Seven Pakistan army soldiers killed in blast in Balochistan
ISLAMABAD, May 6 (Reuters) - Seven Pakistan army soldiers were killed on Tuesday when their vehicle was targeted by an improvised explosive device in the troubled southwestern province of Balochistan, Pakistan's military said in a statement.
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Reporting by Saeed Shah, writing by Tanvi Mehta; Editing by YP Rajesh
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Reuters
16 minutes ago
- Reuters
South Korea to revamp tax scheme to boost dividends as part of stock market reform
SEOUL, June 11 (Reuters) - South Korean President Lee Jae-myung said on Wednesday the government was preparing to revamp the country's tax system to boost dividend payouts, as part of a broader push to make the domestic stock market more attractive. "If it does not greatly hurt public finances, it will be better to lower (taxes) for more dividend income," Lee said during a visit to the Korea Exchange. Lee also ordered regulatory improvements to prevent unfair trading practices in the market and a "one-strike-out" system to penalize illegal trades, according to his spokesperson. One of Lee's major pledges during his election campaign was to implement various capital market reforms and resolve the so-called "Korea Discount", a tendency for South Korean companies to trade at a lower valuation than global peers due to low dividend payouts and opaque corporate governance. The day after Lee took office on June 4, his Democratic Party reintroduced legislation expanding the fiduciary duty of board members to protect shareholder interests and it plans to have the bill approved this month. The country's benchmark KOSPI stock index (.KS11), opens new tab has rallied since Lee's election victory last week on optimism around his "KOSPI 5,000" initiative aiming for the index to eventually reach 5,000 points. On Wednesday, it closed up 1.23% at 2,907.04, the highest level since January 14, 2022.
Telegraph
29 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Not all Man Utd staff will miss Sir Dave Brailsford and his ego
Manchester United were not long back from their post-season tour of Asia, a 14,000-mile round trip that had been bolted on to the end of the club's worst campaign for more than half a century, when the news seeped out that Sir Dave Brailsford was relinquishing his day-to-day role at Old Trafford. Parachuted into United at Sir Jim Ratcliffe's behest in January last year, Brailsford now slips into the shadows 18 months later like the head of a reconnaissance unit whose job has essentially been seen as done. There are those who insist the success of that mission will only be adequately calculated in time. Brailsford may not be on United's payroll – his rumoured €6 million (£5.1 million) annual salary is covered entirely by Ineos, for whom the British cycling guru serves as director of sport – but his fingerprints are on much of the club's recent modernisation efforts. From providing oversight and expertise on the £50 million revamp of the club's Carrington training ground through to the reorientation of a high-performance culture – at least conceptually – and the controversial and, at times, chaotic restructuring of the football management hierarchy, no one can say Brailsford's flirtation with United has not been eventful. He will remain on the football club board as a director, alongside the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson and David Gill, and still act in an advisory capacity on strategic performance matters when required. But he has stepped away from operations to return to his broader remit as Ratcliffe's consigliere across the Ineos Sport group, confident United are on a surer footing than when he first arrived, even if a glance at the results and performances since may suggest otherwise. Brailsford's 18 months as a kind of consultant performance tsar at United are pockmarked with all sorts of stories, out of which a picture of a distinctly polarising figure emerges. That contradiction was perhaps evidenced early on when he turned up at a meeting of the football leadership team at Carrington, not long after Ratcliffe had secured a minority stake in the club that now stands at 28.94 per cent. The weekly round table with executives from the men's and women's teams, academy, recruitment, data science and performance offered an opportunity to discuss what was happening across different departments. Brailsford made it clear he wanted to hear from each and every one of those gathered and about their ideas for the future. Yet, according to well-placed sources, he then proceeded to talk predominantly about himself and his hopes for United for the next half an hour before having to excuse himself to take a phone call. He did not return to the meeting. It was the last time some of those present heard directly from him. The perception, fairly or otherwise, of a man highly skilled in the theatre of leadership but perhaps not always consistent with the follow through was given traction in other moments, too. Brailsford's charisma and candour certainly appeared to have a charming effect on some of the staff who had assembled to hear him and Ratcliffe speak for the first time about the club's underperformance, and their role in tackling the challenges ahead. 'He made a point of saying it's not about the stick, it's about the carrot and how we want to reward your good work and all that stuff,' one of those present recalled. As a savage cost-cutting programme began to bite, though, staff started to feel the opposite was true. 'Ultimately it turned out to be b-------,' the source added. 'It was all 'we're taking this off you, we're taking that off you, you're not having this bonus and so on'.' Staff underwhelmed by 'the court of Dave' Another all-staff address last year, which had been pitched as an update on football operations, was regarded by some as little more than a repetition of the same performance-speak and business jargon in what one source dubbed 'the court of Dave', than anything of real substance. Could much the same be true for Brailsford's so-called Mission 21 and Mission 1, the oft publicised initiatives aimed at recapturing the Premier League title and delivering a first Women's Super League respectively by 2028. Insiders insist they are as much about focusing minds and strategies as setting clear targets, and Brailsford could be the first to point out how people scoffed when he first laid out his plan to make Britain the best at cycling. Others at the club have wondered why another slogan was necessary when Omar Berrada, the United chief executive, had already set out Project 150, with the aim of recapturing the title by the club's 150th anniversary. Was Mission 1 not just piggy-backing on more or less the same idea? While some seem to have struggled to look beyond the ego and capacity for self-promotion, many speak warmly about Brailsford. 'He was always very pleasant and very polite,' one said. Others argue strongly that it was inevitable he was going to rattle some cages and put some noses out of joint and that United need some disruptors. 'What was the alternative? The status quo?' one insider said. On the football side, his focus on performance metrics over commercial whims was clear, perhaps unsurprisingly given his background. For example, he was one of those who questioned United's tradition of far-flung pre-season tours and advocated staying closer to home, even if those wishes were ultimately trumped by perceived commercial necessity. Having spent a career building physical performance environments, Brailsford has had considerable involvement in the extensive repurposing of United's training ground, which is close to completion. He spent time in the United States looking at how leading sports franchises build their facilities to ensure they are tailored to a player's training programme the moment they set foot in the building. Not everything has been straightforward. Mags Mernagh, United's highly regarded director of infrastructure, who had been a central figure behind the development of Leicester City's award-winning training ground, left United of her own volition last year. Officially, Mernagh wanted to pursue a new challenge, although she is thought to have grown frustrated working under Ineos. Nonetheless, there is considerable excitement internally about United's Carrington reboot. Brailsford forged a formidable reputation as the architect of British Cycling's Olympic dominance and, later, that of the Tour de France by Team Sky. He became synonymous with the concept of marginal gains – the theory that incremental improvements across various areas can lead to substantial overall gains in performances and results. Unlike British cycling in those early Brailsford years, though, United – with their long-standing traditions, entrenched interests, enormous expectations and sceptical veterans – did not constitute a blank slate and nor was this his go-to sport. In an interview with the T2 Hubcast podcast, around the time Ratcliffe was finalising his deal with the Glazers, Brailsford, now 61, provided an honest assessment about his football experience and acumen. 'When I watch cycling, I'll be watching in colour and you'll be watching in black and white,' he said. 'But, in football, I'm watching in black and white.' Brailsford gave impression he was 'doing us a favour' It was disarmingly self-deprecating, but some inside Carrington found that humility a little harder to detect and even some of the players are said to have picked up on that. Brailsford had doubtless not intended to offend when suggesting the easier option would have been to stay in Monaco at his home on one of the most exclusive streets in the millionaire's playground on the sun-drenched French Riviera. But the inference that he was in some way 'doing us a favour', as one source put it, irked some at United and, for others, encouraged this notion of his merely 'passing through'. On that note, Brailsford's involvement with United coincided with some major developments in his personal life that easily explain the pull of home. He married Meli, who is understood to have been his lifestyle manager and has since given birth to their first child together. Their wedding was at the iconic Hotel de Paris in Monte-Carlo in February last year, where the mother and sister of the bride, Ratcliffe and Jimmy Worrall, a close friend, associate and well-known networker in sport-exec circles, figured prominently. In one picture, Brailsford is seen waving to the small crowd of well-heeled wedding guests as he drives off in a vintage white, soft-top Mercedes 280SL, with his bride beside him. Such images are far removed from those bleak winter months in the directors' box at Old Trafford, where Brailsford would sit alongside United's other pensive-looking executives as they faced up to the reality of yet another defeat. Fifteenth place in the Premier League, United's lowest position since relegation in 1974, was not what anyone at Ineos had in mind when buying into the club. For some, Brailsford's turbulent tenure at United will forever be intertwined with the debacles around Erik ten Hag and Dan Ashworth, when there was not a lot of clear thinking in evidence. The responsibility of taking United forward will now sit predominantly with Berrada and Jason Wilcox, who has been promoted to director of football as part of the reshuffle that has taken Brailsford back to his more familiar world of cycling with the Ineos Grenadiers, among other things. United fans can only hope there will be a lot less drama in the decision-making process from here on. Brailsford, of course, was a fundamental part of that botched process in which Ten Hag went from being undermined to signing a new contract, gaining an entire new staff and spending £200 million in the summer market, to collecting his P45, in the space of six excruciating months. Ten Hag's departure was followed less than six weeks later by that of Ashworth, whom United had spent five months trying to extract from Newcastle on Brailsford's recommendation as the ideal sporting director, only to sack him 159 days later. In many respects, the process to appointing Ashworth had long preceded Ratcliffe's minority investment in United. Via his associate Worrall, Brailsford had established a Zoom call in the summer 2022 for 'head coaches/team principal/GM', with invites going out to a host of glittering names across the sporting spectrum. The feeling in football was that Brailsford, by now well ensconced with the Ineos-owned Ligue 1 club Nice, was eager to learn. Ashworth was one of those Brailsford would tap into and eventually feel sufficiently impressed by to appoint at Old Trafford, although some of those interviewed would come to wonder if they were genuine contenders for the job, or rather sources to squeeze for information. The Ratcliffe-Brailsford dynamic is an interesting one. The Ineos chairman said in an interview in March that the former United chief executive Richard Arnold was a 'rugby man, he didn't even understand football'. To which some staff at the club have pondered privately how that is any different to Brailsford, a cycling nut who has himself admitted will 'never get' to the point where figuratively he is watching football 'in colour'. Others feel some of Ratcliffe's public remarks reflect what Brailsford has told him and have questioned the messages being filtered back to the co-owner on occasion. Sir Bradley Wiggins, the former British cyclist, said once that he could not describe Brailsford 'without swearing' and he certainly managed to rub some United staff up the wrong way. One former employee claimed their impression of Brailsford was that he 'didn't want to hear anything that would potentially contradict what he was already thinking'. There was some disquiet internally that Brailsford opted not to speak to some prominent departmental figures as part of the audit of football operations he initially carried out for Ratcliffe. Telegraph Sport reported in March how Brailsford never met with Dominic Jordan, the club's former director of data science, who was axed as part of last summer's job cuts, for example. Whether Brailsford's position, as a kind of buffer between Ratcliffe and the club's hierarchy, has been a problem for the executives he has helped to put in place is unknown, but it will be a little different from now on. Two months earlier, Jean-Claude Blanc, another Ineos Sport executive who acted as interim CEO amid the wait for Berrada to start, also left his role as a United director. Amid the suggestions of there being 'too many cooks' at United last season, the likes of Berrada and Wilcox may feel increasingly empowered now those executive layers have been thinned out, even if they remain answerable to a very hands-on Ratcliffe. Brailsford leaves behind a more rounded football executive than six months ago. In February, Christopher Vivell became director of recruitment on a full-time basis, Sam Erith's role as performance director was made permanent two months later and Michael Sansoni has been recruited from the Mercedes Formula One team to head up a new-look data team. He will be assisted by data consultant Dan Nichol. Sources maintain that Brailsford's reduced commitment to United is a natural evolution and was always part of the plan and, as such, nothing much should be read into it. As it happened, he had been less of a presence around Carrington of late after suffering a broken leg on a skiing holiday earlier this year, following which he spent time recovering at home in Monaco. In many ways, Brailsford leaves as he arrived: with opinions split, even if time will be the ultimate judge of his impact in Manchester.
Times
38 minutes ago
- Times
Business live: US and China reach deal to restore trade truce
Inditex, the owner of Zara, has reported worse-than-expected first-quarter revenue and a slower start to its summer sales. Revenue in the three months to the end of April was €8.27 billion, below analysts' forecasts of €8.36 billion. Inditex said revenue had risen 6 per cent at the start of the second quarter, compared to 12 per cent growth over the same period a year ago. The board of Assura, a real estate investment trust which is one of the NHS's biggest landlords, is recommending shareholders accept a 'final' offer from KKR and Stonepeak, the American private equity firms, following a contested takeover battle for the group. The consortium has raised its offer for the company to nearly £1.7 billion, or 52.1p a share, outbidding rival suitor Primary Health Properties. Assura owns hundreds of doctors' surgeries around the UK. Bid interest has lifted the shares 24 per cent over the past year to 49p last night. US and Chinese officials have agreed on a framework to put their trade truce back on track and remove China's export restrictions on rare earth metals and some of the recent US export restrictions. However, market reaction in Asia was muted as there was little detail after the two days of talks concluded around midnight in London. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 and China's SSE Composite were both up around 0.6 per cent. US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick said: 'The idea is we're going to go back and speak to President Trump and make sure he approves it. They're going to go back and speak to President Xi and make sure he approves it, and if that is approved, we will then implement the framework.' • Entrepreneur Davina Schonle was left feeling 'humiliated' after she and her eight-month-old baby were refused admission to London Tech Week, a gathering of global technology leaders taking place at London's Olympia.• AstraZeneca has been accused of 'turning a blind eye' to the Chinese government and putting 'profits before people' as it invests billions in the country amid the long-running detention of a key executive.• A battle between listed technology company Big Technologies and its former chief executive has escalated as it suspended the voting rights of shareholders holding 17 per cent of its stock.• Britain's listing rulebook is not to blame for the shrinking of the London stock market, Nikhil Rathi, chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority, told MPs.
