Imperial Brands is optimistic of a strong six-month period with higher cigarette prices and strong demand for tobacco alternatives expected. The tobacco company’s revenue grew by 0.3% to £15.41bn ($21.6bn) driven by sales of its NGP brands of e-cigarettes and heated tobacco, which rose by 19.8%. Imperial Brands has been shifting its focus to its top five markets while beefing up investments into NGP products, having introduced a new line of menthol-flavoured blu e-cigarettes in the US in March. The company maintained its outlook for adjusted operating profit for the full year.
Lawyers for the British Government have argued that Prince Harry should not be allowed to pay for his own police protection while visiting the UK because wealthy people should not be able to buy specially trained officers to act as their private security. The comments were made during court proceedings after the Prince sought to have a decision, last year, to refuse him publicly-funded police protection when he was in the UK, reviewed. Since moving to California, Harry has relied on private security arrangements, but the couple claim they are insufficient when visiting the UK.
Zelensky toured Europe seeking new weapons. Here’s what he came home with.
Washington Post
23-05-16 13:40
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has completed a round of state visits to European nations as his country prepares for an expected counteroffensive against Russian forces. During the trip, national leaders pledged military aid, weapons, training, and support, including artillery, combat vehicles, missiles, drones and longer-range missiles. Among the strongest commitments were those made by Germany, which pledged $2.95 billion in a new package that includes more than 100 combat vehicles, 200 reconnaissance drones, 30 Leopard 1 A5 tanks, 20 Marder armoured personnel carriers and 18 self-propelled howitzers, crucially including IRIS-T air defence systems. France committed to training soldiers, refurbishing weapons, and repairing armoured vehicles and guns. The UK has offered “hundreds of air defence missiles” and “hundreds of new long-range attack drones," as well as training. Italy and Pope Francis were thanked for their efforts so far, but no significant new aid was dedicated.
Kensa Group, a green energy company based in Cornwall, plans to install 50,000 heat pumps in UK homes each year with the help of a £70m investment from Octopus Energy and Legal & General. This represents the largest investment so far in heating devices, according to Kensa. The funds will be used to increase the deployment of ground source heat pumps, which are being promoted by the UK government as an eco-friendly alternative to gas-fired boilers. The government hopes to have 600,000 heat pumps installed each year by 2028, but uptake of the £5,000 and £6,000 grants has been low.
The UK has practised a policy of mass migration without the necessary preparation for it, causing voter dissatisfaction for Conservative supporters who feel let down and Brexit voters. The government has not prepared public services and has instead offended liberal supporters with its tough talk on migration while offending others who view it as a threat to public service and the standard of living because of its lack of control over migration.Silicon Republic recently reported that the UK tech sector may also suffer from Brexit immigration reforms.The number of workers applying for permanent residency in the UK has increased as a result.
The Council of Europe (CoE) summit, being held in Reykjavik, Iceland, has considered holding Russia legally responsible for the death and destruction caused by its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The summit, only the fourth in the CoE’s 70-year history, has seen the suspension of Russia’s membership as a direct result of the invasion. Attendees have discussed possible measures against Russia, including the creation of a dedicated tribunal to try leaders and commanders in The Hague, and the establishment of a register to record the damage caused by Russia.
Margherita Della Valle, the new CEO of Vodafone, has announced that the group will cut 11,000 job losses to simplify the company and improve its performance across its main markets. The cuts, which will be made over three years, represent Vodafone's biggest ever set of job losses. Vodafone's revenues are reportedly 2% lower than in 2018, while adjusted earnings are less than promising. Della Valle's mission to restructure the centralised business will focus on reducing roles at group level, which employs around 1,500 people at its London headquarters, as well as at local units across Europe, especially Germany, Spain and Italy. One of the challenges ahead includes an increasing number of private investors applying pressure on the group to execute its turnaround, including French tycoon Xavier Niel with 2.5% and US dealmaker Liberty Global with 5%.
The UK and EU have agreed to improve cooperation on migration, with new working arrangements between British agencies and the European Border and Coast Guard Agency. Details and operationalisation of the new agreement will be discussed by UK and EU teams.
UK Housing Secretary, Michael Gove has said immigration levels are so high there is an “inevitable pressure” on housing supply and public services. Gove argued the Government’s ability to cap the number of people entering Britain must be a vital part of its Brexit freedoms. He cites pressure on housing and public services, as well as issues with traditional milestones such as starting a family and building a home, as reasons for stricter migration controls. Gove also admitted it had become “increasingly difficult” to achieve these milestones due to a lack of affordable housing.
UK Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, urges Britain to become less dependent on low-skilled foreign labour and claimed that shortages can be filled with domestic workers. The home secretary is among the right-wing Conservative MPs urging Rishi Sunak to drive down net migration after it soared to a record of more than 500,000 in the year to June. However, industries such as agriculture, food processing and logistics, as well as gaps in the National Health Service are still experiencing staff shortages. More than 70,000 temporary worker visas were granted in 2022, and over half of those were for seasonal workers including jobs in agriculture and poultry farming. However, despite the rise, several sectors are still reporting staff shortages that are driving up wages in attempts to recruit and maintain staff, and increasing costs to consumers.
The UK government has refused to renegotiate the Brexit deal reached with the EU in February, dealing a blow to Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party, which is campaigning to change the Windsor Framework. The DUP wants changes made to protect Northern Ireland's place in the UK, but James Cleverly, Foreign Secretary, said there would be no alterations to the deal. The DUP has urged voters in Thursday's local elections to support it in pushing the issue with the government. The result will also affect the crisis surrounding the lack of a functioning Northern Ireland Assembly for 15 months.
The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has revealed that over 3 million more people are struggling to keep up with bills and payments, increasing the impact of the cost of living crisis on UK households, according to official data. This means 10.9 million people are struggling to meet bills and credit payments this month, up from 7.8 million in May 2022. The figures have been published ahead of the FCA’s new consumer duty next month, aimed at strengthening consumer protection measures, including for loans.
A survey by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority showed the number of Britons failing to meet credit commitments or miss payments on domestic bills rose from 4.2 million to 5.6 million in the six months to January 2023 due to recession. Research highlighted the "real impact" of inflation, said Sheldon Mills from the FCA. Experts also warned households are facing the "convergence of higher living costs and higher interest rates" pushing personal finances "right to the edge and sometimes over". The watchdog has urged lenders to provide tailored support for those struggling to meet payments.
Former British Prime Minister Liz Truss will say during her visit to Taiwan on August 18 that the West must stand firm against China and offer unwavering support to the independent state. This follows a period of strained relations between Britain and China in recent years, including the increasingly aggressive foreign policy stances taken by China's government. Truss disagrees with the engagement model currently favored by the UK's conservative government, which seeks to engage economically and avoid national security threats. The statement by Truss follows similar calls by the US government in light of China's human rights abuses in Hong Kong and its occupation of Taiwan.
The register of damages created by a summit of the Council of Europe will record Russia's "harm and destruction" in Ukraine, with the aim of using it for future compensation. The register will hold the tangible costs Russia has demanded from Ukraine over the last 15 months. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky used a video address to the summit to call for more air defence systems and missiles, as the register was launched in The Hague. Zelensky received defence pledges from France, Germany and Britain but is unable to equip Ukraine with advanced fighter aircraft.
The UK's newly-appointed foreign secretary, Liz Truss, will call on the country's Chancellor Rishi Sunak to designate China as a national security threat during a speech in Taiwan this Wednesday. Truss will also urge the government to 'urgently' close China's 30 Confucius Institutes in the UK. This marks a significant hardening of the UK's stance towards China, as prime minister Boris Johnson only last year described China as the "biggest long-term threat to Britain". Truss is the first former UK prime minister to visit Taiwan since Margaret Thatcher in the 1990s.
The Palace of Westminster, the seat of British democracy, is at risk of catastrophic destruction due to years of procrastination over its restoration, say members of parliament. The building is crumbling, afflicted by asbestos, leaking and has "dropping masonry", which has led to 44 fire-related incidents since 2016. Lawmakers voted in 2018 to vacate the palace by the mid-2020s, yet some members want to remain. "Further delays are hugely costly to the taxpayer; lack of action is not value for money," said the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee. The renewal cost is high, but "a catastrophic event will destroy" it otherwise, it added.
Labour party leader Sir Keir Starmer will lay out plans for housing reform at a British Chambers of Commerce event today. Starmer is set to present Labour's plan to tackle the UK's housing crisis, promising to take on opponents of new developments, streamline planning processes for infrastructure and commercial development, remove the power of veto from landowners and bring back local housing targets. The plans are expected to appeal to younger Labour voters who have been unable to purchase a home due to rising house prices, but may be less popular with Conservative voters in rural areas.
UK businesses could benefit from hiring overseas workers as labour shortages continue to impact industries such as agriculture and hospitality, according to British Chambers of Commerce Director-General Shevaun Haviland. The government should adopt a “shortage occupation list” to secure the necessary labour, she suggested. Social care, fruit picking and meat processing also face labour shortages and the National Farmers' Union has called for a rolling five-year worker scheme to address the absence of seasonal workers on British farms.
Several letters published in The Telegraph this week have seen landlords from across the UK complain about the negative impact they believe the Renters’ Reform Bill, proposed by UK Housing Secretary Michael Gove, will have on the private rented sector. Criticisms include that the bill will favour tenants over landlords and will lead to fewer landlords entering the property market, thus causing a shortage of rental properties for those looking to live in the sector. Previously, rents had steadily risen at rates around the same as inflation, however, following recent legistlation, rental prices have begun to soar, with one landlord claiming that his most recent let was 45% higher than its going rate several years ago. It is thought the RRB is a way of coercing more young voters into leaning towards the Labour party as the proposed legislation was thought to be more appealing to them and thus unlikely to secure Conservative support in the general election. A spokesperson for Gove has yet to make an official statement regarding the criticisms.
Meanwhile, academics at the University of Oxford have condemned the decision by the Oxford University Student Union to sever its relationship with the Oxford Union, which was due to the latter’s decision not to back down on an invitation it made to feminist Kathleen Stock. Saying that Professor Stock’s views were “illicit” had dangerous connotations, and calling outright for her prohibition was an “unacceptable” alternative, the academics argued. Instead, they said universities needed to remain places of open discussion, even for contentious views that could be questioned and debated.
