Progress on gender equality at top of UK’s biggest firms ‘achingly slow’

Campaigners have bemoaned the “achingly slow” progress made on gender equality at the top of Britain’s biggest businesses, as research showed blue-chip firms had missed key targets and there were only nine female bosses at FTSE 100 companies.The average number of female FTSE 100 chief executives did not move last year, according to the government-backed FTSE Women Leaders Review.They were Allison Kirkby at BT, Zoë Yujnovich at National Grid, Milena Mondini de Focatiis at Admiral, Stella David at Entain, Louise Beardmore at United Utilities, Margherita Della Valle at Vodafone, Amanda Blanc at Aviva and Cindy Rose at WPP.The report also considered Emma Walmsley at GSK and Liv Garfield at Severn Trent, although both women left their roles in December, as well as Carol Howe, the interim chief executive of BP, who is due to be replaced by Meg O’Neill in April.Debra Crew left the drinks group Diageo last summer after two years in which the company’s share price dropped more than 40%

Trump threatens ‘more powerful and obnoxious’ tariffs, amid confusion in UK and EU; Wall Street drops – as it happened

Donald Trump has declared that he can use tariffs in a ‘much more powerful and obnoxious way’ than he has thus far.Posting on his Truth Social network, the US president again attacked the supreme court for ruling against his sweeping global tariffs last Friday – calling them ‘incompetent’.He also claims the justices have ‘‘accidentally and unwittingly’ expanded his presidential powers on tariffs.Trump writes:double quotation markThe supreme court (will be using lower case letters for a while based on a complete lack of respect!*) of the United States accidentally and unwittingly gave me, as President of the United States, far more powers and strength than I had prior to their ridiculous, dumb, and very internationally divisive ruling.For one thing, I can use Licenses to do absolutely “terrible” things to foreign countries, especially those countries that have been RIPPING US OFF for many decades, but incomprehensibly, according to the ruling, can’t charge them a License fee - BUT ALL LICENSES CHARGE FEES, why can’t the United States do so? You do a license to get a fee! The opinion doesn’t explain that, but I know the answer! The court has also approved all other Tariffs, of which there are many, and they can all be used in a much more powerful and obnoxious way, with legal certainty, than the Tariffs as initially used

Stock markets stumble as global trade faces more Trump tariff uncertainty

Stock markets stumbled on Monday as Donald Trump pushed ahead with fresh tariffs on the US’s trading partners despite a supreme court strike-down and growing opposition from domestic voters.Uncertainty over the status of global trade deals spooked investors, triggering a drop in US shares prices including on the Dow Jones industrial average, which tumbled 1.6% by Monday’s closing. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 fell 1.4% and 1

Ex-DJ jailed in London for selling fake parts to airlines

A one-time techno DJ who orchestrated a £40m global fraud selling fake aircraft parts from his garage outside London has been jailed.Engine parts from AOG Technics found their way into planes used by American Airlines, Ethiopian Airlines, Delta and Ryanair before the scam was discovered, leading to regulators issuing safety alerts and planes being grounded.Jose Alejandro Zamora Yrala, director of the firm, was on Monday sentenced at Southwark crown court to four years and eight months in prison, after pleading guilty to fraud.An investigation by the Serious Fraud Office found that Zamora Yrala, 38, bought aircraft engine parts including seals, bolts and washers and sold them on to airlines and suppliers around the world, with forged certificates guaranteeing their airworthiness.Between 2019 and July 2023, AOG Technics sold more than 60,000 parts worth £6

Wegovy and Ozempic owner dealt blow as next-gen weight-loss drug is labelled ‘obsolete’

The owner of Wegovy and Ozempic has suffered a significant setback, as its highly anticipated new weight-loss treatment was labelled “obsolete” after disappointing clinical trials.Novo Nordisk’s shares fell sharply on Monday after the results from testing the Danish company’s CagriSema drug fell short of investors’ expectations.The weekly injection combines cagrilintide, which mimics the pancreatic hormone amylin, and semaglutide, the active ingredient in Wegovy and Ozempic that mimics the gut hormone GLP-1, suppressing appetite and making users feel full more quickly. This means CagriSema leads to greater weight loss than Wegovy.The study was designed to show that CagriSema was at least as good as the Novo rival Eli Lilly’s leading anti-obesity drug Zepbound, which contains tirzepatide

UK job vacancies ‘fall to lowest level since pandemic’

The number of job vacancies in the UK has tumbled to the lowest level in five years, research suggests, falling to levels not seen since the pandemic.The number of jobs being advertised slid by 3% in January to 695,000, according to the job search site Adzuna, marking the first time advertised vacancies have dropped below 700,000 since January 2021.Graduate jobs fell below 10,000 for the first time since Adzuna began tracking this in 2016.The research comes days after official figures showed unemployment in the UK had risen to a five-year high of 5.2%, at a time when wage growth is slowing and concerns are increasing that young people are bearing the brunt of the slowdown in hiring