SPORTS
British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe will buy a 25% stake of Manchester United football club, reports Sky News. Ratcliffe and his company INEOS are expected to run Manchester United’s football operations as part of the deal to purchase 25%, which could be the first step in a phased takeover, according to Sky Sports News. It comes after the news on Saturday that Qatari businessman Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al Thani has withdrawn from the race to buy the club.
ECONOMY
JP Morgan’s boss, Jamie Dimon, has warned that the world is facing the ‘most dangerous time in decades.’ The chief executive of America’s biggest bank, JP Morgan Chase, told investors that he was concerned about the risks to the economy from rising geo-political tensions. Dimon said wars in Ukraine and Israel could hit energy and food prices, and global trade. He spoke as the company revealed its latest quarterly results, which reported a 35% hike in profits to $13bn (£10.7bn) in the three months to September, compared to the same period in 2022.
MEDIA
The Barclay family are understood to have launched a £1bn bid to regain control of The Telegraph titles (which includes The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph and The Spectator) after the newspaper group was seized and put up for sale by Lloyds Bank. The family is believed to have lined up financing from Abu Dhabi investors to lodge a knockout offer that would repay the debt owed by their companies to Britain’s biggest high street lender, Lloyds Banking Group, allowing them to regain control over two of Britain’s most influential newspapers.
MARKETS
It’s not just homeowners who are being hit with higher interest rates. UK government borrowing is at the highest level in 20 years, showing the pressure that the public finances are under from a higher debt bill after 15 years of steadily falling borrowing costs. The average yield on bonds sold by the government so far this year climbed to 3.64%, from 2% in 2022, the highest average annual rate since 2004, according to government data.
SUSTAINABILITY
The number of large companies who say sustainability is a high priority has fallen to its lowest level since early 2020, a new Natwest Sustainable Business Tracker report has found. The findings come just weeks after Rishi Sunak made a U-turn on some key net zero pledges, including pushing back a ban on new petrol-only cars from 2030 to 2035. Unlike like the larger firms, small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) remain committed to being more sustainable, with energy efficiency being the top green priority for the next five years.
TECH
Minecraft has become the first video game to hit 300m sales, breaking records. During a weekend event, its developer Mojang Studios revealed it has now sold more than 300 million copies worldwide, which surpasses closest rival Grand Theft Auto V, which had sold 185 million copies as of August 2023. But despite this, neither comes close to Super Mario as the best-selling franchise: it has sold more than 800 million games across its entire multi-game series.
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