G7 nations the UK, US, Canada and Japan are to ban imports of Russian gold

G7 nations the UK, US, Canada and Japan are to ban imports of Russian gold. US President Biden also suggested the other G7 nations - Germany, France and Italy, all currently meeting in Germany - would join the ban. Gold exports were worth £12.6bn to Russia in 2021. Boris Johnson said the move would "strike at the heart of Putin's war machine," and said the ban would come into force shortly, with legislation introduced in Parliament in the coming weeks. President Biden said in a tweet: "Together, the G7 will announce that we will ban the import of Russian gold, a major export that rakes in tens of billions of dollars for Russia". The import ban will apply only to newly mined or refined gold. It does not impact gold previously exported from Russia.
 
Russia is believed to have defaulted on its overseas debt for the first time in more than a century after missing a deadline for payment. According to Bloomberg News, Russia has the money to make the $100m (£84.1m) interest payment, and is willing to pay, but sanctions have made it impossible to get the sum to international creditors. Russia says the money was sent to Euroclear, a bank which would then distribute the payment to investors, but that payment has been stuck there. Euroclear would not say if the payment had been blocked, but said it adhered to all sanctions. The Russian finance minister branded the situation "a farce".
 
The Prime Minister has suggested that controls on foreign steel imports that were due to expire this week could be retained. Speaking at the G7 summit in Germany, Boris Johnson said keeping the import controls on foreign steel would protect British producers, who are already under pressure from rising energy prices. "We need British steel to be provided with much cheaper energy," Johnson said, adding that “until we can fix that, I think it is reasonable for UK steel to have the same protections that absolutely every other European steel economy does." The restrictions currently add a tariff to steel imports above a quota, to prevent surges of cheap steel coming in from overseas and were first introduced by the European Union in 2018 in response to tariffs imposed by the Trump administration. They have remained in place post-Brexit. When asked yesterday morning on the BBC's Sunday Morning programme whether continuing the tariffs could break World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments, the Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis said the government was focused on "ensuring we work within international law." The Department for International Trade says a final decision has not yet been made.
 
British Gas owner Centrica has pulled out of the auction for failed energy provider Bulb, leaving the government struggling to achieve a competitive bidding process, the Financial Times reported over the weekend, citing people close to the sale process. Bulb collapsed last November after natural gas prices soared and it failed to raise new money. The government stepped in to ensure continuity of supply for Bulb’s 1.6 million customers and had planned to sell the business by the end of July. Centrica's withdrawal has left just two confirmed potential bidders - Octopus Energy, the fifth biggest supplier, and Masdar, an energy company from Abu Dhabi – Sharecast News reports.
 
Train operators have hit back at an assault on "fat cat rail bosses" by the head of the RMT union, Mick Lynch, saying that profits are little more than a third of the £500 million he claims. Instead, they cited figures prepared by the rail regulator showing that average annual profits shared among 20 operators over the last six years are £188 million - and as low as £22 million in the year to March 2020.
 
Criminal barristers are beginning a series of walkouts today, a move which Justice Secretary Dominic Raab has described as "regrettable".
 
A row is brewing between Levelling Up Minister Michael Gove and Marks & Spencer, over the retail giant’s plans to demolish and rebuild its flagship London store. The revamp of the 100-year-old Art Deco building had been approved by Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and Westminster City Council, but plans were then put on hold after a report by architect Simon Sturgis labelled the proposals "absolutely crazy" because the potential carbon footprint caused by bulldozing the building would clash with City Hall's planning guidance on environmental impacts. Now, Gove has ordered a review into the idea, which the BBC suggests has been launched because landlords and property investors wrote to him saying they thought the decision to demolish the building would undermine "the appeal of the West End as an international centre". The letter was signed by Sir Peter Rogers, the chairman of the New West End Company, which represents retailers and hoteliers, and property investors including Royal London Asset Management. M&S wants to develop the site with a smaller shop, offices and a gym because of changing consumer habits, as says it is “bewildered” by opposition to the scheme. Director of property, technology and development, Sacha Berendji says Gove is blocking "the only retail-led regeneration in the whole of Oxford Street". He pointed out the building was refused listed status due to its low design quality and, while it was safe, cannot be modernised through refitting as it is three separate buildings containing asbestos.
 
The City of London Corporation (CLC) is being urged to reconsider its decision to demolish historic buildings, including the Museum of London, in London’s Barbican. CLC wants to demolish Bastion House and the Museum and replace both with a 780,000 square feet office block development. It proposes relocating the museum. However, campaign group Barbican Quarter Action has says CLC should reconsider the plans due to the economic and environmental problems it would create, which include creating a net increase in CO2.
 
Analysis from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) showed growth in the private sector slowed sharply in the three months to June from 23% to 5%, the slowest rise in activity since April 2021. The CBI said weaker demand was having a knock-on effect on business activity as high inflation squeezes household incomes and purchasing power. While the slowdown was broad-based across all sectors, consumer services saw the biggest hit, falling by 41%, and marking the sharpest fall experienced by the sector since February 2021, the CBI said. Growth also fell across business & professional services (+10%) and distribution (+9%). The former was the weakest increase in activity in four months, and the latter the weakest since April 2021. The only sector to see an increase in output was manufacturing, up to 25%, although growth eased on the 10-month high seen in May (30%).
 
Accountancy giant KPMG says Britain may be tipped into a recession next year as Russia’s war in Ukraine and the escalating cost-of-living crisis threaten global economic growth. It forecast that the UK economy will slow to 3.2% this year from 7.1% in 2021, before almost grinding to a halt at 0.7% next year. Yael Selfin, chief UK economist at KPMG, said there was a roughly 50% chance of a “mild recession”.
 
Britain's rich and poor hotspots have been unveiled by new analysis from the Resolution Foundation and LSE. Their report, funded by Nuffield Foundation, found that incomes in the UK’s richest area, Kensington & Chelsea, are 4.5 times higher than the poorest area, Nottingham. Researchers concluded that not much has changed since 1997, as only traditionally poor inner London areas like Hackney and Newham have significantly changed their positions. Britain is beset by "persistent economic gaps" between different parts of the UK and that addressing them "requires investment" in major cities on a scale "not currently being contemplated," they said. However, gaps in earnings and employment have narrowed, the report concluded, with the average gap between highest and lowest employment areas of the UK falling by nearly a fifth since 2000.
 
British manufacturer McMurtry Automotive says it plans to build a road-legal version of its Spéirling electric car after the single-seater smashed the Goodwood Festival of Speed hill climb record yesterday in a time of 39.08 seconds.
 
Robinsons will no longer sponsor the Wimbledon tennis championships. The soft drink company confirmed on Friday it will not renewing its deal with the All England Lawn Tennis Club, thereby ending a partnership which stretches back to 1935. A spokesman for Britvic, which owns Robinsons, said it was "tremendously proud to have been such a prominent partner to this historic tournament for so many years and the wider role we have played in boosting engagement with the game of tennis in the UK". The All England Lawn Tennis Club said the partnership ended by "mutual agreement".
 
Thousands of PwC staff are to get a 9% pay rise in response to rising living costs and a competitive recruitment market, the accountancy giant has said. The company said half of its more than 20,000 employees in the UK would get an increase of at least 9%, while 70% would get a rise of 7% or more.
 
Father-and-son duo Barry and Eddie Hearn, who together created and built Matchroom Sport, are in detailed talks with at least three private equity firms about the sale of a substantial minority stake in the global sports promotion empire, Sky News reveals. KKR, CVC Capital Partners and Searchlight Capita lare all said to be bidding for the deal, which Sky says could value the Essex-based company at somewhere between £600m and £700m, and potentially net the Hearns a windfall in the region of £175m. All parties named here declined to comment on Sky’s story.
 
CareTech, the Hertfordshire-based and London-listed company which offers housing and care services to adults with learning impairments and physical disabilities, has agreed a buyout deal with Sheik Group, a consortium led by its co-founders. It will be sold for around £870.3 million.  
 
Arts and crafts retail chain Hobbycraft is to create more stores and jobs after posting a lift in profits for the past year. The company said its adjusted pre-tax profit for the 2022 financial year was £15 million, which marks a growth from £13.8 million the previous year. Total revenue also rose 14.8% from £176.9 million in 2021 to £203.1 million. Now, Hobbycraft plans to build three new sites, with stores in Bromborough, Merseyside; Biggleswade, Bedfordshire; and Southend, Essex; creating 40 new retail jobs. CEO Dominic Jordan said the company is “incredibly well placed” moving forward but added the 2023 financial year will be “challenging”. Hobbycraft created seven new stores and 100 new jobs in the 2021-22 financial year across regions including Leicester, Rochester and Boucher Crescent in Northern Ireland.
 
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has launched an investigation into the Kristo Käärmann, the CEO of money transfer company Wise, after he was named on a list of tax defaulters. In September last year, HMRC included Käärmann in a list of people penalised for tax defaults. A spokesperson for Wise said he was late paying his taxes in 2018 and had been fined £365,651 in late payment penalties on a tax bill of £720,495, according to the information published by the government and reported by Yahoo Finance UK.
 
Stuart Haire, HSBC's UK Group General Manager and CEO of the banking giant's UK personal and private banking businesses is leaving to run the Skipton Building Society, one of Britain's biggest financial mutuals. Haire has worked at HSBC for six years, having spent nearly a decade prior to that in senior roles at Royal Bank of Scotland and at KPMG. He is replacing David Cutter, who has stepped down as CEO after 13 years.
 
TUI announced on Friday that its CEO Friedrich Joussen has resigned with effect from 30 September.
 
Several major US companies including Disney, JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Facebook owner Meta have told staff they will cover employee travel expenses through their health insurance plans for women to travel out of their home state to procure an abortion following the overturning of the Roe -v- Wade case by the US Supreme Court, which had guaranteed the constitutional right to abortion.  The judgement paves the way for individual states to ban the procedure. Other companies which have indicated they will take similar steps include Vogue publisher Conde Nast, jeans brand Levi Strauss, and ride hailing companies Lyft and Uber. Several other companies, including Amazon, review website Yelp, and banking giant Citigroup, had already said before the Supreme Court ruling that they would reimburse employees who travel to circumvent local abortion restrictions.

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