National Handloom Day 2026: From Alia Bhatt to Samantha Ruth Prabhu; Actresses who celebrated India's textile heritage as brides

The Royals enter the Doctor Who universe: King Charles and Queen Camilla beam into Commonwealth Games in TARDIS

Unitree Robotics targets $9 billion valuation in landmark IPO backed by DeepSeek and Tencent

India names 27 sites in Arunachal Pradesh

Bharat Bhhagya Viddhaata OTT: When will Kangana Ranaut's film stream online?

How many soldiers operate one S-400 battery?

Shakib Al Hasan ready to return to Bangladesh—under one condition

‘Fake news’: MEA rejects report claiming India sought defence pact with Israel after Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey deal

Rockstar to unveil GTA 6 extended look ahead of November launch

Russia forms Ukrainian Volunteer Spetsnaz Brigade to fight Ukraine

Drug-resistant fungus that hides in hair and enters bloodstream reported in 23 US states

Technology transfer deal boosts India's defence manufacturing ambitions

Border row erupts in Europe after Ceuta crossings, Spain imposes border controls on Italy

Morale plummets on USS Abraham Lincoln: Are US sailors reaching a breaking point? | GRAVITAS

'Security can't be bought with Pakistan, Turkey deal': Iran tells Saudi Arabia

Baba Vanga's 2026 prophecy: 2 predictions 'already came true', 3 terrifying ones remain. Details inside

Colombia’s new president Abelardo de la Espriella vows to ‘defeat narco-terrorists’, signals hardline shift

New Friday OTT releases (August 7, 2026): Operation Safed Sagar, Vadhandhi, Main Vaapis Aaunga- 6 movies and TV shows on Netflix, Prime Video and more

Squadron Leader Bhawana Kanth scripts history as Indian Air Force gets its first woman ‘Top Gun’ pilot

RSS says Gen Z protests reflect genuine distress

Trump says Iranian school bombing photos could be AI-generated - 'I don’t think...'

IAF officer held for sharing sensitive information in 'honey trap' case, booked under Official Secrets Act

Stray Kids under scrutiny? Fans react to Grammy submission silence after BTS boycott

Why the Su-30MKI doesn't need external fuel tanks to fly vast distances

Jugal Hansraj reunites with Shekhar Kapur after 40 years for Masoom: The Next Generation

New speed limits, automatic challans: Big traffic change coming to Delhi-Meerut Expressway. All you need to know

India officially names 27 places in Arunachal to counter China's renaming claims

Trump calls White House ballroom ruling a 'national disgrace' as court says Congress approval needed

US sanctions Iran’s crypto network after Strait of Hormuz attacks, offers $15m bounty for intel on IRGC finance

Why the Su-30MKI is one of the heaviest fighters ever built

Uttarakhand young innovator builds India's own flying vehicle, conducts first test flight: WATCH

Chilling video shows students take cover as teen opens fire at Thai school

Reese Witherspoon's father hospitalised after poolside incident in Nashville: Report

The Turkish lira tumbled on Monday as President <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/president-erdogan-removes-turkeys-third-central-bank-governor-in-less-than-two-years-371863">Erdogan</a> sacked the country's central bank chief Naci Agbal.

Watch:

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/erdogan-pulls-turkey-out-of-istanbul-convention-372144/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

The Turkish lira fell 17 per cent sliding&nbsp;8.47 per US dollar in early trade on Monday even though it recovered slightly later at 8.09.&nbsp;

Agbal's sacking came just a day after the country's central bank hiked interest rates by more than two percentage points to 19 per cent in a bid to fight inflation.

Agbal was appointed less than five months ago but has been replaced by Sahap Kavcioglu who has been an open critic of Agbal's policies.

In July 2019, President Erdogan had sacked central bank chief Murat Cetinkaya for not bringing interest rates down swiftly and had replaced Murat Uysal after the currency slumped to a record low.

Kavcioglu is the fourth central bank chief in five years in Turkey as the country battles economic crisis amid the pandemic.

Kavcioglu asserted that the bank would focus on lowering the double-digit inflation even though Agbal's rate hike of 200 basis-points on Thursday had sparked an over 3 per cent lira rally.

The lira has reportedly lost half its value since the 2018 currency crisis.

The Turkish lira tumbled on Monday as President Erdogan sacked the country's central bank chief Naci Agbal. Watch: The Turkish lira fell 17 per cent sliding 8.47 per US dollar in early trade on Monday even though it recovered slightly later at 8.

The Turkish lira tumbled on Monday as President Erdogan sacked the country's central bank chief Naci Agbal. Watch: The Turkish lira fell 17 per cent sliding 8.47 per US dollar in early trade on Monday even though it recovered slightly later at 8.09. Agbal's sacking came just a day after the country's central bank hiked interest rates by more than two percentage points to 19 per cent in a bid to fight inflation. Agbal was appointed less than five months ago but has been replaced by Sahap Kavcioglu who has been an open critic of Agbal's policies. In July 2019, President Erdogan had sacked central bank chief Murat Cetinkaya for not bringing interest rates down swiftly and had replaced Murat Uysal after the currency slumped to a record low. Kavcioglu is the fourth central bank chief in five years in Turkey as the country battles economic crisis amid the pandemic. Kavcioglu asserted that the bank would focus on lowering the double-digit inflation even though Agbal's rate hike of 200 basis-points on Thursday had sparked an over 3 per cent lira rally. The lira has reportedly lost half its value since the 2018 currency crisis.

Turkish Lira tumbles after Erdogan fires central bank chief

It did not look like a very promising investment opportunity.

SpectraScience’s phone number was out of service. So was its website. And it had not disclosed financial results since late 2017, when the San Diego medical equipment company reported a quarterly loss — its 12th in a row.

But early this year, SpectraScience’s nearly worthless shares — priced in hundredths of a penny and too minor to trade on a major stock exchange — sprang to life.

On Jan. 27, their price doubled, with more than 900 million shares traded. The next day, amid a flurry of social media cheerleading, more than 3.5 billion shares of the company changed hands — a volume roughly equal to half that day’s trading on the New York Stock Exchange. After soaring 500% as trading opened, just as quickly SpectraScience collapsed.

Penny stocks — the name given to more than 10,000 tiny companies like SpectraScience — have been around forever, but they are booming as small investors flood the market. And this time around, social media is fueling the craze. Whether traded to fend off the boredom of pandemic living or to turn a quick profit, these dirt-cheap but risky shares are another frontier in a world where meme stocks such as GameStop gained overnight stardom; Dogecoin morphed from a joke cryptocurrency to a hot investment; and a digital artwork known as a nonfungible token, or NFT, sold for $69 million.

It is part of a “massive surge” in retail trading reminiscent of the 1920s, when amateurs flooded into the stock market before the 1929 crash, said Tyler Gellasch, a former Securities and Exchange Commission official who leads the nonprofit Healthy Markets Association.

“The only relevant historical precedent seems to increasingly be the days before the Great Depression,” he said.

Penny stocks occupy a low-rent district of Wall Street, a world rife with fraud and chicanery where companies that do not have a viable product or are mired in debt often sell their shares. Traded on the lightly regulated over-the-counter, or OTC, markets, penny stocks face fewer rules about publishing information on financial results or independent board members. Wall Street analysts do not usually follow them. Major investors do not buy them.

But last month, there were 1.9 trillion transactions on OTC markets, an increase of more than 2,000% from a year earlier, according to data from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, a self-regulatory group that oversees brokerage firms.

The lack of oversight that makes penny stocks easy targets for scammers has long accounted for penny stocks' unsavory reputation. But risk can also be a draw for thrill-seekers or those who fear they have missed a market boom that is creating wealth all around them.

And now it is easier than ever to get in on these stocks; commission-free trades and the proliferation of online trading platforms mean small investors do not have to go through a traditional broker.

Because these stocks are so small and lightly traded, a sudden surge of interest can make their prices go berserk. Since the start of the year, shares have soared for companies such as Healthier Choices Management, which operates vape stores; For the Earth, which makes cannabis-based sunscreen; and Garb Oil &amp; Power, which, despite its name, spotlighted its planned purchase of a manufacturer of marijuana pipes in one of its most recent business operation updates. (It was published in 2014.)

“Everyone wants to get rich,” said Jordan Belfort, whose memoir, “The Wolf of Wall Street,” detailed his debauched life as cheap-stock kingpin, complete with helicopter crashes, sunken yachts and copious quaaludes. “And they want to get rich quick.”

Belfort, now a motivational speaker and writer living in Los Angeles, presided over Stratton Oakmont, one of the notorious “boiler rooms” that manipulated penny stocks to prey on unwitting retail investors before it went out of business in 1996.

“We all want to believe in Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy and Bernie Madoff,” he said.

Just as they were in Belfort’s heyday, penny stocks remain the backbone of schemes to part newbie traders from their cash. Consider one perennially popular racket: the pump and dump.

First, fraudsters load up on ultracheap shares of a small stock hardly anyone trades. Then comes the pump: They pitch the stock as one with hot prospects, spreading around positive information to push up its price. Finally, there is the dump: After the price jumps higher, the perpetrator sells and leaves the new buyers holding a mostly empty bag.

“It’s all just a pool filled with sharks,” said Urska Velikonja, a law professor who studies securities regulation at Georgetown University Law Center. “It’s where the unwary go to get eaten.”

Booms in penny stock tend to occur during raging bull markets, when greed abounds. They were hot in the 1980s, when the arrival of cheap, long-distance telephone service gave rise to brokerage firms that specialized in high-pressure, cold-call pitches of worthless stocks.

That was the specialty of Blinder, Robinson &amp; Co., which was led by Meyer Blinder, a New York broker with a flamboyant reputation. In the mid-1980s, it became the largest penny stock brokerage in the country. But by 1990, it had been liquidated, and by 1992, Blinder had been convicted of racketeering and securities fraud. After his conviction was announced, he lunged at a prosecutor, threatening to kill him.

But stock-touting technology changes with the times. Cold-calling went out, followed by faxes and email spam. Today, social media sites such as Twitter and Reddit, which powered the rise of GameStop and other meme stocks, are the preferred method for building unwarranted hype.

According to a civil complaint filed this month by the SEC, Andrew Fassari of Irvine, California, used his Twitter account — OCMillionaire — to pump up the price of Arcis Resources, a company that has not conducted business since at least 2016 but whose stock still trades. Fassari, regulators said, bought 41 million shares of the company and then posted misleading information, including fictitious emails from the company’s purported CEO about expansion plans. Over nine days in December, the share price skyrocketed more than 4,000% — to more than a nickel. Fassari’s gains were $929,000, according to the agency.

Fassari’s lawyer, Jessica Munk, said he denied wrongdoing. “It appears Mr. Fassari has been hit with fallout from the GameStop, Robinhood, Reddit controversy,” Munk said in a statement, including a reference to the Robinhood trading app. She also noted the SEC action’s “lightning pace.”

Art Hutchinson, a 50-year-old construction services salesperson in Fort Worth, Texas, has been making bets on penny stocks — companies that he acknowledges are “absolute garbage” — for about two years. And the activity he watches closely is increasingly being driven by social media, he said.

“Everybody is on Twitter, whatever, these social media accounts, and they’re all lying,” he said. “They’re preying upon people not doing any research on their own or not understanding it.”

A 2017 paper from Thomas Renault, a finance professor at the University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, analyzed millions of Twitter messages about low-priced stocks. A surge in tweets about a small stock led to big price increases followed by sudden collapses, he found, saying the pattern was consistent with pump-and-dump schemes.

Regulators appear to be taking some steps to tamp down on such activity. Weeks after SpectraScience crashed, the SEC temporarily suspended trading of the stock, citing “potentially manipulative trading activity.” It was one of nearly two dozen stock tickers sidelined for similarly suspicious trading by late February.

“We proactively monitor for suspicious trading activity tied to stock promotions on social media, and act quickly to stop that trading when appropriate to safeguard the public interest,” Melissa Hodgman, acting director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, said in an announcement.

Current and former regulators say penny stock fraud will remain as long as penny stocks are traded.

“Whatever you do, don’t claim victory, because it’ll come back,” said Joseph Goldstein, a partner at Murphy &amp; McGonigle, a financial services law firm. In the late 1980s, Goldstein led the SEC’s task force on penny stocks amid a surge of frauds in the market.

“It’s not going away, basically, because it’s greed,” he said. “I don’t think there will be a successful effort to end greed in this world.”

It did not look like a very promising investment opportunity. SpectraScience’s phone number was out of service. So was its website. And it had not disclosed financial results since late 2017, when the San Diego medical equipment company reported a quarterly loss — its 12th in a row.

It did not look like a very promising investment opportunity. SpectraScience’s phone number was out of service. So was its website. And it had not disclosed financial results since late 2017, when the San Diego medical equipment company reported a quarterly loss — its 12th in a row. But early this year, SpectraScience’s nearly worthless shares — priced in hundredths of a penny and too minor to trade on a major stock exchange — sprang to life. On Jan. 27, their price doubled, with more than 900 million shares traded. The next day, amid a flurry of social media cheerleading, more than 3.5 billion shares of the company changed hands — a volume roughly equal to half that day’s trading on the New York Stock Exchange. After soaring 500% as trading opened, just as quickly SpectraScience collapsed. Penny stocks — the name given to more than 10,000 tiny companies like SpectraScience — have been around forever, but they are booming as small investors flood the market. And this time around, social media is fueling the craze. Whether traded to fend off the boredom of pandemic living or to turn a quick profit, these dirt-cheap but risky shares are another frontier in a world where meme stocks such as GameStop gained overnight stardom; Dogecoin morphed from a joke cryptocurrency to a hot investment; and a digital artwork known as a nonfungible token, or NFT, sold for $69 million. It is part of a “massive surge” in retail trading reminiscent of the 1920s, when amateurs flooded into the stock market before the 1929 crash, said Tyler Gellasch, a former Securities and Exchange Commission official who leads the nonprofit Healthy Markets Association. “The only relevant historical precedent seems to increasingly be the days before the Great Depression,” he said. Penny stocks occupy a low-rent district of Wall Street, a world rife with fraud and chicanery where companies that do not have a viable product or are mired in debt often sell their shares. Traded on the lightly regulated over-the-counter, or OTC, markets, penny stocks face fewer rules about publishing information on financial results or independent board members. Wall Street analysts do not usually follow them. Major investors do not buy them. But last month, there were 1.9 trillion transactions on OTC markets, an increase of more than 2,000% from a year earlier, according to data from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, a self-regulatory group that oversees brokerage firms. The lack of oversight that makes penny stocks easy targets for scammers has long accounted for penny stocks' unsavory reputation. But risk can also be a draw for thrill-seekers or those who fear they have missed a market boom that is creating wealth all around them. And now it is easier than ever to get in on these stocks; commission-free trades and the proliferation of online trading platforms mean small investors do not have to go through a traditional broker. Because these stocks are so small and lightly traded, a sudden surge of interest can make their prices go berserk. Since the start of the year, shares have soared for companies such as Healthier Choices Management, which operates vape stores; For the Earth, which makes cannabis-based sunscreen; and Garb Oil & Power, which, despite its name, spotlighted its planned purchase of a manufacturer of marijuana pipes in one of its most recent business operation updates. (It was published in 2014.) “Everyone wants to get rich,” said Jordan Belfort, whose memoir, “The Wolf of Wall Street,” detailed his debauched life as cheap-stock kingpin, complete with helicopter crashes, sunken yachts and copious quaaludes. “And they want to get rich quick.” Belfort, now a motivational speaker and writer living in Los Angeles, presided over Stratton Oakmont, one of the notorious “boiler rooms” that manipulated penny stocks to prey on unwitting retail investors before it went out of business in 1996. “We all want to believe in Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy and Bernie Madoff,” he said. Just as they were in Belfort’s heyday, penny stocks remain the backbone of schemes to part newbie traders from their cash. Consider one perennially popular racket: the pump and dump. First, fraudsters load up on ultracheap shares of a small stock hardly anyone trades. Then comes the pump: They pitch the stock as one with hot prospects, spreading around positive information to push up its price. Finally, there is the dump: After the price jumps higher, the perpetrator sells and leaves the new buyers holding a mostly empty bag. “It’s all just a pool filled with sharks,” said Urska Velikonja, a law professor who studies securities regulation at Georgetown University Law Center. “It’s where the unwary go to get eaten.” Booms in penny stock tend to occur during raging bull markets, when greed abounds. They were hot in the 1980s, when the arrival of cheap, long-distance telephone service gave rise to brokerage firms that specialized in high-pressure, cold-call pitches of worthless stocks. That was the specialty of Blinder, Robinson & Co., which was led by Meyer Blinder, a New York broker with a flamboyant reputation. In the mid-1980s, it became the largest penny stock brokerage in the country. But by 1990, it had been liquidated, and by 1992, Blinder had been convicted of racketeering and securities fraud. After his conviction was announced, he lunged at a prosecutor, threatening to kill him. But stock-touting technology changes with the times. Cold-calling went out, followed by faxes and email spam. Today, social media sites such as Twitter and Reddit, which powered the rise of GameStop and other meme stocks, are the preferred method for building unwarranted hype. According to a civil complaint filed this month by the SEC, Andrew Fassari of Irvine, California, used his Twitter account — OCMillionaire — to pump up the price of Arcis Resources, a company that has not conducted business since at least 2016 but whose stock still trades. Fassari, regulators said, bought 41 million shares of the company and then posted misleading information, including fictitious emails from the company’s purported CEO about expansion plans. Over nine days in December, the share price skyrocketed more than 4,000% — to more than a nickel. Fassari’s gains were $929,000, according to the agency. Fassari’s lawyer, Jessica Munk, said he denied wrongdoing. “It appears Mr. Fassari has been hit with fallout from the GameStop, Robinhood, Reddit controversy,” Munk said in a statement, including a reference to the Robinhood trading app. She also noted the SEC action’s “lightning pace.” Art Hutchinson, a 50-year-old construction services salesperson in Fort Worth, Texas, has been making bets on penny stocks — companies that he acknowledges are “absolute garbage” — for about two years. And the activity he watches closely is increasingly being driven by social media, he said. “Everybody is on Twitter, whatever, these social media accounts, and they’re all lying,” he said. “They’re preying upon people not doing any research on their own or not understanding it.” A 2017 paper from Thomas Renault, a finance professor at the University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, analyzed millions of Twitter messages about low-priced stocks. A surge in tweets about a small stock led to big price increases followed by sudden collapses, he found, saying the pattern was consistent with pump-and-dump schemes. Regulators appear to be taking some steps to tamp down on such activity. Weeks after SpectraScience crashed, the SEC temporarily suspended trading of the stock, citing “potentially manipulative trading activity.” It was one of nearly two dozen stock tickers sidelined for similarly suspicious trading by late February. “We proactively monitor for suspicious trading activity tied to stock promotions on social media, and act quickly to stop that trading when appropriate to safeguard the public interest,” Melissa Hodgman, acting director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, said in an announcement. Current and former regulators say penny stock fraud will remain as long as penny stocks are traded. “Whatever you do, don’t claim victory, because it’ll come back,” said Joseph Goldstein, a partner at Murphy & McGonigle, a financial services law firm. In the late 1980s, Goldstein led the SEC’s task force on penny stocks amid a surge of frauds in the market. “It’s not going away, basically, because it’s greed,” he said. “I don’t think there will be a successful effort to end greed in this world.”

Penny stocks are booming, which is good news for swindlers

In making the case against a union at its warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, Amazon has touted its compensation package. The company notes that base pay at the facility, around $15.50 an hour for most rank-and-file workers, is more than twice the local minimum wage and that it offers comprehensive health insurance and retirement benefits.

But to many of Amazon’s Bessemer employees, who are voting this month on whether to unionize, the claims to generosity can ring hollow alongside the demands of the job and local wage rates. The most recent figure for the median wage in greater Birmingham, a metropolitan area of roughly 1 million people that includes Bessemer, was nearly $3 above Amazon’s pay there, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“If you go into certain rural areas in the South, where wages are suppressed and there’s no industry, that may seem attractive,” said Joshua Brewer of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, who is the campaign’s lead organizer. “For our folks here in Bessemer and Birmingham, it’s barely enough to keep the lights on. To tote it in front of them like it’s something to be prized is mildly offensive.”

It is common for employers facing a union vote to emphasize the generosity of their wages and to suggest that workers could be worse off if they unionize. But the message takes on added resonance in the South, where incomes are lower and jobs with good pay can be harder to find. As a result, organizers say, employers and their surrogates in the region often use such tactics more aggressively.

A commercial during a 2017 union campaign at a Boeing plant in South Carolina showed a casino boss urging workers to roll dice at a craps table to make the point that joining a union could put their livelihood at risk. Union campaigns at a Nissan plant in Canton, Mississippi, and a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, featured similar appeals.

The catch is that wages at these plants tended to be substantially higher than the typical wage in their areas, reinforcing workers’ sense that they had something valuable to lose.

Veteran production workers made $23.50 an hour at the Volkswagen plant in 2019, the year of the most recent campaign there. The comparable figure was $23 at Boeing’s South Carolina facility when workers voted on a union and $26 at Nissan’s Mississippi plant during the vote there, also in 2017. The union lost in all three cases.

“The global manufacturing companies took more steps to pre-empt unionization by offering better pay,” Richard Bensinger, a former organizing director for the United Automobile Workers and the AFL-CIO, said in an email.

Bensinger, who was involved in the Nissan and Volkswagen campaigns and is helping workers organize at other Amazon facilities, held up Mercedes-Benz as a telling example. The UAW tried to organize the company’s plant in Vance, Alabama, about 25 miles from Bessemer, for several years during the last decade. But it could never quite get a majority of workers to sign cards, Bensinger said, partly because wages at the plant were so high — $28 an hour for veteran workers, and even more today.

“They paid UAW scale to try to keep the UAW out,” Bensinger said. (Mercedes, like other automakers, also used temporary workers whom it paid far less.)

By contrast, unions have been successful when companies have held down wages. During the first half the 2010s, workers unionized at several auto parts suppliers in Alabama and elsewhere in the South, often citing low pay and benefits as the impetus.

In 2015, employees at Commercial Vehicle Group in Piedmont, Alabama, which made seats for trucks, voted to join the UAW by a roughly 2-to-1 ratio. Workers at the plant complained of wages that started as low as $9.70 an hour for temporary workers and topped out at $15.80 for full-time employees. The company laid off many of the workers when it later consolidated its operations.

“Workers always say this: It’s about respect, recognition,” said Gary Casteel, the UAW’s former second-ranking official, who helped oversee much of its organizing in the South. “That’s not the case. It is about the money. Everybody wants to get paid more.”

Darryl Richardson, an Amazon employee in Alabama, knows firsthand the catalyzing effect of low wages. In 2012, he was part of a group of workers that voted overwhelmingly to unionize at Faurecia Interior Systems in Cottondale, Alabama, which made seats for the nearby Mercedes plant.

Richardson said that he had made around $12.50 an hour when he started at the plant but that, thanks to the union, his hourly pay had nearly doubled by the time he left in 2019, after the plant lost its contract with Mercedes. He said several of his co-workers at Faurecia were now working at Amazon and had seen the power of a union to raise wages.

“From Faurecia to Amazon, it’s a big pay difference,” said Richardson, who now makes $15.55.

Heather Knox, an Amazon spokeswoman, said workers in Bessemer were eligible for raises every six months and that they had received a $2-an-hour bonus during much of last spring. Full-time rank-and-file employees received $300 bonuses during the holiday season and $500 last June. The company also provides significant tuition reimbursement for employees who take classes in certain fields.

Some workers at the Bessemer facility, which opened just as COVID-19 was bearing down last March, regard the pay as more than adequate, especially younger employees.

“I feel like it is fair,” said Roderick Crocton, 24, who previously made $11.25 as an overnight stocker at a local retailer. “In my old job, I lived in my apartment, never got to go anywhere, paid my bills. Today I’m able to go out and experience being in the city.”

But other workers emphasize that pay at Amazon isn’t particularly high for the Birmingham area, even if the pandemic has reduced their job options. An Amazon employee named Clint, a union backer who declined to give his last name for fear of retaliation, said he had stood to make about $40,000 a year installing satellite dishes before the pandemic left him unemployed. He said he made his finances work partly by living with his mother.

The retail workers’ union said it represented employees at nearby warehouses where pay is $18 to $21 an hour, including an ice cream facility and a grocery warehouse not far from Amazon.

At a plant owned by NFI Group, a Canadian bus manufacturer, about an hour east of Birmingham, hourly pay for rank-and-file workers ranges from $14.79 to $23.31, according to the company.

A survey of about 100 workers at the NFI plant by Emily Erickson, a professor at Alabama A&amp;amp;M University, found that white workers earned about $3 an hour more than Black workers on average. One former employee who currently works for a labor group in the area, Charles Crooms, said this made it more difficult to persuade white workers to join a union organizing effort. (The company said all employees with the same job grade and tenure were paid the same.)

Workers and organizers said the dissatisfaction over wages at the Amazon warehouse was heightened by the vast wealth of Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder.

“He’s one of the richest men in the world, yet you treat employees like scavengers,” said Jennifer Bates, an Amazon employee who earned more in her previous job at a pipe factory but joined Amazon hoping it would provide an opportunity to grow.

Bates was mystified that the company was urging Congress to match its pay efforts by raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. “It looks to me like Amazon is admitting it’s only paying a minimum wage, and this is not a minimum-wage job,” she said. Amazon has said its starting wage is higher than $15 an hour in most of the country.

Stuart Appelbaum, the president of the retail workers’ union, noted that Bezos could have given each of Amazon’s more than 1 million global employees last year a bonus larger than the annual pay of a warehouse worker just from the wealth he accumulated during the pandemic.

All of which raises a question: Why didn’t Amazon, which regards unions as a threat, follow the example of Nissan and Mercedes and pay its Alabama employees more as a way to pre-empt a union?

The company did not respond to a request to address that question.

Appelbaum, the union president, said the company had underestimated its workers.

“I think they took it for granted that we’d be out there for a few days leafleting, then go away,” he said. “They didn’t believe there was any possibility that we’d be able to get enough cards from employees to get to an election.”

In making the case against a union at its warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, Amazon has touted its compensation package. The company notes that base pay at the facility, around $15.

In making the case against a union at its warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, Amazon has touted its compensation package. The company notes that base pay at the facility, around $15.50 an hour for most rank-and-file workers, is more than twice the local minimum wage and that it offers comprehensive health insurance and retirement benefits. But to many of Amazon’s Bessemer employees, who are voting this month on whether to unionize, the claims to generosity can ring hollow alongside the demands of the job and local wage rates. The most recent figure for the median wage in greater Birmingham, a metropolitan area of roughly 1 million people that includes Bessemer, was nearly $3 above Amazon’s pay there, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. “If you go into certain rural areas in the South, where wages are suppressed and there’s no industry, that may seem attractive,” said Joshua Brewer of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, who is the campaign’s lead organizer. “For our folks here in Bessemer and Birmingham, it’s barely enough to keep the lights on. To tote it in front of them like it’s something to be prized is mildly offensive.” It is common for employers facing a union vote to emphasize the generosity of their wages and to suggest that workers could be worse off if they unionize. But the message takes on added resonance in the South, where incomes are lower and jobs with good pay can be harder to find. As a result, organizers say, employers and their surrogates in the region often use such tactics more aggressively. A commercial during a 2017 union campaign at a Boeing plant in South Carolina showed a casino boss urging workers to roll dice at a craps table to make the point that joining a union could put their livelihood at risk. Union campaigns at a Nissan plant in Canton, Mississippi, and a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, featured similar appeals. The catch is that wages at these plants tended to be substantially higher than the typical wage in their areas, reinforcing workers’ sense that they had something valuable to lose. Veteran production workers made $23.50 an hour at the Volkswagen plant in 2019, the year of the most recent campaign there. The comparable figure was $23 at Boeing’s South Carolina facility when workers voted on a union and $26 at Nissan’s Mississippi plant during the vote there, also in 2017. The union lost in all three cases. “The global manufacturing companies took more steps to pre-empt unionization by offering better pay,” Richard Bensinger, a former organizing director for the United Automobile Workers and the AFL-CIO, said in an email. Bensinger, who was involved in the Nissan and Volkswagen campaigns and is helping workers organize at other Amazon facilities, held up Mercedes-Benz as a telling example. The UAW tried to organize the company’s plant in Vance, Alabama, about 25 miles from Bessemer, for several years during the last decade. But it could never quite get a majority of workers to sign cards, Bensinger said, partly because wages at the plant were so high — $28 an hour for veteran workers, and even more today. “They paid UAW scale to try to keep the UAW out,” Bensinger said. (Mercedes, like other automakers, also used temporary workers whom it paid far less.) By contrast, unions have been successful when companies have held down wages. During the first half the 2010s, workers unionized at several auto parts suppliers in Alabama and elsewhere in the South, often citing low pay and benefits as the impetus. In 2015, employees at Commercial Vehicle Group in Piedmont, Alabama, which made seats for trucks, voted to join the UAW by a roughly 2-to-1 ratio. Workers at the plant complained of wages that started as low as $9.70 an hour for temporary workers and topped out at $15.80 for full-time employees. The company laid off many of the workers when it later consolidated its operations. “Workers always say this: It’s about respect, recognition,” said Gary Casteel, the UAW’s former second-ranking official, who helped oversee much of its organizing in the South. “That’s not the case. It is about the money. Everybody wants to get paid more.” Darryl Richardson, an Amazon employee in Alabama, knows firsthand the catalyzing effect of low wages. In 2012, he was part of a group of workers that voted overwhelmingly to unionize at Faurecia Interior Systems in Cottondale, Alabama, which made seats for the nearby Mercedes plant. Richardson said that he had made around $12.50 an hour when he started at the plant but that, thanks to the union, his hourly pay had nearly doubled by the time he left in 2019, after the plant lost its contract with Mercedes. He said several of his co-workers at Faurecia were now working at Amazon and had seen the power of a union to raise wages. “From Faurecia to Amazon, it’s a big pay difference,” said Richardson, who now makes $15.55. Heather Knox, an Amazon spokeswoman, said workers in Bessemer were eligible for raises every six months and that they had received a $2-an-hour bonus during much of last spring. Full-time rank-and-file employees received $300 bonuses during the holiday season and $500 last June. The company also provides significant tuition reimbursement for employees who take classes in certain fields. Some workers at the Bessemer facility, which opened just as COVID-19 was bearing down last March, regard the pay as more than adequate, especially younger employees. “I feel like it is fair,” said Roderick Crocton, 24, who previously made $11.25 as an overnight stocker at a local retailer. “In my old job, I lived in my apartment, never got to go anywhere, paid my bills. Today I’m able to go out and experience being in the city.” But other workers emphasize that pay at Amazon isn’t particularly high for the Birmingham area, even if the pandemic has reduced their job options. An Amazon employee named Clint, a union backer who declined to give his last name for fear of retaliation, said he had stood to make about $40,000 a year installing satellite dishes before the pandemic left him unemployed. He said he made his finances work partly by living with his mother. The retail workers’ union said it represented employees at nearby warehouses where pay is $18 to $21 an hour, including an ice cream facility and a grocery warehouse not far from Amazon. At a plant owned by NFI Group, a Canadian bus manufacturer, about an hour east of Birmingham, hourly pay for rank-and-file workers ranges from $14.79 to $23.31, according to the company. A survey of about 100 workers at the NFI plant by Emily Erickson, a professor at Alabama A&amp;M University, found that white workers earned about $3 an hour more than Black workers on average. One former employee who currently works for a labor group in the area, Charles Crooms, said this made it more difficult to persuade white workers to join a union organizing effort. (The company said all employees with the same job grade and tenure were paid the same.) Workers and organizers said the dissatisfaction over wages at the Amazon warehouse was heightened by the vast wealth of Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder. “He’s one of the richest men in the world, yet you treat employees like scavengers,” said Jennifer Bates, an Amazon employee who earned more in her previous job at a pipe factory but joined Amazon hoping it would provide an opportunity to grow. Bates was mystified that the company was urging Congress to match its pay efforts by raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour. “It looks to me like Amazon is admitting it’s only paying a minimum wage, and this is not a minimum-wage job,” she said. Amazon has said its starting wage is higher than $15 an hour in most of the country. Stuart Appelbaum, the president of the retail workers’ union, noted that Bezos could have given each of Amazon’s more than 1 million global employees last year a bonus larger than the annual pay of a warehouse worker just from the wealth he accumulated during the pandemic. All of which raises a question: Why didn’t Amazon, which regards unions as a threat, follow the example of Nissan and Mercedes and pay its Alabama employees more as a way to pre-empt a union? The company did not respond to a request to address that question. Appelbaum, the union president, said the company had underestimated its workers. “I think they took it for granted that we’d be out there for a few days leafleting, then go away,” he said. “They didn’t believe there was any possibility that we’d be able to get enough cards from employees to get to an election.”

Amazon says it pays Alabama workers well; other local employers pay more

New lockdowns in Europe recently and the absence of tourism might make it difficult for Swatch Group to get back to 2019 sales levels this year but the world’s biggest watchmaker maintains that target, for now, is there.

World Business Watch: New lockdowns to jeopardise Swatch sales

The US auto safety agency disclosed it has opened 25 investigations into crashes of Tesla vehicles, 23 of which remain active, and at least three of the crashes occurred in recent weeks.

World Business Watch: US safety agency reviewing 23 Tesla crashes

Failure to prove that they were not under "undue influence" from Beijing, three Chinese state-owned telecommunications companies could be barred to operate in the United States.&nbsp;

China Unicom America, Pacific Networks, and ComNet had failed to prove that their work in the US was not subject to "undue influence" from China, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said, as quoted by news agency AFP on Wednesday.

Watch |&nbsp;

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/nyse-does-u-turn-on-delisting-three-chinese-telecom-giants-354621/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

The FCC officials voted 4-0 to initiate a probe that could make these companies unable to work within the US.&nbsp;

"The threat to our networks from entities aligned with Communist China is one that we must address head on, and I am pleased that the FCC continues to show the strength and resolve necessary to meet this menace," FCC commissioner Brendan Carr in a statement said.&nbsp;

"When it comes to Communist China, we have set a high bar for action over the last few years," he added.&nbsp;

Also read | <a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-subpoenas-chinese-communications-firms-in-probe-on-national-security-risks-371287">US subpoenas Chinese communications firms in probe on national security risks</a>

The move is a further jolt to these firms after a January decision by the New York Stock Exchange to ban them from trading.&nbsp;

Following the FCC's move, China Unicom in a statement stressed that it has never acted illegally and hoped a "thorough, fair and fact-based review of the company’s conduct by the FCC," as reported by Bloomberg.&nbsp;

Failure to prove that they were not under "undue influence" from Beijing, three Chinese state-owned telecommunications companies could be barred to operate in the United States.

Failure to prove that they were not under "undue influence" from Beijing, three Chinese state-owned telecommunications companies could be barred to operate in the United States. China Unicom America, Pacific Networks, and ComNet had failed to prove that their work in the US was not subject to "undue influence" from China, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) said, as quoted by news agency AFP on Wednesday. Watch | The FCC officials voted 4-0 to initiate a probe that could make these companies unable to work within the US. "The threat to our networks from entities aligned with Communist China is one that we must address head on, and I am pleased that the FCC continues to show the strength and resolve necessary to meet this menace," FCC commissioner Brendan Carr in a statement said. "When it comes to Communist China, we have set a high bar for action over the last few years," he added. Also read | US subpoenas Chinese communications firms in probe on national security risks The move is a further jolt to these firms after a January decision by the New York Stock Exchange to ban them from trading. Following the FCC's move, China Unicom in a statement stressed that it has never acted illegally and hoped a "thorough, fair and fact-based review of the company’s conduct by the FCC," as reported by Bloomberg.

Three Chinese telecom firms face threat to work in US as regulator begins probe

The vehicle scrappage policy is finally seeing the light of the day in India, after many deliberations and delays.&nbsp;

Customers will get a discount and other benefits on buying new vehicles once they produce the certificate that their old vehicle has been scrapped and disposed of.&nbsp;

The scheme is somewhat like the 'cash for clunkers' scheme introduced by various European countries in the aftermath of the 2008-09 global financial crisis.&nbsp;

Vehicle manufacturers may offer a 4-6% discount against the scrappage certificate presented by the buyer.&nbsp;

Other rebates include a road tax relief of up to 25 per cent for a personal vehicle and 15 per cent for commercial vehicles.&nbsp;

Waiver of registration fees for the purchased vehicle is also one of the options.&nbsp;

The buyer will obtain a certificate after giving their old, dilapidated vehicles for scrappage at centres mandated by the government and a discount can be availed on the new vehicle on presenting this certificate.&nbsp;

The new policy requires all personal vehicles to undergo a fitness test after 20 years, while commercial vehicles would require it after the completion of 15 years.&nbsp;

While vehicle scrappage policy helps customers to dispose&nbsp;off their old vehicles while getting discounts in return, it also helps automobile companies and the economy as the vehicle sales increase.&nbsp;

The policy also helps in combating vehicular pollution in cities as it reduces the population of old and defective vehicles.&nbsp;

Estimates say old vehicles pollute 10-12 times more compared to vehicles that are fit. The road safety will also improve as at many times the old vehicles break down in the middle of the road creating a safety hazard.&nbsp;

According to official statistics, there are around 51 lakh vehicles in India which are older than 20 years, 34 lakh vehicles are more than 15 years old and around 17 lakh vehicles, older than 15 years, but they do not possess vehicle fitness certificate. &nbsp;

Rules for fitness tests and scrapping centres will come into effect from October 1, 2021.&nbsp;

The scrapping of government and PSU vehicles above 15 years will be undertaken from April 1, 2022.

The vehicle scrappage policy is finally seeing the light of the day in India, after many deliberations and delays. Customers will get a discount and other benefits on buying new vehicles once they produce the certificate that their old vehicle has been scrapped and disposed of.

The vehicle scrappage policy is finally seeing the light of the day in India, after many deliberations and delays. Customers will get a discount and other benefits on buying new vehicles once they produce the certificate that their old vehicle has been scrapped and disposed of. The scheme is somewhat like the 'cash for clunkers' scheme introduced by various European countries in the aftermath of the 2008-09 global financial crisis. Vehicle manufacturers may offer a 4-6% discount against the scrappage certificate presented by the buyer. Other rebates include a road tax relief of up to 25 per cent for a personal vehicle and 15 per cent for commercial vehicles. Waiver of registration fees for the purchased vehicle is also one of the options. The buyer will obtain a certificate after giving their old, dilapidated vehicles for scrappage at centres mandated by the government and a discount can be availed on the new vehicle on presenting this certificate. The new policy requires all personal vehicles to undergo a fitness test after 20 years, while commercial vehicles would require it after the completion of 15 years. While vehicle scrappage policy helps customers to dispose off their old vehicles while getting discounts in return, it also helps automobile companies and the economy as the vehicle sales increase. The policy also helps in combating vehicular pollution in cities as it reduces the population of old and defective vehicles. Estimates say old vehicles pollute 10-12 times more compared to vehicles that are fit. The road safety will also improve as at many times the old vehicles break down in the middle of the road creating a safety hazard. According to official statistics, there are around 51 lakh vehicles in India which are older than 20 years, 34 lakh vehicles are more than 15 years old and around 17 lakh vehicles, older than 15 years, but they do not possess vehicle fitness certificate. Rules for fitness tests and scrapping centres will come into effect from October 1, 2021. The scrapping of government and PSU vehicles above 15 years will be undertaken from April 1, 2022.

Get money for your clunkers: India unveils vehicle scrappage policy

US Federal Reserve said the world's largest economy is heading for its strongest growth in nearly 40 years and Central Bank policymakers are pledging to keep their foot on the gas despite an expected surge of inflation.

World Business Watch: US Fed expects growth surge, inflation jump expects in 2021

German carmaker BMW expects at least half of its sales to be zero-emission vehicles by 2030. BMW said around 90% of its market categories would have fully-electric models available by 2023 and the electric BMW i4 would be launched three months ahead of schedule this year.

World Business Watch: BMW expects half of its sales to be zero-emission vehicles by 2030

Vodafone has prized shares in infrastructure unit Vantage Towers at 28.7 dollars each valuing the firm at $14.5 Billion.

World Business Watch: Vodafone prizes shares in infrastructure unit Vantage Towers

More than 70,000 Uber drivers in the United Kingdom will now get the minimum wage in a major win for unions.

The service, whereby driver pick and drop passengers has agreed to grant rights to&nbsp;its workers after losing a case in the Supreme Court last months.

Uber has been criticised for its position on labour rights, both in the US and Europe. The company offered to implement another way, whereby on-demand work receives less benefits than traditional employment.

Now, Uber drivers in the UK will be classified as workers even though they may have lesser rights than employees, who in addition receive guaranteed parental leave and sick pay.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/business-economy/uber-drivers-are-workers-not-self-employed-uk-supreme-court-364798" hreflang="en">Uber drivers are workers, not self-employed: UK Supreme Court</a>

Last year, Uber won a similar compromise in California. In 2016, two Uber drivers in the UK filed a case claiming entitlement tot paid holidays. A UK tribunal had ruled in favour of the drivers, prompting the company to approach the Supreme Court.

Reuters cited Uber as saying that the company will take up consultations with drivers while lawyers claim it could take multiple months to work out the details of the ruling. But in the meanwhile, more cases could be filed against the company.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/world/sorry-love-uber-eats-delivery-agent-eats-customers-food-then-gives-cheeky-response-362627" hreflang="en">'Sorry, love': Uber Eats delivery agent eats customer's food, then gives cheeky response</a>

The company on Tuesday said that drivers in the UK would receive extra benefits which include paid holiday time, and that they would be enrolled into a pension scheme. In addition, they would receive minimum wage, which is roughly $12 an hour for people aged 25 and above.

"This follows the recent UK Supreme Court ruling, which provides a clearer path forward as to a model that gives drivers the rights of worker status while continuing to let them work flexibly," Uber said.

More than 70,000 Uber drivers in the United Kingdom will now get the minimum wage in a major win for unions. The service, whereby driver pick and drop passengers has agreed to grant rights to its workers after losing a case in the Supreme Court last months.

More than 70,000 Uber drivers in the United Kingdom will now get the minimum wage in a major win for unions. The service, whereby driver pick and drop passengers has agreed to grant rights to its workers after losing a case in the Supreme Court last months. Uber has been criticised for its position on labour rights, both in the US and Europe. The company offered to implement another way, whereby on-demand work receives less benefits than traditional employment. Now, Uber drivers in the UK will be classified as workers even though they may have lesser rights than employees, who in addition receive guaranteed parental leave and sick pay. Also read: Uber drivers are workers, not self-employed: UK Supreme Court Last year, Uber won a similar compromise in California. In 2016, two Uber drivers in the UK filed a case claiming entitlement tot paid holidays. A UK tribunal had ruled in favour of the drivers, prompting the company to approach the Supreme Court. Reuters cited Uber as saying that the company will take up consultations with drivers while lawyers claim it could take multiple months to work out the details of the ruling. But in the meanwhile, more cases could be filed against the company. Also read: 'Sorry, love': Uber Eats delivery agent eats customer's food, then gives cheeky response The company on Tuesday said that drivers in the UK would receive extra benefits which include paid holiday time, and that they would be enrolled into a pension scheme. In addition, they would receive minimum wage, which is roughly $12 an hour for people aged 25 and above. "This follows the recent UK Supreme Court ruling, which provides a clearer path forward as to a model that gives drivers the rights of worker status while continuing to let them work flexibly," Uber said.

Over 70,000 Uber drivers in UK now entitled to minimum wage, other workers' rights

In Japan, for the first time in 3 months exports have fallen last month as US and China-bound shipments weakened.

World Business Watch: United States, China-bound shipments weaken

In a sign, the COVID-19 pandemic is putting an end to the benefits brought on by former PM Shinzo Abe’s stimulus policies. Japanese companies are offering the lowest wage increases in eight years as labour talks wrap up today.

World Business Watch: Japan Inc to offer lowest pay rises in eight years

Honda Motor Co will temporarily suspend some production next week at all US, Canada plants. Honda would halt production for the entire week.

World Business Watch: Honda temporarily cutting production at all US, Canada plants

The giant tech Google's commission on the play store will be reduced to 15% from the current 30% from July this year.

World Business Watch: Google halves Play store commission fee for developers

Volkswagen is going all in on electric cars, with plans to build battery factories in Europe, install a network of charging stations and slash the cost of emission-free travel.

That was the message Monday as the German carmaker staged a so-called Power Day to showcase its latest electric car technology. The event was Volkswagen’s answer to Tesla’s Battery Day presentations, which draw intense attention from investors and electric car buffs.

The session included a number of attention-getting announcements, including a promise that Volkswagen would cut the cost of batteries by up to 50% by the end of the decade, while slashing charging time to 12 minutes.&nbsp;

That would make electric cars cheaper than gasoline vehicles and just as convenient.

Volkswagen also unveiled plans to build six battery factories in Europe in joint ventures with suppliers. And by 2025, the company said, it would have 18,000 charging stations on the continent operating in conjunction with energy companies including BP. The British oil producer said it would offer charging at its filling stations.

“Our transformation will be bigger than anything the industry has seen in the past century,” Herbert Diess, CEO of Volkswagen, said during the two-hour presentation.

The event coincided with the rollout in the United States of the ID.4, an electric SUV that is part of the first generation of Volkswagens designed from the ground up to run on batteries and seen as serious challengers to Tesla’s dominance in electric cars.

At least some analysts are starting to believe Volkswagen’s hype. Swiss bank UBS issued a report this month that ranked Volkswagen just behind Tesla in electric vehicle technology.

Tesla leads in battery technology and software, the UBS report said, but the bank’s analysts gave Volkswagen high marks for its electric car platform — the chassis, motor and other components that drive the vehicle forward and carry the car body. The Volkswagen platform can be produced very efficiently and is flexible enough to accommodate a range of body types, UBS said.

Volkswagen is “a blueprint for what legacy carmakers need to achieve in the years to come,” Patrick Hummel, a UBS analyst, said last week.

Volkswagen is going all in on electric cars, with plans to build battery factories in Europe, install a network of charging stations and slash the cost of emission-free travel.

Volkswagen is going all in on electric cars, with plans to build battery factories in Europe, install a network of charging stations and slash the cost of emission-free travel. That was the message Monday as the German carmaker staged a so-called Power Day to showcase its latest electric car technology. The event was Volkswagen’s answer to Tesla’s Battery Day presentations, which draw intense attention from investors and electric car buffs. The session included a number of attention-getting announcements, including a promise that Volkswagen would cut the cost of batteries by up to 50% by the end of the decade, while slashing charging time to 12 minutes. That would make electric cars cheaper than gasoline vehicles and just as convenient. Volkswagen also unveiled plans to build six battery factories in Europe in joint ventures with suppliers. And by 2025, the company said, it would have 18,000 charging stations on the continent operating in conjunction with energy companies including BP. The British oil producer said it would offer charging at its filling stations. “Our transformation will be bigger than anything the industry has seen in the past century,” Herbert Diess, CEO of Volkswagen, said during the two-hour presentation. The event coincided with the rollout in the United States of the ID.4, an electric SUV that is part of the first generation of Volkswagens designed from the ground up to run on batteries and seen as serious challengers to Tesla’s dominance in electric cars. At least some analysts are starting to believe Volkswagen’s hype. Swiss bank UBS issued a report this month that ranked Volkswagen just behind Tesla in electric vehicle technology. Tesla leads in battery technology and software, the UBS report said, but the bank’s analysts gave Volkswagen high marks for its electric car platform — the chassis, motor and other components that drive the vehicle forward and carry the car body. The Volkswagen platform can be produced very efficiently and is flexible enough to accommodate a range of body types, UBS said. Volkswagen is “a blueprint for what legacy carmakers need to achieve in the years to come,” Patrick Hummel, a UBS analyst, said last week.

Volkswagen aims to use its size to head off Tesla

Nokia on Tuesday announced plans to cut up to 10,000 jobs within two years to trim costs and invest more in research capabilities, as the Finnish telecoms group seeks to step up its challenge to Sweden's Ericsson and China's Huawei.

After taking over the top job last year, Chief Executive Pekka Lundmark has been making changes to recover from product missteps under the company's previous management that hurt its 5G ambitions and dragged on its shares.

He announced a new strategy in October, under which Nokia will have four business groups and said the company would "do whatever it takes" to take the lead in 5G, as it banks on also capturing share from Huawei.

Lundmark is expected to present his long-term strategy, discuss action plans and set financial targets during the company's capital markets day on Thursday.

The company said in a statement it expects about 600 million euros ($715 million) to 700 million euros of restructuring and associated charges by 2023.

"Decisions that may have a potential impact on our employees are never taken lightly," Lundmark said in a statement. "My priority is to ensure that everyone impacted is supported through this process."

Nokia currently has 90,000 employees, and has cut thousands of jobs following its acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent in 2016.

It expects the current restructuring to lower its cost base by about 600 million euros by the end of 2023. Half of the savings are expected to be realised in 2021.

"These plans are global and likely to affect most countries," a Nokia representative said. "In Europe, we have only just informed local works councils and expect the consultation processes to start shortly, where applicable."

France, where Nokia cut&nbsp;more than a thousand jobs last year, was excluded from the current restructuring.

The savings programme is bigger than expected but what is interesting is that it will not actually result in lower costs, said Sami Sarkamies, an analyst with Nordea.

"The company is shifting focus from general costs to research and development which is expected to result in growth and better margins in the future," he said.

Nokia plans to increase investments in research and development and future capabilities including 5G, cloud and digital infrastructure.

Under Lundmark's predecessor, Nokia had slashed its profit outlook and halted dividend payouts, after product missteps knocked more than a fifth off its market value.

In February Nokia forecast&nbsp;2021 revenue to fall to between 20.6-21.8 billion euros ($25-26 billion) from 21.9 billion euros in 2020.

While both Nokia and Ericsson have been gaining more customers as more telecom operators start rolling out 5G networks, the Swedish company has got an edge partly due to it winning 5G radio contracts in China.

Nokia has not won any 5G radio contract in China and had also lost out to Samsung Electronics on a part of a contract to supply 5G equipment to Verizon.

Nokia shares were down marginally in morning trade.

Nokia on Tuesday announced plans to cut up to 10,000 jobs within two years to trim costs and invest more in research capabilities, as the Finnish telecoms group seeks to step up its challenge to Sweden's Ericsson and China's Huawei.

Nokia on Tuesday announced plans to cut up to 10,000 jobs within two years to trim costs and invest more in research capabilities, as the Finnish telecoms group seeks to step up its challenge to Sweden's Ericsson and China's Huawei. After taking over the top job last year, Chief Executive Pekka Lundmark has been making changes to recover from product missteps under the company's previous management that hurt its 5G ambitions and dragged on its shares. He announced a new strategy in October, under which Nokia will have four business groups and said the company would "do whatever it takes" to take the lead in 5G, as it banks on also capturing share from Huawei. Lundmark is expected to present his long-term strategy, discuss action plans and set financial targets during the company's capital markets day on Thursday. The company said in a statement it expects about 600 million euros ($715 million) to 700 million euros of restructuring and associated charges by 2023. "Decisions that may have a potential impact on our employees are never taken lightly," Lundmark said in a statement. "My priority is to ensure that everyone impacted is supported through this process." Nokia currently has 90,000 employees, and has cut thousands of jobs following its acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent in 2016. It expects the current restructuring to lower its cost base by about 600 million euros by the end of 2023. Half of the savings are expected to be realised in 2021. "These plans are global and likely to affect most countries," a Nokia representative said. "In Europe, we have only just informed local works councils and expect the consultation processes to start shortly, where applicable." France, where Nokia cut more than a thousand jobs last year, was excluded from the current restructuring. The savings programme is bigger than expected but what is interesting is that it will not actually result in lower costs, said Sami Sarkamies, an analyst with Nordea. "The company is shifting focus from general costs to research and development which is expected to result in growth and better margins in the future," he said. Nokia plans to increase investments in research and development and future capabilities including 5G, cloud and digital infrastructure. Under Lundmark's predecessor, Nokia had slashed its profit outlook and halted dividend payouts, after product missteps knocked more than a fifth off its market value. In February Nokia forecast 2021 revenue to fall to between 20.6-21.8 billion euros ($25-26 billion) from 21.9 billion euros in 2020. While both Nokia and Ericsson have been gaining more customers as more telecom operators start rolling out 5G networks, the Swedish company has got an edge partly due to it winning 5G radio contracts in China. Nokia has not won any 5G radio contract in China and had also lost out to Samsung Electronics on a part of a contract to supply 5G equipment to Verizon. Nokia shares were down marginally in morning trade.

Nokia to cut up to 10,000 jobs over next 2 years

California prosecutors sued the country’s largest chain of senior living communities on Monday, accusing the company, Brookdale Senior Living, of manipulating the federal government’s nursing-home ratings system.

The lawsuit was filed by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and other prosecutors against Brookdale, which operates multiple nursing homes in the state.

The lawsuit is among the first of its kind to accuse nursing homes of submitting false information to Medicare’s ratings program. The system assigns stars — one being the worst, five being the best — to the nation’s more than 15,000 nursing homes.

The system is powered by largely unaudited data submitted by nursing homes, including the amount of time that nurses spend with residents, and in-person examinations by state health inspectors.

Since its rollout more than a decade ago, the rating system, overseen by the U.S. Centers for Medicare &amp; Medicaid Services, or CMS, has become an essential tool for nursing homes to woo potential customers. It can mean the difference between a nursing home making or losing money.

The lawsuit, brought in Superior Court in California, comes on the heels of a New York Times investigation that found the rating system is broken. The Times found that much of the information that nursing homes, including Brookdale’s, submit to the government is wrong, painting a badly distorted picture of the quality of care at many homes.

In the case filed Monday, the California prosecutors said that until April 2018, Brookdale won “undeserved higher star ratings” by submitting false information about its staffing. In particular, the lawsuit said, the company exaggerated the number of hours that registered nurses worked.

The prosecutors said that Brookdale continued to game the statistics even after CMS improved the way it collected staffing data in an attempt to crack down on nursing homes’ inflating their figures. Starting in 2018, CMS began using payroll records, which logged nurses’ daily hours, to calculate the homes’ ratings, rather than relying on nursing homes to report the amount of time nurses spent with patients. Prosecutors accused Brookdale of “falsifying its payroll-based journals.”

Heather Hunter, a spokeswoman for Brookdale, strongly denied on Monday that the company had “engaged in intentional or fraudulent conduct.”

President Joe Biden nominated Becerra, whose office brought the case against Brookdale, for secretary of Health and Human Services, which oversees CMS. The Senate has not yet voted on the nomination.

California prosecutors sued the country’s largest chain of senior living communities on Monday, accusing the company, Brookdale Senior Living, of manipulating the federal government’s nursing-home ratings system.

California prosecutors sued the country’s largest chain of senior living communities on Monday, accusing the company, Brookdale Senior Living, of manipulating the federal government’s nursing-home ratings system. The lawsuit was filed by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and other prosecutors against Brookdale, which operates multiple nursing homes in the state. The lawsuit is among the first of its kind to accuse nursing homes of submitting false information to Medicare’s ratings program. The system assigns stars — one being the worst, five being the best — to the nation’s more than 15,000 nursing homes. The system is powered by largely unaudited data submitted by nursing homes, including the amount of time that nurses spend with residents, and in-person examinations by state health inspectors. Since its rollout more than a decade ago, the rating system, overseen by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, has become an essential tool for nursing homes to woo potential customers. It can mean the difference between a nursing home making or losing money. The lawsuit, brought in Superior Court in California, comes on the heels of a New York Times investigation that found the rating system is broken. The Times found that much of the information that nursing homes, including Brookdale’s, submit to the government is wrong, painting a badly distorted picture of the quality of care at many homes. In the case filed Monday, the California prosecutors said that until April 2018, Brookdale won “undeserved higher star ratings” by submitting false information about its staffing. In particular, the lawsuit said, the company exaggerated the number of hours that registered nurses worked. The prosecutors said that Brookdale continued to game the statistics even after CMS improved the way it collected staffing data in an attempt to crack down on nursing homes’ inflating their figures. Starting in 2018, CMS began using payroll records, which logged nurses’ daily hours, to calculate the homes’ ratings, rather than relying on nursing homes to report the amount of time nurses spent with patients. Prosecutors accused Brookdale of “falsifying its payroll-based journals.” Heather Hunter, a spokeswoman for Brookdale, strongly denied on Monday that the company had “engaged in intentional or fraudulent conduct.” President Joe Biden nominated Becerra, whose office brought the case against Brookdale, for secretary of Health and Human Services, which oversees CMS. The Senate has not yet voted on the nomination.

California sues nursing home chain, saying it manipulated ratings system

US airlines on Monday pointed to concrete signs of a domestic leisure travel recovery, pushing shares to their highest level since the COVID-19 crisis hits the sector years ago.

World Business Watch: US Airlines see recovery in 2021

Sales at H&M fell slightly less than expected in the three months through February and rose in the first half of March as pandemic restrictions were eased in some markets, allowing hundreds of stores to reopen.

World Business Watch: H&M's sales recover in March as stores reopen after lockdowns

Thorntons, the 110-year-old British chocolatier and retailer would permanently close all 61 UK stores, putting over 603 jobs at risk, blaming the impact of COVID-19 lockdown restrictions.

World Business Watch: Chocolate chain Thorntons to close UK stores

Argentina's industrial output should grow more than 6% this year versus last year. Argentina's economy as a whole is expected to expand 5% to 6% during the year, based on initial data and depending on how the novel coronavirus evolves.

World Business Watch: Argentina's industrial growth economy contracted

Equity benchmark Sensex tumbled over 600 points in opening trade on Monday, tracking losses in financial stocks amid foreign fund outflows.

The 30-share BSE index was trading 630.51 points or 1.24 per cent lower at 50,161.57, and the broader NSE Nifty was quoting 184.15 points or 1.23 per cent down at 14,846.80.

SBI was the top loser in the Sensex pack, shedding around 2 per cent, followed by M&amp;M, Dr Reddy's Lab, Bajaj Auto, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finance and Kotak Bank.

On the other hand, Tech Mahindra and PowerGrid were the gainers.

In the previous session on Friday, the Sensex had ended 487.43 points or 0.95 per cent lower at 50,792.08, and Nifty tanked 143.85 points or 0.95 per cent to end at 15,030.95.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital market as they sold shares worth Rs 942.60 crore, as per exchange data.

According to Binod Modi Head-Strategy at Reliance Securities, a sharp increase in CPI print for February and unexpected contraction in IIP data for January are expected to weigh on investors' sentiments.

Further, sharp increase in US treasury yields and recent spike in fresh COVID-19 cases in various parts of the country are likely to keep markets volatile in the near term, he said.

Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Shanghai and Seoul were in the red, while Hong Kong and Tokyo were trading on a positive note in mid-session deals.

Meanwhile, the global oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.74 per cent higher at USD 69.73 per barrel.&nbsp;

Equity benchmark Sensex tumbled over 600 points in opening trade on Monday, tracking losses in financial stocks amid foreign fund outflows. The 30-share BSE index was trading 630.

Equity benchmark Sensex tumbled over 600 points in opening trade on Monday, tracking losses in financial stocks amid foreign fund outflows. The 30-share BSE index was trading 630.51 points or 1.24 per cent lower at 50,161.57, and the broader NSE Nifty was quoting 184.15 points or 1.23 per cent down at 14,846.80. SBI was the top loser in the Sensex pack, shedding around 2 per cent, followed by M&M, Dr Reddy's Lab, Bajaj Auto, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finance and Kotak Bank. On the other hand, Tech Mahindra and PowerGrid were the gainers. In the previous session on Friday, the Sensex had ended 487.43 points or 0.95 per cent lower at 50,792.08, and Nifty tanked 143.85 points or 0.95 per cent to end at 15,030.95. Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net sellers in the capital market as they sold shares worth Rs 942.60 crore, as per exchange data. According to Binod Modi Head-Strategy at Reliance Securities, a sharp increase in CPI print for February and unexpected contraction in IIP data for January are expected to weigh on investors' sentiments. Further, sharp increase in US treasury yields and recent spike in fresh COVID-19 cases in various parts of the country are likely to keep markets volatile in the near term, he said. Elsewhere in Asia, bourses in Shanghai and Seoul were in the red, while Hong Kong and Tokyo were trading on a positive note in mid-session deals. Meanwhile, the global oil benchmark Brent crude was trading 0.74 per cent higher at USD 69.73 per barrel.

Sensex slides over 600 pts in early trade; Nifty slips below 14,900

China`s economy is still in the process of recovery, spokeswoman for the National Bureau of Statistics Liu Aihua said on Monday. 
 
Liu made the comments during a news briefing after the release of activity data for January and February which showed a further pickup in momentum. 
 
(More details awaited)

China`s economy is still in the process of recovery, spokeswoman for the National Bureau of Statistics Liu Aihua said on Monday. Liu made the comments during a news briefing after the release of activity data for January and February which showed a further pickup in momentum.

China`s economy is still in the process of recovery, spokeswoman for the National Bureau of Statistics Liu Aihua said on Monday. Liu made the comments during a news briefing after the release of activity data for January and February which showed a further pickup in momentum. (More details awaited)

China statistics bureau says economy still in recovery process