firms

The government is looking at ways to financially support the companies in Jaguar Land Rover’s (JLR) supply chain, the BBC understands.

JLR halted car production at the end of August after a cyber attack forced it to shut down its IT networks. Its factories remain suspended until next month at the earliest.

Fears are growing that some suppliers, in particular the smaller firms who solely rely on JLR’s business, could go bust without support.

One idea being explored is the government buying the component parts the suppliers build, to keep them in business until JLR’s production lines are up and running again.

Sept. 18 (UPI) — Major U.S. companies are set to invest a record $205 billion in Britain over the next decade, creating thousands of jobs across the four countries of the United Kingdom, the government said in an announcement timed to coincide with U.S. President Donald Trump‘s state visit.

Investment giant Blackstone will put in the bulk of the money, about $123 billion, along with $46 billion from Microsoft, NVIDIA and Google into AI projects and data centers, according to a Business Department news release.

Prologis will pump another $5.3 billion into the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, as well as investments to support life sciences, advanced manufacturing and rail infrastructure, while tech company Palantir is set to invest $2 billion.

Hailing what he said was the largest commercial package ever secured during a State Visit, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the deals were a “testament to Britain’s economic strength and a bold signal that our country is open, ambitious, and ready to lead.”

“When we back British brilliance, champion our world-class industries, and forge deeper global alliances — especially with friends like the United States — we help shape the future for generations to come and make people across the country better off,” Starmer said. “Jobs, growth and opportunity is what I promised for working people, and it’s exactly what this State Visit is delivering.”

Prologis U.K. regional head Paul Weston said the move demonstrated the firm’s determination to support innovation and deliver the sustainable infrastructure base critical to the U.K.’s long-term economic growth. 

“Our investment ambitions for the expansion of Cambridge Biomedical Campus and Daventry International Rail Freight Terminal are backing two of the U.K.’s most critical sectors: life sciences and logistics,” said Weston.

However, the money will not all be flowing in one direction.

British firms are set to invest upwards of $73 billion in the United States over the next five years, led by pharma-giant GSK and BP, plus tech, banks and insurers.

U.K. public sector contracts with U.S. companies, mostly in the spheres of tech and defense, helping run critical services such as the National Health Service and weather forecasting, will add another $60 billion to that figure.

Meanwhile, the state visit by Trump, credited with oiling all the deals, culminated Wednesday night with a grand state banquet in his honor in Windsor Castle’s St. George’s Hall attended by 160 guests at which he was seated with King Charles on one side and Catherine, Princess of Wales, on the other.

In speeches, the king and Trump spoke at length about the special U.K.-U.S. relationship with Charles highlighting the shared history of the two nations fighting alongside each other in two world wars and praising Trump’s dedication to “finding solutions to some of the world’s most intractable conflicts.”

“Our people have fought and died together for the values we hold dear,” said the King.

Trump said “special” didn’t even come close.

“I have such respect for you and such respect for your country for many decades. The word special does not begin to do it justice,” he said, addressing the king.

The visit was set to continue Thursday with Trump traveling to Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s country residence in Buckinghamshire for bilateral talks and a summit with business leaders, while First Lady Melania Trump will remain at Windsor Castle to attend events with Queen Camilla and Princess Kate.

MILLIONS of struggling households on Universal Credit could be missing out on discounted broadband worth up to £200.

Social tariffs are offered to those on Universal Credit and other government benefits such as Pension Credit.

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And it can help you save hundreds of pounds a year compared to the standard deals.

Not only that, but they often come with no exit fees, although you should always check the terms and conditions carefully.

It comes after fresh analysis by Policy in Practice shows that there was over 7.5million missed claims for the tariffs.

And the average household is missing out on £200 a year.

It means you can get access to broadband at a discounted price, which can help if you are struggling with other costs.

For example, 4th Utility social tariffs offers a broadband for £13.99 a month.

Meanwhile, BT offers a Home Essentials package for those on Universal Credit and the guaranteed element of Pension Credit.

And those Employment and Support Allowance, Jobseeker’s Allowance and Income Support can also apply.

You’ll need to provide some personal information when you apply, including your National Insurance Number, so we can check that you’re eligible.

Community Fibre also offers an essentials package that costs just £12.50 a month.

Meanwhile, EE also offers a £12 monthly sim deal, for those on claiming Universal Credit.

The group will ill carry out an eligibility check every 12 months to see if you still meet the criteria to get the discounted deal.

How to get the best deal

Like with any offer, it is worth shopping around to ensure you are getting the best deal.

The regulator Ofcom has a list on its website of all the firms offering social broadband and mobile phone tariffs.

The list can be found here – www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/saving-money/social-tariffs.

It’s worth scanning the list to find the package that best suits your needs.

You can also compare deals via comparison sites like Uswitch.

What other support can I get

If you claim Universal Credit you could be missing out on extra support, such as discounts to your council tax bill.

The support is given out by local councils in England, so how much is cut will depend on where you live, your income, dependants and other benefits.

You can find out if you’re eligible by visiting gov.uk/apply-council-tax-reduction.

Households can also get access to free school meals, and school uniform grants which can be worth up to £300.

During the winter, claiming benefits such as Universal Credit can also make you eligible for the warm home discount scheme.

This is a £150 discount on your electricity bill to help tackle rising costs during the winter.

Sept. 12 (UPI) — The U.S. Treasury has sanctioned nearly three dozen people and firms, accused of being part of a massive fundraising, smuggling and weapon-procurement network for the Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

The network of 32 people and firms blacklisted Wednesday is located in Yemen, China, the United Arab Emirates and the Marshall Islands, and are accused of being Houthi-associated companies, their owners and key Houthi operatives.

The Treasury said those targeted finance and facilitate the Houthis’ procurement of advanced military-grade materials, including ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as components for drones the Houthis have used to attack U.S. military and commercial vessels.

The United States has been targeting the Houthis amid Israel’s war against Hamas, another Iran-backed proxy, which exploded into the open Oct. 7, 2023, when it attacked Israel.

In response, Israel launched an ongoing war in Gaza that has devastated the Palestinian enclave and killed nearly 65,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, since then.

Since mid-November 2023, the Houthis have been enforcing a military blockade of the Red Sea, attacking vessels that cross in solidarity with the Palestinian people, resulting in the deaths of a handful of mariners and sinking at least four ships.

“The Houthis continue to threaten U.S. personnel and assets in the Red Sea, attack our allies in the region and undermine international maritime security in coordination with the Iranian regime,” John Hurley, under secretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement.

Among those sanctioned Thursday was Salih Dubaysh, who was named the replacement for Saleh Mesfer Alshaer after he was sanctioned in 2021.

Dubaysh has since been in charge of the Houthis’ seizure of Yemen state-owned and private assets across the country. The Treasury said he has confiscated private land for the Houthis under the pretext that the owners had committed treason against the militia.

Abdullah Mesfer al-Shaer, a relative of Dubaysh, was also sanctioned, along with companies under his name.

A group of petroleum smugglers linked to Mohammad Abdulsalam — who was sanctioned in March — as well as Houthi-linked maritime shipping companies, were also blacklisted, along with weapons and components procurement facilitators and suppliers.

South Korean companies will be “very hesitant” about investing in the US following a massive immigration raid at a Hyundai plant in the state of Georgia last week, President Lee Jae-myung said.

More than 300 South Koreans who were arrested in the raid are due to return home on Friday, after their departure was delayed “due to circumstances on the US side”, officials said.

“The situation is extremely bewildering,” said Lee, noting that it is common practice for Korean firms to send workers to help set up overseas factories.

“If that’s no longer allowed, establishing manufacturing facilities in the US will only become more difficult… making companies question whether it’s worth doing at all.”

Last week, US officials detained 475 people – more than 300 of them South Korean nationals – who they said were working illegally at the battery facility, one of the largest foreign investment projects in the state.

A worker at the plant spoke to the BBC about the panic and confusion during the raid. The employee said the vast majority of the workers detained were mechanics installing production lines at the site, and were employed by a contractor.

South Korea, a close US ally in Asia, has pledged to invest tens of billions of dollars in America, partly to offset tariffs.

The timing of the raid, as the two governments engage in sensitive trade talks, has raised concern in Seoul.

The White House has defended the operation at the Hyundai plant, dismissing concerns that the raid could deter foreign investment.

On Sunday, US President Donald Trump referenced the raid in a social media post and called for foreign companies to hire Americans.

The US government would make it “quickly and legally possible” for foreign firms to bring workers into the country if they respected its immigration laws, Trump said.

Just 41 percent of US firms optimistic about the five-year business outlook in China, chamber of commerce says.

US businesses in China are less optimistic about conditions in the country than at any point in the last quarter-century, a survey has revealed.

Only 41 percent of US businesses are optimistic about the five-year business outlook in China, according to the survey released on Wednesday by the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai.

The figure, down from 47 percent in 2024, is the lowest since AmCham Shanghai began releasing its annual business report in 1999.

Just 45 percent of respondents said they expected revenues to increase in 2025, AmCham Shanghai said, which would be a record low if realised.

Just 12 percent ranked China as their headquarters’ top investment destination, also the lowest in the survey’s history, according to the business chamber.

Businesses cited US-China tensions and broader geopolitical pressures as the biggest challenges to operating.

Nearly half of respondents called for the removal of all US tariffs on Chinese goods, with 42 percent supporting the scrapping of Chinese tariffs on US products, according to AmCham Shanghai.

Despite the worsening sentiment, businesses also reported positive developments over the past year.

More than 70 percent of respondents said they were profitable in 2024, up from a record low of 66 percent in 2023.

And nearly half of respondents said the regulatory environment in China was transparent, a 13-percentage point jump from the previous year.

“Government efforts to improve the regulatory environment have been noticed by members, but they are overshadowed by US-China trade tensions,” AmCham Shanghai chair Jeffrey Lehman said in a statement.

“We urge both governments to create a stable and transparent framework that is conducive to cross-border trade and investment.”

The latest gauge of business sentiment comes as China’s slowing economy is facing a raft of challenges ranging from US President Donald Trump’s trade war to weak consumption and a years-long property downturn.

On Wednesday, China’s National Bureau of Statistics said that consumer prices fell in August at their fastest rate in six months, the latest sign of anaemic demand in the world’s second-largest economy.

Carsten Holz, an expert on the Chinese economy at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said that the AmCham survey’s results showed that the uncoupling of the US and Chinese economies was “well under way.”

“The results mirror the findings of a May 2025 European Chamber of Commerce in China report that business optimism of European firms in China has never been as low as it currently is,” Holz told Al Jazeera.

“These findings are in line with China’s policy of achieving self-sufficiency across all sectors of its economy.”

Chinese authorities have summoned domestic companies, including major internet firms Tencent and ByteDance, over their purchases of Nvidia’s H20 chips.

Authorities asked the companies on Tuesday to explain their reasons and expressed concerns over information risks, three people familiar with the matter told the Reuters news agency.

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) and other agencies also held meetings with Baidu and smaller Chinese tech firms in recent weeks, said one of the two people and a third source.

The Chinese officials asked companies why they needed to buy chips made by Nvidia, a US company, when they could purchase from domestic suppliers, the sources said.

Authorities in China expressed concern that the materials Nvidia has asked companies to submit for review with the US government could contain sensitive information, including client data, one of the sources said.

However, the people, who declined to be identified because the meetings were not public, said the companies have not been ordered to stop buying H20 chips.

Nvidia said on Tuesday that the H20 chip was “not a military product or for government infrastructure”.

“China has ample supply of domestic chips to meet its needs. It won’t and never has relied on American chips for government operations, just like the US government would not rely on chips from China,” the statement said.

Baidu, ByteDance, Tencent and the CAC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Discouraged use

Earlier on Tuesday, Bloomberg News reported that Chinese authorities have urged domestic companies to avoid using Nvidia’s H20 chips, particularly for government-related purposes.

Several companies were issued official notices discouraging the use of the H20, a lower-end chip, mainly for any government or national security-related work by state enterprises or private companies, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.

In a separate report, The Information reported that ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent had been ordered by the CAC in the past two weeks to suspend Nvidia chip purchases altogether, citing data security concerns.

The CAC directive was communicated at a meeting the regulator held with more than a dozen Chinese tech firms, shortly after the administration of United States President Donald Trump reversed the export curbs on H20 chips, according to the Information report.

Reuters could not immediately confirm the reports, and Alibaba did not respond to a request for comment. Top contract chipmaker SMIC rose 5 percent on Tuesday on expectations of rising demand for locally-produced chips.

But even without an outright ban, the concerns expressed by Chinese authorities could threaten Nvidia’s recently restored access to the Chinese market as Chinese companies look to keep in step with regulators.

Nvidia designed the H20 specifically for China after export restrictions on its more advanced AI chips took effect in late 2023. The H20 has since been the most sophisticated AI chip Nvidia was allowed to sell in China.

Earlier this year, US authorities effectively banned its sale to China, but reversed the decision in July following an agreement between Nvidia and the Trump administration.

Threat to revenue stream

Last month, China’s cyberspace regulator summoned Nvidia representatives, asking the company to explain whether the H20 posed backdoor security risks that could affect Chinese user data and privacy.

State-controlled media have intensified criticism of Nvidia in recent days. Yuyuan Tantian, affiliated with state broadcaster CCTV, published an article on WeChat over the weekend claiming that H20 chips pose security risks and lack technological advancement and environmental friendliness.

The scrutiny threatens a significant revenue stream for Nvidia, which generated $17bn from sales to China in its fiscal year ended January 26, or 13 percent of total revenue.

China has accelerated work on domestic AI chip alternatives, with companies such as Huawei developing processors that rival the H20’s performance, and Beijing urging the technology sector to become more self-sufficient.

However, US sanctions on advanced chipmaking equipment, including lithography machines essential for chip production, have constrained domestic manufacturers’ ability to boost production.

On Monday, US President Donald Trump suggested that he might allow Nvidia to sell a scaled-down version of its advanced Blackwell chip in China, despite deep-seated fears in Washington that Beijing could harness US AI capabilities to supercharge its military.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Tuesday that it hoped the US would act to maintain the stability and smooth operation of the global chip supply chain.

The Trump administration last week confirmed an unprecedented deal with Nvidia and AMD, which agreed to give the US government 15 percent of revenue from sales of some advanced chips in China.

China’s renewed guidance on avoiding chips also affects AI accelerators from AMD, Bloomberg also reported. It was not clear, however, whether any notices from Chinese authorities specifically mentioned AMD’s MI308 chip.

AMD did not respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.

The Shadowserver Foundation and Eye Security would not disclose which firms were affected.

A sweeping cyber espionage operation targeting Microsoft server software has compromised about 100 different organisations over the weekend.

Two of the organisations that helped uncover the attack announced their findings on Monday.

On Saturday, Microsoft issued an alert about “active attacks” on self-hosted SharePoint servers, which are widely used by organisations to share documents and collaborate within others. SharePoint instances run off of Microsoft servers were unaffected.

Dubbed a “zero-day” because it leverages a previously undisclosed digital weakness, the hacks allow spies to penetrate vulnerable servers and potentially drop a backdoor to secure continuous access to victim organisations.

Vaisha Bernard, the chief hacker at Eye Security, a Netherlands-based cybersecurity firm which discovered the hacking campaign targeting one of its clients on Friday, said that an internet scan carried out with the Shadowserver Foundation had uncovered nearly 100 victims altogether – and that was before the technique behind the hack was widely known.

“It’s unambiguous,” Bernard said. “Who knows what other adversaries have done since to place other backdoors.”

He declined to identify the affected organisations, saying that the relevant national authorities had been notified.

The Shadowserver Foundation confirmed the 100 figure and said that most of those affected were in the United States and Germany and that the victims included government organisations.

Another researcher said that, so far, the spying appeared to be the work of a single hacker or set of hackers.

“It’s possible that this will quickly change,” said Rafe Pilling, director of threat intelligence at Sophos, a British cybersecurity firm.

A Microsoft spokesperson said in an emailed statement that it had “provided security updates and encourages customers to install them”.

It was not clear who was behind the ongoing hack. The FBI said on Sunday it was aware of the attacks and was working closely with its federal and private-sector partners, but offered no other details. Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre said in a statement that it was aware of “a limited number” of targets in the United Kingdom. A researcher tracking the hacks said that the campaign appeared initially aimed at a narrow set of government-related organisations.

Potential targets

The pool of potential targets remains vast. According to data from Shodan, a search engine that helps to identify internet-linked equipment, more than 8,000 servers online could theoretically have already been compromised by hackers.

Those servers include major industrial firms, banks, auditors, healthcare companies and several US state-level and international government entities.

“The SharePoint incident appears to have created a broad level of compromise across a range of servers globally,” said Daniel Card of British cybersecurity consultancy, PwnDefend.

“Taking an assumed breach approach is wise, and it’s also important to understand that just applying the patch isn’t all that is required here.”

On Wall Street, Microsoft’s stock is about even with the market open as of 3pm in New York (19:00 GMT), up by only 0.06 percent, and has gone up more than 1.5 percent over the last five days of trading.

CHEAP Chinese firms could soon be cut out from government contracts under new rules championing British industry, The Sun can reveal.

Ministers want to prioritise UK-based firms in critical sectors like steel, energy, and cyber, putting them at the front of the queue.

The shake-up would allow the public sector to sidestep foreign tender bids, giving homegrown heroes a bigger slice of Whitehall’s £400bn procurement pot.

Currently, foreign suppliers can undercut British businesses with cheap labour and rock-bottom prices.

But in a push to bolster national security and create jobs across the UK, the likes of British Steel would be prioritised.

Under the new blueprint, now up for consultation, Whitehall departments would also favour British Steel for the £725bn of infrastructure spending earmarked for the next decade.

Meanwhile, firms slow to pay small and medium businesses will be kicked out of the procurement race.

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Pat McFadden, said: “Strong industry is essential to our national security.

“The new rules being considered will give us the power to protect our national industries, ensuring more money goes to them as we buy goods and services in government.

“Our reforms will boost growth and ensure British industry is supported to deliver national security and our Plan for Change.”

Gareth Stace, UK Steel boss, hailed the move as a game-changer, saying: “The publication of this guidance for steel procurement and the launch of the consultation are unequivocally positive news for the UK steel industry.

“These changes rightly recognise the strategic importance of steelmaking to national security and the vital role of resilient domestic supply chains.”

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The prominent legal organisation has called the US president’s executive orders against law firms unconstitutional.

The American Bar Association (ABA) has sued the administration of US President Donald Trump, seeking an order that would prevent the White House from pursuing what it called a campaign of intimidation against major law firms.

The lawsuit, filed on Monday in a federal court in Washington, DC, alleged that the administration violated the United States Constitution by issuing a series of executive orders targeting law firms over their past clients and employees.

According to the complaint, those executive orders were used to “to coerce lawyers and law firms to abandon clients, causes, and policy positions the President does not like”.

Dozens of executive agencies and US officials are named in the suit, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Kash Patel and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

In a statement, the ABA — the country’s largest voluntary association for lawyers — called Trump’s attacks on law firms “uniquely destructive”.

“Without skilled lawyers to bring and argue cases, the judiciary cannot function as a meaningful check on the executive branch,” the association wrote.

Four law firms have separately sued the administration over President Trump’s orders, which stripped their lawyers of security clearances and restricted their access to government officials and federal contracting work.

Four different judges in Washington have sided with the firms and temporarily or permanently barred Trump’s orders against them. One of the firms that sued and won a preliminary victory, Susman Godfrey, is representing the ABA in Monday’s lawsuit.

White House spokesperson Harrison Fields responded to Monday’s lawsuit with a statement calling it “clearly frivolous”.

He added that the ABA has no power over the president’s discretion to award government contracts and security clearances to law firms.

“The Administration looks forward to ultimate victory on this issue,” Fields said.

Despite Trump’s court losses, nine law firms have struck deals with the president, pledging to offer nearly $1bn in free legal services to stave off similar executive orders.

Monday’s lawsuit escalates a clash between the ABA and the Trump administration, which has cut some government funding to the group and has moved to restrict its role in vetting federal judicial nominees.

In March, Bondi — the chief law enforcement officer in the US — warned the group that it could lose its role in accrediting law schools unless it cancels a requirement related to student diversity.

UK companies are holding back on hiring or are not replacing departing workers, sending job vacancies tumbling, official figures suggest.

The number of available jobs fell by 63,000 between March and May while the unemployment rate ticked higher.

“There continues to be a weakening in the labour market,” said Liz McKeown, director of econonic statistics at the Office for National Statistics (ONS), adding that there had been a noticeable drop in the number of people on payrolls.

In April, National Insurance Contributions paid by employers increased while a rise in the minimum wage came into force.

The estimated number of available jobs fell to 736,000 over the three months to May.

“Feedback from our vacancies survey suggests some firms may be holding back from recruiting new workers or replacing people when they move on,” said Ms McKeown.

The figures also showed that the unemployement rate rose from 4.5% to 4.6% – the highest since July 2021.

Published on
03/06/2025 – 15:44 GMT+2

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Major European steel giants saw their share prices falter on Tuesday afternoon, as investors continue to weigh the impact of US President Donald Trump’s plan to double steel and aluminium tariffs from 25% to 50%, with the latter set to take effect from 4 June. 

The announcement has escalated trade tensions and drawn significant criticism from worldwide trade partners. Trump, meanwhile, claims the move will make the US steel industry even stronger. 

He said in a post on his social media platform Truth Social: “Our steel and aluminum industries are coming back like never before. This will be yet another BIG jolt of great news for our wonderful steel and aluminum workers. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

German steel company Thyssenkrupp’s share price declined 0.5% on Tuesday afternoon on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Salzgitter AG’s share price also declined on the exchange, by 0.4%.

Following the trend, ArcelorMittal SA’s stock dipped 1.1% on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange on Tuesday afternoon, while Austrian steel company Voestalpine AG’s share price declined 0.8% on the Vienna Stock Exchange. 

On the other side of the Atlantic, however, major US steel companies such as Cleveland-Cliffs, Nucor, and Steel Dynamics saw their share prices surge on Monday. 

Cleveland-Cliffs’ share price closed 23.2% higher, whereas Nucor’s share price jumped 10.1%. Steel Dynamics’ share price also closed higher, up 10.3% on Monday. 

US businesses risk significant harm due to tariffs

The unpredictability of recent US tariffs continues to pose considerable risks to US businesses, despite Trump’s reassurances that tariffs will benefit the economy. This is mainly because several US companies with international operations could be forced to scramble to find alternative foreign suppliers and customers.

It is also remains unclear how long steel and aluminium tariffs could stay at the 50% level proposed, as Trump continues to negotiate other tariffs with various countries. 

Felix Tintelnot, professor of economics at Duke University, told TIME: “We’re talking about expansion of capacity of heavy industry that comes with significant upfront investments, and no business leader should take heavy upfront investments if they don’t believe that the same policy [will be] there two, three, or four years from now.

“Regardless of whether you’re in favour [of] or against these tariffs, you don’t want the President to just set tax rates arbitrarily, sort of by Executive Order all the time,” he added.

Tintelnot also highlighted that increasing the price of aluminium, which is a very common input material in several sectors such as automotive and construction, would, in turn, hurt those industries, even if there may be some advantages to the domestic US steel and aluminium sectors.

A TOP doctor campaigning for pay rises and strike action has a sideline running two start-up companies, we can reveal.

Cardiologist Dr U Bhalraam is deputy co-chairman of the British Medical Association’s resident doctors committee — which is backing six more months of walkouts.

It is urging members to strike, claiming they are paid 23 per cent less in real terms than in 2008.

This is despite resident doctors — formerly known as junior doctors — getting an almost 30 per cent pay rise over the past three years.

On his website, Dr Bhalraam says he’s “focused on full pay restoration”.

But The Sun on Sunday has found that Dr Bhalraam has also set up two firms of which he is sole director and owner.

He launched Datamed Solutions Ltd, a data processing company, last June and just a few days later UBR Property Holdings Limited, which is described as a letting company.

They are both registered to his smart £330,000 house in Norwich, where he works at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Resident docs have taken industrial action 11 times since 2022, causing about 1.5million appointments to be cancelled.

A YouGov poll of 4,100 adults found almost half oppose the strikes.

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THE BOSS of an iconic car brand has revealed a major update on its merger with a rival, as the company admits the EV push is hurting sales.

Despite rumours of a potential tie-up between Stellantis and Renault, both companies have denied seeking a partnership.

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John Elkann, Stellantis Chairman, told the Financial Times: “We are not discussing any merger.”

Management at the automotive giant has been turbulent following the resignation of the former CEO, Carlos Tavares, who they still haven’t replaced.

The automotive giant currently oversees many carmakers such as Peugeot, Fiat and Vauxhall.

However, Stellantis has several underperforming brands, such as Chrysler, described as “a shadow of its former self,” according to motor1.com

Another failing car manufacturer is Abarth, which has seen revenues drop during its push to go fully electric.

This has caused major concern at Stellantis, adding to the company’s decision not to get involved in a massive merger.

Last year, the Auto conglomerate recorded a 12 per cent drop in shipments, which they blamed on “temporary gaps in product offerings”.

On the other hand, the Renault group reported their highest sales.

The two major companies share a common ground regarding the future of cars in Europe.

Both share concerns over strict emission regulations negatively impacting their profit and production of gas-powered city cars.

The European Union recently granted automakers an extension to meet their emission targets.

However, by 2030, stricter regulations will come into force, banning the sale of new cars with harmful emissions across the EU.

This comes after Europe’s second-largest carmaker halted production of an iconic model as its EV lineup faces “deep trouble”.

An initial manufacturing break at Stellantis has now been extended as bosses report a collapse in demand for electric cars.

The Fiat 500 was one of the vast company’s most successful and beloved models across two production runs lasting a collective 35 years.

Dating back to 1957, it has sold more than six million units between its two iterations.

However, the 500e, unveiled in 2020 as an electric alternative, has proved less popular.

The model is intended as the long-term successor to the 500 beyond the 2035 ban on petrol and diesel car sales.

But stuttering demand has now forced a pause in its production.

The latest data suggest that both the petrol and electric 500 sol 74,885 units from January to July.

That’s almost a quarter down on the same period last year.

Bosses told Autocar that poor sales were “linked to the deep difficulties experienced in the European EV market by all producers.”

They have also reportedly told union reps that the electric car segment is facing “deep trouble” more generally.

Fiat CEO Olivier François said: “We obviously, like everyone else, thought that the world would go electric faster and the cost of electrification would go down faster.

“But we couldn’t imagine that Covid would happen, shortage of raw materials would happen [and] the European Society – not all, not the youngest part – would turn their backs on the sustainable solutions.

“But this is the reality. We have to face those realities.”