VW to cut hours for workers at 3 German plants amid supplier dispute, report says
HAMBURG/BERLIN -- Volkswagen Group will cut working hours for more than 10,000 staff at its Wolfsburg base and reduce output at two more German sites, a source close to the company told Reuters, as the automaker faces supply problems caused by a supplier not keeping to delivery commitments.
VW had said on Wednesday that production of its top-selling Golf model at Wolfsburg was being hit because supplier ES Automobilguss GmbH has stopped delivering cast iron parts needed to make gearboxes.
A spokesman for ES Automobilguss said by email: "Our consortium is in a legal dispute with Volkswagen and is obliged maintain confidentiality." He gave no further details.
A spokesman at Volkswagen's Wolfsburg headquarters said shortening staff hours were a possible response to supply problems but a decision has not been made yet.
The plans to shorten hours at the Wolfsburg factory, which employs 60,000 people, marks the latest escalation in a supplier dispute that is causing problems in operating business while Volkswagen tries to recover from its diesel-emissions scandal.
The other two plants affected by shorter working hours are VW's gearbox-making facility in Kassel and a car plant in the eastern German city of Zwickau, according to the person.
The disruptions coincide with similar problems in Emden, VW's northern German plant where supplier Car Trim GmbH, a sister company of ES Automobilguss, stopped deliveries of seat covers earlier this month. Both firms are part of Wolfsburg-based Prevent DEV GmbH. Prevent has not responded to a Reuters' request to comment.
VW has idled its Emden plant for five days from Aug. 18-24, affecting around 8,000 of its 9,000 workers per day and losing production of 6,250 cars, a VW spokesman said.
Analysts at Swiss bank UBS said in a note published on Thursday that should the dispute result in output cuts at the Wolfsburg and Kassel plants, the financial impact "could be more severe than initially expected" with the reduced output at Emden.
Grappling with an emissions-test cheating scandal that is costing VW billions of euros, VW is expected by analysts to seek price cuts from its suppliers to mitigate those costs.
VW said in June it would integrate components units with the goal of saving costs and boosting efficiency from a single management and unified strategy.
VW's engine plant in Salzgitter declined to comment on possible repercussions on production while spokespeople at a commercial-vehicle factory in Hanover and a component plant in Brunswick had no immediate comments.
Syria conflict: Image of injured boy in Aleppo draws outrage
Syrian activists have released striking pictures of a young boy rescued from a destroyed building after an air strike in the divided second city of Aleppo. Video and photos of the boy sitting dazed and bloodied in an ambulance were shared widely on social media, with many expressing shock and outrage. He was identified as Omran Daqneesh, 5, who was treated for head wounds on Wednesday night, according to a doctor. His parents and three siblings are believed to have survived the attack. Fighting between government and rebel forces has escalated in recent weeks in Aleppo, once Syria's commercial and industrial hub, leaving hundreds dead. The victims include dozens of children, NGO Save the Children said. This morning, UN special envoy Staffan de Mistura asked for a "gesture of humanity from both sides" and urged them to agree to a 48-hour pause in the hostilities in Aleppo to allow aid deliveries to the two million people trapped there. He had earlier abandoned a meeting of the UN's humanitarian task force for Syria after only eight minutes, because not a single aid convoy had been allowed to reach besieged areas since the start of the month. Russia said it was ready to stop military operations in the city for a 48-hour period as early as next week.
Rio 2016 Olympics: US swimmers 'damaged petrol station door'
Four US Olympic swimmers who say they were robbed in Rio de Janeiro reportedly damaged a petrol station door during a night out, media reports say. One Brazilian security source said they were involved in a dispute with a security guard and asked to pay for the damage. Three of the swimmers remain in Brazil and are due to be questioned by police. The fourth, gold medalist Ryan Lochte, returned to the US on Monday.
Rio 2016: Sakshi Malik, the female wrestler who got India's first medal
Female wrestler Sakshi Malik has delivered India its first medal of the 2016 Rio Games, sending a nation into ecstasy. But her journey to the Olympic podium has not been easy. After a gritty performance at the 58kg women's wrestling category she won bronze, becoming the first Indian female wrestler and the fourth Indian woman to win an Olympic medal. "I never thought I would become the first woman wrestler from India to bag an Olympic medal in wrestling," she told The Hindu newspaper. "I hope the remaining wrestlers will also do well."
ITV to switch off its seven channels for an hour for Olympics event
ITV is switching off all seven of its channels for an hour to encourage people to get off their sofas and take part in sport following Team GB's Olympics success.
ITV will stop broadcasting from 09:30 on 27 August as part of the I Am Team GB campaign. The move, organised with the National Lottery, will also see thousands of sports clubs open to let people try new sports for free. Olympic medallists, including long jumper Greg Rutherford, will take part.
The Bank Holiday weekend event is part of the celebrations to welcome home Team GB from the Rio Olympics. The Coronation Street and Emmerdale sets will be hosting events, along with the Copper Box Arena in London, Glasgow National Hockey Centre and Sport Wales National Centre in Cardiff.
Rutherford, who won a bronze medal in Rio, urged people to get involved, adding: "You don't have to be an Olympian to be part of Team GB." ITV would usually show Murder, She Wrote at the time of the blackout, with the Coronation Street omnibus on ITV2.
A statement from I Am Team GB described the day as "a homecoming for our lottery-funded Olympic athletes when they return from Rio, inspiring everyone, no matter what their level of fitness, to come together with Olympic heroes and famous faces from ITV in the biggest ever UK-wide sports day".
Toronto Film Festival to screen Birth of a Nation 'as planned'
The Toronto Film Festival has said it will screen slavery drama The Birth of a Nation as scheduled, despite ongoing controversy concerning its director.
In a statement, the festival said it would "present the film as planned". The film's release plans have been cast into doubt after it emerged that a woman who accused Nate Parker of rape in 1999 later took her own life.
Parker, who both directs and stars in the Oscar-tipped film, was acquitted of raping the woman while at university. His roommate Jean Celestin, who has a story credit on The Birth of a Nation, was convicted of sexual assault.
The conviction was later overturned when the woman opted not to testify again for a 2005 retrial. The incident has come back into the press ahead of the US release of Parker's drama about Nat Turner's 1831 slave rebellion.
Premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, the film is to have its Canadian premiere at Toronto next month. On Tuesday, Parker responded to the news of his accuser's death with a Facebook post in which he expressed "profound sorrow". According to Variety, the 36-year-old will continue to be his film's "public face" and will honour his Toronto media commitments.
Federal Reserve split on timing of next rate rise
Minutes from the US central bank's last meeting show policy-makers divided over when the next rate rise should come.
According to the minutes, some Federal Reserve members felt "economic conditions would soon warrant taking another step", while others believed more data was needed.The US central bank is widely expected to raise interest rates before the end of the year, but it is not clear when. At its July meeting, the Fed opted to hold rates between 0.25% and 0.5%.
The cost of borrowing in the US has been at that level since December 2015. Investors and traders were looking for clues in the minutes about whether that increase will come in September or at its final meeting in December. Most do not think the central bank will act at its meeting in November because the timing is too close to the US election.
"Members judged it appropriate to continue to leave their policy options open and maintain the flexibility to adjust the stance of policy based on incoming information," the minutes said. "A couple of members preferred also to wait for more evidence that inflation would rise to 2% on a sustained basis," the statement continued.
Asda has worst quarterly sales drop blaming food deflation
Asda has reported a drop in sales of 7.5% in the past three months, its worst quarterly performance on record.
Walmart chief executive Doug McMillon blamed the dip on food deflation and "the competitive environment". Discount food stores such as Aldi and Lidl have been undercutting Asda and its rivals, including Tesco, Morrison and Sainsbury's. The supermarket chain is relying on £1.5bn of price reductions over five years to win customers back. "Our strategy to turn things around is focused on improving the retail basics," Mr McMillon said. "While our turnaround will take time, I'm confident in the new leadership team there and want to assure you we're addressing this with urgency."
In June, Walmart said the UK supermarket's chief executive, Andy Clarke, would be stepping down to be replaced by the head of Walmart's Chinese business, Sean Clarke. Walmart said Sean Clarke's experience would allow him to "reposition the business" in a competitive market.
'New nadir'
Asda began a price-cutting campaign in 2013, cutting £1bn in prices. In January, outgoing boss Andy Clarke extended the cuts to £1.5bn by 2018. In the same month, the company said it was shedding hundreds of jobs at its Leeds headquarters. Analysts said "a monumental challenge" lay ahead for the new chief executive.
"This time last year, ex-chief executive Andy Clarke talked about Asda's sales decline hitting a nadir - unfortunately today's results represent a new nadir, with the scale of the problems facing the grocer becoming ever more severe," said Greg Bromley from Verdict Retail. He said that Asda seemed to have been hit harder by the arrival of discounters such as Aldi and Lidl, since low prices had always been its main selling point. "If Asda has been waiting to push the button on its latest wave of price cuts, the time must be now, especially as a more uncertain post-Brexit consumer becomes ever more price sensitive," he added.
US sales
Walmart, the US-based owner of Asda supermarkets, said its own net profit for the three months to the end of July rose 8.6% to $3.77bn (£2.87bn). A rise in online sales helped revenue, excluding currency movements, to rise 2.8% to $123.6bn in the quarter. While Asda struggles with customer traffic and declining revenues, Walmart's US stores saw their eighth consecutive quarterly gain in sales and store visits grew 1.2%. Earlier this year, Wal-Mart said it would, over the next two years, spend $2.7bn to raise minimum wages to $10 an hour. The move has meant faster checkouts and cleaner stores, it says.
US to end federal use of private prisons
The US Justice Department will phase out use of privately owned prisons, citing safety concerns.
Contracts with 13 private prisons will be reviewed and and allowed to expire over the next five years.
"They do not save substantially on costs and ... they do not maintain the same level of safety and security," Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates said explaining the decision.
The majority of US prisoners are held in state-run prisons.
On Wall Street, the stocks of private prison companies declined sharply after the news was announced.
An Inspector General's report released this month found that private prisons saw higher rates of violent incidents and rule infractions in comparison with government-run institutions.
During the Democratic presidential primary race, Hillary Clinton's main opponent Senator Bernie Sanders made a campaign promise to end the "private, for-profit prison racket".
Senator Sanders sponsored a bill attempting to end the use of private prisons in September 2015 saying "we cannot fix our criminal justice system if corporations are allowed to profit from mass incarceration".
Mrs Clinton's website states that she will "end the era of mass incarceration, reform mandatory minimum sentences, and end private prisons".
As of December, private prisons housed 22,660 federal inmates.
Is Russia hacking the US election?
Huge leaks of data from US organisations have been attributed by some to Russia, so has the former Soviet state launched cyberwar on the US elections?
Hacking tools allegedly developed by the US National Security Agency (NSA) were dumped online by a group calling itself Shadow Brokers. It follows a string of recent leaks of data from the Democratic National Committee (DNC). There are also now suspicions that the Clinton Foundation, a charitable body, may have been targeted.
Is this part of a Russian campaign to damage the US and even influence the presidential election in November, or are things a little more complicated than that?
What is in the latest leak?
Analysis of the files released by Shadow Brokers has revealed a group of malware that can be used to hack US-made firewalls and routers. Indeed, the tech firms Cisco and Fortinet have warned customers that there are some serious exploits in the dump that affect their products.
Juniper Networks has also said it is reviewing the data to see if its devices are affected. There are fears that some of the exploits were "zero-day" vulnerabilities, meaning they had gone undetected.
The hacking tools are believed to belong to a group of malware developed by "The Equation Group", which was first revealed by cybersecurity firm Kaspersky in 2015.