Duke Energy to sell distributed generation portfolio in $364 million deal
Utility firm Duke Energy said on Wednesday it would sell its commercial distributed generation business to private equity
2023-07-05 20:49
UK sells government bond with highest yield since 1999
LONDON Britain sold a government bond at auction on Wednesday that will pay investors an annual return of
2023-07-05 18:49
Battling Brexit, some British firms turn to invest in Europe
By Andy Bruce MANCHESTER, England Sick of customs delays and extra bureaucracy since Britain left the European Union,
2023-07-05 18:15
UK business momentum slows in June despite falling inflation -PMI
By David Milliken LONDON Growth in Britain's private sector slowed sharply last month, despite businesses facing lower inflation,
2023-07-05 16:54
Britain to set up real-time bond and stock trading record
By Huw Jones LONDON Britain's financial watchdog proposed a real-time record of stock and bond prices on Wednesday
2023-07-05 07:48
Jake Paul gambling advert banned by watchdog as YouTuber has 'strong appeal to under-18s'
Jake Paul is arguably one of the most well-known influencers in the world right now, but unfortunately for gambling firm Ladbrokes, the YouTuber-turned-boxer’s widespread appeal has landed them in a bit of trouble with the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). The independent advertising watchdog, which regulates the advertising industry, enforces rules drawn up by the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP), which has some pretty strict rules when it comes to gambling ads. In addition to requiring said adverts to be “socially responsible” and “protect children … from being harmed or exploited”, the CAP’s code states marketing communications must not be “likely to be of strong appeal to children or young persons, especially by reflecting or being associated with youth culture”. “They must not include a person or character whose example is likely to be followed by those aged under 18 years or who has a strong appeal to those aged under 18,” it reads. After Ladbrokes shared a promoted tweet in February featuring Paul – following his defeat to Tommy Fury – in which Twitter users were encouraged to vote on “what’s next for Jake Paul”, a single complaint was made to the ASA as to whether it may be in breach of the Code. Responding to the ASA’s enquiries, the betting company noted the advert contained no calls to action, promotions or links back to its website – and was “age-gated” so only users who had confirmed their age as being over 18 could see it. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The ad was specifically targeted at users aged 25 and over, receiving close to 16,500 impressions with just over 47 per cent of these being from individuals aged between 20 and 29 years. Ladbrokes also cited demographics for Paul’s following across several social media platforms, showing that the percentage of users aged between 13 and 17 years old was below 20 per cent on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok. On Twitter, zero per cent of his followers were reportedly registered as being under 18. The company also directed ASA to the watchdog’s own guidance on “protecting under-18s” from advertising about gambling and lotteries, in which it states “sports like … boxing … are more adult-oriented and unlikely to be of inherent ‘strong’ appeal” to children and young people. Zing. However, in a decision which saw the regulator uphold the complaint against Ladbrokes, the ASA ruled there was still a responsibility to comply with the rule about not appealing to under-18s because the advert “appeared in a medium where under-18s could not be entirely excluded from the audience”. It continued: “CAP guidance stated that sportspeople involved in clearly adult-oriented sports who were ‘notable’ stars with significant social media and general profiles which made them well-known to under-18s were considered moderate risk in terms of how likely they were to be of strong appeal to under-18s. “We also considered that Jake Paul would primarily be known for making YouTube videos and that he had a large social media following. We acknowledged that he had within the last few years turned to boxing. “However, because of his career on YouTube, we considered that he had a high profile within the sport and was well known outside of the sport and social media.” Although they noted Paul had no followers aged under 18 on Twitter, where the ad was located, the ASA concluded the content creator was still of “inherent strong appeal” to under-18s because “such large numbers” of his followers were in that demographic. They also mentioned Paul’s appearance on the Disney Channel series Bizaardvark between 2016 and 2018 about two teenagers, with the target audience for the show likely to be “around the same age”. As such, they found Paul still had a “strong appeal” to under-18s and that Ladbroke’s advert was “irresponsible”. Not the first time Paul and “irresponsible” have appeared in the same sentence, to be honest… Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
2023-07-05 07:17
Twitter CEO backs widely criticized tweet-reading rate limits
Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino on Tuesday tweeted a defense of the temporary cap announced July 1 on the
2023-07-05 03:29
Irish budget to deliver €5.2bn spending package
Ireland's finance minister says the budget aims to protect people from the impacts of inflation.
2023-07-05 02:47
Minimum wage workers in these states and localities just got a raise
Lots of low-wage workers just received a boost in pay, as more than a dozen states and localities increased their minimum wages.
2023-07-05 01:49
UK banks should not close accounts over customers' politics, minister says
By Huw Jones and David Milliken LONDON British banks should have to serve a customer even if they
2023-07-05 01:49
Truth Social’s merger partner reaches $18m settlement with SEC
A financial firm linked to Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform has reached an $18m settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in order to bring an end to the investigation into its merger with the company. Digital World Acquisition Corp (DWAC) announced the tentative settlement on Monday, saying that the payment would “remove the cloud of uncertainty lingering over DWAC and would allow DWAC to move forward in achieving its objective of delivering a strategic merger”. The SEC had been looking into whether DWAC held talks with Truth Social’s parent company before going public, which would be a violation of certain antifraud provisions of the Securities Act and the Exchange Act. The settlement means once DWAC has paid the civil penalty it can move forward with the merger, which would see Truth Social become a public company. News of the settlement comes after three people involved in the merger were indicted for insider trading last week. Michael Shvartsman, Gerald Shvartsman and Bruce Garelick were named in a federal indictment unsealed last Thursday (29 June) in Manhattan federal court. All three were charged with trading in securities of Digital World Acquisition Corporation (DWAC) based on non-public information about the company’s planned business combination with Trump Media & Technology Group — founded by former president Mr Trump — the parent company of social media platform Truth Social. They were arrested on Thursday morning in Florida. In 2021, the three investors were invited to invest in DWAC and another SPAC. After signing non-disclosure agreements, they were provided with confidential information, including the planned deal with Trump Media. They were prohibited from using this knowledge in the open market. According to the indictment, after making initial investments into DWAC through the initial public offering process, Mr Garelick was given a seat on the board of directors, which gave him access to valuable non-public information about the planned merger. He provided these updates to his co-conspirators, calling it “intelligence”. The defendants bought millions of dollars of DWAC securities on the open market before the news of the Trump Media business combination was public. In addition to their own purchases, they also passed the information to their friends on a trip to Las Vegas, to Michael Shvartsman’s neighbours, and to Gerald Shvartsman’s employees at a furniture supply store. After DWAC’s merger with Trump Media was announced publicly on 20 October 2021, the stock and warrant holdings significantly increased in value. The defendants and the individuals they tipped then sold their DWAC securities for a significant profit. Michael Shvartsman and Bruce Garelick have been charged with five counts of securities fraud under Title 15, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison; Gerald Shvartsman has been charged with three counts. All three defendants have also been charged with one count of securities fraud under Title 18, which carries a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison; and one count of conspiracy, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. Read More Trump news – live: Truth Social SPAC agrees to SEC settlement as Trump’s past comments on indictment resurface Why isn’t Twitter working? How Elon Musk finally broke his site – and why the internet might be about to get worse Trump mocked for ‘weird apocalyptic’ campaign video Trump marks Independence Day by sharing vulgar attack on Biden Truth Social SPAC reaches SEC settlement as Trump indictment comments reemerge – live Trump sparks speculation by ranting about ‘charges against me’ in Georgia
2023-07-05 00:24
Twitter to put TweetDeck behind a paywall
Another controversial change is coming to Twitter. Only verified users will soon be able to access TweetDeck, the dashboard that lets users views multiple different timelines, the platform tweeted Monday.
2023-07-04 23:21