General Electric to cut 4,500 jobs in Europe: Source

General Electric Co plans to cut 4,500 jobs in Europe, the first numbers to emerge on layoffs from the US industrial conglomerate since it outlined plans to restructure and shed units last month.

The cuts, which are linked to businesses GE bought from France's Alstom in 2015, will affect employees in Switzerland, Germany and Britain, said French newspaper Les Echos, which first reported the news on Tuesday.

A labor union source confirmed the layoff numbers to Reuters on Wednesday and said an official announcement was expected as early as Thursday.

GE did not confirm the numbers but said it was "reviewing its operations to ensure the business is best positioned to respond to our market realities and for long-term success." The company had presented a proposal to the European body representing legacy Alstom employees, it added.

Last month, General Electric CEO John Flannery outlined plans to reduce the manufacturing footprint of GE's power business to respond to a sharp fall in demand for fossil fuel power equipment. GE did not specify how many jobs would be cut or where.
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'Pleas in Zara apparel': Why fashion labels can't fix labour exploitation

Worker exploitation is rampant in the global fashion industry, according to countless investigations, studies and reports. So why haven’t fashion brands cleaned up their acts?

Even if brands want to be part of the solution (as they are frequently asked to be) they are hindered by the current legal system. The problem is if brands are to eradicate labour exploitation, they must take more control of their supply chains. But if they take more control over their supply chains, they open themselves up to the risk of tremendous legal liability.

To effect real change in the global fashion industry, the countries where brands are headquartered need to reconsider their legal policies. The existing liability rules need to be amended to incentivise the brands’ direct involvement in labour issues in their chains.

A recent report from Oxfam found that garment workers earn as little as 2% of the price of clothing sold in Australia - a A$27 billion industry.

Earlier this month, shoppers at a Zara store in Istanbul allegedly found messages in the clothing that garment workers had hidden in protest of unfair wages. The messages read “I made this item you are going to buy, but I didn’t get paid for it”.

The Rana Plaza tragedy saw more than 1,000 people killed when a garment factory in Bangladesh collapsed. This occurred more than four years ago.

These are just a few examples from a long list of horrors. But still the problem has not been fixed.
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New US home sales spike 18.9%, hit 10-year high in September

Sales of new US single-family homes unexpectedly rose in September, hitting their highest level in nearly 10 years, offering hope that the housing market was regaining speed after appearing to stall recent months.

The Commerce Department said on Wednesday new home sales surged 18.9 per cent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 667,000 units last month amid an increase in all four regions. That was the highest level since October 2007 and followed August's upwardly revised sales pace of 561,000 units.

The percent gain was the largest since January 1992. August's sales pace was previously reported at 560,000 units.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast new home sales, which account for 11 per cent of overall home sales, falling 0.9 per cent to a pace of 555,000 units last month.

New home sales, which are drawn from permits, are volatile on a month-to-month basis. Sales soared 17.0 per cent on a year-on-year basis in September. The housing market has trod water for much of this year, amid shortages of homes available for sale, skilled labour and suitable land for building.

Activity was also hampered by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, which weighed on homebuilding in September and hurt sales of previously owned homes in the South. Housing is expected to have been a drag on economic growth in the third quarter.
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US jobless claims rise from three-month low

The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits rebounded from a three-month low last week, but remained below a level consistent with a tightening labor market.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 244,000 for the week ended July 22, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

Data for the prior week was revised to show 1,000 more applications received than previously reported.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims rising to 241,000. It was the 125th straight week that claims remained below 300,000, a threshold associated with a robust labor market. That is the longest such stretch since 1970, when the labor market was smaller. The labor market is near full employment, with the jobless rate at 4.4 percent.

Claims have been volatile in recent weeks as automakers shut assembly plants for annual retooling. Some manufacturers like General Motors are extending their summer shutdowns to manage excess inventory from declining sales.

Economists say this could be throwing off the model used by the government to strip out seasonal fluctuations from the data, causing swings in the weekly numbers.

A Labor Department official said there were no special factors influencing the claims data and that no states had been estimated.
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120 homes destroyed: London fire tragedy reveals ugly flaws of regeneration

I grew up in social housing. It provided a stable and secure (albeit overcrowded and cold) home for my family, for life. As fire tore through Grenfell Tower, just 500 metres from where I was staying in London, I witnessed the complete and terrible destruction of 120 homes just like the one I grew up in. In the morning, I passed the police cordon and saw dozens of fire fighters standing in complete, abject shock. At least 12 lives were lost, and many more are still feared for.

Yet as the ashes settle, it is clear that the threat of ruin extends well beyond Grenfell Tower. Indeed, the policies which I argue have contributed to this disaster have been rolled out across social housing projects both in the UK, and across Europe. Earlier this year, not far from Grenfell, local residents in Westminster voted against any form of refit to their notoriously poorly-maintained Brunel Estate. And many residents across London fear the prospect of “urban regeneration”, seeing it as a type of social cleansing, shorthand for a modern form of slum clearance.

Residents worry that any improvements will set them on a slippery slope to gentrification and eventual displacement. Over the years, I have watched with dismay as successive governments – both Labour and Conservative – have depleted the available housing stock through schemes such as right-to-buy, while also running down the standard of the remaining housing stock with constant budget cuts. Faced with this gradual depletion and dilapidation, many family homes languish in a state of disrepair, while tenants’ fears that they could lose their homes go unassuaged.

This is not just a British problem. During my academic research in France I have seen deplorable incidences of housing stock that are not fit for human habitation, and where repairs are routinely neglected. Where regeneration does take place, I fear it is often done with little consultation and even less accountability.

A warning

As Londoners get to grips with the tragic losses at Grenfell Tower, reports have emerged about a recent refit that the tower underwent. Only last year, the site was given a £8.7m refit, during which a new central heating system was installed, more homes fitted in the lower levels and new cladding added to the outside of the building, among other things.
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Can a minority Conservative government survive? Let's look at the maths

Following the unexpected failure of the Conservatives to secure a majority in Theresa May’s snap general election, the UK has its second hung parliament in seven years. With 318 seats, the Conservatives fell eight seats short of a majority, though in reality, they are four short, given the abstentionist policy of Sinn Féin, which won seven seats. Labour, with 262 seats, fell short by 60. Attention naturally focused first on whether the Conservatives could form a government.

The available options were a formal coalition with another party or a Conservative minority government. The prospects of a Conservative-led coalition were limited. After the damage inflicted on the Liberal Democrats by their coalition deal with the Conservatives in 2010-15, the centrist party ruled out any reprise. There was also no chance of a Conservative deal with the Scottish National Party (SNP), which won 35 seats but which is resolutely opposed to the Tories on both constitutional and economic questions. It appears that no one has even contemplated a grand coalition between Labour and the Conservatives, an arrangement that works in Germany but which is alien to the UK other than in wartime.

That left one coalition option for the Conservatives – involving Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which won ten seats. While that would have locked in the DUP to unpopular decisions, it appears to have been opposed by many Conservatives. It would have been a particularly difficult pill to swallow for those critical of the DUP’s socially conservative stance on same-sex marriage and abortion.

Theresa May, the prime minister, has therefore sought to form a minority government, relying on support from the DUP. If it entails a “supply-and-confidence” agreement, then the DUP would support the government in confidence votes, including the Queen’s speech (which sets out the government’s legislative programme), and on financial votes, particularly the budget. All other votes would be decided on a case-by-case basis. In return, the DUP would hope to extract some policy concessions, probably on public spending and welfare.
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