Nov 18, 2019
Tui seeks personal touch to prosper where Thomas Cook failed
Anglo-German package tour operator not immune to pressure on travel sector
Nov 18, 2019
Aviva narrows list of potential Asian disposals
Aviva has decided to keep hold of its operations in China and Singapore, narrowing down the range of its potential disposals in Asia to operations in Hong Kong, Vietnam and Indonesia. The Asian operations as a whole made profits of £152m in the first half, about a tenth of the group total. The life insurance operation in the country generated £54m of profits in the first half of the year and pays dividends to group head office in London. Aviva has radically restructured its Hong Kong unit...
Nov 18, 2019
Ford unveils all-electric car - the Mustang
The top-range version of the car can travel up to 370 miles on a full charge and recharge 57 miles of range in 10 minutes on a high-power charge. "The interesting thing is that they've decided to use the Mustang name with this car, because of course it's the name synonymous with American muscle cars, with big V8s... and yet they are taking the performance aspect of that name and putting it into this electric car," she told BBC News. Analyst Natalie Sauber, from Arcardis, said infrastructure...
Nov 18, 2019
Disney+ fans without answers after thousands hacked
Thousands of Disney customers say they have been hacked after signing up to its online streaming service. People waited on telephone and online chat lines for hours, and many still say that Disney has yet to sort their problems. Disney's answer to Netflix, Disney+ is an online platform where fans can view its movies, short films and TV shows, including the Marvel and Star Wars franchises. Others said they were locked out of their accounts, and since they contacted Disney they have not heard...
Nov 16, 2019
Huge inflatable breast outside Facebook HQ
Medical tattoo artists takes on Facebook over nipple block and she is joined by cancer patients to protest
Nov 15, 2019
Labour vows to give every home free broadband by 2030
A Labour government would nationalise BT's Openreach network and provide free full-fibre broadband to every home and business in its latest encroachment into the private sector, shadow chancellor John McDonnell has announced. The party's manifesto, which will be signed off on Saturday, will now include a promise to take control of Openreach as part of a broader £20bn attempt to give the UK free full-fibre broadband by 2030. Mr Corbyn, announcing the policy on Friday, will announce that a...
Nov 15, 2019
BT retains ‘must-win’ UK Champions League rights
BT has retained UK broadcast rights to the Champions League, paying £1.2bn to continue screening matches from Europe's leading club football competition in a "Must-win" deal that underpins its sports channel. The £400m-a-season deal broadly matches BT's current three-year deal, which includes rights to matches from the Champions League as well as the Europa League, the region's second-tier club competition. The deal came as a relief to executives at Uefa, who had been braced for a drop in the...
Nov 15, 2019
Apple removes vaping apps from app store
Apple is removing all vaping apps from its online store. In a statement given to Axios, Apple said it agreed with official warnings about the negative health impacts of vaping and the potential problem presented by the appeal of e-cigarettes to the young. The vaping apps available via Apple's store let people exercise control of some features of e-cigarettes and others simply kept people up to date with news about vaping or offered themed games. Apple said anyone who already had a vaping app...
Nov 15, 2019
BT Sport retains exclusive Champions League rights in £1.2bn deal from 2021-24
BT Sport has won the exclusive rights to show the Champions League, Europa League and new Europa Conference League in the UK from 2021-24 in a £1.2bn deal. The broadcaster has held the rights since 2015 after it agreed an £897m deal with Uefa. It extended them for £1.2bn from 2018-21 and has retained them for the next three-year cycle for the same amount. The deal also includes highlights and in-match clips on social media. BT Sport, owned by Britain's biggest broadband and mobile operator...
Nov 15, 2019
Mothercare chiefs show faith
Latest purchase of shares comes on the day UK arm goes into administration
Nov 15, 2019
Holding the line: Labour’s £20bn free broadband plan
The Labour party on Friday unveiled its most audacious initiative yet in the general election campaign, proposing that all households and businesses should have free ultrafast broadband. "A new public service delivering the fastest broadband free to everyone is at the heart of Labour's plans to transform the future of our economy and society," said Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. This broadband upgrade would be achieved by a Labour government taking BT's network arm, Openreach, into public...
Nov 15, 2019
Golden Joystick awards: Resident Evil 2 awarded 'ultimate game' title
Resident Evil 2 has been named as the ultimate game of the year at the Golden Joystick awards. The remake of the 1998 game takes place in the middle of a zombie apocalypse and was praised by critics and players. Fortnite, which was named as ultimate game in 2018, won the best e-sports title and the game's maker Epic Games was named as studio of the year. EA battle royale game won as the best multiplayer game. The mobile game of the year was BTS World, where you play as the manager of the...
Nov 14, 2019
Is surge pricing a fair way to manage demand?
Peak-load pricing no longer requires an army of pricing specialists. Uber's "Surge pricing" promises to end that painful three-hour wait for a taxi on New Year's Eve; there's always a price for a car right now. Consumers can feel exploited by some forms of dynamic pricing - especially when, as with Uber, prices can double or halve in a matter of minutes. Peak-load pricing is likely to play an increasing role in the economy of the future. William Vickrey was also fascinated by the...
Nov 14, 2019
Leeds' thieves caught after posing on Instagram with cars
A gang of thieves who stole luxury cars in Leeds and posted photographs of themselves posing with the vehicles on social media have been detained. West Yorkshire Police said images were posted on an Instagram account called Mr Dingers - where thieves anonymously brag about their crimes. One of the gang, Frankie Allwork, 21, posted a picture of himself standing in front of a stolen £60,000 Audi A6. James Holroyd and Bryn Kerry, both 20, also posed in photographs. All admitted burglary or car...
Nov 14, 2019
Election 2019: Young voters react to Facebook political ads from parties
Here's what they thought of paid-for adverts from the Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats.
Nov 14, 2019
General election 2019: Why social media is full of political Twitter screenshots
As the UK gears up for an election on 12 December, social media is being flooded with screenshots of political tweets. Twitter has fewer users than other big social media sites, but it frequently kick-starts conversations elsewhere when pictures of tweets get shared on Facebook, WhatsApp - or even singer Lily Allen's Instagram account. When Twitter screenshots are posted to other, bigger social media sites, they are seen by far more people. BBC Trending found far more screenshots of Mr...
Nov 14, 2019
Norway’s $1tn oil fund to sell G4S shares after ethical review
Sovereign investor‘s decision follows investigation into group’s Qatar and UAE operations
Nov 14, 2019
Nike to stop direct sales through Amazon
Sportswear retailer Nike is to stop sales through Amazon so it can focus on selling directly to customers. It marks the end of a pilot that Nike began with Amazon in 2017. According to Bloomberg, Amazon has been preparing for the move, recruiting third-party sellers with Nike products so that the merchandise is still available on the site. "Nike said:"As part of Nike's focus on elevating consumer experiences through more direct, personal relationships, we have made the decision to complete...
Nov 14, 2019
Argos recalls Cuggl baby gates over safety fears
Argos has issued a recall for some Cuggl brand baby gates after tests showed they were faulty. Tests showed some gates failed safety standards for durability. Argos said some of the gates could break "Under high impact", such as regular banging or kicking. "Please be assured that no other safety gate is affected by this issue," Argos said in a statement. Argos created the Cuggl brand in 2017, selling cots, pushchairs and highchairs as well as safety gates.
Nov 14, 2019
UK National Lottery operator Camelot reports record sales
The company that runs the UK's National Lottery has reported record sales in the first half of its financial year. Camelot does not disclose half-year profits but said they were in line with the previous year's at around 1 per cent of total sales. Nigel Railton, chief executive, said that since a strategic review launched in 2017, Camelot had focused on "Re-energising the brand" and increasing sales of lottery tickets and scratch cards. Sales in shops account for more than 70 per cent of the...
Nov 14, 2019
General election 2019: Labour pledges free broadband for all
Labour has promised to give every home and business in the UK free full-fibre broadband by 2030, if it wins the general election. Broadband packages in the UK cost households an average of around £30, according broadband comparison site Cable - which people would no longer have to pay under Labour's scheme. According to a report from regulator Ofcom earlier this year, only 7% of the UK has access to full-fibre broadband - known as "Fibre to the home" or FTTH. The government hit its target to...
Nov 13, 2019
Vodafone shares disconnect from €1bn earnings boost
Outlook brighter for group’s overall business despite $4bn hit at Indian joint venture
Nov 13, 2019
Royal Mail wins bid to halt Christmas postal strikes
Royal Mail has won its legal battle to prevent a postal strike after the High Court backed its application for an injunction. Last month, 100,000 Royal Mail staff were balloted and voted to take action over job security and terms. Royal Mail argued that the ballot had "Potential irregularities" and was null and void. Royal Mail denied this and said it had evidence of CWU members coming under pressure to vote "Yes" in the ballot. Royal Mail's procedures state employees cannot open their mail...
Nov 13, 2019
Apple Store worker 'texts himself customer's intimate photo'
An Apple Store employee allegedly texted himself an "Extremely personal" photo of a woman from her phone after she took the device to be repaired. She alleged via Facebook, an employee had found an intimate photo on the device and sent it to himself. Apple said it had investigated the incident and the worker was no longer associated with the company. Ms Fuentes said she had returned to the Apple Store but the employee in question had claimed he did not know how the text had been sent. "Apple...
Nov 13, 2019
Apple unveils 16in MacBook Pro - with updated keyboard
Apple has unveiled the latest version of its 16in MacBook Pro laptop computer - and it features a newly designed keyboard. Since 2015, the keyboards on MacBook Pro computers have divided opinion, with some saying the butterfly mechanism made them less easy to type on. "What you expect from Apple is incrementally better products and the last time round it wasn't incrementally better," he told the BBC. "They had to go and [rethink] the keyboard given the feedback." For graphical performance,...
Nov 13, 2019
Royal Mail wins court injunction to block strikes
Walkouts were set to cause widespread disruption ahead of UK election and Christmas
Nov 13, 2019
Facebook removes 11.6 million child abuse posts
The figures, in Facebook's fourth Community Standards Enforcement Report, reveal that between July and September 2019:.11.6 million pieces of content related to child nudity and child sexual exploitation were removed from Facebook - and 754,000 from Instagram. 2.5 million pieces of content related to suicide and self-harm were removed from Facebook - and 845,000 from Instagram. 4.4 million pieces of drug-sales content were removed from Facebook - and 1.5 million from Instagram. 2.3 million...
Nov 12, 2019
Halfords accounts change puts KPMG in spotlight
A £12m writedown by Halfords has brought fresh scrutiny of the record of Peter Meehan, the KPMG partner who audited collapsed government outsourcer Carillion. The error meant Halfords had overstated its retained earnings and net assets going back a number of years, according to the company's interim results, which were published on Thursday. Profits in the six months to September 27 fell 2.5 per cent to £27.5m. BDO took over the audit of Halfords this year from KPMG, its auditor since 2009. A...
Nov 12, 2019
Vodafone upgrades profit guidance despite India woes
Vodafone has upgraded its profit guidance for the year by up to €1bn as disposals and its move to bulk up in Germany helped to offset its woes in India. Vodafone also adjusted its free cash flow guidance to be "Around" €5.4bn compared to its former guidance of "At least" that number due to the situation in India where a supreme court decision to levy a huge penalty against its joint venture has hit its local operation hard. Vodafone recorded a loss in the first half of €1.9bn largely as a...
Nov 12, 2019
Branson South African launch marred by Twitter row
VIRGIN Sir Richard Branson has faced criticism on twitter after posting an image to mark the launch this new Branson Centre of Entrepreneurship in South Africa. The photo is criticised for failing to reflect the diversity of South Africa. One of the critics is South African fashion designer Thula Sindi, who says: "Where did you find so many white people in South Africa?". In the tweet, Sir Richard said: "Wonderful to be in South Africa to help launch the new Branson Centre of...