Robinhood’s stated mission is to “democratise finance for all” by making trading largely commission-free. Now the popular US online stock trading app plans to give retail investors the opportunity to buy shares in initial public offerings before trading starts. It is a bold move, but a tricky one. For investment banks, whose job it is…
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Two scientists advising the government have warned against lifting all remaining coronavirus restrictions in England on June 21, as fears grow over the continued spread of the B.1.617.2 variant first identified in India. Professor Ravi Gupta, a member of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), said there had been an “exponential…
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Orang-utans are critically endangered. Some 90 per cent of their habitat, south-east Asian rainforests, have been lost to palm oil plantations and other human uses. Plans for a new global carbon exchange in Singapore by the end of the year may be just what the great apes need. The Singapore Exchange, state investment firm Temasek and…
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ESG funds have proved they can survive — and even thrive — in a crisis. Some $2bn a day flowed into sustainable funds in the first quarter of this year, according to Morningstar. That was half of all European fund flows into the sector. But as investors ramp up calls for sustainability at every company,…
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There are more than 400 million Arabic speakers globally and that number isn’t slowing down anytime soon. Arabic, to most people, is a tough language even to those who speak it. According to Duolingo, someone fluent in Egyptian Arabic might not fully understand Yemeni Arabic speakers because of the vast difference in dialect. While individuals…
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Cloud kitchens are already meant to reduce the burden of infrastructure on food and beverage brands by providing them with centralized facilities to prepare meals for delivery. This means the responsibility falls on cloud kitchen operators to make sure they have enough locations to meet demand from F&B clients, while ensuring fast deliveries to end…
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Bitcoin has been trying to rebound and then it drops again. As I write this, it’s well off its April 13 high of nearly $65,000, hovering at $35.9k. Bitcoin’s price has plunged nearly 40 percent since early May, its worst month, since September 2011. This free fall comes after Elon Mush announced that Tesla would…
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At the start of the year, the German government quietly launched a novel system of carbon pricing that could revolutionise who pays for the cost of polluting in Europe. Since January, the EU’s largest economy has introduced a de facto tax of €25 per tonne of carbon on petrol, diesel, heating oil and gas to…
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The EU lawmaker who will steer the EU’s flagship tech regulation through the European parliament has said it should focus on the largest five US tech companies. Andreas Schwab, a German MEP and longtime critic of Google, spoke after France and Germany both called for the EU to be tougher on Big Tech. He said…
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The world’s largest food company, Nestlé, has acknowledged in an internal document that more than 60 per cent of its mainstream food and drinks products do not meet a “recognised definition of health” and that “some of our categories and products will never be ‘healthy’ no matter how much we renovate”. A presentation circulated among top…
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