Author: aliakhan00901

Faarea MasudBBC Business reporterGetty ImagesLeaders in the hospitality industry have said that more than half of the UK’s job losses since the last budget have come from their sector. Job losses in restaurants, bars, pubs and hotels total around 89,000 since last October, according to UKHospitality analysis of Office for National Statistics data.The group said higher taxes announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in the Autumn Budget had disproportionately slowed down investment and hiring, adding that “urgent action” was needed to cut business rates and VAT.The Treasury said it was helping pubs, cafes and restaurants by extending business rates relief and…

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Meta’s former policy chief Nick Clegg seems to be walking a tightrope as he promotes his upcoming book, “How to Save the Internet.” Unlike certain other Meta employee memoirs, “How to Save the Internet” doesn’t sound like a tell-all or a scathing critique. And in an interview with the Guardian, Clegg (who previously led the U.K.’s Liberal Democrats) seems to distance himself from Silicon Valley without quite disavowing his former employer. “I really do believe that, despite its imperfections, social media has allowed billions of people … to communicate with each other in a way that has never happened before,”…

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Wes Streeting, the health secretary, has accused pharmaceutical companies of being “shortsighted” and undermining their relationships with the government after the two sides failed to come to an agreement last week, but what is the row all about?Why are the health secretary and the pharmaceutical industry at loggerheads?The dispute is over the financial terms for drug companies to provide medicines to the NHS, including potentially life-saving cancer drugs. In 2023, the government, NHS England and the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) made a five-year deal that included drug companies paying a percentage of their income on sales to…

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Anthony Michael Hall was just 14, with only a few professional acting credits to his name, when he played the original Rusty Griswold in National Lampoon’s Vacation. So it was tough for him to reshoot the ending of the movie more than half a year later, after test audiences wanted something other than what had been captured, he explained this month during a cast reunion at Fan Expo Chicago. “Puberty kicked in for me,” Hall said. “I was a foot taller and like a different kid.” Anthony Michael Hall was a teenager when he starred in ‘National Lampoon’s Vacation’. Chris…

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Shedeur Sanders had a forgettable Saturday afternoon against the Rams, a Week 3 preseason game that not only slammed shut the idea that Sanders should have always been in the mix for the starting job in Cleveland, but solidified the notion that he’ll begin the regular season right where he began OTAs: as QB4 behind Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, and fellow rookie Dillon Gabriel.And that’s OK. Because you don’t need a phone full of league sources to tell you that the Browns preferred Gabriel to Sanders — we all knew this because they drafted the Oregon QB in the third round,…

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Scientists seeking ways to amp up the capabilities of solar power generators have discovered a method that can boost their efficiency by a factor of 15.The breakthrough lies in a unique, laser-etched “black metal” developed by researchers over the past five years, which they now hope to use in solar thermoelectric generators (STEGs).STEGs are a type of solid-state electronic device that converts thermal energy into electricity via the Seebeck effect — a phenomenon that occurs when the temperature difference between materials displaces charged particles and creates an electromagnetic force (EMF), or voltage. You may like A STEG contains semiconductor materials…

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Your support helps us to tell the storyFrom reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.The…

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A proposed mega-merger of two of the largest railroad companies in the US will hurt jobs, raise costs for consumers and increase the risk of more catastrophic train crashes, according to workers and unions.Union Pacific proposed a $85bn deal to buy Norfolk Southern last month, which would create the first transcontinental railroad network in the US.As executives at Union Pacific seek approval from federal regulators the Surface Transportation Board, union leaders warn the deal heightens fears around safety – two years after the derailment of a Norfolk Southern train in East Palestine, Ohio, resulted in the release of plumes of…

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This is The Stepback, a weekly newsletter breaking down one essential story from the tech world. For more on deep-sea mining and critical minerals, follow Justine Calma. The Stepback arrives in our subscribers’ inboxes at 8AM ET. Opt in for The Stepback here.This is not how I thought things would go down when I started covering deep-sea mining. I knew that impatience and greed could have unforeseen consequences for life that depends on healthy oceans, including humans. I just didn’t foresee Donald Trump coming back to blow up international negotiations meant to make sure no single government screws up a…

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