Seattle Daily Star

  Chief executive distances company from comments by Stuart Kirk at London conference British financial company HSBC has distanced itself from comments by a senior banker in which he played down fears over climate change as “unsubstantiated, shrill, partisan, self-serving, apocalyptic warnings”. Stuart Kirk was suspended from HSBC pending an investigation , the Financial Times reported, after his remarks prompted a rebuke from the company’s chief executive, Noel Quinn. Mr Kirk had addressed a conference called Moral Money with a presentation entitled “Why investors need not worry about climate risk”, in which he told the audience there was “always some nut job telling me about the end of the world”. “Who cares if Miami is six metres underwater in 100 years? Amsterdam has been six metres underwater for ages and that’s a really nice place,” he told the London event. Mr Kirk was appointed as the head of HSBC’s responsible investing unit in July 2021, a role that involves looking at th...

  London is home to Pakistan’s dissidents and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif Two of the most powerful men in Pakistan’s politics were expected to meet in London on Thursday as bitter divisions following the removal of former prime minister Imran Khan played out in the UK. Three-time prime minister Nawaz Sharif, the elder brother of new Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, was expected to meet Bilalwal Bhutto Zardari, the head of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) in London, according to Pakistan news reports. Traditional foes the PPP and Mr Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) allied to force Mr Khan from office earlier this month in a no-confidence vote. The charismatic Mr Khan blamed his loss of office on a foreign-backed conspiracy and has vowed to push for early elections with  Analysts said the meeting in London will see Mr Bhutto Zardari press his claims for a series of key political posts in the country as the two parties position themselves before elections ...

  International financial center has seen a net outflow of almost 157,000 residents since the beginning of 2022. Hong Kong, China  — When Francis Lee returned to the UK with his wife this week after a two-year stint at a top investment bank in Hong Kong, the portfolio manager felt sad to leave the city behind. But Lee’s sadness was far outweighed by his sense of relief. “If the COVID policy wasn’t so harsh we would still be there, it’s the only reason I started looking for another job back in London,” Lee told Al Jazeera. “With all the unknowns about mass testing and quarantine facilities in Hong Kong, it’s anxiety inducing. Without a roadmap, without any kind of timeline, you just don’t know how long it’s going to go on for.” Lee is far from alone in voting with his feet after more than two years of strict pandemic policies in the international financial hub. While the world outside China has pivoted to living with the virus, Hong Kong has held onto some of the strictest social di...

  Developers advised to listen to educators to come up with effective solutions to their problems Teachers need to be at the centre of decision-making in education, particularly when technology is being introduced into classrooms, a global summit was told on Friday. About 36,000 teachers and educators came together for the Teacher Tech Summit 2022, an online conference for teachers. The meeting was organised by T4 Education, a platform for educators and schools, and co-hosted by the World Bank and Owl Ventures, a venture capital firm that focuses on education technology. Vikas Pota, founder of T4 Education and the Teacher Tech Summit, said: “In all the conferences I’ve been to around the world, I never once saw a teacher invited to be a part of the EdTech discussion. “You always see policymakers, CEOs, tech entrepreneurs and investors. But it’s teachers who are on the front line, delivering education to the next generation. “If governments and tech companies want to know what ...