Rooms in Icelandic capital Reykjavík cost double usual rate and Spain also enjoying strong bookings
Hotel prices have surged in key European cities as hundreds of thousands of tourists flock to see the first total eclipse visible from the continent this century.
Iceland’s capital, Reykjavík, has seen one of the biggest jumps in hotel room prices, being one of the few accessible locations to see the full eclipse before evening on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Air transport hub in west London reports 7.86m passengers in July, compared with 8.15m for Istanbul’s new airport away from the city
Istanbul airport has overtaken Heathrow as Europe’s busiest airport by passenger numbers, leading the London hub to say its “case for expansion has never been clearer”.
Figures published on Tuesday showed 7.9 million passengers passed through Heathrow’s terminals in July, compared with Istanbul’s 8.15 million.
Continue reading...Campaign group says firm is ‘taking the mickey’ by paying fee and Andy Burnham should nationalise it
Thames Water has paid its chief financial officer, Steve Buck, a £1m signing fee despite intense scrutiny of Britain’s biggest water company’s finances as it tries to avoid being taken into public control.
The utility revealed that it made the payment last month, in a letter sent last week by Sir Adrian Montague, its chair, to MPs on the environment, food and rural affairs select committee, Sky News first reported.
Continue reading...Power cable linking UK and Ireland now passes near Bronze Age human burial remains instead of fictional grave on Welsh beach
Harry Potter fans have forced a new multimillion-pound power cable between the UK and Ireland to be relocated after complaining it would desecrate the “grave” of Dobby, a fictional elf.
The character was laid to rest on Freshwater West beach in Pembrokeshire, Wales, in the film Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Fans of the wizard series come to leave stones reading “Here Lies Dobby” despite being asked not to by the land owner, the National Trust, because the beach is an ecologically sensitive site.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Sadiq Khan urges Westminster council to adopt ‘positive vision of economic growth’ of nightlife
Sadiq Khan has ordered Westminster council to scrap a policy that would ban new pubs and bars from opening in Soho and the West End of London.
This comes after the Guardian revealed the council’s new licensing policy asks pubs to stop customers from standing up while consuming beverages, which it calls “vertical drinking”. The policy is under consultation and also asks pubs to have table service rather than allowing orders at the bar.
Continue reading...Imports this year now account for 14% of the market amid claims vehicles are being dumped in the EU and UK
Chinese electric car sales have risen across Europe to a record high driven by strong demand and low tariffs in the UK and a surge in buyers in Italy.
Against a backdrop of claims that Chinese carmakers are “dumping” state-subsidised vehicles in the EU and UK to gain market share, the figures will give impetus to calls for quotas and higher tariffs to protect European manufacturers.
Continue reading...Missing payments suggest employment laws may have been breached by recruitment agencies used by courier company
Low-paid temporary workers at one of the UK’s top courier businesses have missed out on entitlements to sick pay and pension contributions, internal documents suggest.
The payments – typically included in the “charge rate” that large brands pay recruitment companies to supply them with temporary workers – are missing from internal spreadsheets calculating the cost of employing thousands of transient staff working at DPD.
Continue reading...Profit jump fuelled largely by unknown US refund amount as Japanese video game firm records quarterly sales drop
Nintendo has reported a jump in profits, as the Japanese game maker’s earnings were buoyed up by a long-awaited refund on Donald Trump’s tariffs.
The company said profits surged 53.5% to ¥147.4bn (£694m) over the three months to June, substantially beating expert forecasts for ¥77.8bn.
Continue reading...Coffee chain has faced backlash over marketing promotion tied to anniversary of Gwangju massacre
South Korean police have raided the headquarters of Starbucks Korea as part of an investigation into a marketing campaign accused of trivialising the country’s 1980s pro-democracy movement.
Investigators searched the building in southern Seoul on Tuesday, police said on Wednesday. No further details were released, although South Korean media reported that officers also searched the homes of the Starbucks Korea executives.
Continue reading...Some want the chancellor to exploit newly flexible fiscal rules – others want a more creative approach, such as borrowing from markets
With just 12 weeks to go until his first budget, new chancellor John Healey is seeking ways to ramp up public investment, without busting the Treasury’s fiscal rules – and some economists are urging him to be bold.
As he settles into No 11 Downing Street, the former defence secretary’s most immediate challenges concern day-to-day government spending.
Continue reading...Some want the chancellor to exploit newly flexible fiscal rules – others want a more creative approach, such as borrowing from markets
With just 12 weeks to go until his first budget, new chancellor John Healey is seeking ways to ramp up public investment, without busting the Treasury’s fiscal rules – and some economists are urging him to be bold.
As he settles into No 11 Downing Street, the former defence secretary’s most immediate challenges concern day-to-day government spending.
Continue reading...Investigators looking into whether incidents at Leipzig are linked after DHL plane forced to make emergency landing
A DHL cargo plane was forced to make an emergency landing after colliding with an unknown object as it was climbing away from Germany’s Leipzig airport, where police later found a drone on the ground.
The German government on Wednesday confirmed the incident, which led to serious disruption of air traffic.
Continue reading...Union exploring options to oppose program that would put US airport screening into hands of private contractors
The labor union representing workers at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is raising alarms over a new program that will expand privatizing security checkpoints at three airports.
The agency informed the union last month of plans to enact the TSA Gold+ program, which would shift security and control of the screening technology into the hands of private contractors at airports in Tampa, Charleston and Des Moines. Union workers are expected to lose their union contract and benefits once a contractor takes over.
Continue reading...Cardinal Pedro Barreto received death threats and harassment during his almost 20-year campaign against a US mining company’s operations in the Andes
A Peruvian cardinal who received a barrage of death threats when he challenged the firm behind a toxic smelter has called a $150m (£111m) out-of-court settlement to more than 1,000 people who were allegedly poisoned by the plant as children “a historic milestone”.
Cardinal Pedro Barreto, 82, was in Rome meeting Pope Leo XIV and other cardinals in June when he received news that the firm that ran the smelter, the Doe Run Company, a subsidiary of Renco Group, would pay $150m to 1,373 Peruvians who have suffered health impacts since childhood.
Continue reading...Company acquired in deal involving Affinity Partners, a firm run by Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner
Electronic Arts, the maker of video games such as The Sims, Madden NFL and Battlefield, has been bought by Saudi Arabia’s wealth fund and a group of investors for $55bn (£41bn).
The company announced the completion of the deal on Tuesday evening, only days after the EU gave its approval, the final regulatory green light needed.
Continue reading...S&P 500 shot up 1.8% and the main measure of Wall Street’s health topped its prior all-time high set a few months ago
The US stock market rallied to records on Tuesday as profits kept piling up for companies and as oil prices eased.
The S&P 500 shot up 1.8%, and the main measure of Wall Street’s health topped its prior all-time high set a couple months ago. The Dow Jones industrial average added 907 points, or 1.7%, to its own record set the day before, while the Nasdaq composite jumped 2.6%.
Continue reading...Levy could raise £19bn to help pay for Andy Burnham’s support for those struggling with bills, say campaigners
Campaigners have renewed calls for a windfall tax on UK banks that could raise £19bn towards Andy Burnham’s cost of living agenda, after HSBC raked in $10.1bn (£7.5bn) worth of profits in the second quarter of the year.
Bosses at HSBC reported on Tuesday that profits rose 60% year on year in the three months to the end of June, helped by fees from wealth management and insurance business, as well as higher interest rates, which allow the bank to charge more for loans and mortgages.
Continue reading...US president hits out at ExxonMobil and Chevron, saying they should ‘give some of that back to the public’
Donald Trump has criticised oil companies for “making too much money” from the global energy market disruption caused by his war on Iran.
Brent crude had been trading at about $70 (£52) a barrel before the first US-Israeli strikes at the end of February, but by the end of April it had soared as high as $126 and is now trading at about $85 a barrel.
Continue reading...National Foreign Trade Council ‘disappointed’ at move to expand News Bargaining Incentive but Australian experts say government is not going far enough
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A major US trade body has rubbished the Albanese government’s plan to make more big tech platforms pay for Australian journalism, issuing a veiled warning about how Donald Trump may respond to the “deteriorating trend”.
The National Foreign Trade Council said it was “disappointed” at the Australian government’s move to expand its News Bargaining Incentive (NBI) to take in Microsoft’s LinkedIn, amid trade tensions between Washington and Canberra including newly increased tariffs on Australian goods.
Continue reading...Meg O’Neill says ‘where we generate jobs, we generate tax revenue’, as company’s profits more than double
Revealed: major oil firms make $93bn profits amid war and climate crisis
Nils Pratley: BP boss is unsentimental in pruning portfolio and clear on North Sea advice to Burnham
BP’s chief executive has urged Andy Burnham to make use of the UK’s oil and gas resources even as the oil company prepares to sell its North Sea business after 60 years in the ageing basin.
In a conversation with the new prime minister, Meg O’Neill said the country should prioritise using energy produced in the UK, “where we generate jobs, we generate tax revenue, we generate all those additional positive impacts”.
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