Latest news with #RobertMaxwell
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Community gathers to honor veterans at Crestview Memorial Park
WICHITA FALLS (KFDX/KJTL) — On Memorial Day, Community members braved the wet weather on the morning of May 26 to honor and remember veterans at Crestview Memorial Park. Thousands of flags were placed on the headstones of local veterans, part of the annual tradition to honor those who served our country and remember their legacy. American Legion Post 169 member Robert Maxwell said he has been involved with the flag-placing event for over a decade. He said it is his way of honoring friends who are no longer with us. 'It's just my way of showing respect to, you know, some servicemen and women that I've served with that have passed on themselves in some way. It helps me remember them.' Maxwell said. Maxwell said he is happy to see more people getting involved in remembering veterans and to see that it is not just about backyard barbecues and sales. Among those were the Herricks: Zach, Hanna, and their children, 5-year-old Demi and 10-year-old Josiah. Zach, a veteran himself, said they want to teach their children that freedom comes at a cost and help them honor veterans who served their country. Zach Herrick, Veteran and father said, 'It's important that we get this, information out, and, so they can understand that the all in all here, and they can understand that it's important that they can, really grasp that that freedom isn't free.' Tonight, May 26, at 6:30 p.m., Zach will be the special guest speaker at a ceremony held at the headstone of World War II veteran and Medal of Honor recipient Thomas Fowler. Zach is the founder of the Warrior Art Brigade. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Times
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Times
Yes, pension funds should be investing more in UK productive assets
A few days ago I was chatting over dinner to one of the UK's top businessmen and he asked me a simple question: 'How many tens of billions have been lost to the economy as a result of the pension reforms after Maxwell?' It set me thinking. Maxwell was Robert Maxwell, the Czech-born one-time military hero, Labour MP and media proprietor sometimes nicknamed the 'bouncing Czech'. I once worked for him and he was certainly a presence. In November 1991, Maxwell went overboard from his yacht the Lady Ghislaine, near the Canary Islands, and drowned in circumstances that remain mysterious. The yacht was named after Ghislaine, his daughter, now serving a long US prison sentence for offences related to the activities of Jeffrey Epstein. Maxwell's
Telegraph
09-05-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Rachel Reeves paves way for Dutch-style pensions (that failed in the Netherlands)
When Rachel Reeves unveiled plans to let companies raid their own pensions, she was unequivocal about her motivation – and it was not about protecting retirements. Strict safeguards currently restrict access to defined benefit pension surpluses, but as the Chancellor defiantly pledged to tear them up, she confirmed that growth was the Government's top priority. Experts called it a £40bn tax grab that puts pensions at risk, while some now fear a repeat of the 1990s Robert Maxwell scandal, but the Chancellor has promised to take on anyone who gets in the way – even regulators. But since then, yet another potential threat to retirements has emerged in the form of new Dutch-style pensions known as collective defined contribution (CDC) schemes. Under new plans announced by Labour last month, employers and their staff could be offered the chance to sign up as early as this year. Commonplace in the Netherlands, widely regarded as the world's best country for pensions, the schemes are being advertised as offering less risk and better returns for savers. Yet some experts feel the Government is over-promising, whilst simultaneously using other people's money to relentlessly pursue growth at all costs. The move also comes at a time when the Netherlands' wide scale CDC experiment has backfired, precipitating a seismic shift in its pensions setup. A CDC scheme comprises elements of defined contribution and defined benefit pensions. Savers contribute a percentage of their salary and receive a regular income, and potentially a lump sum, in retirement. For instance, they might receive 1/80th of their pay for each year they were a member, paid in the same way as a defined benefit pension. The catch, however, is that their future income is only a target. It can go up or down at any point, even after retirement, depending on factors like investment performance. Unlike a defined benefit scheme, savers are also not in control of their own destiny in terms of picking their investments or choosing what to do with their pot when they retire. Such schemes are already permitted, although they can only include single or connected employers. Royal Mail's is the only current one in Britain. Last month, however, Torsten Bell, the pensions minister, announced new rules to allow multi-employer schemes as early as this year. He said: 'Too often at present we are leaving individuals to face significant risks about how their individual investments perform and how long their retirements last. 'Pooling some of those risks will drive higher incomes for pensioners and greater investments in productive assets across the economy.' Just over a week later, TPT Retirement Solutions was first out of the blocks to announce it will launch such a scheme by the end of next year. Andy O'Regan, chief client strategy officer, said: 'Making CDC accessible to all employers, regardless of size, is a significant step forward for the industry. It gives you the income in retirement that defined benefit schemes do, but without the employer having to take on that open-ended guarantee. 'I don't think CDCs put pensions at risk. If you look at when markets fall, that's likely to impact defined contribution and CDC. With CDC, if you've got fluctuations in the market, you can adjust [pension] increases over time to cope with it.' In the official announcement, the Government also quoted modelling from the Pensions Protection Institute that suggested CDCs outperform annuities, which actually guarantee an income for life. It claimed that annuities currently provide 40pc of someone's working income in retirement, but that single employer CDCs would offer 47pc. The planned multi-employer CDCs would provide 67pc, it said. However, some experts have concerns. Tom Selby, of AJ Bell, said the Government was offering the 'land of milk and honey' and using other people's money to pursue growth. He said: 'There is no guarantee that CDC schemes will deliver higher incomes than existing defined contribution schemes and comparing them to annuities suggests the income setup is the same, which it isn't. 'Annuities pay a guaranteed income for life, whereas CDC schemes aim for a target income which could be reduced if investments underperform, which is exactly what happened in the Netherlands. 'Offering people a choice of retirement income options is a good thing, but the Government needs to be transparent about what's really happening here – it wants to use other people's money to deliver on its economic agenda.' CDC schemes come with other risks. A House of Commons briefing noted that members could be worse off in CDC than in defined contribution schemes if they die early, because they've effectively subsidised the pensions of those who live longer. There's also a perceived risk that older generations will have their pensions paid by younger ones who may receive less themselves. This should be less of an issue for UK schemes due to their design, but the risk cannot be eliminated. The plans also come at a time of major change in the Netherlands, where CDCs are the most common pension scheme. Paul Waters, of pensions advisers Hymans Robertson, said the country was now moving away from CDC and into defined contribution schemes. He said: 'What I believe happened is first of all they didn't communicate the risk of cuts particularly well. Secondly, the way it was designed is that when cuts were made, they weren't made universally. Older people receiving pensions didn't suffer cuts, but younger people still paying in effectively had pension cuts, so intergenerational unfairness undermined the whole thing. 'The design which the UK government has put in place has learnt lessons from other countries with CDC. The way regulations have been written is that should there need to be a cut, it has to be applied equally across everyone. 'The cautionary tale is around communication. We definitely think you can get higher pensions, but there will be times when pensions go down. You have to communicate this risk clearly and make sure that each person gets the right level of benefit for their saving.' Across the pensions industry, something that experts do agree on is that people aren't saving enough for their retirements. Many have called for urgent increases to the minimum contribution rate set by auto enrolment rules, currently 5pc for employees and 3pc for employers. Labour, however, has indefinitely delayed the second half of its pensions review, which was expected to address this crucial issue. Meanwhile, there are no such delays to introducing CDCs, allowing access to pension surpluses or pushing pension providers into investing more in the UK. Plans to move pensions into inheritance tax by 2027 also seem firmly on track. All four moves will guarantee a significant windfall – but for the Government, not for pensioners.
Times
28-04-2025
- Business
- Times
‘Architect' of demise of Fortress linked to insolvency proposal
A businessman accused of being the 'architect' of the demise of Fortress Capital Partners, an alleged Ponzi scheme, has been linked to an insolvency proposal to take control of the business. Fortress, whose investors included celebrities and members of a south London church, promoted returns of up to 18 per cent a year before collapsing into administration in September 2023. The unregulated investment scheme's borrowers included Kevin Maxwell, son of the late media baron Robert Maxwell. Its failure triggered an investigation by the Metropolitan Police, divided creditors and led to an extraordinary dispute between administrators at Begbies Traynor and the Fortress creditors' committee. Begbies has claimed Fortress has 'all the hallmarks of a Ponzi scheme'. A proposal for a four-year company voluntary arrangement (CVA)
Irish Examiner
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Book review: A forensic examination of the gutter press's race to the bottom
Citizen Kane (1941) is often described as the most influential movie ever made. The main character, Charles Foster Kane, is loosely based on American media mogul, William Randolph Hearst, who developed the largest newspaper chain and media company in the United States, Hearst Communications. Hearst began his career in 1887, aged 24, taking over the San Francisco Examiner from his father, George, who struggled to make it profitable. By 1890, the paper's circulation had tripled. 'The young Hearst demonstrated an extraordinary insight concerning journalism of the future,' writes English journalist, author, and academic, Terry Kirby, in The Newsmongers: A History of Tabloid Journalism. The book is a thoroughly researched, well-crafted history of tabloid journalism from the 16th century right through to the clickbait journalism of today. The real star of Kirby's book, though, is Alfred Harmsworth who became a newspaper man in 1894, when he bought the near bankrupt London Evening News. Within a year, it was the world's biggest selling evening newspaper. Harmsworth dominated the newspaper business in early 20th century Britain — he founded the Daily Mirror in 1903 and bought The Times in 1908. He died as Lord Northcliffe, aged 57, in August 1922. His media empire was passed onto his younger brother, Harold, then known as Lord Rothermere. During the inter-war years, his papers championed Mussolini and Hitler. Closer to home, Rothermere backed the British Union of Fascists, and their thuggish street gang associates, the Blackshirts. In the summer of 1939, just before Nazi Germany invaded Poland, Rothermere wrote a letter to Hitler praising his 'superhuman work'. An omen? The British tabloid press in the post-war period was dominated by outsiders. Robert Maxwell rose from poverty in Czechoslovakia, to become an academic publishing magnate, and a UK Labour Party MP. A crude egomaniac, Maxwell acquired the Daily Mirror in 1984 but his life ended in disgrace. The body of the millionaire publisher was found in early November 1991 off the coast of Tenerife. Maxwell was said to have fallen off the back of the yacht, Lady Ghislaine. He named it after his favourite daughter, who later became a criminal accomplice to serial sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein. Prior to his death, Robert Maxwell had defaulted on $2bn worth of loans and subsequently raided millions of pounds from his company's retirement fund, even stealing from his own staff's pensions and shares in Britain's Mirror Group. Robert Maxwell acquired the Daily Mirror in 1984 but his life ended in disgrace. File photo Rupert Murdoch, by contrast, was — and still is — a shrewd operator. He arrived in Britain, in late October 1968, aged 37. He was then already owner of a growing media empire in Australia that was started by his father. When Keith Murdoch became editor of the Melbourne Herald in January 1921, Lord Northcliffe (who was a good friend) sent him advice on how to make a newspaper profitable. Later that year, Northcliffe sent Murdoch £5,000 (£300,000 in today's money) to help him purchase the Sydney Morning Herald. By the mid-1980s, Murdoch owned The Sun, The Times, The Sunday Times and the News of the World. That decade, as market competition increased, the British tabloid press gradually evolved into the gutter press. Kirby examines this topic with forensic analysis. The emergence of HIV/Aids during the early 1980s, which devastated gay communities across the world, prompted little sympathy from the British tabloids. Typically, they sneered and mocked homosexuality. When EastEnders broadcasted the first ever gay kiss in a British soap in 1989, The Sun published a front-page story titled 'Eastbenders'. The article was written by Piers Morgan, then a young reporter for the paper, who wrote a regular column, The Poofs of Pop, where he speculated on whether various male pop stars were gay. There were numerous complaints made to Britain's Press Council over these stories, which the Sun's then-editor, Kelvin MacKenzie rejected. But Rupert Murdoch 'seemed unconcerned', as Kirby puts it. Rupert Murdoch 'seemed unconcerned' by Piers Morgan's regular column in The Sun, The Poofs of Pop, where he speculated on whether various male pop stars were gay. File photo: Arthur Edwards/PA/News International (NI Group Ltd) By July 2011, however, Murdoch had much to be concerned about. In fact, he voluntarily closed down his paper, the News of the World — after evidence emerged that a private investigator working there, Glenn Mulcaire, had hacked the phone of murdered schoolgirl, Milly Fowler. Journalists at the paper regularly used Mulcaire as a reliable source for stories they printed. The scandal led to then-British prime minister, David Cameron, to launch the Leveson inquiry, which began that year. It was supposed to bring back credibility and accountability to a press culture that was poisoned by years of criminal and unethical behaviour. In practice, after Leveson, the British media grew even more aggressive. In April 2015, Katie Hopkins published an article in The Sun claiming that all migrants coming to Britain by boat are 'cockroaches'. The new press watchdog, ipso, set up after Leveson, accepted the paper's defence that as an opinion piece, it was fair game. In November 2016, the Daily Mail ran a headline describing 'Enemies of the People'. The story, written by the paper's political editor, James Slack, claimed several High Court judges were risking a constitutional crisis. Actually, the judges were merely pointing out that Brexit needed to be passed in the House of Commons to become legally binding. Slack later went to work as a press officer for British prime minister, Theresa May. It's a route many prominent members of the British press have made. Take Andy Coulson, for instance. He was editor of the News of the World from 2003 to 2007. He stepped down after being given the director of communications job for the Conservative Party, staying in that role until January 2011. In July 2014, Coulson was jailed for 18 months for plotting to hack phones while he was editor of the News of the World. In October 2013, evidence emerged in London's Old Bailey that Coulson, while working at the News of the World, had a secret six-year affair with a fellow editor, Rebekah Brooks, while they both plotted to hack phones at the paper. Between 2003 and 2009, Brooks was editor of The Sun. Kirby cites a text message Brooks sent to David Cameron (then leader of the opposition) on October 7, 2009, on the eve of his Tory conference speech. 'I am so rooting for you tomorrow not just as a proud friend but because professionally we're definitely in this together! Speech of your life? Yes he Cam,' wrote Brooks. 'That last phrase was the Sun's headline the day after the speech,' Kirby explains. He argues convincingly that the line between the third and fourth estate has gradually eroded in Britain over the last few decades — where a motley crew of hacks, editors, press barons, and members of parliament, including several prime ministers, have all become a little too chummy for comfort. Kirby gives the last word to Britain's Prince Harry, the duke of Sussex. Last December, he was awarded £146,000 following a successful legal fight against The Mirror's publisher at the High Court in London, who ruled that he had been the victim of information gathering, including phone-hacking. 'Our country is judged globally by the state of our press and our government — both of which I believe are at rock bottom,' the duke of Sussex told the court in a witness statement that day. 'Democracy fails when your press fails to scrutinise and hold the government accountable, and instead choose to get into bed with them so they can ensure the status quo.' A British royal giving a lecture about democratic values? It's a bit rich. But he certainly has a point.
