How super-rich influencers are helping to supply international aid
The charity described this fundraising achievement as "unprecedented", especially considering its total income for the previous financial year was £90.9 million.
The campaign aims to raise a total of $40 million by the end of August to provide clean water to two million people worldwide.
This initiative helps address funding shortfalls caused by government aid cuts and a decline in traditional charitable donations, highlighting the need for new fundraising approaches.
WaterAid emphasised the importance of leveraging new media platforms like YouTube to engage a new generation of supporters and tackle the global water crisis.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Times
20 minutes ago
- Times
Is this the right time to buy shares in Pagegroup?
The last time this column looked at Pagegroup back in January 2024, the recruiters were coming off the back of a tough 12 months but there was optimism that a rebound was not too far away. Fast-forward 18 months and the market slowdown that began towards the end of 2022 is still here: companies are not hiring and candidates are not moving. This is the longest downturn anyone in the industry can remember. The Tempus advice to avoid Pagegroup was sage: since the start of last year, shares in the company are down 46 per cent. Pagegroup enjoyed a couple of record years after the pandemic during the 'great resignation' as people, after months sitting at home, rethought what they wanted from a job. It helped, too, that in their rush to ready themselves for the post-lockdown economic rebound, companies were offering generous pay increases to rebuild their workforces. That mini-boom came to an end almost three years ago and the intervening period has been marked by rapid inflation, spiralling interest rates, wars and general economic and geopolitical uncertainty. Page's fee income has been falling since the start of 2023 and it is still dropping. Earlier this month it dashed any hopes of an imminent improvement in the market having seen, if anything, a 'slight deterioration in activity levels' in Europe over the summer, particularly in Germany and France, the two largest countries. No one in the industry knows when the market will pick up again, but it almost certainly will not be this calendar year. The timeline for a recovery has been pushed back so many times that recruitment firms have stopped offering their predictions. Page has suffered more than some of its rivals because of its reliance on filling full-time roles for its clients. Permanent hiring still makes up 72 per cent of its fee income, versus 28 per cent for its contracting division. Many of those companies that are still hiring are bringing in workers on fixed-term contracts to oversee specific projects. Page has said that this trend is because companies, faced with uncertainty, are seeking 'more flexible options'. In response to the prolonged downturn, the company has shaved £15 million from its annual cost base, a chunk of which has come from cutting its headcount. In 2022, it had more than 7,000 recruiters but its staff numbers have since been reduced by about a quarter as its fees have dried up over the past couple of years. It now has 5,163 recruiters around the world, having cut a further 207 consultant roles so far in 2025. It has also done away with special dividends, which tripled investors' income in the good years. Due to the sometimes drastic measures, Page is just about keeping its head above water. In the first six months of 2025, it made a profit of £200,000, down from £27.7 million in the same period of 2024. For context, in the first half of 2022, it made a pre-tax profit of £114.5 million. Its shares still look expensive relative to peers though. Its enterprise value-to-underlying profit ratio of 9.4 times compares with 7.4 times at Hays, for example. • Recruiter Hays slashes dividend after 90% drop in profits Analysts at Panmure Liberum expect Page will turn an underlying profit of about £22 million this year — not too dissimilar to what it made in 2009, during the depths of the financial crisis, and in the lockdown-hit 2020. Management's target of achieving an underlying profit of £400 million currently looks unreachable, but they have stuck with it. Even when the recovery does come, there remain long-term doubts not just about Page but the recruitment industry more generally. Advances in artificial intelligence mean companies' internal HR teams can now scan through hundreds of CVs and cover letters and pick out four or five people for an in-person interview. Social media, particularly LinkedIn, has made hunting for jobs or candidates off your own bat that bit easier. Given the shares' performance over the past 12 months, and with Page's focus on permanent hiring making it more exposed to the economic cycle, any sniff of a pick-up in activity will boost its share price. But no one expects that inflection point to arrive soon. There is too much uncertainty, both in the short and long term, to recommend buying shares in Pagegroup — especially at a time when the broader London stock market is hitting fresh records almost daily. Advice Avoid Why Outlook remains uncertain and AI poses a threat
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
3 principles to invest by, whatever comes next
I recently opened a second-quarter investment account statement, not to euphoria—but relief. Let's not forget, US equities flirted with a bear market earlier this year. There were concerns that China's DeepSeek artificial intelligence would bring down US technology titans. There were the tariffs. Yet, here we sit in the third quarter of 2025 with the Morningstar US Market Index up nearly 8% for the year and the Morningstar US Core Bond Index having returned more than 3%. Ahead of us lie multiple pathways. Economic data and earnings announcements will provide direction, but there are also 'unknown unknowns' that could alter our course. Here are three investment principles to keep in mind. Principle 1: Where the market goes, nobody knows Coming into the year, how many pundits talked about AI out of China challenging US tech stocks? Did anyone expect tariffs to be such a factor? Though 2025 has had its plot twists, changes in market direction are hardly unusual. Consider thatstocks came into summer 2024 on a tear, beforesentiment turned. A series of releases—jobs, inflation, and earnings—compounded fears of a narrow and pricey market. Somehow, both an unexpected interest rate hike by the Bank of Japan and an expected rate cut by the Fed triggered selloffs. But markets recovered. Election results in November sparked a powerful rally. So, w here we go from here is anyone's guess. But I'll cite a story about how dead investors outperform living ones because they don't trade. Buy-and-hold has been a great strategy for long-term investors. Principle 2: Global investing can pay off Some think you don't need to own anything other than US equities. But I'llnote that the Morningstar Global Markets ex-US Index has trounced its US equivalent so far in 2025. What's behind the turnaround? The dollar weakening against many other currencies is part of the story. But markets in many regions— Europe, Latin America, and India—have roared to life this year. To me, global investing is about casting the net as widely as possible. So, just as some argue that US-based multinationals provide American investors with global exposure, you could also argue that they're not fully exposed to the US, from a revenue perspective, with a purely domestic portfolio. Principle 3: Bonds aren't broken The equity market's extreme volatility in 2025 makes bonds look like steady-Eddies. While US stocks were in free fall from late February through early April, the Morningstar US Core Bond Index gained 1.3%. Bonds diversified equities, serving as portfolio ballast. Bonds face a lot of 'headline risk.' There are debt and deficit concerns. And the shadow of 2022's ' worst bond market ever ' lingers. While the risks are undeniable, fixed income is also the victim of fearmongering. Not only have bonds diversified stocks, they're also providing above-inflation income streams. Thanks to the painful interest rate hikes of 2022-23, yields on fixed income are at levels not seen since the mid-2000s. The road ahead We're likely to see more twists before 2025 is out. Short-term asset-price fluctuations are driven by a complex interplay of variables—macro and micro, fundamental and technical. Longer term, valuation can be a useful guide. According to my Morningstar Equity Research colleagues, the US stock market looked a bit pricey coming into the second half of 2025—not in dangerous bubble territory, but 'trading at a slight premium.' The bargains cluster on the value side of the market and in smaller-cap stocks. Meanwhile, my colleagues in Morningstar Investment Management continue to see upside in bonds and international equities. As always, a buy-and-hold mindset and a diversified portfolio remain sensible investment tactics. ____ This article was provided to The Associated Press by Morningstar. For more markets content, go to Dan Lefkovitz is a strategist for Morningstar Indexes.
Finextra
2 hours ago
- Finextra
Crypto wallet MetaMask launches native stablecoin
Self-custodial crypto wallet MetaMask is launching its own native stablecoin, which will be issued by Stripe-owned Bridge. 0 MetaMask USD ($mUSD) will be integrated into MetaMask's wallet, promising users a seamless, dollar-denominated stablecoin experience for holding, spending, and transacting in web3. The stablecoin will initially launch on Ethereum and Linea, the EVM-equivalent layer-2 blockchain created by Consensys, the company that developed MetaMask. Users will also be able to spend $mUSD at millions of merchants around the world via the MetaMask Mastercard card. MetaMask is not issuing the token itself, instead partnering with Bridge, the specialist platform recently acquired by payments giant Stripe for over $1 billion. Gal Eldar, product lead, MetaMask, says: 'MetaMask USD is a critical step in bringing the world onchain. By integrating natively into MetaMask's product offering, it will allow us to cut through some of the most stubborn barriers in web3 and reduce both friction and costs for people onboarding directly into a self-custodial wallet. "With MetaMask USD, users can bring their money onchain, put it to work, spend it almost anywhere, and use it like money should be used. We're not just bringing people onchain. We're building the reason they'll never want to leave.'
