Thursday , 2 April 2026

UK retailers get boost as sales surge

Bloomberg Black Friday gave UK retailers an unexpected boost in the run-up to the key Christmas trading period. The volume of goods sold in stores and online jumped 1.4 percent in November, the most in six months, following two months of declines. An increase of just 0.3 percent was forecast in a Bloomberg survey. Office for National Statistics says increase …

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Gatwick resumes flights after drone causes brief suspension

Bloomberg London’s Gatwick airport resumed flights after another reported drone incursion caused a brief interruption on December 21. “The sighting was confirmed, so there definitely was a drone in the area,” an airport spokeswoman said. Military measures “have given us the reassurance we need that it is safe to reopen.” Service had been halted as a precautionary measure while the …

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LG plans selling TVs that roll up like posters in 2019

Bloomberg LG Electronics Inc. plans to begin selling big-screen TVs next year that can be rolled up and put away like a poster, the centerpiece of an effort to revive an ailing business, according to a person familiar with the matter. The envisioned 65-inch TVs will retract automatically at the touch of a button like a garage door, the person …

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Zoox wins first permit to ferry public in robot rides

Bloomberg Driverless car startup Zoox Inc. became the first company to win approval to transport members of the public in its driverless test vehicles in California, according to a statement from the California Public Utilities Commission. While there are more than 60 companies with permits to test autonomous vehicles in California, they are restricted to carrying employees and contractors. With …

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SoftBank leads funding in flexible car-leasing app

Bloomberg SoftBank Group Corp. just led a $385 million funding round for a flexible-leasing app that makes cars more accessible to Uber drivers and other gig-economy workers. Fair, led by TrueCar Inc. co-founder Scott Painter, has continued to grow since buying lease contracts in January from Uber Technologies Inc.’s shuttered subprime-lending unit. Fair has an exclusive contract with Uber in …

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Cycling app Zwift gets $120 million in esports push

Bloomberg Zwift, a company that gives cyclists the opportunity to compete in virtual-reality races, has raised $120 million to help them set up an esports league and further their expansion into running. Based in Long Beach, California, Zwift has built software that lets riders simulate outdoor training — such as cycling up a mountain — from their living room. Customers …

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Trump discusses firing Fed’s Powell after latest rate hike

Bloomberg President Donald Trump has discussed firing Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell as his frustration with the central bank chief intensified following this week’s interest-rate increase and months of stock-market losses, according to four people familiar with the matter. Advisers close to Trump aren’t convinced he would move against Powell and are hoping that the president’s latest bout of anger …

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Money laundering crisis more painful than 2008 meltdown for Danske

Bloomberg What’s worse for a bank, the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression or the biggest money laundering scandal in European history? According to Danske Bank, which has lived through both, it’s the latter. The bank’s acting chief executive, Jesper Nielsen, says that during the global meltdown of 2008, concerns centered on things like “greed,” which was obviously bad. …

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Carney braces for final year with BOE

Bloomberg Mark Carney is headed into his last full year at the helm of the Bank of England, and it could be his most turbulent yet. In a tenure that has seen the Scottish referendum, two general elections and the Brexit vote, the BOE governor is now in charge of keeping the ship steady as the divorce from the European …

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Wall Street lenders stuck with $1.6bn unsold loans

Bloomberg A rout in the once-hot market for risky corporate loans has some of Wall Street’s largest banks stuck with at least $1.6 billion of unwanted leveraged buyout debt. Banks including Barclays Plc, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Bank of America Corp. — among the top providers of loans for LBOs — have struggled in recent weeks to sell loans …

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