
Office provider IWG shrugs off Trump trade war with record sales
The serviced office space provider IWG generated record sales in March, prompting an increase in returns to shareholders as it reassured markets that the fallout from President Trump's trade war has not had a direct impact on the business.
IWG, which rents out serviced office space under brands including Regus and Spaces, reported a 2 per cent increase in revenue to $1.05 billion in the three months to the end of March as it continued to cash in on the growing popularity of hybrid working. The group's solid performance prompted bosses to increase its share buyback to $100 million, up from $50 million.
By the end of the first quarter IWG said it had 202,000 'rooms' — equivalent to small offices — open, compared with

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Reuters
24 minutes ago
- Reuters
Los Angeles, progressive beacon at center of anti-Trump backlash
LOS ANGELES, June 10 (Reuters) - Protests in Los Angeles against raids on suspected undocumented immigrants have turned into the strongest domestic backlash against President Donald Trump since he took office in January. Here is how the Democratic-leaning city and state of California vary from Trump's Republicans and his support in the U.S. heartland. Nationwide, Trump won around 2.5 million more votes than his Democratic rival Kamala Harris in the November presidential election but in Los Angeles, Harris won by a margin of roughly two to one. Of the 50 U.S. states, California backed Harris by the fifth largest margin. California is also home to several top-level Democrats, including Harris herself, and long-time former Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi. Governor Gavin Newsom is a Democrat, as is the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass. Both have complained about Trump's tactics this week. The party raises millions in the state from wealthy donors and grassroots supporters, sometimes in a single day. At 27.3%, California has the highest foreign-born population of any U.S. state, compared to 13.9% of the total U.S. population, according to a 2024 Census report. Nearly half of Angelenos are Hispanic or Latino and some 35% of the city's total population is foreign-born, according to the American Community Survey, with many cultural and business ties to Mexico, which is only about a two-hour drive south. Faced with persistently bad air quality, especially in cities with strong driving cultures such as Los Angeles, California has developed some of the strictest environmental regulations in the country, opposed by many Republicans. A landmark plan to end the sale of gasoline-only vehicles by 2035 in California is in the crosshairs of a battle between its Democratic leadership and the Republican-run federal government, also because many other states replicate California's first-in-the-nation action. In May, the Republican-run Senate in Washington voted to ban the plan and it is now awaiting Trump's signature. He is expected to sign it this week, according to industry officials. American movies and television are one of the most visible U.S. exports, emanating from an LA-based industry that had been hailed by liberals for boosting diversity but criticized by some conservatives for creating films that include LGBT stories. In May, Trump suggested a tariff on movies produced in foreign countries to protect a domestic industry that he said was "dying a very fast death." But when China retaliated by saying it would curb American film imports, he prompted laughter at a cabinet meeting by a response that signaled his derision for Hollywood: "I think I've heard of worse things."


BBC News
26 minutes ago
- BBC News
Public toilet restoration approved by Chichester District Council
Eight public toilets in the Chichester district will be refurbished after getting council plans follow the demolition and rebuilding of the old toilet block in Tower new Tower Street toilet, which opened earlier this month, cost more than £200,000 and has been said to be inspiring "envy" in other areas after receiving positive Google reviews. The cost of the latest scheme has not yet been revealed but will be made up of money from the Asset Replacement Fund and from reserves. Chichester District Council does not legally have to provide public toilets, but leader Adrian Moss said they were important to residents, adding that the Tower Street project had been "a triumph".Councillor John Cross added: "There is a bit of toilet envy going on with other district councils because our Tower Street toilets have been given a five-star rating on Google and other district councils want the same!"The toilets set for improvement are in Bracklesham Bay in Bracklesham, Pound Road car park in Petworth, Lifeboat Way in Selsey, Northgate car park in Chichester, Avenue de Chartres car park in Chichester, Hillfield Road in Selsey, Kingfisher Parade in East Wittering and Marine Drive in West council will now look for a contractor to carry out the work, which will be a phased approach over the next two years, said the Local Democracy Reporting Service.


The Independent
36 minutes ago
- The Independent
This vision for Britain's nuclear future is to be warmly welcomed
A politician with such a long and mixed track record as energy secretary Ed Miliband should perhaps have been more wary of declaring that nuclear power will 'deliver a golden age of clean energy abundance', and that it is 'the only way to protect family finances, take back control of our energy, and tackle the climate crisis'. Such things may yet prove to be so – and indeed investment in a new generation of nuclear power may well be inevitable. However, it is equally the case that the history of nuclear power in Britain, spanning some seven decades, has been far from an unalloyed success. At home and – sadly, more dramatically – abroad, scientists and engineers overconfident in their abilities and seized by the promise of the future have found themselves all too often watching the consequences of their complacency played out with devastating effect, most infamously at Fukushima, Chernobyl and Six Mile Island, but also at many other locations. Previous visions of a golden age melted down as rapidly as the faulty reactors. If the early post-war hopes for the peaceful use of nuclear power had been well founded, just as was claimed in the 1950s, the abundant electrical power generated by nuclear fission would have been so cheap it would have been pointless to meter and charge for it, fossil fuels would have been rendered redundant, and, as it happens, the pace of climate change greatly retarded. But it was not to be. Therefore, the public is right to be sceptical now about why, in the old and dangerous phrase, 'this time it's different'. With those heavy caveats, Mr Miliband's announcements about Britain's nuclear future are to be welcomed, and his reasoning endorsed. He is right, above all, to seek a great variety and plurality in sources of the UK's long-term energy supply. As the Germans discovered when the Nord Stream pipelines and gas supplies from Vladimir Putin's Russia were cut, it is extremely unwise to become so heavily dependent on any single source of energy. Mr Miliband declares himself an enthusiast for offshore wind, onshore wind, solar, hydro, nuclear, and even fossil fuel sources where effective carbon capture can be achieved. In the nuclear sphere, he's also correct to adopt the previous government's plans for small, 'modular' reactors, which could speed up the transition from carbon and reduce costs. The only disappointment in that area is that time has already been lost, and Rolls-Royce and other private interests are not yet in a position to make any deployment pump meaningful wattage into the National Grid before the early to mid-2030s, as Mr Miliband told the House of Commons. The £14.2bn investment in the Sizewell C plant is a more traditional kind of project, and carries the familiar risks. Mr Miliband will need to be much more specific about private sector involvement, and who will bear the financial risks for such a costly programme over such a long and uncertain timeframe. Disposal of waste and decommissioning costs will also have to be fully transparent to carry public opinion, especially for the people of Suffolk, who will be hosting this latest iteration of a long-standing lodger. Of course, it all would have been better if successive governments hadn't slowed the nuclear programme in the aftermath of successive accidents, and had found the money to invest in previous decades. In fact, the Sizewell C plant is set to become Britain's first new nuclear power station since 1995. The French have long prioritised nuclear power and weathered the recent energy crisis better than the British or the Germans, more tied as they were to foreign gas and soaring world prices. The aim now is to ensure that the new generation of nuclear power doesn't turn into a costly disaster, and can indeed help the transition to renewables and lower energy bills. Cheap, plentiful power and net zero on track? Mr Miliband may yet leave a legacy more permanent than any of his colleagues. Golden, indeed.