Author: Chris Kodo

The operator of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine says parts of the facility were “seriously damaged” by Russian military strikes, forcing the closure of one reactor.

There was still a risk of radioactive leaks, Enerhoatom warned.

Moscow said Ukraine carried out the attack, but the EU has condemned Russia’s actions at the plant.

Russia seized the Zaporizhzhia plant – the biggest in Europe – in March but kept its Ukrainian employees.

Ukraine accuses Russian forces of firing rockets at civilian areas from the site, employing “terror tactics”.

Friday’s strikes “caused a serious risk for the safe operation of the plant”, Enerhoatom wrote on Telegram, adding that a power cable had been damaged, forcing one of the reactors to stop working.

The BBC was unable to verify the reported damage at the nuclear plant.

However, the EU has hit out at Moscow over the latest shelling with the bloc’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, saying it “condemns Russia’s military activities” around the plant.

“This is a serious and irresponsible breach of nuclear safety rules and another example of Russia’s disregard for international norms,” he said, and called for the UN’s nuclear watchdog – the IAEA – to be granted access to the plant.

The head of the IAEA this week said the plant was “completely out of control”.

Russian forces hold the plant and surrounding areas, close to Ukrainian-held territory. It consists of six pressurised water reactors and stores radioactive waste.

Civilians in nearby Nikopol, which lies across the river and is still under Ukrainian control, told the BBC that the Russians were firing rockets from the area around the plant and moving military hardware into the compound.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that “any bombing of this site is a shameless crime, an act of terror”.

The plant is in the city of Enerhodar, in the south-east of Ukraine along the left bank of the River Dnieper (Dnipro in Ukrainian).

The UK defence ministry says Russia is using the area to launch attacks – taking advantage of the “protected status” of the nuclear power plant to reduce the risk of overnight attacks from Ukrainian forces.

Source: BBC

Up until three years ago, PR and advertising firm boss Marian Ventura was more than happy to work on projects for oil and gas companies.

“I felt I was pushing change from the inside, collaborating to enhance their transparency and accountability,” says the founder of Done!, which is based in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

She says that in Latin America the fossil fuels industry is considered “prestigious”. “They sponsor every sustainability event or prize in the region, and of course they are the ‘best clients to have, for their big budgets.”

Then in 2019, Ms Ventura’s feelings started to shift when she decided to certify her business as a so-called “B Corp” organisation. This is a global certification scheme whereby firms aim to meet the best possible social and environmental standards.

“As a B company, we know that in order to fulfil our corporate purpose we cannot turn a blind eye to these questions: Who am I selling to? What am I selling? Will I be proud of what I am selling in 10 years?,” says Ms Ventura.

As a result, she started to reduce her oil clients, but in 2021 she went one step further.

Last year, she decided that Done! would become one of the now 350 advertising and PR firms who have joined a movement called Clean Creatives. Joining the movement means they pledge to refuse any future work for fossil fuel firms, or their trade associations.

“We dropped off at least four active clients related to oil and gas, and refused a dozen quotation requests, that actually keep coming,” says Ms Ventura.

She adds that her decision has come in for criticism. “People with whom we have stronger relationships, told me that they don’t agree with our position, because they believe oil and gas are irreplaceable resources for society, and they assure it can be developed in a responsible way.”

Speaking on the subject back in April, the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said “some government and business leaders are saying one thing, but doing another”. He added: “High‑emitting governments and corporations are not just turning a blind eye, they are adding fuel to the flames.”

Meanwhile, a report this year by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change said that “corporate advertisement and brand building strategies may also attempt to deflect corporate responsibility”. The study went on to ask whether tighter advertising regulation was required.

Duncan Meisel, director at US-based Clean Creatives, says he sees a shift happening. “We know there’s agencies not taking the pledge who have told us privately that they are no longer pitching to fossil fuel clients. It’s a step forward.”

He adds: “The fossil fuel industry uses advertising agencies and PR agencies to make it harder for governments to hold them accountable. And ads are misleading and make companies seem more committed to climate action than they really are.”

Some advertising firms are, however, continuing with fossil fuel clients, such as the UK’s WPP, whose subsidiaries have worked with the likes of BP, Shell and Exxon Mobile.

“Our clients have an important role to play in the transition to a low carbon economy and how they communicate their actions must be accurate,” says a WPP spokesman. “We apply rigorous standards to the content we produce for our clients, and seek to fairly represent their environmental commitments and investments.

“We will not take on any client, or work, whose objective is to frustrate the policies required by the Paris Agreement [on climate change].”

Meanwhile, the world’s largest PR firm Edelman, was at the end of last year criticised for its work for fossil fuel companies. Its clients have included the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, and also Exxon Mobile.

The US headquartered firm subsequently carried out a 60-day review of its climate strategy, and boss Richard Edelman said in a company blog post in January that it might have to “part ways” with clients not committed to net zero emissions.

Edelman declined to give a subsequent comment to BBC News for this article.

Oil and gas trade association, Offshore Energies UK (OEUK), says it is wrong to criticise PR and advertising firms that work with the energy sector.

“Pressuring agencies to avoid working with companies involved oil and gas is counter-productive to combatting climate change, as they’re also the ones with the decades of energy expertise that are developing and rolling out the cleaner technologies that are needed,” says OEUK external relations director, Jenny Stanning.

New Economy is a new series exploring how businesses, trade, economies and working life are changing fast.

A spokesperson for the Advertising Association says that it does not believe the fossil fuel industry should be banned from advertising “but we do recognise the right for individual companies to decide who they do and don’t work with”.

“Accuracy and honesty in all advertising is paramount,” he adds. “This is an area carefully regulated by both the CMA [Competition and Markets Authority] and ASA [Advertising Standards Authority], which expects advertisers to be able to show evidence for any claims they make on the environmental impact of the products and services they feature.

“We believe in the freedom of speech, and Clean Creatives are exercising that right. Our end goals are the same i.e. net zero, but we think a more nuanced approach is required.”

Solitaire Townsend, boss of UK advertising agency and PR firm Futerra, gave up working with oil and gas clients some 15 years ago.

She says that more and more firms in her industry will have to follow suit – if they wish to attract the best staff.

“A lot of agencies will come to the point where they have to make the decision if they want to be able to recruit the brightest,” says Ms Townsend. “The young ones don’t want to work with oil and gas [clients].”

Source: BBC

Hiring in the UK has slowed amidst uncertainty over the economy, according to a report.

July saw the slowest increase in the number of permanent jobs filled for 17 months.

KPMG said recruiters are becoming more tentative over hiring new staff.

The consultancy added that ongoing skills shortages, a drop in foreign workers and hesitancy from candidates to move jobs had all led to a tighter supply of suitable staff.

The slowing down of the hiring spree that followed the pandemic comes as the Bank of England warned the UK will fall into recession in the final quarter of this year. The bank raised interest rates from 1.25% to 1.75%, in a bid to curb soaring prices.

The jobs report by KPMG and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation suggested rising operating costs and uncertainty over the UK’s economic outlook is leading some firms to put the brakes on recruitment, at least for permanent roles.

But the soaring cost of living and tougher competition for a smaller pool of qualified candidates has also meant that the rate of starting pay continued to rise in July.

“The trend of uncertainty in the UK jobs market of the last few months continues,” said KPMG’s Claire Warnes.

“Employers are rightly hesitant about their hiring plans… So, a focus on up-skilling existing workers and attracting talent, remains absolutely essential for UK business to play its part in driving forward the economy.”

It is still a good time to be a jobseeker – the number of vacancies advertised has continued to grow. Although the fastest rate of growth in vacancies was for temporary posts in the hospitality sector.

“Given the outlook being painted by the Bank of England… one might wonder why anyone would consider switching jobs at all,” said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets.

“Consumer confidence is already at record lows, and prices look set to rise further, so business and consumers are likely to face further challenges. Let’s see what the government has in mind to help navigate us through the winter months.”

The Bank of England said it expects the economy to shrink in the final three months of this year, and keep shrinking until the end of 2023, signalling the longest downturn for the UK economy since the 2008 financial crisis.

Jeevun Sandher, economist at Kings College London said “those who are able and willing to work are, generally, working. That is great news”. But he added: “The problem we face is that having a job does not mean you will earn enough to escape poverty. Even before this cost-of-living crisis, almost 70% of adults in poverty lived in working households. That has gotten significantly worse – half of us are now cutting back on food.”

He added that workers should be asking for “the highest salaries possible”.

Source: BBC

US employers added more than 500,000 jobs in July and the unemployment rate dropped, defying fears that the labour market is heading for a slowdown.

The jobless rate fell to 3.5% from 3.6% in June, as restaurants, bars and other firms continued to add workers.

The report from the Labor Department was far stronger than expected, after recent data showed the US economy continuing to shrink.

The US central bank is raising interest rates to rein in surging prices.

Higher borrowing costs reduce spending and economic activity. But top economic officials in the US have said they hope the US labour market will remain strong enough to allow the Federal Reserve to raise rates without triggering a recession.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who previously led the bank, said last week that the economy was shifting from its booming post-pandemic recovery to a more solid and steady phase of growth.

But fears of a sustained slowdown have mounted, as consumer confidence falls, the housing market slows and some firms announce job cuts or plans to slow hiring.

“The unexpected acceleration in non-farm payroll growth in July, together with the further decline in the unemployment rate and the renewed pick-up in wage pressure, make a mockery of claims that the economy is on the brink of recession,” said Michael Pearce, senior US economist for Capital Economics.

The US has now regained all 22 million jobs lost when the pandemic hit in 2020, the Labor Department said. The jobless rate has also returned to its pre-pandemic level,hovering at 50-year lows.

For Hispanic and Latino workers, the 3.9% jobless rate in July was the lowest since record keeping began in 1973.

Product manager Ian Charles lost his job a few weeks ago when his financial technology company announced a wave of cuts, citing the shift in investor sentiment that was making it harder for start-ups to raise money.

The 33-year-old was surprised – and initially, panicked, remembering how difficult his job search had been a few years earlier. But this time, he said, “it’s a totally different ballgame.”

“People have really been coming out in droves on LinkedIn – both people I actually know from grad school and former colleagues to just random recruiters,” he said.

He said he felt confident he would have a new job lined up in a few weeks.

“I was panicking at the start … but this time around I’ve seen in a month how much easier it’s been to get traction,” he said. “Opportunities keep coming, which is really weird to me because everyone keeps talking about how we’re headed for a recession and things could be slowing down, but I don’t see it reflected on the ground.”

Analysts said the robust hiring makes it likely that the Federal Reserve will continue to raise interest rates aggressively.

The bank has already announced rate rises four times since March, responding to consumer prices that are increasing at their fastest pace since 1981. The inflation rate surged again in June to 9.1%.

Wages are rising too – but not as fast. Friday’s report showed average hourly pay up 5.2% compared with July 2021.

Economist Jason Furman, who advised former president Barack Obama and now teaches at Harvard, said that the jobs report was “uncomfortably hot”.

“Nice to see this many jobs added but it is scary about what it means for the size of the adjustment we may have coming,” he wrote on Twitter. “Recession is now less of a worry. Inflation is more of a worry. The Fed will likely need to do more.”

Source: BBC

The US economy has shrunk for the second quarter in a row, a milestone that in many countries would be considered an economic recession.

That is not the case in the US, which uses additional data to make that call.

But the contraction, at an annual rate of 0.9% in the three months to July, has drawn widespread attention as worries about the economy grow.

Prices for groceries, petrol and other basics are rising at the fastest pace since 1981.

As the US central bank raises borrowing costs quickly to try to cool the economy and ease price pressures, fears are rising that a recession is coming – if it has not officially started already.

Faced with sinking public confidence, US President Joe Biden has tried to make the case that the economy remains sound, noting that the unemployment rate remains at a low 3.6% and hiring has remained strong.

“If you look at our job market, consumer spending, business investment – we see signs of economic progress,” Mr Biden said Thursday, noting the historic post-pandemic gains the US experienced last year. “There’s no doubt we expect growth to be slower than last year …. That’s consistent with a transition to stable, steady growth and lower inflation.”

This week, ahead of the data from the Commerce Department, he told reporters that the economy was “not going to be in a recession”. That prompted his opponents in the Republican party to accuse the White House of trying to redefine the term.

“White House recession ‘rebrand’ won’t reduce Americans’ suffering,” they said.

In the first three months of the year, the US economy shrank at an annual rate of 1.6%. At the time, economists attributed the decline in gross domestic product (GDP) to quirks in trade data.

But Thursday’s report showed more marked slowdown, with growth weighed down by declines in the housing market, business investment and government spending. Consumer spending grew at a slower annual rate of 1%, as people spent more on healthcare, accommodation and dining out, but cut back on goods and groceries.

Harvard professor Jeffrey Frankel previously served on the National Bureau of Economic Research committee, the group of academics that is charged with making the official declaration of recession.

He said he did not think a recession started at the beginning of the year, noting the strong jobs growth. But after that he was less confident.

“Things have already slowed down, so I’m not saying that everything is great,” he said. “Odds of a recession going forward are substantially higher than for a random year.”

Inflation in the US hit 9.1% in June, the fastest pace of price appreciation in more than four decades.

On Wednesday, the US central bank responded to the problem with another unusually large increase to its key interest rate, its second 0.75 percentage point rise since it started raising rates in March.

By making borrowing costs more expensive, the Federal Reserve is hoping to reduce spending on items such as homes and cars, in theory easing some of the pressures putting up prices. But lower demand also means a decline in economic activity.

Recent reports have shown consumer confidence falling, the housing market slowing, and the first contraction in business activity since 2020.

The US stock market has sunk since the start of the year, and companies from social media giant Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, to carmaker General Motors have said they plan to slow hiring. Some other firms, especially in the property sector, have announced job cuts.

Sasan Kasravi lost his job in June working as a speech and debate coach in the Bay Area.

The 31-year-old said he was not personally worried about facing a long bout of joblessness. But his views of the economy are bleak, consistent with surveys showing less than 15% of Americans describe economic conditions in the US as good.

“I think everybody is sort of waiting for the pandemic to blow over, for the war in Ukraine to settle down, but that’s not going to resolve any of the inherent systemic flaws,” he says, citing high housing costs, student debt and speculative bubbles in sectors like crypto.

“It seems to be built on stilts and we’re all wondering if this is the thing that sends it plunging.”

Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell said this week that he did not think the US economy was in recession, but he noted that some slowdown had begun and more was likely to be necessary for inflation to return to more normal levels.

Just how severe the expected downturn will be remains a matter of heated debate.

“The last time we saw inflation this high, in the 1980s, we had a pretty deep recession,” said Laura Veldkamp, finance professor at the Columbia Business School. She said policymakers have learned from that experience, raising hopes for a milder downturn.

But slowdowns in China and in Europe, which has been hit harder by the surge in energy prices from the war in Ukraine, raise risks from abroad. Nor is the US alone in raising interest rates.

“Many other countries have more serious problems… and they will very likely get hit and that could spill over to us,” Prof Frankel said.

He said it was important to consider factors such as the labour market to determine the start of a recession, noting that some downturns, like the burst of the dot com bubble in 2001, would not qualify as a recession under the two-quarters-in-a-row-of-contraction rule, despite the many jobs lost.

Estimates of output in the large US economy often get updated significantly as more data comes in. Even in the UK, there are cases of recessions getting revised away.

Politics, he added, has nothing to do with it, at least historically.

“Every knowledgeable macroeconomist knows that recession in the US is not defined by a mechanical rule,” Prof Frankel said. “But given the polarisation of politics, there are people who are going to be cynical about it and assume the worst.”

Source: BBC

According to the most recent data, average gas prices are only about 5% lower than at that March $4.41 a gallon peak, but shopping interest in electric cars dropped by 32% since then, according to Edmunds.com data. Edmunds tracked the types of vehicles people were researching on the site and divided them into electrified — meaning hybrid or fully electric — and non-electrified.

The trend lines for electrified vehicle consideration and gas prices didn’t stay in lockstep because there are other factors, besides the cost of fuel, affecting consumers’ desire for electric and hybrid vehicles, said Daniel Levine, a consumer trends consultant and director of the Avant Guide Institute, a market consultancy. Car shoppers are also influenced by automaker marketing campaigns, changes in government incentives and interest rates, he said.

But, even when as the lines diverge from one another, the overall trend for electrified vehicle shopping interest still generally paralleled gas price trends going up somewhat when gas prices rose. That still indicates a strong pull, said Drury. It just became less strong after that initial run-up in gas prices.

When gas prices first started rising sharply in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, consumers probably saw it as a new phenomenon and were uncertain how high prices might go, said Aleksandar Tomic, an associate dean for innovation and technology at Boston College. That would have caused queries about electric vehicles to spike. Once prices peaked and came back down, he said, consumers saw that there was limit and the initial fears subsided.

“People were able to adjust to the gas prices by driving less,” he said. Also, companies were flexible about allowing employees to continue working from home, he said, putting less pressure on the need to use gas.

Even though it no longer so directly matches gas prices increases, interest in electric cars is still about three percentage points higher than it was at the start of 2022, according to Edmunds.com’s data.

Shopping interest doesn’t directly correlate to actual sales of electric and hybrid sales, of course, especially not in today’s auto market, constrained as it is by supply chain problems, said Drury. Electric and hybrid vehicles still only make up 10% of new vehicle sales.

But the data indicates gas price shocks can open up a new level of receptivity among consumer, he said.

Source: CNN

Following the decision by the Communication Minister, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, on introduction of an app to aid in the registration of SIM cards at a charge of GH₵5 per registration, Director, Africa Digital Economy Forum (ADEF), Derek Laryea, has said that the charge is not fair on consumers.

According to him, some customers use multiple SIM cards, hence, slapping that cost on them is unfair.

“Considering the Internet of Things and other technology, if I have a SIM card at home today for my data, I have a SIM card in my television, if I have a SIM card in my watch, etc, … I have to pay to be able to register all of them, which is supposed to be a national exercise.

“I do not think it is fair, looking on the side of the consumer, unless we are saying that only rich people should be able to afford to register. So that is something that I think it should be looked at,” he said this in an interview with the B&FT.

Mr. Laryea added that the charge can be applied to the usage of the app after a meaningful deadline, where almost every citizen has access to the Ghana Card, which is the only required access card which enables registration of SIM cards.

Speaking on the timelines set by the communication ministry, he indicated that the timelines are pretty steep and they need to be looked at once more.

“Considering the fact that we spent close to one year on this exercise and yesterday the minister let us know that over 25 million cards are yet to be registered, that means that we have done about close to 50 percent in about 10 months.

“How are we assuming that we will be able to achieve the remaining 50 percent registration one month before she starts to introduce the conditions after August and September,” he asked.

App security

With regards to the security of the app, he said the app developer, security of the app, the transparency around the transfer of data, and the whole cyber security around the app need to be clearly spelt out.

Mr. Laryea believes the registration is a very huge activity, and people must be made to understand and know the security of their sensitive data that has been entered into the application.

He stated that SIM registration will sanitise the sector and will support a lot of user trust in the service; therefore, it needs to be done with every requisite tool that should be provided by the various agencies responsible to avoid burdening the consumer.

NCA

The Deputy Director Consumer and Corporate Affairs Division at the National Communication Authority (NCA), Kwame Gyan, responding to the usage of the app and the fee slapped against it, indicated that it was introduced to create convenience for customers.

Mr. Gyan advised that if the cost of using the app remains a problem, customers can still go to the various registration centres and have it done at no cost.

“The centres are still open, you can still walk through and can still get registered, there are agents still registering. The app is only an option given. I would have had a bit of a problem if the app was the only option, but it is only an additional option,” he said.