Simon Wilson

1 week ago | moneyweek.com | Simon Wilson

What’s happened? The world’s largest charitable organisation, the Gates Foundation – which has already spent $100 billion fighting disease and poverty worldwide – announced last month that it will spend another $200 billion in the next 20 years, before shutting up shop and dissolving itself. Bill Gates is part of a mini-trend of mega-wealthy donors setting deadlines to give away all their money – speeding up the spending and prioritising immediate action over an ongoing legacy.

2 weeks ago | moneyweek.com | Simon Wilson

Has the country really changed? Yes, in important ways, Saudi Arabia has changed radically in the ten years since King Salman ascended the throne aged 79, and his son, Mohammed bin Salman (who is known as MBS), became the country’s de facto ruler (as crown prince from 2017 onwards). Ten years ago, women were still shut out of the labour market and public life, prohibited from driving or even leaving the house without a male guardian. Today, they are free to work and travel where they like.

2 weeks ago | newstalkzb.co.nz | Simon Wilson

Care workers at the country’s largest provider of Māori-based support for people with disabilities have been told they will be suspended without pay from tomorrow if they take partial-strike action. The suspension could last for six weeks. The Public Service Association (PSA), which represents the 38 affected workers, has described the suspension notice “a huge overreaction to low-level industrial action”. The union held a rally on Sunday to protest the suspension notice.

3 weeks ago | newstalkzb.co.nz | Simon Wilson

Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown and his deputy Desley Simpson are due to hold a joint press conference at midday. The media stand-up is happening at the Auckland Town Hall and will be live streamed at the top of this file. It comes amid mounting speculation about whether Simpson will run against Brown for Mayor of Auckland. Simpson has allowed speculation to build in recent months that she might challenge Brown, who announced in February he would seek re-election in October.

1 month ago | moneyweek.com | Simon Wilson

Just 12 short months ago, the then-US Treasury secretary Janet Yellen made a trip to Beijing to deliver the message that the world’s biggest economy had no wish to decouple from the world’s second, its biggest trading partner. “Our two economies are deeply integrated, and a wholesale separation would be disastrous for both,” Yellen assured her hosts. Fast forward a year, and Donald Trump has imposed a 145% tariff on Chinese imports.