‘The dollar is losing credibility’: why central banks are scrambling for gold

Fifteen minutes after takeoff, the call came for Serbia’s central bank governor: millions of dollars’ worth of gold bars, destined for a high-security Belgrade vault, had been left on the runway of a Swiss airport.In air freight – despite the extraordinary value of bullion – fresh flowers, food and other perishables still take priority. “We learned this the hard way,” Jorgovanka Tabaković told a conference late last year.Serbia’s is among a growing number of central banks to hastily amass vast stockpiles of gold, upending decades of conventional economic logic and fuelling an increase in the gold price amid mounting geopolitical tensions. As Washington challenges the US Federal Reserve’s independence, sending jitters through financial markets, the price soared to a record $4,643 (£3,463) an ounce this week, and analysts have tipped it to break $5,000 this year

Bank of England governor hits out at populism as Trump interferes in US Fed

The governor of the Bank of England has urged the world’s leading global institutions to fight back against the rise of populism, warning that it represents one of the biggest threats to improvements in living standards.In a thinly veiled response to Donald Trump’s attempts to interfere with the independence of the US Federal Reserve, Andrew Bailey said that he and the heads of other institutions had a duty to “challenge back” populist narratives.“Part of the purpose of international agencies is that from time to time they have to tell us what we don’t want to hear, let alone act upon,” he said. “Of course, they have to be accountable for the accuracy and quality of the assessment. But, accepting that, we have to call out messenger shooting

Bank of England governor calls for fightback against populism; South East Water restores service to most Kent and Sussex homes – as it happened

Time to wrap up…The governor of the Bank of England has urged the world’s leading global institutions to fight back against the rise of populism, warning it represents one of the biggest threats to improvements in living standards.In a thinly veiled response to Donald Trump’s attempts to interfere with the independence of the US Federal Reserve, Andrew Bailey said that he and the heads of other institutions had a duty to “challenge back” populist narratives.“Part of the purpose of international agencies is that from time to time they have to tell us what we don’t want to hear, let alone act upon,” he said. “Of course, they have to be accountable for the accuracy and quality of the assessment. But, accepting that, we have to call out messenger shooting

Top two bosses at City & Guilds placed on leave after bonus scandal

The two most senior executives at City & Guilds have been put on leave shortly after a scandal over millions of pounds of bonuses triggered a Charity Commission investigation into the vocational training body.The chief executive, Kirstie Donnelly, and the chief financial officer, Abid Ismail, will be “absent from work for a short period”, as its new owner, PeopleCert, commissioned an internal investigation into events before and after its acquisition of City & Guilds’ training and qualifications business.Last week, the charity watchdog launched a statutory inquiry into last year’s sale of the qualification awards business to PeopleCert, an international certification company. The investigation will examine a range of problems, including “concerns raised in public reporting relating to the sale and bonuses awarded to its executives”.The inquiry was announced after the Guardian revealed last month that City & Guilds executives received million-pound bonuses after the charity privatised its business arm

BP accused of ‘insidious’ influence on UK education through Science Museum links

Campaigners have accused BP of having an insidious influence over the teaching of science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) in the UK through its relationship with the Science Museum.Documents obtained under freedom of information legislation show how the company funded a research project that led to the creation of the Science Museum Group academy – its teacher and educator training programme – which BP sponsors and which has run more than 500 courses, for more than 5,000 teachers.Campaigners say the documents reveal the extent of control the company had over the research project, called Enterprising Science. The contract setting out the collaboration states that major decisions would not be “validly passed … unless the representative of BP votes in its favour”.Chris Garrard of the campaign group Culture Unstained said: “BP’s toxic influence over young people’s learning is calculated and insidious

South East Water boss lasting weeks in post would be a surprise | Nils Pratley

Can David Hinton, the chief executive of South East Water, stay in his job long enough to bag a £400,000 bonus for turning up to work? With four and a half years to go, one can’t say his chances of landing the retention payment – or “service award” – are good. In fact, it will be surprising if he’s still infuriating the residents of Tunbridge Wells four and a half weeks from now.In the latest episode of this long-running double saga of outages that has left thousands of households in Kent and Sussex without running water for days, Ofwat has opened a first-of-its-kind investigation into whether South East complied with its obligation to provide “high standards of customer service and support”. That comes a day after Emma Reynolds, the environment secretary, called for the regulator to review the company’s operating licence.Meanwhile, even the company’s shareholders, who normally shun the spotlight on these occasions, are spluttering into their bottled water