In May 2020, China announced it would not be setting a 2020 goal for growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth for the first time in decades. The  reason for…

As governments around the world deliver huge bailout packages to support crumbling economies amid the COVID-19 crisis, PMs from Denmark and Poland announced a withdrawal of further financial aid to…

Treatment grown on tobacco plants gets US backing for clinical study

Businesses are switching production to assist in the Covid-19 response effort – perfume house LVMH has switched to hand sanitiser production, Diageo is donating alcohol stocks, fashion brands like Hedley…

MYBank, part of the Alibaba Group Holdings affiliate Ant Financial, has responded to the COVID-19 outbreak by announcing RNB 20 billion (USD 2.8 bn) in loans to Chinese companies, of which…

While COVID-19 is creating an advantage for some businesses, most are experiencing significant challenges and disruption. With this sense of ‘everyone being in the same boat’, the gap between businesses…

Since the beginning of the pandemic, we’re seeing a transformative change in how society sees fatherhood. According to researchers, men have spent a hugely increased number of hours with their…

Arcadia Group, which owns brands such as Topshop, Topman, Miss Selfridge, Dorothy Perkins, Evans and Burton has appointed administration from Deloitte. The decline in Arcadia’s financial performance has long been…

Airbnb has emailed users with a request to agree to a Community Commitment, enforced as of 1 November 2016.  The commitment reads, “You commit to treat everyone—regardless of race, religion,…

A growing number of UK high street food and beverage outlets are taking action to end plastic waste: Pret A Manger started trialling paper straws in selected stores from February…

China has set out a policy for nationwide regulations for on-demand mobility (ODM) services, such as American Uber and its Chinese counterpart Didi Chuxing, giving them legal status. This is…

Mobile app company Viber is offering free calls to any landline or mobile number between the United States and Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. The motivation is…

The French Government has approved a €7 billion loan to Air France for COVID-19 aid – with conditions. Air France must cease operating short-haul domestic air travel where trains offer…

As more countries prepare for, or incrementally ease into, a post-lockdown world, a growing number of major employers, including Twitter, Mondelez, Nationwide and Barclays, have recently hinted at plans to…

Iceland has become the first major retailer to commit to eliminating plastic packaging from all its own brand products within the next five years. It plans to replace its current…

The Chief Executive of Rio Tinto, the world’s second largest metals and mining corporation, has quit over the destruction of a sacred aboriginal site in Western Australia.

The World Bank has priced the world’s first public bond created and managed using only blockchain in a $100 million ($73.16 million) deal designed to test how the technology might…

This year on ‘Black Friday’, when many companies discount products, the American shoe company Allbirds will increase product prices by 1 US dollar. The company will donate the extra dollar…

Fast fashion giant H&M has appointed Helena Helmersson, who worked for more than five years in its sustainability team, as its CEO. Helmersson is the first sustainability professional, as well…

A British company called Q-Bot is using cutting-edge robotics to maintain and upgrade the UK’s buildings.    The company has enjoyed particular success in providing underfloor insulation, an upgrade typically avoided…

The Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures has just made its recommendations today (see here). The idea is that these will be the disclosures all companies will need to make in their financial…