British firms face ‘debanking’ for trading with Ukraine, business leaders warn August 16, 2023 UK businesses reportedly face being ‘debanked’ over trading relationships with Ukraine, business leaders have warned. Firms are increasingly “afraid to trade with Ukraine from the UK” due to the risk of having their accounts forcibly closed by overly risk-averse financial institutions, it has been claimed. According to Politico, both the British-Ukrainian Business Council (BUBC) and [...]
Another Musk mess: X goes down after ‘delay’ trial on loading news and Insta links August 16, 2023 Elon Musk’s X, previously known as Twitter, caused a brief disruption in the loading of links leading to some news outlets and social media rivals. Users attempting to access content from an affected source through X experienced a delay of five seconds, according to tests run by The Washington Post and, later, Reuters. Links to [...]
Row over why London built just one affordable home a month August 15, 2023 A row has broken out over why London has built just one affordable home a month, amid warnings the capital’s housing crisis is fast catapulting into an emergency situation. Figures published today reveal just three affordable homes were started by City Hall during April, May and June 2023 – while stats for previous years extend [...]
Donald Trump: All you need to know about the Georgia indictment August 15, 2023 Former US president Donald Trump has been indicted for the fourth time on charges relating to his attempts to overturn the result of the 2020 election in the state of Georgia. A grand jury in Fulton County, Georgia, returned an indictment late on Monday, charging Trump and 18 others, for violating election law and being [...]
Financial watchdog to ask MPs about debanking experiences August 15, 2023 British politicians are to be asked to reveal whether they have encountered problems or faced being “debanked”, as part of an inquiry by the UK’s financial watchdog. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said it is looking into the rules surrounding politically exposed persons (PEPs), which includes MPs. The regime was thrust into the spotlight after [...]
Avoid ULEZ options but tackle air pollution, Starmer says August 14, 2023 Cities should look at other options for tackling air pollution instead of schemes like London’s ULEZ (ultra low emission zone), Sir Keir Starmer has suggested. The Labour leader said no-one in the UK should be “breathing dirty air” but added that proposals for reducing air pollution should not have a disproportionate impact on people’s pockets [...]
Tory MP failed to declare £70,000 shares in Shell while environment sec August 11, 2023 A Conservative MP failed to declare that she held shares valued at more than £70,000 in Shell while she was environment secretary. Theresa Villiers admitted her shareholding in the oil and gas company via her latest update to the register of members’ financial interests. Under the section “other shareholdings, valued at more than £70,000”, Ms [...]
Biden declares ‘national emergency’ as he bans US investment in Chinese tech August 10, 2023 President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed an executive order that will prohibit some new U.S. investment in China in sensitive technologies like computer chips and require government notification in other tech sectors. The long-awaited order authorizes the U.S. Treasury secretary to prohibit or restrict U.S. investments in Chinese entities in three sectors: semiconductors and microelectronics, quantum information technologies [...]
ULEZ: ‘Unreasonable’ scrappage schedule means daily charges for ‘quite some time’ after expansion August 9, 2023 Many drivers will be charged daily fees “for quite some time” because London’s car scrappage scheme is not being extended until eight days before the expansion of the ultra low emission zone (ULEZ), a motoring services company has said. The RAC, which issued the warning, described the timings as “extremely frustrating”. The area covered by [...]
Virgin Galactic is set to fly tourists to the stars – but can space tourism become more than a hobby for the super rich? August 7, 2023 Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic is set to launch its first tourists to space on Thursday this week. The Galactic 02 mission, which follows the successful launch of the companies’ first commercial flight in June, will carry three paying customers – an 80-year old Olympian and a Caribbean mother-daughter duo. Launching from Spaceport America in New [...]
