BT Group Pretax Profit Rises, But Revenue Falls on Weaker International Sales
BT Group BT.A -3.99%decrease; red down pointing triangle reported a higher pretax profit for its fiscal year, though revenue fell due to a decline in international sales.
The U.K. telecommunications company said Thursday that pretax profit for the year ended March 31 rose to 1.33 billion pounds ($1.78 billion) from 1.19 billion pounds a year earlier. This missed company-compiled consensus of 1.80 billion pounds.
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Fox News
an hour ago
- Fox News
EU chief agrees with Trump on China trade issues, declares ‘Donald is right'
Print Close By Emma Colton Published June 17, 2025 European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen found some mutual understanding with President Donald Trump during the G7 conference, declaring "Donald is right" about China's certain trade policies. "When we focus our attention on tariffs between partners, it diverts our energy from the real challenge — one that threatens us all," von der Leyen said during a meeting at the G7, which included Trump's attendance before his abrupt departure back to Washington, D.C., on Monday, Politico reported. "On this point, Donald is right — there is a serious problem," she added, referring to China ignoring global trade rules. Von der Leyen was referring to China's restrictions on raw material exports needed for cars, batteries and wind turbines, with the European Commission chief accusing China of "weaponizing" its ability to produce critical raw materials while icing out competitors. Specifically, China restricted its exports of permanent magnets globally back in April, when Trump rolled out his reciprocal tariff plan that aimed to bring parity to the U.S.' chronic trade deficit. G7 SUMMIT OPENS IN CANADA, WITH LEADERS TO ADDRESS TRADE, WARS WHILE HOPING TO AVOID CLASH WITH TRUMP China has focused on "undercutting intellectual property protections, massive subsidies with the aim to dominate global manufacturing and supply chains. This is not market competition — it is distortion with intent," von der Leyen said, while also warning against "a new China shock" as the country floods the global market with inexpensive subsidized products, Politico reported. GERMANY'S MERZ TO 'ADAPT' TO TRUMP DURING HIGH-STAKES MEETING ON TARIFFS, DEFENSE Von der Leyen has previously traded barbs with Trump, including over trade in April, when she warned "global markets are shaken by the unpredictable tariff policy of the U.S. administration." Ahead of the June summit in Canada, the EU leader reported on X that she had an overarching and "good call" with Trump. "Good call with President Trump ahead of the G7 Summit," she posted on X Saturday. "We discussed the tense geopolitical situation in the Middle East as well as the need for close coordination on the impact on energy markets. We also discussed the situation in Ukraine, the imperative for a ceasefire and the need to keep up pressure on Russia. Finally, we took stock of the ongoing trade talks. I reiterated our commitment to reach a good deal before July 9." The EU leader's remarks were made before Trump abruptly departed the summit Monday, following a day of meetings. The G7 summit, Trump's first under his second administration, kicked off Monday morning and will run through Tuesday in a remote ski town in Alberta, Canada. Upon his trip back to the capital, Trump told the media that the EU had not offered a fair trade deal, adding that, "They're either going to make a good deal, or they'll just pay whatever we say they have to pay." Trump has previously threatened imposing tariffs up to 50% on all EU imports if a trade deal is not reached by July. The summit was expected to focus on trade, the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, and tensions in the Middle East. However, emphasized focus was placed specifically on Israel and Iran after Israel launched preemptive strikes on Iran Thursday evening after months of attempted and stalled nuclear negotiations and subsequent heightened concern that Iran was advancing its nuclear program. The two nations have continued trading deadly strikes since, with Trump abruptly ending his trip to Canada and heading back to Washington, D.C., while warning on Truth Social, "IRAN CAN NOT HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON. I said it over and over again! Everyone should immediately evacuate Tehran!" TRUMP, RUBIO CUTTING G7 TRIP SHORT, RETURNING TO DC AS CHATTER INDICATES IRANIANS FLEEING TEHRAN When asked why Trump abruptly left the G7, he told the media on Tuesday, "I don't believe in telephones," adding that "being on the scene is much better." "And we did everything I had to do at the G7. We had a good G7," Trump added. Trump is expected to report to the Situation Room at the White House as tensions flare between Israel and Iran. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Fox News Digital reached out to the European Commission for any additional comment on von der Leyen's remarks Monday but did not immediately receive a reply. Print Close URL
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Coal power plants were paid to close. Is it time to do the same for slaughterhouses?
The food industry will go to great lengths (and spend a fortune) to lobby policymakers, confuse the public and politicise scientific findings. You can see the results in the UK's delay of a ban on junk food advertisers targeting children, or the orchestrated backlash to a report that recommended cutting red meat consumption and embracing more plant-based diets. It's a well-worn playbook. When scientific evidence indicates the need to phase down environmentally harmful or unhealthy products, the responsible industry pushes back. Motivating this resistance, my colleagues and I believe, is something rarely discussed in the context of food systems: stranded assets. These are investments that lose value or stop generating revenue earlier than their owners and investors anticipated, due to changes in market conditions, technology or – of particular interest here – policy and regulation. This concept has been central to debates in the energy transition. For example, studies have shown that keeping global warming below 2 °C will require leaving fossil fuels in the ground and shutting down power plants before they've generated a return on investment, wiping off about US$1 trillion (£736 billion) in value for companies, financial institutions and investors. The same dynamic applies to the task of feeding everyone well and without substantial environmental harm. What we produce must change, as well as how we produce it. Get your news from actual experts, straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily newsletter to receive all The Conversation UK's latest coverage of news and research, from politics and business to the arts and sciences. Producing animal-sourced protein, especially beef and dairy, has environmental impacts that dwarf those of plant-based protein. Some new technologies may reduce these impacts, particularly feed additives to reduce methane emissions from cattle. But the negative impacts go far beyond cow burps to include deforestation, biodiversity loss, water scarcity and pollution. Beef in particular, even when produced using intensive systems like feedlots in the US, requires substantially more land to make 100 grams of protein than any other source (excluding lamb, which is produced in much lower quantities). As the global population increases and constraints on land use intensify, as much nourishing food as possible will need to be produced on as little land as possible. This will entail slashing the amount of land used for animal-sourced foods. However, companies consistently invest in the assets that produce, process, transport and store the foods we consume. These range from slaughterhouses to the grain silos and transport equipment for single-crop supply chains, to manufacturing plants and the research and development of ultra-processed foods. In order to curtail certain foods, as part of a global shift towards sustainable and healthy diets, these assets cannot generate the revenue they do now. This means writing off some of the capital that has been sunk into them, and any anticipated revenue. Our research identified £217 billion that has been invested in meatpacking plants, for example. A portion of this will be lost in service of a shift to more plant-based sustenance. Whether or not policymakers and researchers are aware of the stranded assets problem, food companies certainly are. We outline three things that need to happen. First, while it is laudable that companies set targets to cut emissions or deforestation, how they invest their money is not always consistent with these goals. Companies need to disclose to investors and the public which of their assets are incompatible with a sustainable future, and how they plan to phase them out. Second, lenders (typically banks) and investors (asset managers and their clients) must work with the companies they fund to manage these transitions rather than simply revoke financing or divest. Shutting down a meatpacking plant and building up a plant-based protein business is costly, and firms will need support. Divestment can play an important role symbolically, signalling an ethical and moral stance against certain activities. But unless it is done by all investors at once, assets like shares go to other buyers with little or no interest in sustainability. Third, and perhaps the thorniest problem, who pays for stranded assets? The money has already been spent. The investments have been made, the meatpacking plants and infrastructure already built, the anticipated revenue and maximised profit margins already embedded in the value of these companies. There is the cost of shutting down assets early as well as the opportunity cost of not making money that was expected from capital that has already been sunk. Who bears those costs? Many assume the answer is straightforward: the polluter should pay. This is certainly possible to achieve. Take the recent ruling in Germany, which determined that private companies can be held liable for their share in causing climate damages. But implementing this principle requires unusually strong political leadership and sustained public support. Both of these things are difficult to secure, particularly in food systems where industry lobbying is intense, livelihoods are at stake, public attention is fragmented and diets are highly personal and easily politicised. Even when policies designed to improve public health or sustainability are passed, they can be easily rolled back. Which brings us to an uncomfortable alternative: paying the polluter. This approach already exists in other sectors. Since 2020, Germany has paid coal plants to retire early. The same has been done in the Netherlands, parts of the US and several other countries. In the Netherlands, the government paid farmers to reduce dairy herds in certain areas in order to hit pollution targets. Paying off food companies to phase out harmful assets sounds like a bailout and feels unfair, since a clean and thriving environment is a human right. Such an approach could only work if it allowed stronger regulation that ensured such pollution wouldn't occur in the future. This is how abolitionists contributed to ending slavery in the UK. If we're stuck between endless policy whiplash and slow-motion climate and health crises, paying the polluter may be worth considering. It's politically fraught and emotionally frustrating, but when it comes to stopping pollution sooner rather than later, it is perhaps more tractable than waiting for political will, corporate courage and public consensus to converge. Get a weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation's environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 45,000+ readers who've subscribed so far. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. Stephanie Walton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Elisa Oyj and Google Cloud Expand Collaboration to Deliver AI-Driven Autonomous Networks
HELSINKI and SUNNYVALE, Calif., June 17, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Elisa Oyj, a leading telecommunications operator in Finland, and Google Cloud today announced an expanded collaboration to enable the company to implement AI-driven autonomous network operations. Elisa will use Google Cloud's Autonomous Network Operations framework, including data and AI tools, to shift from predictive to prescriptive analytics and AI-driven proactive management of its network, ultimately enhancing efficiency, resilience, and the customer experience. Elisa is at the forefront of developing an AI-driven network, and this collaboration marks the next crucial step in its journey towards achieving world-leading network autonomy. This work builds upon Elisa's highly automated network platform, the Elisa Defined Network (EDN), which serves as a crucial enabler for the company's path to the next level network autonomy. The telecommunications industry faces increasing complexity from rapid data growth, new technologies like 5G, and constant demand from users for faster, more reliable services. Manually managing these vast networks is no longer efficient enough, leading to higher operational costs, slower service deployment, and a greater risk of human error. To achieve an "agentic telco network" – an advanced, self-managing, and self-optimizing telecommunications network – Elisa is using Google Cloud's BigQuery data warehouse and Spanner database to consolidate and manage its network data. Elisa is also utilizing Google Cloud's Vertex AI, a unified AI development platform, and Google's Gemini models to build and train agents. The company is building agents using Google Cloud's Agent Development Kit (ADK) and then connecting them together as multi-agent systems with Google's open source-based Agent-to-Agent (A2A) protocol. These agents will be tailored to specific Elisa workflows, enabling predictive analytics, automated diagnostics, and prescriptive actions across the network. The strategic cooperation aims to extend intelligent automation across all parts of Elisa's telecommunications network, including the systems that carry data, the central processing hubs, and the wireless connections that reach mobile devices. This autonomous network will deliver the below capabilities to Elisa and its customers: Zero-touch operations: The network will largely run itself, automating all routine tasks to minimize manual effort. Smart, goal-driven network: The network will understand and automatically execute high-level business goals, adapting without needing constant manual instructions. Self-healing and optimizing: AI will enable Elisa's network to detect and fix issues proactively, and continuously improve its performance. Predictive insights: Advanced analytics and AI will help Elisa anticipate potential problems before they impact services. Improving operational efficiency: With an AI-enabled network, Elisa will be able to achieve world-leading network efficiency, reducing operational costs. Faster innovation: The autonomous approach will enable Elisa to rapidly deploy new services and features, such as 5G applications, accelerating time-to-market. "We are incredibly excited to embark on this next phase of our partnership with Google Cloud, focusing on the ambitious goal of AI-driven autonomous networks," said Sami Komulainen, chief operating officer, Elisa. "This strategic cooperation is designed to not only elevate our own network capabilities to a world-leading standard, but also to foster new innovations that will benefit our customers through unprecedented levels of operational efficiency and service agility." "Our deepened collaboration is all about empowering Elisa to deliver an even better experience for its customers," said Muninder Singh Sambi, vice president and general manager of Networking and Security, Google Cloud. "By working hand-in-hand with Elisa, we're helping the company advance towards a future where its network is fully autonomous, intelligently managing itself to deliver more reliable services, faster innovation, and a seamless digital experience for everyone. We're committed to supporting Elisa in achieving its vision of a sustainable future through digitalization." About Elisa Elisa is a pioneer in telecommunications and digital services, and our mission is a sustainable future through digitalisation. With over 140 years of experience, we provide sustainable solutions for over 2.8 million consumer, corporate and public administration customers in our core markets of Finland and Estonia, as well as in over 100 countries internationally. In Finland, Elisa is the market leader in telecommunications, and internationally, we offer digital software services. Elisa employs over 6,700 professionals in over 20 countries, and revenue in 2024 was EUR 2.2 billion. Elisa Corporation shares are listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki. About Google Cloud Google Cloud is the new way to the cloud, providing AI, infrastructure, developer, data, security, and collaboration tools built for today and tomorrow. Google Cloud offers a powerful, fully integrated and optimized AI stack with its own planet-scale infrastructure, custom-built chips, generative AI models and development platform, as well as AI-powered applications, to help organizations transform. Customers in more than 200 countries and territories turn to Google Cloud as their trusted technology partner. 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