Latest Developments

Europe
BBC Business

Who could be the UK's next chancellor?

Image source, Getty ImagesByMitchell LabiakBusiness reporterPublished1 hour agoWith Sir Keir Starmer resigning, Andy Burnham, the newly-elected Makerfield MP, is almost certain to be the next UK prime minister. And many believe he will want a new chancellor to replace the current occupant of Number 11 Downing Street, Rachel Reeves. That person will face quite the in-tray – high debt, low growth, welfare reform, defence spending, and the economic fallout from the US-Israel war with Iran to name a few issues. Here are the names of those believed to be in the running for the job and what they could mean for your finances. Image source, Getty ImagesThe bookies' favourite to be chancellor is a former contender for the leadership, Wes Streeting. Having instead thrown his weight behind Burnham, the thinking is the former health secretary could be awarded the number two job in British politics for his loyalty. However, economist and cross-bench peer Lord Jim O'Neill, who has been providing advice to Burnham, has warned against this approach. While not naming any specific person, he tells the BBC: "There are clearly some people pushing to be chancellor who feel they are owed it for their support." Though Burnham may appreciate Streeting's backing, the pair's politics differ - with Burnham seen to be inclined to spend more than Streeting. Simon French, chief economist at consultancy Panmure Liberum, says Streeting is a "relatively market-friendly option" because of his pro-growth comments, but also a political risk because he might someday want to be prime minister. As for the idea that Streeting could get the job because of his support rather than his abilities, French said: "Politics is what politics is. It's a popularity contest." Image source, Getty ImagesMiliband is the bookmakers' second favourite pick, with the former Labour party leader politically closer to Burnham than Streeting.

Who could be the UK's next chancellor?
Europe
BBC Business

Ticket reseller StubHub UK customers to get refunds over illegal hidden fees

Image source, Getty ImagesByFaarea MasudBusiness reporterPublished23 June 2026, 07:27 BSTUpdated 2 hours agoTicket reseller StubHub UK has been ordered to refund more than 50,000 customers and pay a £900,000 fine for not showing people the total price upfront when buying tickets. Each customer is expected to receive £10 on average per transaction, following an investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). StubHub International said the hidden fees were as a result of an "isolated platform error" that led to some charges appearing at checkout rather than earlier in the buying process. "Our UK platform is designed to display all fees upfront," it said, adding that it had "identified and corrected the issue promptly, and all affected customers will receive an automatic refund". The fine for StubHub International, which operates in Europe, comes as the CMA investigated several firms as part review of online pricing practices, such as drip pricing, which was banned last year. Drip pricing is when fees and charges are introduced later in the buying process rather than upfront, giving customers the impression that a product is cheaper than it really is. "Hitting customers with hidden fees is illegal. It's not fair to draw people in with what looks like a good deal, only for them to find the real price is higher when they get to the checkout due to extra charges that can't be avoided," said Emma Cochrane, executive director of consumer protection at the CMA. The CMA found between 6 April and 7 December last year that some customers buying tickets for gigs and sports events via StubHub UK were required to pay mandatory costs such as delivery and service fees, which were unavoidable but only added at the final checkout stage. The regulator said StubHub UK admitted breaking the law and received a 40% reduction to its financial penalty. It has also taken steps to "end the conduct", it added. "Going to a live gig or sports game is an event many people save for – and our action today means thousands of fans will get back money taken unfairly through hidden fees," said Cochrane. "Our message to businesses is simple: be transparent on costs or risk CMA action." It is looking into practices including pressure selling, drip pricing, and misleading countdown clocks as part of its investigations.

Ticket reseller StubHub UK customers to get refunds over illegal hidden fees
North America
Yahoo Finance

Schwab Plans S&P 500 Prediction Markets as Event Trading Moves Mainstream

Charles Schwab (NYSE: $SCHW ) is preparing to enter the prediction-markets race with a product built around the S&P 500, adding another large brokerage name to a category already pulling in crypto-native platforms, retail trading apps and exchange operators. The company is working with Cboe Global Markets on yes-or-no contracts tied to the performance of the S&P 500, according to reports citing people familiar with the plan. The contracts would function more like binary options than the futures-style event contracts commonly associated with Kalshi or Polymarket, paying a fixed amount if the index finishes above or below a preset level and nothing if it does not. The rollout is expected to reach Schwab customers in the coming months. Schwab and Cboe are also discussing a related structure using Cboe’s Plus Zone feature, which could allow partial payouts when a trade lands close to the outcome even if it does not hit the exact target. For Schwab, the planned launch puts prediction markets inside a more traditional market wrapper. The firm is expected to keep the initial focus on financial benchmarks, rather than contracts tied to politics, sports or entertainment. CEO Rick Wurster had already signalled earlier this year that Schwab would “likely have prediction markets,” while drawing a line around the type of events the brokerage wanted to offer. The timing also shows how quickly the category is moving from crypto-adjacent speculation into mainstream brokerage infrastructure. Coinbase (NASDAQ: $COIN ) and Robinhood (NASDAQ: $HOOD ) have both expanded into prediction markets, while Kalshi and Polymarket helped turn event contracts into one of the most-watched trading themes after the 2024 election cycle. Schwab’s version may look more like an options product than a crypto market, but the direction is similar: traders are getting simpler ways to express views on outcomes, indexes and macro events.

Schwab Plans S&P 500 Prediction Markets as Event Trading Moves Mainstream
Europe
BBC Business

Stanford was their golden ticket - could AI help or hinder that?

ByLily JamaliNorth America technology correspondent, at StanfordAmerican college graduates have made one thing clear to this year's batch of commencement speakers - beware of bringing up artificial intelligence (AI). Some of the biggest names in tech, including former Google boss Eric Schmidt, have been booed when they mention the technology. At Stanford University recently, in the heart of the American tech hub of Silicon Valley, Sundar Pichai - the CEO of Google, a major AI developer - joked about having been told to avoid the topic. Some students carried signs with them as they left - one sign read "ICE spies with Google AI", while others were seen waving Palestinian flags. Stanford occupies a unique position in the American tech ecosystem. It's regarded as a hotbed of innovation and resides in the shadow of some of the most influential Big Tech companies on the planet, including many pioneers in the AI field. Its elite students enter the job market with an undeniable edge. The BBC spoke to Stanford graduates shortly after Pichai finished his address and they expressed a wide range of views on AI. Some are scared. Some are excited. But nearly everyone agrees that AI is already changing the world around them, whether they like it or not. Ifdita Hasan is among the hopeful. And she knows a thing or two about the technology - it's her degree subject. "I feel optimistic about AI," said the graduating computer science and AI major. "I think AI gives us the opportunity to learn more about the universe. It's a tool that people should try to use and try to adapt to." But, she added, she's not surprised by the backlash, noting that early pessimism is common with emerging technologies. "This is what happens. It happened with the internet," she said. "But I would encourage people to be optimistic about AI - to try to learn and explore more." Some Stanford graduates are less sanguine about AI's arrival. They are, after all, entering the corporate world just as AI is transforming it. What frightens Atash Heil is the uncertainty of what an AI-dominated future might look like - and the speed of the transformation graduates have witnessed during their college years.

Stanford was their golden ticket - could AI help or hinder that?
Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

US President Trump thanks Telangana government for naming Hyderabad street after him

The US President Donald Trump thanked the Telangana Government for naming a street in Hyderabad after his name. As a tribute to the spirit of the American Revolution on the occasion of its 25th anniversary on July 4, 2026, Telangana Government officially named a street housing the US Consulate in the Financial District in Gachibowli here as `Donald J Trump Avenue’. In a post on the `Turth’ account on Saturday, the US President thanked the government by posting: “The New Donald J Trump Avenue in Hyderabad, India - The first US president to ever be honoured in this way - Thank you!’’ Telangana Deputy CM Bhatti Vikramarka, formally launched the plaque displaying the street name during the celebrations of 250th Anniversary of the American Independence at the US Consulate at NanakramGuda, financial district here earlier. Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments. We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.

US President Trump thanks Telangana government for naming Hyderabad street after him
North America
CNBC Economy

Struggling to find a job? Try looking in Nevada

A sparsely-populated state known for its world-class casinos and dry desert climate has been a bright spot in the tepid U.S. job market. Nevada's workforce grew 1.9% from April 2025 to 2026, the highest of any state, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Nationally, that rate inched up just 0.2% over the same period. About 12% of new jobs in the U.S. were created in Nevada during those 12 months, data shows. That's an outsized gain for the Silver State, which houses only about 1% of the national population. Economic leaders in Nevada say their success is the culmination of years of work to diversify business activity beyond gambling and entertainment. Home to 3.3 million residents, Nevada has long benefited from its proximity to California and is increasingly becoming a hub for artificial intelligence infrastructure. Economically, Nevada is "a relatively small state being mentioned in the same breath as California, Texas, Florida," said David Schmidt, chief economist in the state's Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation. The jobs market, in particular, is putting up "really remarkable numbers that we're seeing." In the past year, Nevada saw the most growth in professional and business services roles, which Schmidt attributed to favorable state tax policies. Education and health services positions were also a top contributor, part of the national trend of health care driving job gains. Companies have long sought out Nevada for new or expanded mines, these days driven by bountiful supplies of lithium, a key component in batteries used to help run AI models, Schmidt said. And Nevada's 110,000-square miles offers large swaths of open land attractive for building AI-related infrastructure such as data centers, the economist said. One of the few signs of contraction in the Nevada labor economy came in government jobs, which fell over the past year, holding back what would have been an even stronger expansion. Even there, however, Schmidt said Nevada was less affected than other states by President Trump's effort to curb government hiring, due to its small number of federal workers. At first glance, Nevada's labor market strength is surprising given softness in the state's iconic gambling industry. The Las Vegas Strip's largest casinos collectively saw revenues decline nearly 4% between the fiscal 2024 and 2025 years, according to data from the Nevada Gaming Control Board released this month. But the economy of the Las Vegas metro area — home to the lion's share of the state's population — has grown increasingly less reliant on gaming. An analysis of federal data found that about 60% of new jobs in the region from 2016 to 2025 came in industries outside of hospitality, construction and government, the Las Vegas Global Economic Alliance told CNBC. "Looking at the data, the thing that stands out the most is how widespread the growth is," Schmidt said. Nevada is bucking what economists have described as a national "jobless boom," and a "low hire, low fire" employment market. Now, the national labor market may be thawing, however: Nonfarm payroll growth was more than double what Wall Street forecast in May. The BLS is slated to release the most recent breakdown of state-by-state employment next week.

Struggling to find a job? Try looking in Nevada
North America
CNBC Finance

California’s counting on an IPO tax windfall. Several factors are complicating the equation

The blockbuster SpaceX IPO and potential upcoming public offerings for OpenAI and Anthropic could create a tax windfall for the state of California. Yet the revenue boost may fall short of previous tech IPOs – at least relative to the firms' valuations – given the specific nature and tax treatment of today's tech compensation. Following its IPO last week, SpaceX is now valued at $2.5 trillion, minting many of its employees who live and work near its Hawthorne, California, office as millionaires, at least on paper. California-based Anthropic and OpenAI are also expected to go public later this year at valuations that could approach $1 trillion. The burst of tech wealth has drawn comparison to the 2012 IPO of Menlo Park-based Facebook, which generated $1.3 billion in taxes for the Golden State, per the California Department of Finance's estimate. Facebook's valuation at the time was just $104 billion, suggesting the new crop of super-IPOs could theoretically generate billions more. But the revenue impact may be blunted, due to how these employees' stock compensation was structured and because tech employees today have more tools at their disposal to mitigate their tax burden, experts and financial advisors told CNBC. As companies have stayed private for longer and reached sky-high valuations, financial institutions have increasingly catered to equity-rich, cash-poor startup employees with tax strategies that were traditionally only available to founders. For instance, employees at some startups can get a tax deduction by donating private, pre-IPO stock to a donor-advised fund, according to Richard Lowry of wealth manager Cresset. He said such donations were generally limited to the ultra-wealthy as recently as a decade ago, since few charitable organizations were equipped to accept or manage those assets. "Historically, the only people who had equity in a private company and were certainly in a position to give it away were millionaire or billionaire founders who already had their own controlled structures, like a private foundation, where they could decide what they accepted," said Lowry, managing director and head of tax strategy at Cresset. "Now there is a cottage industry around allowing people to avail themselves of this." Tax revenue generated by an IPO largely comes from two sources: ordinary income taxes on employees' restricted stock units, or RSUs, when they vest and capital gains taxes paid when shareholders sell appreciated stock. SpaceX uses a unique stock-pay structure that may have pulled forward the tax revenue on the vesting of employees' shares. At most private companies, RSUs vest after two conditions are met: continued employment with the company and a liquidity event like an IPO or acquisition. This dual-trigger RSU structure leads to a boom in taxable income on IPO day. Many SpaceX employees, however, have been paying income taxes on their RSUs for years as share vesting was only tied to employment, not a liquidity event. This stock-pay structure has made it challenging to estimate tax revenue associated with the SpaceX IPO, according to the California Legislative Analyst's Office. "Revenue totals will depend more on financial decisions made by employees and investors who hold pre-IPO SpaceX shares and stock options," the LAO wrote in a statement. "Relative to past IPOs, tax revenues from the SpaceX IPO are likely to be less immediate and more unpredictable."

California’s counting on an IPO tax windfall. Several factors are complicating the equation
Europe
BBC Business

Tech giant Oracle cuts 21,000 jobs as it embraces AI

Oracle shed about 21,000 roles globally in the last year as the US technology giant reshapes its business around artificial intelligence (AI), the firm's latest annual report shows. The software and cloud computing firm says it had around 141,000 full-time employees as of 31 May 2026, down from about 162,000 workers at the same time last year. The "deployment of AI technologies across our operations have resulted, and may continue to result, in reductions to our workforce," the report says. The cuts, which amount to about 13% of Oracle's workforce, are part of a wider trend among tech firms as they spend hundreds of billions of dollars on building AI infrastructure like data centres. Amazon and Facebook-owner Meta have cut thousands of job in recent months as they invest heavily in AI. More than 100,000 tech workers have been laid off in the past year, according to estimates from employment tracking firms. Oracle made "significant" job cuts in April, according to senior employees posting online, but the full extent of the layoffs had not been revealed until its annual report was filed. The firm said the cuts have led to about $1.8bn (£1.36bn) in severance payments and other restructuring costs in the past year. The sum is significantly higher than the $374m restructuring bill in the previous financial year. Oracle said that its restructuring efforts "can be disruptive". It warned that the reorganisation may lead to a shortage in skilled workers in certain roles, resulting in a loss of productivity that could impact its earnings. Oracle has been in a race to roll out data centres for AI giants like OpenAI and Meta. The BBC previously reported that Oracle planned to spend at least $50bn on infrastructure this year.

Tech giant Oracle cuts 21,000 jobs as it embraces AI
Europe
BBC Business

Do you know your 'sweat score'? The rise of hydration tech

Booing fans and disgruntled pundits. One of the biggest controversies of the 2026 World Cup so far has been the hydration breaks, which – while not entirely new – are for the first time occurring twice during every match in the tournament. The breaks aren't really about hydration, some spectators say. They're just an opportunity for certain broadcasters to show more ads, they break up the natural flow of games, and are unnecessary in air conditioned stadiums. Whether or not you agree with these complaints, there's no doubt that hydration itself is an increasingly prominent point of discussion worldwide. "Hydration is a key issue," says Andreas Flouris at the University of Thessaly in Greece. "We definitely see it, from a scientific point of view, gaining more and more attention." Climate change is intensifying heatwaves, and in response public health campaigns, external are encouraging people to drink more fluids. It is in this context that hydration-focused gadgets have flooded the consumer electronics market in recent years. They range from sweat monitors to toilet bowl urine-analysers. But do they work? Not drinking sufficient water is a common problem. A 2023 study suggested, external that one in four UK adults aged 65 or older were dehydrated, due to not drinking sufficient fluids. And a 2018 study by Flouris, external and colleagues assessed hydration levels in 139 workers around Europe. They found that 70% were dehydrated to a level that could negatively affect their thinking and control of their movements. Purveyors of hydration tech say their products can help. Years ago, gadgets such as the Apple Watch and Fitbit made step-counting popular, says Roozbeh Ghaffari, co-founder and chief executive of US-based Epicore Biosystems. But why stop there? "Sweat has been the next chapter," he asserts. His company is one of several that makes sweat-analysing devices. In Epicore Biosystems' case, that includes single-use sticky patches and sleeve-like wearables, which track the flow rate of sweat as it emerges from your skin, the sweat's sodium (salt) content, and skin temperature, among other metrics. A new armband and app combo also offer to evaluate your "hydration readiness" based on "real-time sweat data". The idea is to avoid dehydration creeping up on you. "With this new generation of our wearables, we could figure out what type of risk profile you have based on your sweat score," says Ghaffari.

Do you know your 'sweat score'? The rise of hydration tech