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LONDON (Bywire News) - Protesters waving the Afghanistan flag have been killed by the Taliban, witnesses say. Earlier today, protesters in the capital city of Kabul marched through the streets carrying flags and chanting “our flag, our identity” and tearing down Taliban flags in retaliation to the country’s takeover by the militant extremists. Yesterday, there were reports of Taliban soldiers firing at, and killing, protesters in the cities of Jalalabad, Asadabad and Khost. Afghan First Vice President Amrullah Saleh praised the protests on Twitter:   از حرکت شجاعانه و میهن دوستانه مردم با عزت کشورم در نقاط مختلف بخاطر برافراشتن پرچم ملی برضد گروه نیابتی طالب ابراز حرمت ، حمایت و قدردانی می نمایم. شماری درین راه با عزت شهید شدندSalute those who carry the national flag & thus stand for dignity of the nation & the country. — Amrullah Saleh (@AmrullahSaleh2) August 19, 2021   In Asadabad, where several people were killed, witness and protester Mohammed Salim said: "Hundreds of pe...

LONDON (Bywire News) - A secret club exists for super-rich Tory donors to schmooze with senior members of the government including Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak, it has been revealed.  The Conservative ‘Advisory Board’ is an exclusive club for super-rich businesspeople who have donated large sums of money to the Tories. In return for their financial contributions, members are invited to regular meetings and calls with the Prime Minister and the Chancellor.  According to the Financial Times, one donor said that some members of the secretive organisation use meetings to demand lower taxes and cuts to public spending.  The group is reportedly run by the Conservative co-chair Ben Elliot - whose company, Quintessentially, admitted to making illegal payments to its shareholders earlier this year.  In addition to the so-called 'Advisory Board', the Tories have another exclusive donors-only organisation - called the “Leaders Group” - which allows people who have donated £50,000 to the party e...

LONDON (Bywire News) - Boris Johnson's official spokeswoman has been well and truly roasted on social media after making an incredibly unpopular suggestion on climate change. Writing on Twitter, Allegra Stratton - who was appointed as the PM's spokeswoman in October 2020 - said that if people wanted to fight climate change, they shouldn't rinse their dishes before putting them in the dishwasher.   Could not rinsing dishes b4 the dishwasher be your #onestepgreener ahead of #COP26? If that’s too hard a habit to kick, pick something else. At COP26 we have big asks for the world on cash, coal, cars and trees but the micro matters too. Change is coming. https://t.co/2f23IyBBPW — Allegra Stratton (@AllegraCOP26) July 27, 2021   Unsurprisingly, given the fact that 71% of global emissions are caused by just 100 multinational corporations, people were not exactly impressed at Stratton's attempt to lay the burden of responsibility for climate change at the door of ordinary people:   [BYWIRE_DO...

LONDON (Bywire News) - A Labour MP has blasted Sajid Javid over his £1,500 per hour advisory job for the major private healthcare investor J. P. Morgan - leading to a "pathetic" response from the new Health Secretary. In September 2020, following his resignation as Chancellor, Sajid Javid took up a highly lucrative second job advising the financial giant, J. P. Morgan. According to the Register of Financial Interests, Javid - who previously worked for numerous financial institutions just prior to the financial crash and before entering politics - pocketed a hefty £150,000 annual salary for working for less than 2 hours a week.   [IMAGE_GALLERY_1]   Speaking in the House of Commons yesterday, the former Shadow Justice Secretary, Richard Burgon, raised the issue with Javid - stating: "The new Health Secretary hasn’t been on the frontbench for a year, but in that time he has been very busy. "Very busy indeed, lining his own pockets, getting £1,500 per hour for his second job, £1,500 for...

LONDON (Bywire News) - The millionaire ex-banker Tory Chancellor Rishi Sunak is lobbying G7 partners to exclude Financial Services firms located in the City of London from Joe Biden's proposals for a Global Minimum Corporation Tax. According to source close to negotiations, Sunak believes that the tax would unfairly hit banking bosses in the capital because they supposedly already "pay a fair share of tax". When the agreement was announced on Saturday, Sunak lauded the deal - which would effectively outlaw tax havens across the globe - as "historic", and claimed that the "seismic" changes would create "a fairer tax system fit for the 21st century" that would significantly benefit UK taxpayers. As reported by Bywire at the time, research conducted into the proposals found that a "15% Minimum Global Corporation Tax could raise an extra £13.5bn a year for the UK’s public purse, rising to over £22bn a year if the rate was raised to 25%." However, it is believed that Sunak - who made his m...

LONDON (Bywire News) - The European Court of Justice has ruled that Tesco breached both EU and UK law by paying their shop floor staff less than those who work in distribution centres.  Employees who work on the shop floor, who are mostly female, accused Tesco of paying them up to £3 an hour less than employees who work in distribution centres, who are mainly male, for work that has now been ruled of equal value.  The landmark decision could also lead to as many as 25,000 current and former Tesco staff receiving a share of £2.5bn in compensation for 7 years of underpay. A similar Supreme Court case in March, which successfully argued on behalf of 44,000 Asda employees, set a legal precedent that retail shop floor workers should be paid the same as those who work in the supermarket’s depots. Kiran Dauka, a partner in the employment team from legal firm Leigh Day who represented the Tesco employers, said after the ruling: "This judgement reinforces the Supreme Court's ruling that the ro...

Only around 13% of NatWest staff is set to return to their officers for full-time work.

Domino's Pizza Group said on Tuesday it would hire 5,000 pizza chefs and delivery drivers to bolster its 1,100 UK stores as customer demand heats up.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Sunday said that he will press Russian President Vladimir Putin to respect human rights when the two leaders meet in June.

Qatar has no plans to normalise ties with Syria, the Gulf state's foreign minister said, after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad won a fourth term in office last week in an election derided by the opposition and the West as a farce.

Hong Kong senior executives of financial companies and their overseas affiliates who are fully vaccinated can now apply for an exemption from the three-week compulsory quarantine, the markets watchdog said

Amazon.com Inc should review how it is addressing racial justice and equity after a shareholder proposal on the topic won strong backing, New York state's top pension official said on Friday.

Ireland plans to adopt a COVID-19 certificate to help citizens move more freely across the European Union from mid-July, but is not yet in a position to allow unencumbered travel from neighbouring Britain, senior ministers said on Friday.

Bank of England's Haldane says as a result of cost pressure on British businesses, wage-price inflation risk is possible.

UK property market momentum continues at pace with new projections from Zoopla showing that home sales this year are expected to exceed the last market peak, which preceded the Global Financial Crash, in 2007.

Britain has estimated its pandemic spending at over £370 billion, a number that is highly likely to increase.

LONDON - British retailer Marks & Spencer on Wednesday reported a slump in full-year profit, reflecting a huge drop in clothing sales due to the COVID-19 pandemic. M&S, which also sells upmarket food, made a pretax profit before one-off items of 50.3 million pounds ($71.2 million) in the year to April 3 versus analysts' average forecast of 43 million pounds and down from the 403.1 million pounds made in 2019-20. ($1 = 0.7065 pounds)   (Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Kate Holton)...

- UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak is to set out plans for a tougher regime governing flotations on the London Stock Exchange, allowing listings of companies to be blocked on national security grounds as concerns mount about dirty money in British financial markets, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday. Sunak will launch a consultation within the next fortnight setting out proposals, the report added, citing the treasury.   (Reporting by Akriti Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by Leslie Adler)...

By Eric Onstad LONDON - Britain is open to providing support for steel as a strategic sector, but nationalising Liberty Steel after the collapse of its main lender was unlikely, business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said on Tuesday. Liberty and the rest of Sanjeev Gupta's family conglomerate have been seeking to refinance its cash-starved web of businesses in steel, aluminium and energy after supply chain finance firm Greensill filed for insolvency in March. Liberty Steel, which employs 3,000 people in Britain, said on Monday it planned to sell three non-core UK plants as part of a major restructuring and was still working at refinancing. "I don't rule anything in or out, but I think nationalisation of all the options is the least likely," Kwarteng told a parliamentary hearing. The Gupta Family Group Alliance (GFG) that owns Liberty has been under a cloud after Britain's Serious Fraud Office launched an investigation into suspected fraud and money laundering in mid-May. When asked about s...

British shoppers are heading out to the supermarket more often as the country's COVID-19 vaccination programme gathers pace, industry data showed on Tuesday.