All posts tagged: deal

Greed blamed for failure of Wilko rescue deal as MPs examine retailer’s collapse – business live | Business

Published by Sam

Introduction: “Everyone got a little bit greedy” as Wilko failed, claims Putman. Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy. Greed has been blamed for the failure to agree a rescue deal for Wilko, as MPs prepare to examine the collapse of the discount retailer this autumn. Doug Putman, the billionaire Canadian business executive, says he came very close to agreeing a deal that would have saved thousands of jobs, but was thwarted by the homeware chain’s suppliers. Putman told Radio 4’s Today Programme that he really thought he had a deal to take over Wilko, which closed its doors last month with the loss of around 12,000 jobs. But, he explains, companies – such as Wilko’s IT suppliers – refused to budge on fees they wanted to charge for the transition. Putman says these companies were “super inflexible” about cooperating for the “four months or so” that he would have needed their systems before transitioning to his own. Putman, who owns HMV, says: I thought …

Senior doctors in England reach pay deal with government | Doctors

Published by Sam

Doctors’ leaders have struck a deal with ministers that could end the strikes by hospital consultants that have badly disrupted NHS care for months. Grassroots members of the British Medical Association (BMA) and the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association (HCSA) in England still have to approve the government’s offer. But if medics accept it in referendums then both unions will call off the industrial action that has led to hundreds of thousands of operations and outpatient appointments being cancelled. Those votes will be held next month and the results will not be known until January, which means consultants will not strike during the start of the NHS’s usual winter crisis. Relieved NHS leaders welcomed the breakthrough as “a vital step” towards halting the walkouts by various staff groups that have been causing problems for NHS services for almost a year. The government said it represented “a fair and reasonable way forward” towards solving the dispute. Crucially, ministers have done a major U-turn in order to help reach agreement with the unions. They have dropped their …

UK ministers approved £60m payments to Saudi royals to maintain arms deal, court told | UK news

Published by Sam

Cabinet ministers and Whitehall mandarins approved payments totalling £60m to Saudi royals and high-ranking officials over decades to secure and maintain a huge arms deal, a court heard on Monday. The accusation was made by Tom Allen, a barrister representing one of two men who are being prosecuted for corruption in a longstanding arms deal between the UK and Saudi Arabia. Allen alleged that British politicians – including unnamed “secretaries of state and ministers” – approved, facilitated and encouraged the payments over many years to ensure that leading Saudis gave huge arms contracts to British firms. Senior members of the British government and military figures were “absolutely in the thick” of organising the payments, a large slice of which went to a Saudi prince, he said. He also claimed that the British and Saudi governments engaged in what he called a “deniable fiddle” to conceal the payments if they came to light. At Southwark crown court in London, the Serious Fraud Office is prosecuting the two men, Jeffrey Cook, 67, and John Mason, 81, for …

Israel-Hamas war live: ceasefire enters final 24 hours as Netanyahu under pressure to extend deal | Israel-Hamas war

Published by Sam

Truce enters final day as Israel under pressure to extend deal The truce between Israel and Hamas entered its final 24 hours on Monday, with the militant group saying it was willing to extend the pause after it freed more hostages, including a four-year-old orphaned by its attack. Thee pause that began on Friday has seen dozens of hostages freed, with more than 100 Palestinian prisoners released by Israel in return. Agence France-Presse also reports that attention now has turned to whether the truce will be extended before its scheduled end early on Tuesday morning. US president Joe Biden said Sunday: That’s my goal, that’s our goal, to keep this pause going beyond tomorrow so that we can continue to see more hostages come out and surge more humanitarian relief into those in need in Gaza. He said he would like the fighting to be paused for “as long as prisoners keep coming out”. Hamas has signalled its willingness to extend the truce, with a source telling AFP the group told mediators they were open …

Israel-Hamas ceasefire and hostage deal won’t happen before Friday, Israeli and US officials say | Israel-Hamas war

Published by Sam

Israeli and US officials have said a four-day Gaza truce and hostage release will not start until at least Friday, thwarting the hopes of families that some captives would be freed on Thursday. As the wait continued, Khan Younis in southern Gaza was hit by Israeli airstrikes and artillery in at least two waves early on Thursday, Palestinian media reported. Tensions also rose on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon early Thursday, after Hezbollah said five fighters, including the son of the head of the militant group’s parliamentary bloc, had been killed. Israeli national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi indicated the release of at least 50 Israeli and foreign hostages held by Hamas was on track, but would not happen until Friday at the earliest. “The contacts on the release of our hostages are advancing and continuing constantly,” he said in a statement. “The start of the release will take place according to the original agreement between the sides, and not before Friday.” Multiple news outlets later cited anonymous Israeli officials as saying that the halt in …

Over 100 Palestinians reported killed in Gaza as attack continues despite ceasefire deal | Israel-Hamas war

Published by Sam

More than 100 Palestinians in Gaza were reported killed on Wednesday as Israeli forces continued attacking across the strip from land, sea and air hours after the agreement for a ceasefire to begin on Thursday. Wafa, a Palestinian news agency, said 81 people had been killed since midnight as houses were targeted in the centre of the strip. A further 60 were believed to be dead after bombing in and around the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north. Deadly bombing was also reported at the al-Nuseirat refugee camp, killing nine people. Casualty figures are difficult to verify given the ongoing fighting, although initial reports often turn out to be underestimates until those missing are accounted for. The ceasefire is likely to begin on Thursday morning while Israel completes various formalities including notifying which 300 Palestinian prisoners it could release. An initial 150 are expected to be freed in the four days, in return for the release of 50 hostages held by Hamas and other groups. But there was little sign of a slowdown in the …

Gaza hostage deal: what do we know? | Gaza

Published by Sam

What has been agreed? Fifty women and children held hostage by Hamas and other groups in Gaza since 7 October are to be released in exchange for a four-day ceasefire in a deal brokered by Qatar with the support of the US. A US official said three Americans would be among those freed, including a girl who turns four this week, and that the first release should come by Thursday. According to Hamas, Israel will release 150 Palestinian prisoners, all women and children, from Israeli jails and allow hundreds of aid trucks a day to cross the Rafah border with Egypt, providing humanitarian supplies to Palestinians in Gaza. Israel will cease air sorties in southern Gaza and restrict them to six hours a day in the north, according to the Hamas account of the deal, which also says Israeli forces will not bring military vehicles into Gaza during the ceasefire, nor try to detain anyone. The ceasefire would be extended by a day for every 10 additional hostages released, the Israeli government said. The agreement …

Israel and Hamas agree deal for release of some hostages and four-day ceasefire | Israel-Hamas war

Published by Sam

Israel and Hamas have agreed a deal for the release of 50 women and children hostages held in Gaza in return for 150 Palestinian women and children to be freed Israeli jails during a four-day ceasefire, both sides announced on Wednesday morning. The deal was confirmed by a senior US official, who told reporters that the freed hostages would include three Americans, one of them a three year-old girl. The official said that the first hostage release is expected on Thursday morning, and the total number of hostages freed could rise. “The deal has ultimately been structured to incentivise releases beyond 50,” the senior official said adding that the agreement “is now structured for women and children in the first phase, but with an expectation for further releases. A statement from the Israeli prime minister’s office said the “lull” in Israeli military operations would be extended for an additional day for every 10 more hostages released. It did not say when the ceasefire would start, though in his address to his cabinet, Benjamin Netanyahu said …

Google admits Spotify pays no Play Store fees because of a secret deal

Published by skeptic

A Google executive said during a testimony in the Epic vs Google trial that a deal with Spotify allows the audio company to bypass Play Store fees, as reported by The Verge. Don Harrison, Google’s head of partnership, said that Spotify pays no fees when it processes its own payments and pays a measly 4% fee when Google processes them, the publication noted. He also said that both companies have committed to put $50 million each in a “success fund.” The details surfaced today after Google requested the court to keep the specifics of its deal with Spotify sealed earlier in the month. Google typically takes a 15% cut on subscription apps. This fee could be reduced to 11% due to programs like user choice billing, which allows developers to use their own or third-party payment solutions. “A small number of developers that invest more directly in Android and Play may have different service fees as part of a broader partnership that includes substantial financial investments and product integrations across different form factors. These key …

Shakira reaches deal with Spanish prosecutors to avoid €14.5m tax fraud trial | Spain

Published by Sam

The Colombian singer Shakira has reached a settlement with prosecutors in Spain to avoid a trial over charges that she failed to pay €14.5m (£12.7m) in income tax between 2012 and 2014. As part of the deal, which puts an end to the trial in Barcelona, prosecutors swapped a potential prison sentence for the singer for fines, the judge said during the trial’s first hearing. The 46-year-old has a second tax fraud investigation pending with Spanish authorities. She has said she paid what the tax office said was owed before it filed a lawsuit, and insists she was not living in Spain during the period as her work led to a “nomadic life”. The prosecutor’s office had alleged that Shakira spent more than half of each of the years in question in Spain and was therefore ordinarily resident in the country. It also says a Barcelona property she bought in May 2012 served as a family home. Shakira lived with the former Barcelona and Spain footballer Gerard Piqué for 11 years and they have two …