Author: staff

This is partly because the OBR has measured Labour’s flagship piece of deregulation — planning reform. The watchdog believes this will add 170,000 homes on its own and lift GDP 0.2 percent (£6.8 billion) in 2029/30. Reeves called it the “biggest positive growth impact” of its kind ever scored by the OBR. But there’s a sting in the tail. The OBR forecasts 1.3 million net extra homes will be built between April 2025 and March 2030. This is short of Labour’s election promise to build 1.5 million, albeit over a different period (July 2024 to summer 2029). Treasury officials insist…

While subscription services might save travellers money, they are also a way to persuade more people to fly – which is bad news for the planet. Low-cost airline Ryanair has launched a new subscription service offering perks that it says can save travellers up to five times the sign-up fee. The subscriber discount scheme known as ‘Prime’ costs €79 for 12 months. Member benefits include free reserved seats, free travel insurance and access to 12 annual (one each month) member-exclusive seat sales.“Ryanair has been delivering the lowest fares (and the best services) in Europe for the last four decades, and we’re now…

An extra 250,000 people, including 50,000 children, will be living in “relative poverty” by 2030 as a result of the plans, the Department for Work and Pensions’ own impact assessment said — although it stressed the figures don’t take into account the effect of the government’s proposed initiatives to get people back into work. “If we do nothing, that means we are writing off an entire generation,” Reeves told MPs in defense of the plans, as she insisted Labour had “inherited a broken system” from the Conservatives. But plenty on her own side will need more convincing than that —…

Many consider the case against Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, seen as the biggest challenger to Erdoğan’s 22-year rule, to be politically motivated. Turkey’s president has accused the political opposition of “sinking the economy” during the country’s biggest protests in more than a decade following the arrest of Istanbul’s mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu.Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s comments come after İmamoğlu’s Republican People’s Party (CHP) called for a boycott of companies it says support the government.Erdoğan said the opposition is “so desperate that they would throw the country and the nation into the fire”.In an address to lawmakers of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK…

Now, the European Union is seeking clarity on what is being offered up at the talks behind its back, particularly given decisions over sanctions on the Belgium-based international payments service SWIFT and on Russia’s shadow fleet — ships Moscow uses to circumvent sanctions and maintain oil exports — lay firmly with European capitals. “We are talking about core, hard sanctions,” an EU diplomat said. “If the Russians want them to be lifted, they need to have a confrontation with us, not only with the Americans.” Governments also realize that there’s a tangled web of diplomacy at play where little can be…

Can probabilities help people prepare for the future? According to statistician David Spiegelhalter, yes—but only if they have been carefully examined through mathematical analysis. My Wildest Prediction is a podcast series from Euronews Businesswhere we dare to imagine the future with business and tech visionaries. In this episode, Tom Goodwin talks to Professor David Spiegelhalter, an Emeritus professor of statistics at the University of Cambridge, who is committed to making mathematics more accessible.People make predictions all the time about a lot of things, from weather changes to the next most profitable industries and the upcoming election results. People love calculating…

But Martin did — and vowed not to let Sinn Féin get its way. “You’ve created a new precedent,” he told McDonald. “We’re now in a new position where, if you successfully barrack and intimidate people enough, you will get your way. And we can’t allow that (to) happen.” He noted how Sinn Féin, once the public face of the outlawed Irish Republican Army, hadn’t even recognized the political legitimacy of the Republic of Ireland until the mid-1980s when it started to contest Irish elections here. Martin said he feared that Ireland’s democratic system faced “a new era of total…

Frontex’s role in returning rejected asylum seekers should be monitored, especially in terms of the protection of fundamental rights, green MEP Tineke Strik tells Radio Schuman on Monday. Frontex’s role in returning rejected asylum-seekers should be monitored, especially in terms of the protection of fundamental rights, green MEP Tineke Strik tells Radio Schuman on Monday.Earlier this month, the European Commission presented a new regulation that would – if approved – enable EU countries to transfer rejected asylum seekers to distant countries where they have never been before.Although the law did not establish deportation centres or “return hubs”, it laid the…

Bolsonaro, who fought to stay in power after losing the 2022 election, has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and claims he is being politically persecuted. Brazil’s Supreme Court has accepted charges against former President Jair Bolsonaro over an alleged attempted coup to stay in office after his 2022 election defeat.The five justices voted unanimously in favour of putting Bolsonaro and seven other allies on trial on five counts, including involvement in an armed criminal organisation and attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law.The populist Bolsonaro, who swept to power after a shock win at the 2018 election, has repeatedly denied…

Residents are too afraid to drink water from their local wells or open their windows for fear of the stench of nearby livestock operations. In a legal first, Spanish citizens have launched court action against national and regional authorities over intensive pig-rearing. The residents say the mismanagement of pollution from decades of industrial pig farming has made life in their community “unfeasible” – and is putting their health at risk. It marks the first time a court in Europe will hear a case on the human rights impacts of intensive livestock operations on water sources. Residents are too afraid to…