UK house prices ‘fell 0.4%' in May
German exports fell by 1.7 per cent month-on-month in April, after a 1.1 per cent...
British Gas owner, Centrica, has signed a ten year deal with Norwegian gas supplier...
Builder.ai, a Microsoft-backed start-up which filed for bankruptcy on Monday, owes...
UK mortgage lender Halifax have said that average house prices fell by 0.4 per cent...
Circle Internet Group had one of the splashiest debuts in years, with shares surging...
US job growth likely slowed considerably in May as businesses struggled with headwinds...
Salesforce has announced that its board of directors declared a quarterly cash dividend...
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Irish Examiner
21 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
EU ready for trade deal with US but 'all options on the table', says von der Leyen
The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has said the EU is ready for a trade deal with Donald Trump, but 'all options remain on the table'. Von der Leyen said she was analysing the latest US negotiating document received on Thursday. 'Our message today is clear, we are ready for a deal,' she told reporters, after briefing EU leaders at a summit in Brussels. 'At the same time, we are preparing for the possibility that no satisfactory agreement is reached … and we will defend the European interest as needed. In short, all options remain on the table.' The commission is responsible for trade on behalf of the EU's 27 member states, but wanted a steer on how to approach the economically critical talks with the White House. Trump has threatened to impose 50% tariffs on all EU goods from 9 July unless the two sides reach a deal. Most EU goods already face a 10% tariff, with levies of 25% on cars and car parts and 50% on steel and aluminium. Von der Leyen also floated a 'beginning of redesigning' the World Trade Organization amid concern the global trading system is being undermined by trade wars and bilateral deals. She said the Asia Pacific CPTPP bloc, which also includes the UK, was interested in 'structured collaboration' with the EU, which wanted the same. 'We can think about this as a beginning of redesigning the WTO … to show the world that free trade with a large number of countries is possible on a rules-based foundation,' she said. As Trump's deadline draws near, differences are emerging between Germany and France over how to handle the US talks. The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said a quick and simple trade deal was better than 'slow and complicated'. The new centre-right chancellor is under heavy pressure from German carmakers and other exporters, some of whom argue that an asymmetric deal – ie higher US tariffs on European goods – may be better than no deal. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, argued that accepting an unequal trading relationship would be damaging to Europe's long-term competitiveness. One EU diplomat rejected the suggestion member states were divided, but said: 'If we accept 10%, how long will it last?', suggesting Trump could launch a new front in the trade war, or that it could affect negotiations with other trading partners. 'Many member states realise this is not only one game. Maybe it will affect the way India approaches us, or China.' Taoiseach Micheál Martin, said: 'Getting a deal is important for certainty so that we know the landscape ahead of us and that industry knows the landscape ahead of it, so that we can protect jobs, which is our number one priority.' Striking a more outspoken note, Spain's prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said Trump's tariff threat was 'doubly unfair', because his country runs a trade deficit with the US. He was responding after Trump said Spain would 'pay twice as much', after Sánchez refused to commit to the 5% Nato spending target. Diplomats are increasingly pessimistic about negotiating away the 10% baseline tariffs. As this reality sinks in, two approaches are emerging: a quick deal that would mean certainty for business, or retaliation to press for something better. 'Do we go into aggressive retaliation mode or are we less vocal and do a quick deal,' said one source. The US has shown little obvious interest in the EU's offer of a 'zero-for-zero' free-trade zone on industrial goods, while continuing to attack the bloc's tech regulation and VAT rules. Earlier this week, von der Leyen reiterated that changes to the EU's Digital Markets Act – regulations affecting US tech companies – was off the table. 'Of course we discuss tariff lines, we discuss non-tariff barriers like standards and norms … but where it is the sovereign decision-making process in the European Union and its member states that is affected this is too far.' Belgium's prime minister, Bart De Wever, said tariffs should be avoided at all costs. 'So we will not allow ourselves to be provoked, we will remain calm, we will negotiate and we hope to reach an agreement. If this is not the case, we will naturally adopt countermeasures, but these will be appropriate countermeasures,' he said. The EU has suspended levies on €21bn (£18bn) US goods until mid-July to allow more time for negotiations. The bloc is consulting on further retaliatory tariffs targeting €95bn of US goods, although the final total is likely to be smaller, if approved. The EU previously dropped plans to target American bourbon, after protests from France and Ireland, who feared retaliation against French cognac and Irish whiskey. Merz criticised the EU's approach as too complicated at an industry conference in Berlin on Monday. He also suggested the EU should concentrate on negotiating in five sectors including the automotive and steel industries, which have been already been hit with tariffs, and pharmaceuticals, which remain in Trump's crosshairs. Peter Leibinger, the president of the German Federation of Industries (BDI), said at the same conference that he [Merz] needed to 'carry the pain' being felt by German manufacturers to the Brussels bubble. The BDI said the tariffs would cost the German economy approximately 0.3 percentage points of growth, depressing an economy 'where industrial production remains significantly below the pre-crisis level of 2019'. The EU's chief trade negotiator, Maroš Šefčovič, said: 'The car industry of Europe, it's clearly bleeding. And really to have tariffs at the level of 27.5%, which is a scary state, it is clearly unsustainable.' Carmakers face a 25% tariff, in addition to the 2.5% that pre-dated Trump's second term. Šefčovič said his 'one wish' was unity in the EU's approach. He was 'ready to fight tooth and nail' for the EU's interests, telling German business leaders to 'talk to us, criticise us, but support us'. He also revealed he was seeking an insurance clause in any deal: 'I think it would be clearly desirable … that we would have some kind of stand still clause, which would kind of prevent a surprise with sudden spikes [in tariffs] and volatility.' — The Guardian Read More US and China sign trade agreement, Donald Trump says
Irish Times
2 days ago
- Irish Times
Tech jobs shake-up echoes post-Covid cuts, but with AI twist
The shake up in tech jobs, it seems, is not yet done. Last week, Bloomberg News reported how Microsoft was preparing to axe thousands of jobs globally early next month, citing unnamed sources. That leaves staff facing a nervous few days as they wait to find out exactly how and where these cuts will happen. It follows previous cuts announced by the company this year. But Microsoft is not the only one. A recent report from Rational FX found more than 90,000 job losses have been announced in the tech sector globally since the start of this year. READ MORE In April, it emerged Intel was planning to cut up to 20 per cent of its global workforce. Meta , Amazon and Panasonic have also said they would trim jobs. The numbers keep mounting. It is an echo of the unsettling period post-pandemic, when tech firms realised they had over-extended themselves for the new economic reality. Back then it seemed like barely a week or so would go by before some company announced it was cutting swathes of its workforce. Is there worse to come? It depends on who you believe. In a Bloomberg interview recently, Google chief executive Sundar Pichai dismissed talk that artificial intelligence (AI) could eventually cut the company's workforce by up to half, saying instead he expected the technology to become an accelerator. But even he declined to look too far ahead into the future, settling instead for a prediction of growth into next year, Perhaps it depends on the job you are doing. Anthropic's chief executive Dario Amodei believes that within five years half of entry-level white-collar jobs could be wiped out by AI, a prediction that could see 20 per cent of people unemployed. There was similar from Amazon chief executive Andy Jassy, although he was a bit more explicit in how he sees this AI boom panning out. In a recent memo, he told employees that more AI would eventually mean fewer corporate staff at Amazon. Generative AI and agents would change how work is done at Amazon as the company introduced more of the technology. They would need fewer staff to do some of the jobs while creating other jobs in other areas. None of this is surprising. AI should change how Amazon works and it should make some tasks more efficient. If not, it has invested significant amounts of time, energy and cash into a waste of its time. But this time, Jassy was saying the quiet part out loud. 'It's hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company,' he wrote. There was no real detail around how he expects these jobs will be cut. Will Amazon offer a voluntary severance programme or simply tell people their time at the ecommerce giant is up? Perhaps it will rely on natural attrition, the catch-all term that covers people leaving the company for a variety of reasons from 'better job elsewhere' to 'working conditions changed beyond recognition'. The latter, also known as quiet firing, is effective in reducing staff numbers without having to formally announce job cuts that shake employee confidence and make everyone involved look bad. So while we all concentrate on the lay-offs that are publicly announced, it is likely that the number of tech job losses is actually more than the companies are letting on. Amazon has already been accused of trying to cut jobs by stealth. Last year, it told staff they would need to return to the office five days a week from January, which put some workers who had moved during the hybrid working phase in an awkward position. It is not the only one to implement stricter rules on hybrid working. Google reportedly told some remote workers last month that they needed to attend the office at least three days a week or face losing their job. Various tech companies have implemented some form of office work mandate in the past year. Salesforce requires staff to attend four days a week in person; Dell has asked staff living near an office to return five days a week, but has stopped short of forcing people who live long distances away to do so. In the meantime, Amazon can provide convenient cover for its peers, who can now make some less severe changes, safe in the knowledge that while it may not look great, at least they aren't going to the same extremes. When it comes to AI-related job changes, Jassy may mean everything he has said. Or it might be a way to signal to shareholders that there will be a pay off from the technology if they just hold the line. The same goes for staff too. Jassy encouraged Amazon's employees to 'be curious' about AI and learn how to make it work for them. 'Those who embrace this change, become conversant in AI, help us build and improve our AI capabilities internally and deliver for customers will be well-positioned to have high impact and help us reinvent the company,' he wrote. Some staff may well be considering if that high impact and reinvention could eventually mean they are surplus to requirements.
The Irish Sun
3 days ago
- The Irish Sun
Claudia Schiffer's film-maker husband in talks to buy stake in Brentford after supermodel seen at Premier League game
CLAUDIA SCHIFFER'S film-maker husband is in talks to invest in Brentford. Matthew Vaughn, 54, is best known for producing Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels - the gangland caper that featured former footballer Vinnie Jones. 5 Claudia Schiffer's film-maker husband Matthew Vaughn wants to buy Brentford Credit: Getty - Contributor 5 The German was one of biggest supermodels in the 1990s Credit: Rex 5 Schiffer was in the Gtech stands last season to watch Brentford vs Nottingham Forest Credit: PA The Now Vaughn is said to be working with South African businessman Gary Lubner on buying a minority stake in the Bees. READ MORE ON FOOTBALL But reports claim owner Matthew Benham would be willing to sell between ten and 20 per cent of his shares for £40million to £80m, valuing the club at £400m. Gambling and statistics mogul The Bees have climbed from League One to the top half of the Premier League and opened a new stadium since he took full control of the club in 2014. But Benham is understood to recognise that outside investment will be necessary if Brentford are to continue to thrive and develop. Most read in Football CASINO SPECIAL - BEST CASINO BONUSES FROM £10 DEPOSITS The Bees have already seen Extra cash would give them a better chance of competing with rivals on wages and transfer fees. Why Thomas Frank is the PERFECT manager for Tottenham Vaughn, who also directed Layer Cake and X Men: First Class, would bring some showbiz glamour to Brentford - whose current shirt sponsor is Hollywoodbet. He is also rich. The production company he co-owns with Schiffer, Marv Studios, revealed a profit of £77.4m in its last accounts. But Lubner is a more wealthy and controversial figure. He is the former CEO of Belron, the owners of Autoglass, and is one of the biggest donors to the Labour Party during the leadership of Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer. In 2023 alone, Lubner contributed more than £4.5m to Labour coffers. 5 Schiffer married Vaughn in 2002 and have three children together Credit: Getty 5 Vaughn produced Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Layer Cake and X-Men: First Class Credit: Getty
