Category Archives: Business

Holiday bookings surge as Covid vaccinations increase travel hopes

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People high on list for jabs in UK ready to make 2021 and 2022 bookings

Holiday companies have reported an increase in bookings as the UK’s coronavirus vaccine rollout gives people hope that they will soon be able to travel overseas again.

Despite a series of negative travel announcements in recent days, including the closure of air corridors and words of caution from ministers over foreign holidays, there are signs that those among the first in line for the vaccinations are starting to plan trips, and that consumers are hopeful about taking a break later this year.

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Seafood lorries travel to Westminster for protest against Brexit red tape

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Fishers ‘losing their livelihoods’ as delays hamper exports to the EU and trucks return empty

Fishing lorries from Scotland and Devon have descended on Westminster to stage a protest against the Brexit red tape they say is either delaying or ruining exports of their fresh shellfish to the EU.

Trucks with slogans including “Brexit carnage” and “Incompetent government destroying shellfish industry” parked metres from Downing Street on Monday, but they stopped short of carrying out their threat last week to dump fresh fish close to No 10.

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British Virgin Islands’ governor launches inquiry into alleged corruption

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Gus Jaspert’s extraordinary step comes amid claims of a climate of fear in the UK overseas territory

Allegations of widespread political corruption, misuse of taxpayer’s money and a climate of fear in the British Virgin Islands have led its governor to take the extraordinary step of establishing an independent judge-led inquiry into the claims.

Gus Jaspert, the British-appointed BVI governor, with the personal backing of the UK prime minister, has established a commission of inquiry to investigate concerns over governance, including specific allegations that point to possible corruption and infiltration by serious organised criminal gangs. The six-month inquiry, to be led by Sir Gary Hickinbottom, follows the discovery by police in November of a haul of cocaine worth more than £190m.

Jaspert broke the news to the island on Monday after returning from the UK, where he was on leave. It was reported that he had been struggling with his communications systems in recent weeks, and complained to the premier, Andrew Fahie, but said nothing was done, forcing him to ring newsrooms individually.

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China reports strongest growth in two years after Covid-19 recovery

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Country was expanding at a faster rate than before the coronavirus pandemic at the end of 2020

China’s economy has posted its strongest growth in two years after completing a rapid recovery from the slump caused by the Covid-19 pandemic at the start of 2020.

Although the 2.3% annual increase in activity for the world’s second biggest economy was its slowest since 1976, by the final three months of last year China was expanding at a faster rate than before the crisis.

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G4S migrant workers ‘forced to pay millions’ in illegal fees for jobs

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UK-based security firm faces calls to repay charges made by recruitment agents for jobs in Gulf states and conflict zones

Migrant workers working for the British security company G4S in the United Arab Emirates have collectively been forced to pay millions of pounds in illegal fees to recruitment agents to secure their jobs, the Guardian can reveal.

An investigation into G4S’s recruitment practices has found that workers from south Asia and east Africa have been made to pay up to £1,775 to recruitment agents working for the British company in order to get jobs as security guards for G4S in the UAE.

Forcing workers to pay recruitment fees is a widespread practice, but one that is illegal in the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The practice allows companies to pass on the costs of recruitment to workers from some of the poorest countries in the world, leaving many deep in debt and vulnerable to modern forms of slavery, such as debt bondage.

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Coronavirus Australia live: Australian Open tennis quarantine disarray; Victoria opens border to most of Sydney as NSW records no local cases

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Victoria premier Daniel Andrews says people in most of Sydney can apply for a permit to travel to the state while 10 LGAs still remain in red zones. Follow latest updates live

The ABC has spoken to one of the tennis players who is isolating as part of strict restrictions applied to those who travelled for the Australian Open.

#AusOpen player Artem Sitak happy to be in Melbourne for the tournament. A lot of the players have now realised it's an unfortunate situation. News of the long Victorian lockdown & of Australians unable to return home is making them feel very lucky to be in Melbourne. #Springst pic.twitter.com/EgQ9CEix9P

Of course I’m happy. As I said, I was prepared for the worst and unfortunately it happened to me, but I’m – I’m definitely happy. I’m here, I love Australian Open. I think it’s going to be any sixth or seventh Australian Open and I love playing here. There’s always a really – a really vocal huge crowd. Hopefully this time it will be – I don’t know the percentage of spectators that are allowed but there will still be a lot of people. We haven’t played in front of spectators since back in August. And this is going to be a lot of fun.

The Victorian police union is less welcoming of news that Covid-19 fines in Victoria will be waived. Here’s what Victorian Police Association secretary Wayne Gatt said on radio station 3AW earlier today, according to AAP:

It’s a wee bit frustrating.

None of this was fun for our members. It was bit of a thankless job.

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Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit reaches space eight months after first flight

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  • LauncherOne rocket carries very small satellites
  • First demonstration launch failed in May last year

Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit reached space on Sunday, eight months after the first demonstration flight of its air-launched rocket system failed, the company said.

Related: Virgin Orbit looks into cause of LauncherOne test failure

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Eurostar warns of ‘risk to survival’ without government help

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The cross-Channel train service has seen a 95% fall in passengers during the Covid-19 pandemic

Eurostar has said it is facing an existential threat, as business leaders pleaded with the government to step in and save the “vital link” with Europe.

A 95% drop in passenger numbers has brought the cross-Channel train service to its knees, and the company reiterated on Sunday that while government loans had been extended to aviation, international high-speed rail had also been severely affected by the pandemic.

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Shock Brexit charges are hurting us, say small British businesses

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Levies to cover the increase in red tape, VAT and customs declarations are hitting trade to the European Union

Government ministers describe the post-Brexit headaches that British exporters have suffered since 1 January as mere “teething problems”. But Alex Paul, who jointly runs a successful family business that features in the Department for International Trade’s list of national “export champions”, disagrees. And he wants the real story to be told.

Two weeks into the supposed golden era of global Britain, Paul and many other British entrepreneurs, large and small, are running into very serious problems.

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We’re on the verge of breakdown: a data scientist’s take on Trump and Biden

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Peter Turchin, an entomologist-turned-historian, offers insight into the battle between elites

Peter Turchin is not the first entomologist to cross over to human behaviour: during a lecture in 1975, famed biologist E O Wilson had a pitcher of water tipped on him for extrapolating the study of ant social structures to our own.

It’s a reaction that Turchin, an expert-on-pine-beetles-turned-data-scientist and modeller, has yet to experience. But his studies at the University of Connecticut into how human societies evolve have lately gained wider currency; in particular, an analysis that interprets worsening social unrest in the 2020s as an intra-elite battle for wealth and status.

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Carbon capture is vital to meeting climate goals, scientists tell green critics

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Supporters insist that storage technology is not a costly mistake but the best way for UK to cut emissions from heavy industry

Engineers and geologists have strongly criticised green groups who last week claimed that carbon capture and storage schemes – for reducing fossil fuel emissions – are costly mistakes.

The scientists insisted that such schemes are vital weapons in the battle against global heating and warn that failure to set up ways to trap carbon dioxide and store it underground would make it almost impossible to hold net emissions to below zero by 2050.

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NSW reports no new local Covid cases, as Queensland denies hotel quarantine breach – as it happened

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Madison Keys drops out of Australian Open and Andy Murray in doubt after testing positive for Covid

With that, we’ll be closing the blog for today. Here’s a recap of the day’s headlines:

Emergency warnings have been issued for separate bushfires threatening lives in Perth’s eastern foothills and the Wheatbelt region, AAP reports.

Firefighters are battling to contain an out-of-control blaze in High Wycombe, near the Perth Hills.

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EU halts imports of seafood from smaller Scottish companies

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Export firms point to post-Brexit delays around health certificates, IT systems and missing customs papers

Deliveries of Scottish seafood to the EU from smaller companies have been halted until Monday, 18 January, after post-Brexit problems with health checks, IT systems and customs documents caused a huge backlog.

Scottish fishing has been plunged into crisis, as lorry-loads of live seafood and some fish destined for shops and restaurants in France, Spain and other countries have been rejected because they are taking too long to arrive.

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Nigeria cattle crisis: how drought and urbanisation led to deadly land grabs

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The death toll of animals and humans is mounting as herders seeking dwindling reserves of pasture clash with farmers

In February last year, Sunday Ikenna’s fields were green and lush. Then, one evening, a herd of cattle led into the farm by roving pastoralists crushed, ate, and uprooted the crops.

“I lost everything. The situation was sorrowful, watching another human being destroy your farm,” says Ikenna, a father of 10 who farms in Ukpabi-Nimbo in Enugu state, southern Nigeria. “I farmed a smaller portion this year because I am still scared of another invasion.”

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The Wodge: can London’s tallest new skyscraper survive the Covid era?

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Nicknamed The Wodge because of its girth, the capital’s tallest ever office has just muscled onto the skyline. But in the age of coronavirus, who wants to jostle for 60 lifts with 12,000 others?

With the City of London deserted once more, its streets only populated by the occasional Deliveroo driver or tumbleweed-seeking photographer, it seems a strange time to be completing the largest office building the capital has ever seen, not least because the very future of the workplace is now in question.

But, rising far above the Cheesegrater and the Walkie-Talkie, dwarfing the now fun-sized Gherkin and boasting the floor area of almost all three combined, 22 Bishopsgate stands as the mother of all office towers. It is the City’s menacing final boss, a glacial hulk that fills its plot to the very edges and rises directly up until it hits the flight path of passing jets. The building muscles into every panorama of London, its broad girth dominating the centre of the skyline and congealing the Square Mile’s distinctive individual silhouettes into one great, grey lump.

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Is ‘hysterical’ market speculation pushing us towards another crash?

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Despite Covid, global stocks started 2021 on a high. But some analysts warn of an ‘epic’ bubble, amid fears that the flow of stimulus has created a monster

Insurrections are not usually seen by investors as buy signals. Yet even as rioters stormed the seat of US legislative government last week, stock market indices hit new highs in New York, adding another chapter to 12 months of apparent defiance of economic gravity.

Wall Street, measured by the benchmark S&P 500, was not alone in starting 2021 with a bang. London’s FTSE 100 jumped by more than 6% in the first week of the year as investors took in a heady cocktail of a President Joe Biden ready and able to spend money, cheap borrowing costs, and the hopes that vaccines will end the coronavirus lockdowns. Yet amid the exuberance a serious concern looms: are we on the cusp of another colossal crash?

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Bill Gates joins Blackstone in bid to buy British private jet firm

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Gates’ Cascade Investment fund teams up with US private equity firm on offer for Signature Aviation

Bill Gates has joined a £3bn bidding war to buy the world’s largest private jet operator just as he prepares to publish his new book How to Avoid a Climate Disaster.

Cascade Investment, the fund that manages much of Gates’s $134bn personal fortune, announced on Friday it had teamed up with US private equity firm Blackstone in a bid for British private jet operator Signature Aviation.

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Firms halt deliveries from UK to EU over Brexit border problems

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DPD pauses road service and retailers suspend sales or reduce lines amid concerns over paperwork and tariffs

A growing number of retailers and courier firms are suspending or cutting back deliveries into the EU as companies grapple with new border controls as well as import taxes.

On Friday DPD, the international delivery giant, said it was “pausing” its road service from the UK into Europe, including the Republic of Ireland. Separately, Marks & Spencer said it was concerned that a third of the products in its Irish food halls, including Percy Pig sweets, would now be subject to import tariffs. Such taxes could spell higher prices for shoppers.

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Hyundai’s value surges by $9bn amid reports of Apple electric car deal

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South Korean firm backtracks on statement confirming ‘early discussion’ with US company

Hyundai’s value surged by $9bn (£6.6bn) on Friday after reports that it could join with Apple in developing a driverless electric vehicle – despite confusion as it backtracked on a statement acknowledging “early discussion” with the iPhone manufacturer.

Investors sent the South Korean carmaker’s share price on the Seoul exchange up almost 20%, as local media reported a possible tie-up on electric cars and batteries with Apple, which has been developing its own vehicle technology.

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