World Business Report US firm Lyten acquires assets of bankrupt European battery maker Northvolt
We explore why California-based Lyten has stepped in to acquire the bankrupt Swedish firm Northvolt and whether a startup can truly take on China's dominance in battery technology.
Climate change is threatening the purity of France's famous mineral waters. The BBC's Hugh Schofield visits the home of Perrier to find out why.
Plus, Africa's first elected female president, Liberia's Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, argues it's time for the continent's vast natural resource wealth to deliver greater benefits at home.
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The Guardian
10 hours ago
- The Guardian
The Guardian view on France's wine crisis: the answer to claret could be clairet
These are always anxious weeks in the Bordeaux vineyards, where 15% of France's wine is grown, including in celebrated places like Chateau Latour and Chateau Mouton-Rothschild. In earlier years, this ritual anxiety among the region's winegrowers had a pleasingly folkloric quality. In the middle of August, the grapes would ripen and their colour start to turn. About 45 days from now, tradition dictates, it will be time to start picking the 2025 vintage. As the wine writer Edmund Penning-Rowsell put it: 'To pick or not to pick is the most momentous decision in the winemaking year in Bordeaux.' This once timeless rhythm is now collapsing. Part of the problem is the climate crisis. Bordeaux still benefits from its moderate Atlantic climate. But south-west France is getting much hotter and drier. Even in the Gironde region, maximum temperatures have been close to 40C at times this past week. Adaptation, in the form of hardier grapes and greater crop diversity, feels unavoidable. A much larger challenge, however, is today's changing wine market. Demand for red wine in general, and for the full-bodied, long maturing red wines with generally high alcohol content that are synonymous with Bordeaux in particular, has slumped. This has affected not just the signature premiers crus in which monarchs and the global rich have always invested, but also the vineyards producing the ordinary Bordeaux red wines sold in supermarkets around the globe. For a region whose wine output is 85% red, this is an existential crisis. Bordeaux produces around 650m bottles of wine each year; but it currently sells only 500m. Demand for red wine in France has fallen by 38% in the past five years; in the 10 years to 2023 the fall was 45%. Nor is the slump confined to France. Demand in the Chinese market has halved since 2017. US tariffs will undoubtedly hit the 20% of Bordeaux exports that previously went across the Atlantic. These consumption changes are likely to be irreversible, at least in the short and medium term. A popular response for many would be to slash prices. Global Bordeaux prices soared outrageously in the Chinese boom years. But with consumers turning away in droves, and too many producers operating at a loss, price cuts have not reshaped the market. With aid from the French government and the EU, about 15% of Bordeaux vineyards have instead been dug up and put to new uses, including olives and kiwifruit, since 2019. In the nick of time, there is now a more traditional but also genuinely radical idea – to produce lighter and less tannic wines. History is on this idea's side. Bordeaux reds have been known for centuries in Britain as claret. But this much debated word dates from when England's Henry II and his descendants ruled in medieval Aquitaine. Back then, the reds of Bordeaux were often lighter, fresher wines known as clairet, somewhere between a modern red and a rosé, to be drunk young, which for the English meant soon after they arrived from their voyage from France. Small amounts of clairet are still produced in parts of the Bordeaux region even now. Today there are moves to expand production with the aim of winning new consumers who have rejected heavier reds. Clairet's advocates say it should be drunk within a couple of years and should be drunk chilled. Traditional claret drinkers will upend their decanters in disgust. But clairet sounds just the thing to accompany a barbecue over a warm summer weekend.
Daily Mail
18 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Shocking Ikea flyer from 1985 shows VERY surprising prices... but not everything is what it seems
Swedish homewares giant Ikea is a household name and somehow, 40 years later after their first store opened in the U.S., some of their most popular furniture is even cheaper. A resurfaced flyer from 1985 has Allen-key enthusiasts agog at the price differences, with some of their most-loved furniture cheaper than what it was decades earlier. Shared to Reddit, the user showed four popular products and the price from the catalogue in comparison to what they are on the Ikea website in 2025. The first was the Billy bookcase - a staple in many houses all around the world. In 1985, the load-bearing piece piece retailed for $82, and now has decreased in price, selling for $69.99. The next piece was the simple Lack side table, selling for $25 in 1985. In 2025, the loved-item is retailing now for $9.99. A Klippan loveseat 40 years ago was a tad puffier, but a more streamlined model is now almost $100 cheaper, at $299. Lastly, the catalogue showed an armchair for $148, with the Poäng chair now only $69. The furniture giant pointed out their price cuts in an advertisement published in 2015, which celebrated 30 years of the store being in America and showed off their low prices. While the prices have risen in the last 10 years, they are still lower than the 1985 prices. Despite the cheaper prices, many users chimed in declaring the quality of the furniture is far worse in 2025. 'Surprised how everyone's complaining that IKEA furniture is made more cheaply now than it used to be,' commented one user. 'Like yeah, sure it is, but how many companies have made their product intentionally worse over the years while ALSO doubling or tripling the price? The fact that prices haven't changed much shows at least some integrity on their part.' 'I agree. And while IKEA doesn't make the most durable products on earth, they definitely still make better stuff than comparably-priced products you get at other stores (Amazon, Walmart, etc),' chimed in another. 'You can still get a decent, weighty dresser for $100 at IKEA, best alternative you'll find on Amazon is some super thin particle board with those dreadful fabric pseudo-drawers.' Others declared the Swedish furniture had stood the test of time. 'In general I think IKEA suffers from the reputation flat-pack furniture has that is caused by experiences with flat-pack made by literally any company other than IKEA,' one happy customer wrote. They continued: 'I've bought cheap non-IKEA flat-pack desks and cabinets and it's barely cheaper and so much worse. The parts don't fit together as well, the joints aren't as sturdy, and the instructions are inevitably so much harder to follow assembling it.' The showed four popular products and the price from the catalogue in comparison to what they are on the Ikea website in 2025 (pictured) In June, Ikea announced it was closing more of its smaller-format stores in both the UK and California, as the global retail shakeup continues to claim big names. Launched in 2023, the concept aimed to give customers a more tailored experience — with smaller showrooms where shoppers could meet with design specialists, place custom orders, and collect items. However, the company says the format no longer fits customer demand. The Swedish furniture giant confirmed it is shutting down three of its Plan & Order Points locations this month — two in the UK and one in the US. The Liverpool and Stockport stores closed last week, and the final US location in Long Beach is closing its doors forever in June. The first Ikea store opened in 1958 in Sweden, and expanded to the US in 1985. It has grown into a furniture empire and operates approximately 485 locations, 74 being in the US.
Daily Mail
19 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Sales slump takes shine off world's biggest jeweller Pandora
Pandora shares slumped yesterday as sales at the world's biggest jeweller fell sharply in key European markets amid tariff woes. The Danish company, whose gems are advertised by actress Pamela Anderson, saw sales fall by 9 per cent in the UK – where it operates 280 shops – in the three months to June 30. They dropped by 7 per cent in France and Italy and 6 per cent in Germany but increased 8 per cent in the US, leaving total sales up 3 per cent at £820m. Growth subsequently slowed to 2 per cent in July. Pandora said it will consider price increases as it digests the impact of the tariffs. It predicted the levies will cost it £23m this year and £52m the next. Shares tumbled 18.4 per cent yesterday, adding to losses of more than a third this year so far.
