Drax Group to give shareholders £300m windfall as profits rise

The owner of the Drax power plant in North Yorkshire will give shareholders a £300m windfall after a sharp rise in taxpayer subsidies boosted its profits for the first half of the year to more than £500m.The power station, which receives hefty subsidies from burning biomass wood chips, mainly shipped from North America, generated almost a third more electricity over the first half of this year compared with the same months last year.This earned Drax Group £393m in biomass subsidies, which are opposed by many climate campaigners who claim that burning biomass is not sustainable and may increase carbon emissions.The company has received more than £6bn in subsidies for its biomass plant, the UK’s biggest single emitter of carbon dioxide.Drax, which supplies about 5% of the UK’s electricity, has called on the government to continue supporting its power plant by extending the subsidy scheme, which is due to end in 2027, until the end of the decade

NatWest takes £24m hit from abandoned ‘Tell Sid’-style campaign

NatWest was forced to spend £24m on the former Conservative government’s aborted “Tell Sid”-style campaign featuring Sir Trevor McDonald, which would have resulted in a chunk of the bank’s state-owned shares being sold to the general public in a highly anticipated privatisation drive.The price tag emerged when the bank released its second-quarter results and announced that it was snapping up a number of mortgages from the smaller rival Metro Bank for £2.4bn.Agreements with the government dating to the bank’s bailout in 2008 meant NatWest was on the hook for costs linked to the campaign, including advertising, printing and distributing documents, as well as legal fees and expenses.The Tory government had already hired a fleet of advisers, including from Goldman Sachs, Barclays, the advertising house M&C Saatchi, the law firm Freshfields and the retail share sale experts Solid Solutions, to prepare the programme

Fines for child labor violations would increase under new Democratic bill

Democrats introduced a bill Friday proposing increased penalties for employers found guilty of child labor violations and toughening rules around minimum wage, overtime violations and breaches of health and safety rules.The Let’s Protect Workers act would also set new penalties for retaliating against workers who exercise their right to take family and medical leave, toughen oversight of workplace injury records, improve mine safety and ensure funding for workers affected by black lung.The bill comes as child labor violations have surged in the US. The Department of Labor reported an increase of 88% in such violations between 2019 and 2023 as Republican states have moved to relax child labor rules. Eight states have passed legislation to roll back child labor protections so far this year

OpenAI tests new search engine called SearchGPT amid AI arms race

OpenAI is testing a new search engine that uses generative artificial intelligence to produce results, raising the prospect of a significant challenge to Google’s dominance of the online search market.SearchGPT will launch with a small group of users and publishers before a potential wider rollout, the company announced on Thursday. OpenAI ultimately intends to incorporate the search features into ChatGPT, rather offer a standalone product.OpenAI said SearchGPT is a temporary prototype that will combine the company’s AI models, such as ChatGPT, with the ability to search the internet. It will respond conversationally to searches, while providing up-to-date information with “clear links to relevant sources”

Revolut finally receives UK banking licence after three-year wait

Revolut has secured a UK banking licence – with “restrictions” – more than three years after Britain’s most valuable fintech firm lodged its application with regulators.It is a milestone for the company, and will help pave the way for an eventual stock market listing, but it may still be some time before it can hold its customers’ deposits.Tentative approval from the Bank of England means Revolut is in the mobilisation stage, where it will build up its banking operations.The London-headquartered firm has waited years to get to this stage, having lodged its application for a UK banking licence in 2021.The challenge, in part, was convincing regulators that Revolut had addressed a number of accounting issues and EU regulatory breaches, as well as reputational concerns, including an over-aggressive corporate culture

ITV’s ad revenue jumps 17% with assistance from the Euros

ITV has reported a 17% surge in advertising revenue fuelled by the Euro 2024 tournament, while announcing that it has taken a majority stake in the production company behind shows including Sherlock, The Devil’s Hour and Douglas Is Cancelled.The broadcaster said on Thursday that total ad revenue – including TV and digital – was up 17% year on year for the three months to the end of June, ahead of a forecast rise of 12%.ITV channels carried live coverage of 16 Euro 2024 group stage matches in June, including England v Slovenia, and the national side’s round-of-16 victory over Slovakia. ITV1 also broadcast England’s semi-final victory over the Netherlands on 10 July and shared live coverage of the defeat to Spain in the final with the BBC four days later.Carolyn McCall, ITV’s chief executive, said: “There is no question we had a good lift from the Euros in June and in a small part of July