: $1.30 adjusted vs. $1.09 expectedRevenue: $19.51 billion vs. $18.78 billion expectedIn the quarter ended Sept. 30, net income fell more than 30% to $3.53 billion,…

CNN  —  In Georgia’s already contentious Senate race, Friday’s debate between Republican Herschel Walker and Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock in Savannah will provide the highest stakes moment yet. The Senate contest, one of the most competitive in the country and key to winning control of the chamber, has been scrambled in recent days by news reports that Walker, a conservative who supports a full federal abortion ban with no exceptions, allegedly paid for a woman to terminate her pregnancy and then, two years later, encouraged the same woman to have the procedure a second time. Walker has denied the allegations,…

Floodwaters in Victoria are continuing to wreak havoc for residents as thousands more residents have been told to “evacuate immediately”.Multiple rivers across the flooded state have begun to overflow and many of the peaks are expected to be reached over the weekend.The Bureau of Meteorology is also warning that some communities down the Murray Rivers including Echuca and Moama could see major flooding at higher levels than the 2016 floods and possibly higher than those seen in the 1993 event next week.Residents around the communities of Rochester, Murchison, Maribyrnong River, Charlton and the low lying parts of Benalla Township have…

With employment insurance premiums set to rise in the new year, both employers and workers are calling on the federal government to step in and rescue the program from the considerable amount of debt it has fallen into since the COVID-19 pandemic. The program, which is financed entirely through premiums paid by workers and employers, accumulated $25.9 billion of debt by the end of 2021, according to the Office of the Chief Actuary.The rise in debt comes after a staggering number of Canadians were unemployed during the pandemic and eligibility rules for the program were relaxed to ease access to…

The visa-free deal between the European Union and Serbia is under renewed scrutiny after a steep rise in irregular border crossings from the Balkan country into the bloc.In the first nine months of this year, around 106,396 irregular entries were detected in the Western Balkans route, a 100% increase compared to the same period in 2021, according to the latest data released by Frontex, the EU’s border control agency.September alone saw almost 20,000 detentions.The numbers were published on the eve of a meeting of EU home affairs ministers in Luxembourg, where attention turned to Serbia’s unaligned visa policy. The rise in…

Sterling money market funds have gathered £53bn in just a fortnight as UK pension schemes rush to build defences against market volatility before the Bank of England’s emergency bond-buying programme ends on Friday. The UK pensions industry has been in a dash for cash to avoid a fresh liquidity crisis if there is a repeat of the chaotic moves in the gilt market caused by chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s package of unfunded tax cuts in his September 23 “mini” Budget. The powerful inflows into money market funds, which act in a similar way to a bank account for institutional investors, are…