Category: Business

From festivals in Florida to touring Dracula’s digs in Romania, we round up the best destinations to visit this October. As summer abandons Europe again this October, eke out the last of the rays and raves in Ibiza, where nightclubs will be going out with a bang for the winter break. When the party finally stops head to the island’s north.

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Business

Airlines will experience the busiest day for flights on August 12, the aviation body predicts Business News

Friday August 12 will be the busiest day of the year for the number of available airline seats worldwide, a leading analyst has predicted.

John Grant, chief analyst at OAG, calculates that 16.1 million seats are currently on offer as of that date. The exact number is subject to change as airlines adjust their schedules, with an average of 0.6% of capacity cut each week at present.

The busiest day for aviation before the coronavirus pandemic was also the second Friday in August: August 9, 2019, with data analyst Cirium calculating that 17 million passengers took off worldwide.

The actual number of air travelers on August 12, 2022 will be much lower than this figure, as around one in five seats are likely to be empty, giving a figure of around 13 million passengers.

In 2021, says Mr Grant, “the busiest day was a very unusual December 17”. The penultimate Friday before Christmas offered 12.5 million seats, with around nine million passengers.

His blog also reports: “After a few weeks of getting closer and closer to 90 million seats per week, we finally got there with 90.7 million seats on offer.”

During the pre-pandemic peak week for availability, starting July 29, 2019, capacity reached 119 million seats.

“Despite the number of breakthroughs, there remain shortages of all kinds around the world that are impacting a full resumption of travel,” he writes.

Like The Independent reported, easyJet is to remove row 26 from its UK-based Airbus A319 to reduce the number of seats to 150, reducing the number of cabin crew needed from four to three.

“In August, this equates to around 60,000 fewer seats for sale and likely higher sale rates on some services to mitigate lost seats,” Mr Grant predicts.

The UK has seven times more plane seats than a year ago when the ban on international leisure travel was still in place.

Global airline capacity is now five-sixths of the corresponding week in 2019.

Three of the regions that have historically had a relatively low amount of aviation are actually ahead of their 2019 levels: West and Central Africa (up 26%), Central America (up 7%) and Upper South America (up 6%). ).

Japan reports the biggest reduction in airline capacity this week with a 7% drop in seats, leaving it at around two-thirds of capacity in the same week in 2019. Mr 20 country.

The OAG analyst concludes: “In the next few weeks (hopefully and with some easing of lockdowns in China), we should hit 95 million seats per week and be sure to hold steady at that level at least for the next few weeks. coming months as the high summer season continues.

“We still have a long way to go, but progress is progress.”

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Source: www.independent.co.uk
This notice was published: 2022-05-11 15:42:18

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Elon Musk pledges to overturn Trump’s Twitter ban Business

Elon Musk has pledged to reinstate Donald Trump on Twitter if his $44billion (£36billion) takeover of the social media network is successful, in a move that will further stoke tensions with Democrats ahead of the election mid-term.

The billionaire Tesla chief said Mr Trump’s ban was a “morally wrong and senseless decision in the extreme” because it undermined trust in the platform.

He added: “The answer is that I would cancel the ban.”

Mr Musk is seeking to take Twitter private and has the backing of key investors including Oracle’s Larry Ellison and Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, one of Twitter’s current major shareholders.

Some senior Twitter executives are reportedly unhappy with the deal, fearing it could lead to a reversal of efforts to crack down on what they see as misinformation and hate speech.

Leading Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren also warned the deal was “dangerous to our democracy”.

Party figures fear Mr Trump’s return could further hurt their chances in next year’s election in which Republicans are expected to win back at least one house of Congress.

Mr Trump was banned from the platform last year after it was discovered he broke its rules on glorifying violence.

His supporters stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 in a bid to overturn the result, sparking riots that left five people dead and hundreds arrested.

Mr Musk said he wants a “fair” platform, even if that means a “balance of anger” on certain topics.

He said, “Victory would be if the rightmost 10% and the leftmost 10% were equally upset.”

The billionaire envisions a platform where accounts are only banned when the accounts are robotic, don’t depict real people, or are there to defraud people, something he says founder and former chief executive Jack Dorsey supports also.

Temporary bans and limiting the visibility of tweets would be better solutions to illegal behavior, he said.

His version of Twitter “doesn’t mean anyone can say what they want to say.”

Mr Musk said: ‘I have spoken with Jack Dorsey about this. And he and I are of the same mind that permanent bans should be extremely rare, and really only for people who come from accounts that are bots, or spam-scam accounts, where there’s simply no legitimacy to the account at all.”

The ban “alienated much of the country and ultimately didn’t stop Donald Trump from having his voice heard,” he said.

Mr Trump has taken to rival social media platform Truth, a platform favored by right-wingers, meaning he is under less scrutiny by moderates and the left.

Speaking at the Financial Times’ Future of the Car conference, Mr Musk reiterated his view that Twitter has a “strong left-wing bias” that stems from its location in San Francisco.

He also suggested posting the full algorithm of Twitter, the software that chooses what users see, so enthusiasts can make suggestions and show how the website makes decisions and why certain posts gain traction and popularity. others no.

He denied that owning Twitter would hurt Tesla’s business. Tesla has lost 29% of its value since it emerged that Mr Musk had taken a large stake in the company as investors feared it would force him to sell shares to fund his purchase.

He said: “I’m confident we can sell all the cars we can make.”

It came as Tesla cut production in Shanghai from 1,200 to 200 cars a day after zero-Covid lockdowns caused disruption to its supply chain.

Shareholders will need to approve the takeover before Mr. Musk can buy Twitter, and he expects the deal to take at least two or three months.

He said, “It’s certainly not a done deal.”

Last month Mr Trump said he would not return to Twitter even if the ban was lifted.

Speaking to Fox News, he said: “I’m not going to Twitter, I’m going to stay on Truth.

“I hope Elon buys Twitter because he will improve it and he’s a good man, but I’m going to stick with Truth.”

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Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
This notice was published: 2022-05-10 20:06:05

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Netflix subscription cheaper by the end of the year – but there’s a catch Business

Netflix is ​​set to introduce ads and crack down on password sharing by the end of the year as it tries to generate revenue amid slowing subscriptions.

The streaming service behind global hit shows such as The Crown and Squid Game is preparing to launch its low-cost, ad-supported subscription tier in the last three months of 2022, according to CNBC.

Netflix executives previously said they would introduce the service in “the next year or two”.

It comes as the £64billion company struggles with weak subscriber growth. New signups fell by 200,000 in the first three months of the year, with critics targeting its failure to produce enough hit shows. In January, it posted its weakest annual growth since 2015 and forecast its worst start to the year in 13 years due to a “Covid overhang”.

Already in debt by around $15 billion, Netflix is ​​losing billions of dollars a year as many viewers watch shows for free using other people’s passwords. The competition, meanwhile, is heating up with Prime Video and Apple TV.

The introduction of advertising marks a big change for Netflix. Last month, Founder and Managing Director Reed Hastings said, “It’s not a short-term fix because once you start offering a cheaper plan with optional ads, some consumers pick it up.

“And we have a large installed base that’s probably quite happy where they are.”

Two years ago, Mr. Hastings referred to the “controversy surrounding the exploitation of users by advertising”.

The streaming giant’s share price has fallen 62% in the past 12 months as it struggles to crack down on password sharing.

Other streaming services such as Spotify have taken a different approach, offering discounted deals for multi-user subscriptions rather than trying to chase full-price sales from customers.

Netflix has started copying these rivals, encouraging customers to sign up for “sub-accounts” for users who don’t live together.

Netflix declined to comment, but a spokesperson stressed that its current subscription service, priced at £15.99 for the premium 4K high definition option, would continue to be offered.

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Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
This notice was published: 2022-05-11 06:50:21

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New Tui holiday bookings top summer 2019 levels Business News

Britain’s biggest holiday company, Tui, says sales for the summer season are currently at 85% of summer 2019 levels – and over the past six weeks bookings have been even higher higher than the last pre-pandemic year.

The UK, Germany and the Netherlands show “high momentum”.

The giant pan-European travel company has revealed the figures as well as its results for the second quarter of its financial year covering January to March.

In the three months, the company took 1.9 million people abroad, almost 10 times more than the same period in 2021.

The usual seasonal loss was almost halved. The overall load factor – the proportion of seats occupied – was 84%.

Chief Executive Fritz Joussen said: “Strong travel demand and very good commercial performance confirm our forecast: 2022 will be a good year.

“After two years of crisis, we expect Tui to return to profitability in the current financial year.

“It’s the basis for new growth.”

The company’s capacity is almost back to 2019 levels and its net debt has fallen to €3.9bn (£3.3bn).

“After the short-term depreciation due to the Omicron variant, bookings are increasing significantly,” the company said in a statement.

“In terms of overall booking development for Summer 2022, Tui UK continues to lead the way, currently showing an 11% increase compared to Summer 2019.

“Vacationers continue to book more short-term and at the same time spend more money on their trip.”

Average sales prices for the high season are 20% higher than in 2019, due to “the high proportion of package holidays booked”, as well as longer stays and better accommodation.

For cruises, Tui expects a recovery from July.

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Source: www.independent.co.uk
This notice was published: 2022-05-11 07:21:21

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Could Prince Charles’ model village solve the housing crisis? Business

Claire Bennie, director of Municipal and architectural adviser to the Mayor of London, agrees that Poundbury’s exterior styling is something of a ‘red herring’.

“I think quality is the word to look for,” she adds. “Design matters. But people also want a sort of close-knit village in the houses to make it feel like a community. They like open spaces so they can relax and be in nature. And they want local amenities that are easy to walk or bike to.

“It looks basic but quite often it doesn’t deliver and the build isn’t fantastic either.”

She points to Abode, in Great Knighton, Cambridgeshire, as a good example of a development with a more modern style that is “extremely stylish”, uses local materials and also hits those notes.

Bennie argues that what the Poundbury project and others like it have in common, however, is “enlightened ownership” – meaning it may be difficult to replicate elsewhere.

“When you have a big landowner who is going to stay, he has all this power and all this new agency and ability to influence what happens,” she adds.

“But most lands don’t have that. There is no such vision.

While such influence and power is unlikely to be the case everywhere, Boys Smith points to government plans for local design codes, arguing that this should improve developments. He adds that recent changes to the national planning framework, which councils must adhere to, have placed more emphasis on place design and creation.

Poundbury’s model also has other flaws. Some residents have complained about the strict design rules, which prevent them from repainting their homes or changing their wooden window frames to plastic ones.

Most homes in the development also lack front driveways – despite most homeowners’ preference to park their cars in front of their properties – resulting in many parking them close to the sidewalk anyway.

Plans for 2,500 eco-homes in Faversham have also met with local opposition, stressing that even the Prince’s philosophy is no panacea for opposition to housing schemes.

Back in Poundbury, the sun is shining and the Great Field, where a brand new playing field has just been built, is packed with families, many of whom have traveled from other parts of Dorchester.

Opinions on the development architecture are mixed. “It’s a bit like ‘toy town’,” says one mother.

But apart from Waitrose, the people of Poundbury themselves are full of praise.

“I think it’s beautiful,” beams Emma Kirk, 33, who lives in one of the apartments in the development.

Carina Loder, 37, accompanied by her three-year-old baby Ellie, adds: “It’s beautiful, I love it. It added a completely different and exciting dimension to Dorchester.

It may be the flight of a prince, but if ministers can find a way to replicate Poundbury’s unlikely success, they could still be winners.

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Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
This notice was published: 2022-05-11 09:20:17

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Rishi Sunak failures will trigger recession, economists warn Business

Rishi Sunak is pushing Britain into recession due to its failure to tackle the cost of living crisis, top economists have warned.

The economy will contract in the second half of the year, according to the National Institute for Economic and Social Research (Niesr), in part due to the Chancellor’s reluctance to support consumer spending with tax cuts or support for households .

Niesr predicts inflation will soar above 8% and unemployment will rise to over 5% as the country is hammered amid an international slowdown.

Its forecasters also expect Russia’s war in Ukraine to dampen global growth, costing the global economy $1.5 trillion in production.

UK GDP will fall 0.2% in the three months to September and a further 0.4% in the final quarter of 2022 as ‘stagflation’ threatens, before returning to years of lackluster growth.

Mr Sunak had the option to spend more or withhold tax hikes in his spring return, Niesr said, which would have helped “reduce the likelihood” of the economy reversing.

Stephen Millard, an economist at the think tank, said: ‘The Chancellor has had a chance to help poorer households, to do something about it.

“But he chose not to. He chose instead to pay for the Covid aid, the additional tax support, by reducing the deficit.

Living standards are set to plummet, with real household disposable income expected to fall by 2.4% this year. Another 250,000 households will fall into destitution, bringing the total to around 1 million.

Mr Sunak’s own fiscal rules left around £10bn of headroom at the time of the spring statement beyond the measures he chose to take, such as cutting fuel duty by 5p, Niesr said.

Mr Millard – who worked at the Bank of England – said Threadneedle Street had kept interest rates too low for too long, contributing to soaring inflation this year.

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Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
This notice was published: 2022-05-11 08:25:08

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Fears for European gas supply as Ukraine cuts Russian exports Business

ggood morning.

Gas prices have risen amid a clash between Ukraine and Russia that threatens to disrupt a third of fuel supplies delivered to Europe.

Ukraine has said flows through one of two key entry points will stop from today as Russian occupation troops interfere with operations. It has been declared force majeure, which means that it is unable to ensure deliveries for reasons beyond its control.

The country’s network operator said those supplies – about a third of all flows from Russia to Europe – could be rerouted. However, Gazprom insisted such a change was “technically impossible”.

Benchmark gas prices in Europe rose 6.8% at the open, while the UK equivalent rose 9%.

5 things to start your day

1) Russia responsible for hacking satellite causing chaos across Europe A cyber attack stopped 5,800 German wind turbines before the invasion of Ukraine

2) EA Sports whistles full-time on its Fifa football video game Electronic Arts will launch a new EA Sports FC title

3) Rise of electric vehicles risks wave of ‘catastrophic’ ship fires Thousands of vehicles including Bentleys and Porsches sank in the Atlantic in March

4) Britain joins the space race with the launch of the first satellite from Cornwall Shoebox-sized satellites will be sent into orbit this summer

5) The best lawyers in town will take courses on menopause Linklaters hopes new training will ‘facilitate open discussions’ about menopause

What happened overnight

Hong Kong shares opened slightly lower on Wednesday, stabilizing after losses from the Wall Street rout on fears of economic risks from soaring inflation.

The Hang Seng index fell 0.6pc at the open. The Shanghai Composite Index climbed 0.3pc, while the Shenzhen Composite Index on China’s second-largest stock exchange rose 0.6pc.

Shares in Tokyo also opened lower on Wednesday. The benchmark Nikkei 225 was down 0.6pc, while the broader Topix index was down 0.5pc.

coming today

  • Business : Brewin Dolphin, Compass Group, Tui (interims); Airtel Africa, ITV, Marshalls, Spirax-Sarco (commercial statement)
  • Economy: Consumer price index (USA, China)economic growth forecast (EU)RICS house price equilibrium (UK)

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Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
This notice was published: 2022-05-11 07:31:26

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Russia responsible for hacking satellite causing chaos across Europe Business

Russia was behind a cyberattack that wreaked havoc across Europe hours before invading Ukraine, British officials have confirmed.

Kremlin cyber spies hacked into a Viasat communications satellite intending to target the Ukrainian military, but also took thousands of users offline, including a wind farm in Germany.

The attack was the first digital salvo launched by Russia and raised fears of an all-out online war.

Information pointing to Russian agents was previously published by satellite operator Viasat. The Foreign Ministry said the Kremlin’s military intelligence office, the GRU, was behind the attack.

Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary, said: “This is clear and shocking evidence of a deliberate and malicious Russian attack on Ukraine that has had a significant impact on ordinary citizens and businesses in Ukraine. and all over Europe”.

Viktor Zhora, a senior official with Ukraine’s cybersecurity agency, said immediately after the hack that it was “a huge loss of communication at the very beginning of the war”.

The European Union has joined Ms Truss in condemning Russia for the hack, which affected member states in eastern Europe and shut down 5,800 German wind turbines operated by power company Enercon.

The attack consisted of a malicious software update sent by Russian military intelligence to customer terminals of Viasat’s KA-SAT satellite.

Tens of thousands of terminals have been damaged by Russian efforts to force the satellite offline, the Foreign Ministry said. It is understood that the terminals must be returned to Viasat to be reprogrammed for normal use.

Viasat’s satellite service is used by businesses for general Internet connectivity and for monitoring industrial systems connected to the Internet.

Cybersecurity firm SentinelOne said in a March analysis that 5,800 turbines in Germany had all gone offline at the same time in late February, the first indication that something was wrong.

The UK has sanctioned the GRU after their appalling actions in Salisbury.

Previous UK sanctions froze around £940bn in bank assets and £117bn in personal net worth of oligarchs and their family members, who the government says fund and support Putin’s war machine .

Viasat did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

At the start of the invasion, the Viasat hack was seen by experts as a warning shot of what might come next. Yet Russia’s cyber warfare capabilities have more or less culminated in hacking, also sparking a renewed wave of vigilance among Western and Ukrainian organizations.

Another Russian hack in April, intended to take down part of Ukraine’s power grid with a malicious software ‘bomb’, was detected and defused with help from Microsoft and Slovak cybersecurity firm Eset, among others. Mr Zhora said: “It looks like we were extremely lucky to respond to this in a timely manner.”

Since that attempt, Russian cyber aggression has declined to a background level of activity, with continued attempts to hack the email inboxes and social media profiles of Ukrainian officials.

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Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
This notice was published: 2022-05-10 21:30:00

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British Airways in management reshuffle to tackle flight delays and cancellations Business News

British Airways has rattled senior executives as it struggles to recover from flight delays and cancellations that have marred its Covid-19 recovery.

New managers have taken over responsibility for customer services, operations and IT, the airline confirmed.

The flag carrier has seen its return to profits rocked by the chaos of recent weeks which has forced it to cut its hours until the end of the summer to avoid further disruption to passengers.

It has been hit by staff shortages – particularly in baggage handling and other ground operations – which have plagued other airlines as well. However, BA’s IT problems, which have included several major system failures that have left thousands of passengers stranded, are its own fault.

Chief information and digital officer Anthony Allcock is to be replaced by Dirk John, an external employee, while Calum Laming is appointed chief account officer, replacing Tom Stevens, according to the FinancialTimeswho first reported the changes.

The COO role has been split in two, with incumbent Jason Mahoney becoming technical director while a new external employee will take over day-to-day operations.

An airline spokesperson said: “We are navigating an extremely challenging time as we rebuild from the global pandemic, and so we have created four new roles in our leadership team.

“Everyone at British Airways is fully focused on three priorities: our customers, supporting the biggest recruitment campaign in our history and increasing our operational resilience to deliver the best possible experience to our customers.”

Last week, British Airways parent company IAG announced it was cutting capacity on BA’s summer timetable by 5% to reduce cancellations and delays.

Chief executive Luis Gallego said the cost of dealing with BA’s disruption was the main reason for first quarter operating losses of €754m (£645m), although worse than analysts’ forecast of 510 million euros.

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Source: www.independent.co.uk
This notice was published: 2022-05-10 20:51:14

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EA Sports whistles full-time on its Fifa football video game Business

Electronic Arts will stop making the classic Fifa soccer video game after the title launches on console next year, ending one of the industry’s most profitable and longest-lasting franchises.

EA Sports, the football division of the video game publisher, announced Tuesday that it will replace the venerable gaming title, first seen on shelves in 1993, with a new series called EA Sports FC.

Meanwhile, Fifa has pledged to develop new video games with other publishers ahead of the World Cup.

A senior EA executive says the decision to end the Fifa franchise was driven by licensing frustrations.

David Jackson, Vice President of EA, said: “Under the licensing agreements we entered into with Fifa 10 years ago, there were certain restrictions that wouldn’t allow us to create these experiences for players.”

The current agreement particularly limits players’ ability to watch games played by others and create content themselves, he said.

Chris Bruzzo, chief experience officer at EA Games, told gaming website Eurogamer that around 100 million people played Fifa in one form or another last year.

The title has been one of the mainstays of football gaming, along with Sega’s Football Manager.

Steve McCaskill, media and technology editor of industry website SportsPro, said: “As EA Sports has cultivated a huge fanbase and secured licensing deals with other bodies like UEFA and the Premier League, the suggestion is that Fifa arguably needs the game more than the vice. poured.

EA has sought to allay fears that this new game will be similar to Pro Evolution Soccer, which, thanks to a lack of licensing deals, features teams such as ‘Merseyside Red’ instead of Liverpool FC.

Cam Weber, vice president of EA’s sports and racing games division, said the company has licensed more than 19,000 players, more than 700 teams, more than 100 stadiums and 30 leagues.

Mr Weber promised EA would offer “one more year” of Fifa before the franchise ends, ready for the launch of EA Sports FC in the summer of 2023.

Mr McCaskill said: “EA Sports FC will likely be FIFA in all but name, offering the same digital license-based recreation of the world of football and most fans will understand that – although most will still call it FIFA. for the coming years. “

“This is more than just a symbol change – as EA Sports, we are committed to ensuring that EA Sports FC is a symbol of change.”

Fifa, the football governing body after which the video game series is named, said it was already working on several new games and would launch them around the World Cup in Qatar.

Gianni Infantino, President of Fifa, said: “I can assure you that the only real authentic game bearing the Fifa name will be the best available for football players and fans.

“The name Fifa is the only global and original title. Fifa 23, Fifa 24, Fifa 25 and Fifa 26, and so on – the constant is the name FIFA and it will forever remain and remain the best.”

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Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
This notice was published: 2022-05-10 19:15:55