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Rupert Murdoch with sons Lachlan (l) and James (r)
Sky is to stop broadcasting Fox News in the UK after low audience figures, the media firm has said.
21st Century Fox, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch, said the channel was being withdrawn as it was not commercially viable.
The decision is not to do with Fox’s takeover bid for Sky, the BBC understands.
Culture secretary Karen Bradley has said she may refer the bid to competition regulators.
“[Fox] has decided to cease providing a feed of Fox News Channel in the UK,” a spokeswoman said.
“Fox News is focused on the US market and designed for a US audience and, accordingly, it averages only a few thousand viewers across the day in the UK.
“We have concluded that it is not in our commercial interest to continue providing Fox News in the UK.”
Sky stopped broadcasting the US television network in the UK from 4pm on Tuesday.
The BBC understands it had an average daily UK audience of about 2,000.
Back in December 21st Century Fox offered £11.7bn for the 61% stake in Sky it does not already own.
Critics of the merger, which gives 21st Century Fox access to Sky’s 22 million customers in Europe, say Rupert Murdoch will have too much control of the UK media.
How would you like your pizza to be delivered to you in a self-driving car?
In the next few weeks the idea is going to be tested on some of Domino’s customers in the US city of Ann Arbor in Michigan.
The aim is not to test if self-driving cars work, but to see if customers are happy to go out of their homes to collect the pizza from an empty car.
The research is being carried out with Ford, which plans to start making self-driving vehicles in 2021.
Russell Weiner, the president of Domino’s USA, which is based just outside Ann Arbor, said the firm wanted to ensure the delivery of its pizzas this way would be “clear and simple” for customers.
“We’re interested to learn what people think about this type of delivery,” he said.
“The majority of our questions are about the last 50 feet of the delivery experience. For instance, how will customers react to coming outside to get their food?
“We need to understand if a customer’s experience is different if the car is parked in the driveway versus next to the kerb,” he explained.
Keeping it warm
Customers who opt in to the experiment may be slightly surprised at how many people are involved.
Firstly, the experimental Ford self-driving car (or Ford Fusion Hybrid Autonomous Research Vehicle, as they call it) will in fact be driven by a human safety engineer (in other words, a driver).
Secondly, it will contain not only a pizza in an oven to keep it warm, but also some researchers who will record what goes on.
The question is, will people who are used to having a pizza delivered to their door be happy instead to exert themselves by monitoring the delivery on a smartphone app, walking out of their front door, down the path or steps, then opening the car, using a special code to open the special oven, taking the pizza out, and then walking all the way back to their homes?
The process has already had a preliminary, self-driven, test at Mcity, the urban test centre on the campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, which specialises in testing driverless vehicles.
Image copyright Reuters
“As we increase our understanding of the business opportunity for self-driving vehicles to support the movement of people and goods, we’re pleased to have Domino’s join us in this important part of the development process,” said Sherif Marakby of Ford.
The use of driverless delivery vehicles is a big idea which has gripped the retail industry in the past few years.
Domino’s has already tested the delivery of pizzas in New Zealand using drones and self-driving robots.
Amazon, Alibaba, Google and UPS are all trying to develop services using drones, while in June the British food and grocery delivery firm Ocado unveiled a prototype driverless delivery van designed for short distances.
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UK house prices have fallen 0.1% month-on-month in August due to pressures on household expenditure
House price growth slowed to 2.1% in August, from 2.9% in July, amid fears Brexit-fuelled inflation is placing pressure on household spending, says the Nationwide.
Property values fell for the first time since May, down 0.1% month-on-month to an average of £210,495.
The number of mortgages approved for house purchases fell to a nine-month low of £65,000 in June.
However, property prices are still predicted to rise by 2% in 2017.
“Wages have been failing to keep up with the cost of living in recent months and consumer sentiment has weakened,” said Robert Gardner, Nationwide’s chief economist.
“In some respects, the slowdown in the housing market is surprising, given the ongoing strength of the labour market.”
In the three months to June, the economy created 125,000 jobs and unemployment fell to 4.4% – the lowest rate for over forty years.
Mortgage rates have also remained close to all-time lows.
Pressure on households
“Ultimately, housing market developments will depend on wider economic performance. The UK economy slowed noticeably in the first half of the year, and there has been little to suggest a significant rebound in the months ahead,” said Mr Gardner.
“While employment growth has remained robust, household budgets are under pressure. This suggests that housing market activity will remain subdued.”
Despite the slowdown in the housing market, Nationwide still expects prices to rise by about 2% overall in 2017, because of a decrease in the supply of new homes coming on to the market.
The building society pointed out that stamp duty land revenues had risen, reaching £12.8bn in the 12 months to mid-2017.
This is well above the £10.6bn peak recorded in late 2007.
The increase has been fuelled by higher house prices, which have risen by 12% since 2007, and by the much higher rates of stamp duty which were introduced on more expensive properties in December 2014.
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London City Airport is one of Mitie’s clients
Outsourcing group Mitie has said it is under investigation by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) over the timing and content of a profit warning.
Mitie said it was told by the FCA last Friday and was “fully co-operating” with the financial regulator.
The profit warning sent shares in Mitie tumbling by a quarter when it was released in September last year.
The firm said at the time that Brexit uncertainty and other “economic pressures” would lead to lower profits.
Mitie is one the UK’s largest outsourcing groups, offering facilities management services to clients such as the NHS, London City Airport and Linkedin.
The firm said it was informed the FCA “has commenced an investigation in connection with the timeliness of a profit warning announced by the Company on 19 September 2016”.
The regulator is also looking into “the manner of preparation and content of the company’s financial information, position and results for the period ending 31 March 2016”, Mitie said.
It added that it did not intend to update the market until the investigation was completed.
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Frankfurt is set to benefit from the UK’s Brexit decision
Viewed from the 38th floor of a newly-built skyscraper in the centre of the city, Frankfurt resembles a construction site.
The gridiron streets that surround the now-iconic towers of Deutsche Bank, UBS and Commerzbank are eclipsed by layers of scaffolding.
Meanwhile, continually moving giant orange cranes loom above the few green spaces that remain in the increasingly urbanised financial district.
Despite its small size – it is home to under a million residents – and its unfair but unshakable reputation for being somewhat dull, Frankfurt is winning the battle for the spoils of Brexit Britain’s economic heart; the City of London.
Egged on by Germany’s finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, and enthusiastic emissaries from the state of Hesse, many of Europe’s largest financial institutions have already announced their intention to relocate jobs here.
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German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has been keen to promote Frankfurt as a financial centre
Many banks’ patience with the protracted Brexit negotiations, through which regulatory frameworks for foreign exchange trading and conditions for access to the Single Market must be thrashed out, seems to have run out.
Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Standard Chartered are among those who have chosen Frankfurt as their new European base, while others such as Goldman Sachs and UBS have promised to move thousands of jobs to the German hub.
Predictions for the number of bankers set to descend on Frankfurt vary wildly, from tens of thousands, up to 100,000.
Last week, a study by the WHU-Otto Beisheim management school suggested that the city could gain 10,000 new banking jobs and an extra 88,000 jobs in other sectors in Frankfurt and the surrounding Rhine-Main region.
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Some suggest Frankfurt and its region could gain up to 100,00 extra jobs
There have also been reports speculating that the city is fast running out of office space.
Quite the contrary, says Oliver Schwebel, the man in charge of Frankfurt Economic Development, a city-backed body tasked with enticing companies to the area.
“We have a plan for 20 new skyscrapers,” he says, surveying the ever-changing skyline of the city locals dub “Mainhattan”.
There is approximately a million square metres of office space in Frankfurt available for immediate occupancy, he says, and an extra 250,000 sq m will be available in the next few years. That’s almost triple the current level of demand.
Careful not to seem triumphant, Mr Schwebel adds that while there has undoubtedly been a boost in real-estate investment in anticipation of an exodus from the City of London, “these are all plans from the last 10 or 15 years, nothing to do with Brexit”.
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A pro-EU demonstration in Frankfurt earlier this year
Elvin Durakovic, a partner at estate agents Knight Frank, also downplays the supposed Frankfurt surge.
“Last year, when Brexit was announced, I got calls: ‘Elvin, are you partying? Elvin, are you happy everyone is coming to Frankfurt?’”, he recalls.
“But unfortunately, it is not really the fact.”
Although “10 or 11” companies with offices in the city have called to say they are double-sizing, “the truth is people are coming, looking around, but not making decisions.”
Part of this, says Mr Durakovic, is down to a reluctance to abandon the cosmopolitan British capital – where many bankers have built comfortable lives.
“No one is aware of what will happen in one or two years, what will be the result of Brexit, what payments they will be forced to make if they stay in London,” he explains.
“They feel very comfortable in London, but they have to be prepared.”
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Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Standard Chartered are among those who have chosen Frankfurt as their new European base
City and state officials balk at talk of a “race” for Brexit exiles; the somewhat undignified scramble for the business of the City of London is not in step with the self-assured image Frankfurt prefers to project.
But representatives have nonetheless been employing the “hard sell”. A recent video campaign produced by the German government as part of its bid for Frankfurt to host the European Banking Authority – filled with shots of millennials skating and surfboarding to a pulsating soundtrack – looks more like a chart-topping music video than a policy proposal.
And as Mr Schwebel is keen to point out, Frankfurt has a lot going for it: its manageable size, its largely English-speaking population, its convenient air and rail connections, and its family-friendly suburbia. For bankers, its favourable time zone also allows for a “never-ending day”: Asian markets can be serviced in the morning, the US in the evenings.
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Frankfurt is already Germany’s financial capital and most banks have offices here
Then there is the price.
“Here we are talking about 38.50 euros (£35) a square metre a month,” says Knight Frank’s Elvin Durakovic, referring to the cost of office space. “In London it is approximately double”.
Yet Frankfurt’s pole position in the post-Brexit contest is largely down to pure convenience – most banks are already in the city, all they need to do is expand.
They won’t be doing so without some local consternation.
Rolf Janssen, a veteran of the local Mieterschutzverein, a tenant’s rights agency representing some 20,000 renters in the Frankfurt area, is concerned that the city – already one of the costliest in Germany – will become even more expensive for those not on the high salaries that are common in the financial services industry.
Half of Frankfurt’s inhabitants earn an average of 2,000 euros a month, while rent for a modest flat can be around 1,200 or 1,300, he explains.
“Thousands of people will come who have a lot of money,” he says of the anticipated post-Brexit influx.
“This is a very difficult situation. It used to be difficult for students or temp workers [to afford rent], but now it’s a problem for regular employees, and the middle class.”
Crucially, higher rents affect the Mietspiegel, or rental index, which is compiled by calculating average property prices for the previous four years, and used to regulate the rental market.
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Despite Brexit, many bankers are reluctant to leave London
Nonetheless, Mr Janssen is keen to point out that he’s not suggesting UK workers be prevented from coming to the German financial capital.
“It is very important that so many British bankers are coming to Frankfurt,” he says.
“We don’t live in the middle ages, so we can’t say this is a castle and we keep the drawbridge up.”
Instead, the Mieterschutzverein wants to see more investment in affordable public housing – an issue that is already a talking point in the upcoming federal elections.
For city administrators, meanwhile, the lack of clarity on numbers is proving to be a planning headache.
“If 10,000 people show up in one year do we have space? Absolutely not,” says Paul Fochtman, the head of Frankfurt International School, which educates many of the children of those who work in the city’s skyscrapers.
The institution is bracing for a surge in pupils, but determining the capacity required is an impossible task.
“We ask ‘how many are you bringing’ and [the banks] say ‘we can’t tell you that yet’,” says Mr Fochtman, betraying some frustration.
“They are certainly coming – no question,” he adds.
“But how many and how quickly, that remains elusive”.
Media captionThe body that compensates victims of uninsured drivers saw a rise in claims
The body that compensates victims of uninsured drivers is facing its first rise in claims for more than a decade.
The Motor Insurer’s Bureau, which acts on behalf of the industry, is looking at why they have increased.
In the year to July, cases submitted to the MIB rose by almost 10% after being in decline since 2004.
This year, the MIB expects to pay out £256m from money provided by insurers, a cost that adds an average of £15 to each motor premium.
Reasons for the rise could include more uninsured driving on UK roads, but increases in the number of drivers and the effect of claims management companies may also be a factor.
The MIB’s chief executive, Ashton West, told the BBC: “In the last year or so, for the first time in a decade or more, we are starting to see the trend of reduction actually change direction, and we have started to see it increase.”
Thousands of cars seized
The number of claims from victims of uninsured or hit-and-run drivers had fallen from around 25,000 in 2004 to just under 11,000 last year, before the 2016/17 rise.
Police seizures of uninsured vehicles are also on the increase.
According to MIB data, 145,000 were taken off the road in 2016, a rise on the year before.
Approximately 58,000 were crushed – a rate of more than 1,000 a week.
The MIB operates the insurance database used by police forces to check the status of vehicles being driven.
This system is linked to automatic number plate recognition cameras installed in police cars and at static locations.
Police have the power to seize a vehicle if it is confirmed that it is being driven without proper cover.
“It’s early days, it’s difficult to know exactly why, but we’ve seen insurance premiums rise in recent times and it’s possible there is a link between the cost of insurance and people’s propensity to drive without insurance,” said Mr Ashton.
‘Bombshell’
Last month, the Association of British Insurers warned the cost of motoring premiums could rise further following rises in Insurance Premium Tax.
Changes to the way compensation is calculated for victims of life-changing injuries – known as the discount rate – have been described as a “bombshell” for motorists.
ABI director general Huw Edwards said: “With inflation on the rise, motor premiums at a record high and the public purse under pressure, it’s concerning that the government have yet to commit to delivering a fairer system for setting the personal injury discount rate”.
The organisation says average cost of car insurance for a driver aged between 18-20 is £973. The rate falls off with the age of the driver so for someone aged 46-50 the average cost is £354.
A policeman’s tale
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PC Steve “Hashtag” Lee
PC Steve Lee’s colleagues call him Hashtag because he frequently Tweets about his job as a roads policing officer.
Driving around Norwich, the screen on his dashboard constantly brings up number plates harvested by the on board automatic number plate recognition cameras attached to his patrol car.
There are also static cameras at undisclosed locations around Norfolk and his control room will relay details of vehicles being driven without insurance nearby.
Before long an electronic voice from the on-board system announces the word “alert” after clocking a passing car.
On older versions of the system, it was “yabba dabba doo”.
We follow a Citroen Picasso into a nearby cul-de-sac where the driver claims he obtained cover the day before, when he purchased the vehicle.
PC Lee checks with the MIB and confirms the car isn’t insured and it is towed away.
The driver is given a deadline to pay a fine and obtain insurance to get the vehicle back, or it will be auctioned off or crushed.
In July, 324 vehicles were seized from uninsured and unlicensed drivers by the Suffolk and Norfolk Roads Policing Unit.
Of these, approximately 130 will be sent to the scrap yard because the owner didn’t pay up.
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People walk through the flooded waters of Telephone Rd. in Houston on August 27, 2017 as the US fourth city city battles with tropical storm Harvey and resulting floods.
Many refineries have shut and almost a fifth of oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico has been suspended amid the largest storm to hit in the US in more than a decade.
Hurricane Harvey has produced high winds and extensive flooding forcing thousands of people from their homes.
The closures are expected to cause a temporary spike in US gas prices.
Analysts expect the economic impact of the storm to pass $40bn (£31bn), with direct losses of over $20bn.
The storm’s path through southeast Texas and the Gulf of Mexico has hit the heart of the US energy industry, an area home to almost half of US refining capacity and a fifth of its oil production.
Houston, where water has overwhelmed the streets, is also the base of one of America’s largest ports.
US gas prices rose around 10% ahead of the storm, said Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM US.
He expects prices to jump by another 20-30% over the next two weeks in the Texas region, with less significant increases elsewhere, he said.
Food prices could also be affected, as shipments of wheat and soybeans are delayed, he added.
Globally the impact is likely to be smaller, since the US is not a major source of energy exports and supplies remain historically high.
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About 11% of all US refining capacity has shut down in the wake of Hurricane Harvey
Assuming the current weather forecast holds, Mr Brusuelas said he expects US prices to subside, as operations restart over the next two weeks.
Over the longer term, the havoc wreaked by the storm on businesses and households is likely to reduce energy demand in the US, analysts from Goldman Sachs predicted.
Houston is the fourth largest city in the US, and produces more than $500bn in economic activity annually.
US economic growth could slow by about a tenth of a percentage point in the quarter as a result of the storm, said Mr Brusuelas. The economy should rebound in the following six months, as spending increases on reconstruction and other efforts.
So far, oil and gas companies are focused on the immediate emergency and the safety of their personnel, without reports of major damages, said Bruce Jefferis, chief executive of Aon Energy, who is based in Houston.
About 18% of oil and natural gas production in the Gulf has stopped, according to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement.
About 11% of all US refining capacity has also shut down, with others operating at reduced rates according to the most recent update from the US Department of Energy. Goldman Sachs put the figure higher at almost 17%.
‘Unprecedented’
While big oil and gas companies are well-prepared for such abnormal weather, Mr Jefferis said the effect on families – many of whom are likely to be uninsured – and smaller businesses is likely to be far more significant.
“Truly this is an unprecedented storm for the Texas area,” he said.
Hurricane Ike is estimated to have caused more than $12bn in insured damage when it hit Texas in 2008, with overall damages as high as $29bn.
Mark Hanna, spokesman for the Insurance Council of Texas, said it’s clear that damages caused by Harvey are more significant, but he cautioned that numbers for damages that are surfacing now – as rain continues to fall – are premature.
“Nobody can put a figure like that on a storm at this moment,” said Mr Hanna, whose organisation represents about 400 insurance companies.
“We know the losses are going to be extensive. When you have a city the size of Houston … under water, that alone tells you you have a massive problem.”
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Waste plastic bags are a major environmental problem in many African countries
A ban on plastic carrier bags has come into force in Kenya, which means that anyone found selling, manufacturing or carrying them could face fines of up to $38,000 or prison sentences of up to four years.
The government says the ban will help protect the environment.
But manufacturers of the bags have argued that 80,000 jobs could be lost.
A court on Friday rejected a challenge to the ban. Kenyans are estimated to use 24 million bags a month.
Several other African countries have outlawed plastic carrier bags, including Rwanda, Mauritania and Eritrea.
Kenya’s ban is seen as one of the toughest in the world, although officials say that for now, ordinary shoppers will be warned and have their bags confiscated.
Piles of waste plastic bags are a common site across Kenya, as in many African countries.
Animals often graze on the rubbish and the United Nations’ Environment Programme says huge amounts of polythene bags are pulled out of livestock in Nairobi’s abattoirs – as many as 20 bags per cow – raising fears of plastic contamination in beef.
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Cows in Kenyan abattoirs are often found with plastic bags in their stomachs
Kenya’s Environment Minister Judy Wakhungu says the plastic bags take between 20 and 1,000 years to biodegrade.
“Plastic bags now constitute the biggest challenge to solid waste management in Kenya. This has become our environmental nightmare that we must defeat by all means,” she told the BBC.
No arrests for offenders yet – Anne Soy, BBC Africa, Nairobi
Kenyans are slowly getting used to carrying their shopping using bags made from materials other than plastic.
At a local supermarket, I saw a man stuff a bunch of unwrapped spinach into his backpack. Other customers bought bags made from fabric for 10 Kenyan shillings (10 US cents; 7 British pence).
The $38,000 fine with the alternative of a four-year jail term has many people preferring to comply with the ban.
The National Environment Management Authority (Nema) says that enforcement officers can, for now, only confiscate plastic bags but not arrest offenders.
Reports say traders in the city’s main meat market are still using plastic bags.
Others say people are using old sacks, newspapers and envelopes.
When these are not available, consumers are said to be carrying their goods with their bare hands.
Travellers coming into Kenya with duty-free plastic shop bags will be required to leave them at the airport under the new rules, Nema has said.
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Media captionWhen Uganda banned plastic bags, Rusia Orikiriza spotted a business opportunity.
This is the third attempt in the past 10 years to ban plastic bags in Kenya.
The government had given a six-month window for adjustment which expired on Sunday night.
Manufacturers who use polythene to wrap products are exempted from the ban.
In its ruling last week, the High Court dismissed a case filed by two plastic bags importers urging it to drop the ban. The court ruled that environmental concerns were more important than commercial interests.
Research in Europe has shown that a paper bag must be used three times to compensate for the larger amount of carbon used in manufacturing and transporting it.
Likewise a plastic “bag for life” must be used four times, and a cotton bag must be used 131 times.
US stocks were mixed on Monday morning as investors assessed the fallout of the devastation wrought by Tropical Storm Harvey in Texas, one of America’s biggest states.
Insurance companies were among the firms posting losses in the wake of the storm, which has caused billions of dollars in flood damage.
The Dow Jones fell 0.1% to 21,793 but the wider S&P 500 index was up 0.04% at 2,444.17 .
Some of the heaviest declines were seen at insurance companies: The Travelers Co fell almost 2.6%, while Progressive Corp dropped 2.4% and Allstate Corp fell 1.65%.
But other sectors, such as home improvement chains, were expected to benefit: Home Depot shares climbed 0.9% and Lowe’s was up 1% in morning trade.
Expedia, though, was on the slide, down by more than 4%, after reports that its chief executive would be leaving the company to lead Uber.
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The new 12-sided coin is designed to be harder to counterfeit
Efforts to phase out the old £1 coin are being hampered by companies who are returning the new 12-sided replacement by mistake.
The old round pound ceases to be legal tender on 15 October, with a billion taken out of circulation already.
But the removal process is being slowed down because about half of the £1 coins sent back are actually the new style, cash management company Vaultex says.
Treasury minister Andrew Jones said “businesses must remain vigilant”.
The new coin is being introduced because approximately one in 30 pound coins currently in circulation is a fake, according to the Royal Mint and the 12-sided version is designed to be harder to counterfeit.
Mr Jones, Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, said: “There has been a fantastic effort from both the public and businesses in returning more than one billion old round pounds, and I thank everybody involved in this process so far.
“But there is still more to do before the 15 October deadline.”
He continued: “Businesses must remain vigilant when returning coins and ensure old and new coins are organised in separate packaging to make the sorting process quicker and easier.”
Cashiers and shopkeepers working at till points must also “play their part to ensure only new pound coins are given to shoppers in their change”, he added.
Why the new coin is harder to counterfeit
12-sided – its distinctive shape means it stands out by sight and by touch
Bimetallic – The outer ring is gold coloured (nickel-brass) and the inner ring is silver coloured (nickel-plated alloy)
Latent image – it has an image like a hologram that changes from a “£” symbol to the number “1” when the coin is seen from different angles
Micro-lettering – around the rim on the heads side of the coin, tiny lettering reads: ONE POUND. On the tails side, you can find the year the coin was produced
Milled edges – it has grooves on alternate sides
Hidden high security feature – an additional security feature is built into the coin, but details have not been revealed
The government estimates about a third of the £1.3bn worth of coins stored in piggy banks around the UK are the old £1 style.
Some of those returned by the public will be melted down and used to make the new version.
A joke about the changeover was voted the funniest of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Ken Cheng quipped: “I’m not a fan of the new pound coin, but then again, I hate all change.”
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