Business

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption A man wears a protective face mask as he walks in the normally bustling Wangfujing shopping street in central Beijing Mounting debts have hit Chinese companies struggling to pay workers and suppliers amid the coronavirus outbreak. President Xi Xinping said on Sunday that China faces a “big test” to […]

The owner of the Sun lost £68m last year as newspaper sales fell and the company continued to deal with the fallout of the phone-hacking scandal. Daily sales of the Sun fell by 8% to 1.38 million in the year to July, but it remains the UK’s most popular paper. Meanwhile, the Sun on Sunday

Image copyright ISSOUF SANOGO/AFP/Getty Images Image caption Fairtrade has launched a She Deserves chocolate campaign The average woman cocoa farmer is paid as little as 23p a day, highlighting a gender pay gap in the global chocolate industry, according to Fairtrade. That figure is well below the extreme global poverty line of £1.40 a day.

Did you think that when you reached the prime of your life you would own the roof over your head? Think again. Growing numbers of people are stuck in costly privately rented homes as they approach middle age, with no hope of ever buying a house in the future. As more people retire with the

Image copyright PA Media Taxpayers funded a surge in redundancy payments last year after a spate of High Street shop and restaurant failures, a study shows. The amount paid out by the government’s Insolvency Service rose to its highest level in seven years, figures obtained by property advisor Altus Group show. It follows a number

Image caption Zoe McKendree: “You can’t really present yourself best for an interview if you’re sleeping on a friend’s sofa” Hoping to buy a home? You’ll have to get across the UK’s huge housing gap. This gap – the difference between the current housing stock and the number needed for everyone to have a decent

Image copyright AFP Image caption French President Emmanuel Macron says negotiating a UK-EU trade deal will be “tense” French President Emmanuel Macron has said he is “not sure” a UK-EU trade deal will be struck by 31 December, the end of the Brexit transition period. Mr Macron said negotiations starting in March will be “tense”,

Image copyright Getty Images Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary has been criticised for saying Muslim men should be profiled at airports because “that is where the threat is coming from”. He made his comments in the Times. The chief executive also said families with young children should be waved through airport security because there was virtually

Image copyright AFP Image caption “We don’t need Britain to show disunity,” said France’s Emmanuel Macron An EU budget summit ended without agreement on Friday following a stand-off between wealthy “frugal” member states and other countries. The so-called “frugal four” of Denmark, Austria, Sweden and the Netherlands said they would not accept a budget of

Image copyright Wendy Small Image caption Wendy Small, pictured with her husband Geoff, has been charged £160 to keep her old BT email address since she switched providers two years ago Ofcom is writing to broadband companies to ask why some people are having to pay to keep old email addresses. TalkTalk charges £5 a