News without the noise
Business news from Australia and around the world: companies, deals, earnings, regulation and the people running them.
1812 articles · page 22 of 38
McDonald's is facing a federal class-action lawsuit accusing it of using an AI tool that allegedly helps franchise locations coordinate menu pricing, in violation of antitrust laws, and has driven up prices for American customers.
A survey of 269 VMware user organizations has found that nine out of ten respondents are evaluating alternatives to the virtualization platform, with rising licensing costs cited as the primary factor driving the exodus. The study, conducted by Unisphere Research between December 2025 and February 2026 on behalf of third-party support provider Rimini Street, also revealed that 54 percent of respondents are reconsidering their VMware investments due to the end of perpetual license support.
Mortgage rates rose to their highest level in nearly three years last week, pushing total mortgage application volume down 4.2 per cent compared with the previous week, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association's seasonally adjusted index.
US households that heat their homes with oil are projected to face average winter bills of $2,115, about 21% higher than last year, according to the Energy Information Administration's annual Winter Fuels Outlook released Tuesday. The agency expects heating oil to average $5.26 a gallon over the November to March heating season, a 34% jump from last winter, driven by an unusually tight global market for distillate fuels.
A bipartisan House Select Committee on China has found that digital investment platform Webull, which has 28 million global users, is structurally tied to China's government, posing a national security threat to American finance, according to a report released Wednesday.
Five former Barclays traders jailed for manipulating interbank interest rates have had their convictions overturned by the Court of Appeal, in a significant reversal of one of the most prominent prosecutions to emerge from the 2008 financial crisis.
Jaguar has unveiled its first all-electric model, the Type 01, two years after a controversial rebrand sparked accusations of going 'woke'. The four-door Grand Tourer, priced from £130,000 ($130,500), boasts 1,000 horsepower and a 320-mile range, but social media reaction has been sharply divided.
Japanese competition authorities have raided the offices of the country's four biggest brewers — Asahi, Kirin, Sapporo and Suntory — on suspicion they colluded to raise beer prices. The raids, confirmed by Asahi and Kirin, mark a significant escalation in the Fair Trade Commission's probe into the industry.
Finland's licensing and supervision agency has ordered Google to suspend construction on two data centers in Muhos and Kajaani, halting tree removal, excavation and other site work until environmental impact assessments are finished. The order comes a month after the tech giant announced a $15 billion AI infrastructure investment in the country.
Schools across Northern Ireland have been advised that staff and pupils should "wear more clothes" if it is cold, after the Education Authority told head teachers to cut heating and lighting "wherever possible" to offset rising energy bills projected to climb by about £8m by March 2027.
Royal Mail has announced plans to cut up to 2,500 jobs, primarily in head office and support functions, as it restructures to adapt to a sharp decline in letter deliveries and intense competition. The company said the cuts would be achieved through natural attrition and voluntary exit programmes with no compulsory redundancies and no reduction in frontline delivery or processing roles.
UK house prices flatlined in September, with the average cost of a home stuck at £298,441, according to the latest tracker from Lloyds, as rising mortgage costs and geopolitical uncertainty weighed on the market. Economists had forecast a modest monthly rise of 0.1% and an annual increase of 0.2%, but prices showed no movement from the previous month or from a year earlier.
Shell has forecast that its refineries will make almost double the profit from every barrel of fuel produced in the third quarter of 2026, driven by record prices and global shortages caused by war-damaged refineries in the Middle East and Russia. The energy supermajor said it expects profit margins of $42 a barrel for the July-to-September period, up sharply from $24 in the second quarter and above the previous peak of about $28 in mid-2022.
Woolworths has increased the fuel levy it charges food and grocery suppliers through its logistics network to almost triple pre-war levels, reflecting sharp rises in diesel costs since the Iran war, with experts warning the increase is likely to be passed on to consumers at the check-out.
Britain is losing its status as a haven for the super-rich, with a string of high-profile departures including property tycoon David Reuben, who has moved to Monaco. Those leaving cite Labour's stricter tax regime, hostility towards extreme wealth and London transport policies, while others dismiss the warnings of economic decline that accompany each exit.
The Treasury Committee has opened an inquiry into the relationship between the Bank of England and the government, questioning whether the central bank's independence in setting interest rates should be changed. The move comes as rates remain at 3.75% with predictions of further rises, putting pressure on mortgage holders, jobseekers, and the wider economy.
The merger of Warner Bros. and Paramount has been completed, following a US judge's approval of a settlement that allowed the acquisition, Australian news outlets reported on October 7. The deal, first cleared by a US court in late September, has raised questions about corporate consolidation and editorial independence in the media industry.
O2 has agreed to a record £200 million deal to retain the naming rights to the London venue the O2, extending its sponsorship until at least 2038 in what is believed to be the largest naming rights renewal ever in the UK.
The United States stock market has reached an all-time high, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite both closing at records on Tuesday as excitement around artificial intelligence continued to drive a buying frenzy on Wall Street.
The Reserve Bank of India raised its benchmark repo rate by 25 basis points to 5.50% on Wednesday, the first rate hike since 2023, as persistent inflation and geopolitical risks prompted a shift to a tighter policy stance. The move aligns with economist expectations and signals that further increases may follow.
Auric Mining has completed the acquisition of the Union Jack gold project near Coolgardie in Western Australia, boosting its total mineral resource inventory by 51 per cent to 301,000 ounces of shallow, open-pitable gold resources.
Dalaroo Metals has announced a significant gold discovery at its Bondoukou Gold Ridge project in Côte d'Ivoire, with the second hole of a maiden reverse circulation campaign returning 18 metres at 7.31 grams per tonne gold from 63 metres depth. The news propelled the company's shares 67 per cent higher to 12.5 cents in heavy trading.
Forrestania Resources has announced a maiden JORC-compliant mineral resource of 223,300 ounces at its recently acquired Tampia gold project in Western Australia’s Wheatbelt region, marking a key step in plans to restart production at two processing hubs by early 2027.
Brisbane 2032 organisers have left the door open to a proposed ballpark in Logan to host baseball and softball during the Olympic and Paralympic Games, despite no guarantee it will be built. A pre-feasibility report into the privately built stadium went before Logan City Council on Wednesday, but no private funding has yet been secured.
Victoria's mining regulator has granted a 20-year licence for the Avonbank mineral sands mine near Horsham, a Chinese-backed project that has divided the community. The licence allows WIM Resource to extract zircon, titanium and rare earth elements from a 3,400-hectare site in Dooen, with construction expected to begin late next year and mining in 2029.
Oil prices rose on Wednesday, pushing Brent crude above $101 a barrel, as fresh Houthi attacks on two Saudi airports renewed fears of supply disruptions in the Middle East, overshadowing signs of recovering flows through the kingdom's East-West Pipeline.
Ikea is piloting an online version of its furniture buyback service in Spain and Portugal, with a potential rollout to the UK if the trial succeeds. The move comes as the Swedish retailer launches its own secondhand online marketplace in the UK this week, directly competing with platforms like Vinted and eBay.
Kmart has removed its $89 camera glasses from online sale, two months after the cut-price Anko smart glasses triggered a national privacy backlash and calls for federal government intervention.
The US sharemarket set a new record overnight even as US bond yields climbed to levels not seen since 2002, a divergence that challenges conventional market correlations. According to a column by senior business writer Stephen Bartholomeusz, the typical inverse relationship between share prices and bond yields has not materialised in the overall indices. The rally comes against a backdrop of the Iran war, a bond market rout, and an oil crunch.
The chief executive of Norwegian state-owned oil company Equinor has warned that the UK risks becoming 'uninvestable' if the government does not grant final approval for the Rosebank and Jackdaw oil and gas fields. Anders Opedal told the BBC the company would have to reconsider future investments in Britain if the projects are rejected, as the government is set to decide on the developments despite a manifesto pledge to ban new drilling.
Google has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with Constellation Energy covering 3,590 megawatts of future electricity supply, including 890 megawatts of new nuclear capacity, as the company tries to secure enough power for its datacenter ambitions.
A Delta Air Lines aircraft struck the tail of an Air Canada jet while taxiing at Los Angeles International Airport on Tuesday morning, the Federal Aviation Administration said, with no injuries reported.
Jaguar launched its Type 01 electric car in New York on Tuesday night, marking the culmination of a two-year rebrand and targeting younger, wealthier buyers in the US with a starting price of £130,000 ($172,000). The vehicle's ultra-long bonnet and low roof give it a muscular design, but it lacks a rear window and is too long to fit into a standard UK parking space.
Darwin is poised to become a major interconnection point for global data, with planning documents revealing two international subsea cables could soon dock in the suburb of Fannie Bay. Tech giant Google has lodged an application to connect its Bosun subsea cable to infrastructure at the corner of Atkin Drive and Conacher Street, while multinational company Inligo Networks is building Darwin's first open cable landing station directly opposite the proposed Google site.
Australia's privacy commissioner has launched an investigation into the technology used in Kmart's cheap smart glasses, amid concerns over how the devices store and access user data.
Paramount Skydance, the company formed by the $111 billion merger of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery, announced today that its streaming services HBO Max, Paramount+, and Discovery+ will be unified into a single service over time, ending months of speculation about the future of the platforms.
Western Australia's work safety watchdog has issued an improvement notice to the owner of the world's largest lithium mine after survey responses revealed a toxic workplace culture and psychologically distressed workforce at the Greenbushes site, 240 kilometres south of Perth.
Defence technology company Anduril Industries will invest $3.7bn in a new shipyard in Maryland and build components for the United States Navy's Virginia-class submarines under a contract worth $2.9bn, the company confirmed on Tuesday.
Paramount Skydance has completed its merger with Warner Bros Discovery in a deal valued at $110bn to $111bn, creating a new entertainment giant called Skydance. The combination unites major studios, streaming platforms Paramount+ and HBO Max, and news networks CNN and CBS News under one roof. Skydance CEO David Ellison on Tuesday denied that the company has been politicized despite close ties to the Trump White House, and confirmed that CNN editor-in-chief Mark Thompson and CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss will remain in their roles.
Microsoft has secured exclusive game streaming rights for Grand Theft Auto VI, meaning only Xbox Cloud Gaming will be able to stream the title to players at launch, according to sources familiar with the deal. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma told employees during an all-hands meeting that the company is preparing to do something with the game that no other platform holder is doing.
The Australian privacy commissioner has opened a formal investigation into Shenzhen Qingcheng Future Technology Co, the Chinese software company behind cheap smart glasses sold in Australia, after an ABC investigation found serious security flaws exposed users' sensitive data. Privacy Commissioner Carly Kind said the company ignored multiple attempts to seek information, raising concerns about fundamental compliance practices.
Sigil Wen, a self-taught coder and Thiel Fellow who once lived in an AI hacker house with prominent researchers, has launched Underdog, an invite-only beta of an AI assistant that runs entirely on-device. The app, which currently works on Macs and Windows PCs with mobile versions coming, aims to provide a private alternative to cloud-based assistants like Instinct and Muse by keeping data on users' own machines and encrypting account keys.
The S&P 500 closed above 7800 for the first time, and the Nasdaq also set a record, driven by a rally among AI chipmakers and growing expectations that the Federal Reserve will hold interest rates steady. The gains come despite turbulence in the bond market and persistent high fuel costs for American consumers.
Cloud computing provider Lambda is raising up to $4 billion at a $14.5 billion pre-money valuation in what may be its last private fundraising before a planned initial public offering in 2027, according to The Wall Street Journal. Coatue Management and Blackstone are leading the round.
The Carlton, a luxury hotel in Milan that opened last year after a five-year, $100-million renovation, has been awarded two Michelin keys in the 2026 guide, earning top marks for its blend of form and function.
Chancellor John Healey is preparing a major intervention in the upcoming budget to cut energy bills for poorer households, with plans to spend over £1bn on increasing the warm homes discount, after forecasts showed the Iran war pushing up the energy price cap by as much as £442 in January.
The ACT Supreme Court has dismissed a $1 million negligence claim against a real estate company brought by a former employee who alleged its sole director sexually harassed her, though the judge found the director's conduct was likely to have amounted to sexual harassment.
Tassal will begin individually injecting diseased salmon in Tasmanian waters with an antibiotic this week, a practice the Canadian-owned company says is new for the state, as it responds to a bacterial outbreak that has killed thousands of tonnes of farmed fish.