Latest news with #Europeans'
Daily Mirror
17 hours ago
- Business
- Daily Mirror
Passengers flying with major airlines to face new 4 hour rule at airports
In a huge blow to Brits, EU countries have green-lighted controversial plans to lengthen the wait time before delayed passengers can claim compensation for both short and long-haul journeys Customers flying with some big name air operators on short-haul flights have been hit with a brutal four-hour warning over a controversial shakeup. After 12 years of wrangling, EU countries have green-lighted plans to lengthen the wait time before flyers can lodge claims for delayed flights. Currently, passengers have to be delayed by more than three hours before qualifying for compensation. However, under the new stipulations - which still have to be negotiated with the European Parliament before they become law - short-haul travellers will only be eligible to claim compensation after being delayed by four hours or more, while those on longer journeys will have to sit tight for a six-hour hold-up before they can lodge a compensation claim. It's not all bad news though, as EU nations have also agreed to increase the amount of compensation for those delayed on short-haul journeys from €250 (approx £210.47) to €300 (£252.56). But, passengers hit with delays on long-haul flights could see their compensation reduce from €600 (£505) to €500 (£420). The trade body Airlines for Europe (A4E), which represents companies such as Ryanair, easyJet and Lufthansa, and The European Consumer Organisation, the BEUC, both slammed the rules - arguing it would deprive the majority of passengers from being able to claim compensation. This is because most delays are only between two and four hours. "Europe has been waiting for transparent and workable passenger rights for 12 years and member states have fallen at the final hurdle to deliver," A4E said. "Member states have diluted the European Commission's original proposal and introduced even more complexity." According to Yorkshire Live, German members of the European People's Party have also expressed their disapproval, stating that 'decreasing the rights to compensation for air passengers would be a step in the wrong direction'. "Reimbursement after a three-hour delay has been standard for many years and should remain so," they added. A senior EU diplomat is believed to have said that 'no politician wants to say more than four hours' at risk of dampening Europeans' holiday plans. The news comes amidst accusations by 16 consumer protection associations from 12 Member States against seven budget airlines for imposing unfair charges on passengers' hand luggage. "The European Court of Justice has made it very clear that hand baggage is an integral part of the basic ticket price. Normally, there is no surcharge on the price as long as the hand luggage is of a reasonable size," explained Steven Berger, a solicitor with the European Consumers' Organisation (BEUC). "All we're seeing is a proliferation of airlines charging for this baggage... We're calling for very clear rules. Passengers must be able to take one piece of luggage, a small suitcase or a rucksack." He added: "At the moment, there are two different opposing positions among the member states in the Council. On the whole, you have the camp of the member states that are going to defend the three hours to be able to benefit from the right to compensation and others that are going to ask for five hours and nine hours based on distance. So right now this is really the big source of conflict." *Prices based on EUR to GBP conversions at the time of writing.
Scotsman
27-05-2025
- Business
- Scotsman
Readers' Letters: UK was wrong to turn over Chagos Islands to Mauritius
The UK Government's deal with Mauritius over the Chagos Islands was a bad one, say readers Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... I fail to understand why, if the UK felt obliged to surrender sovereignty over the Chagos Islands, it did not do so in favour of the Chagos islanders or even the USA, which has a base there, but to another quite distant country which is in the Chinese sphere of influence. To combine this with an agreement to pay that country billions over the next 99 years is very strange. The reason given is that this deal is 'absolutely vital' to Britain's strategic national interest and military operations in the Red Sea, Middle East and Indo-Pacific. This astonishes me. The UK has long ceased to be a world power. The failed Suez operation was probably the last feeble hurrah. It is now a European country – one among many, and it needs to build its strength in that area to deter, if possible, the big bad wolf that is lurking about ready to seize on any tasty morsel which has not built a house of sufficient strength to deter him. S Beck, Edinburgh A protest before the UK signed a £3.4bn deal to hand over sovereignty over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, while retaining control of a UK-US military base on the largest of the islands (Picture:) Some success Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Another success trumpeted by Keir Starmer, after his victories over Donald Trump and Narendra Modi's tariffs and the Europeans' restrictions on trade access, has been the decolonisation of the Chagos Islands by persuading Mauritius to take them on but lease back the base on Diego Garcia. This has been achieved at a cost, estimated by the government of £3.4 billion over the 99 years of the initial lease, but estimated as something more like £30bn by the Opposition. The Chagos Islanders, forcibly evacuated from their palm-fringed beaches and settled in Crawley, stay there despite their desire to return, but are being bought off with a £40 million Trust Fund. The main user of the base is the United States, though it would (I suppose) be available to us if we wanted to fight a war with a neighbouring state bordering on or in the Indian Ocean, such as the Maldives, or to fly warplanes in support of the USA in the Persian Gulf or over Gaza. Nevertheless, there has been no mention of the USA contributing to the cost of this trend-setting exercise in decolonisation. How many more such triumphs can we afford? James Scott, Edinburgh Suffer little children Sometimes a sentence simply leaps from the page when you read it. Christine Jardine (Perspective, 26 May) wrote one such sentence with reference to Gaza: 'It's long past the point when sufficient adjectives are available to encapsulate the horror.' That continuing, if not intensifying, horror includes the massacre of thousands of children in Gaza and the maiming of thousands more. One stricken mother is mourning the loss of nine of her ten children, killed in a lethal bomb strike. As if bombs weren't enough, there's also the equally lethal starvation. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad It's sometimes said that a mark of civilisation is how we treat our children. Benjamin Netanyahu is fond of Biblical references, in particular about Judea and Samaria, also known as the West Bank. If he turned the pages over to the New Testament, he would find the status given to children at the very centre of God's Kingdom. Were that equally so in God's Kingdom on earth. Ian Petrie, Edinburgh Wake-up call Scots ought to be alarmed. Despite the Supreme Court upholding what, in essence, most Scots already thought about what defines a man and a woman we are seeing kickback. Nicola Sturgeon has unashamedly backed her pro-trans outlook forcefully and now around 50 MSPs have also expressed disquiet about exactly who can use the Ladies and Gents toilets. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The whole idea of the court judgment was to give clarity but it seems not everyone wants to accept the outcome. What hope is there for Holyrood when many of its MSPs are wanting to adjust the court's verdict? Surely this must be a wake-up call as to the value of a legislature that wants to only pick the laws that suit it? Gerald Edwards, Glasgow A suggestion David Bol's and your lead article's accurate, heartfelt accounts of the Scottish Government's zealous and suicidal Just Transition debacle were well and truly 'Trumped' by the US President urging the Prime Minister to 'stop with the costly and unsightly windmills, and incentivise modernised drilling in the North Sea, where large amounts of oil lie waiting to be taken' (24 May). It's clear that the sedimentary rocks will have to melt with the sun before Labour or the SNP let that happen. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad I'd like to see the POTUS send a follow-up tweet along these lines: '… in fact , if you guys don't get your act into gear, sack Miliband, cancel that stoopid green partnership deal with Norway and get real about oil and gas we're gonna do a Greenland and buy Aberdeen and do it for ya. It's goin' cheap anyway. In fact, make that Aberdeen and the North Sea, and throw in the UK when you're at it, you'd make a great 52nd state after Canada." Allan Sutherland, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire Strange thoughts Within a few days I have found myself in total agreement with the SNP and Donald Trump. Normally, I would tend instinctively to take the opposite view to either, on most subjects. But when the SNP decided to railroad through the OK for the Flamingo Park development on Loch Lomond, I cheered. That is simply because the hapless Scottish Greens had fought against it and anything they are against I tend to think will surely be best for the country. Mr Trump's advice to Sir Keir Starmer was also welcomed on my part. He claims there is a 'century' of oil and gas still out there in the North Sea and implied Ed Miliband's Net Zero is going unnecessarily way, way too fast and seemed in the hands of zealots. Drill, Baby, Drill, was good advice. Not a scientific way to come to decisions, perhaps, but, I am certain, absolutely correct. Alexander McKay, Edinburgh Very soft power Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'An independent Scotland would, with its fellow EU members, write the EU rules. Scotland would no longer be a rule-taker, as it was when the UK was in the EU, but one of the EU rule-makers – including on the CFP' (E Campbell, Letters, 24 May). Who could seriously imagine the incompetent, Europhile SNP successfully challenging Brussels over anything? Why would they have any more luck at renegotiating the likes of the Common Fisheries Policy than David Cameron had before Brexit? E Campbell is also working on an unsafe assumption that Europe would enthusiastically welcome some new left-wing state boasting perennial double-digit budget deficits as a member. Besides, who wants to be manacled to a bureaucratic, protectionist block whose share of world trade has declined by a quarter since 2002? Many voters on the Continent are currently asking themselves that same question. Scottish separatist economic policies seem to consist of wealth taxes, building more wind farms and extending a begging bowl to Europe. They offer no concrete answers to awkward questions, only wishful thinking and empty slogans. Martin O'Gorman, Edinburgh Embrace EFTA Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Robert Menzies incorrectly states that EFTA has signed up to the Common Fisheries Policy and is subject to EU quotas (Letters, 23 May). EFTA has its own annual negotiations with the EU over fishing rights, which is what the UK has lost through signing up to surrendering UK waters to the EU for 12 years. The loss of annual negotiations angers UK fishermen. The EU is a political as well as an economic union. It has its own parliament, its own council and its own commission. These are political institutions and for Mr Menzies to state the 'EU is not a political union' is inaccurate. EFTA successfully sells into the EU block with a population of 450 million, with similar access to EU states. Mr Menzies states that the UK would not have benefited from this as EFTA had only a market of 20m, suggesting that Switzerland only sells to Norway and Iceland and Liechtenstein and vice versa. This is nonsense, EFTA nations benefit greatly from free trade with the EU, which is something the Government wants. By not joining EFTA, with its more comprehensive relationship, free trade with the EU will take years to negotiate. The Government may not join EFTA for political reasons as parties like Reform would chastise it for taking the UK back into Europe. YouGov polling, however, shows 55 per cent of UK voters think it was wrong to leave the EU. Joining EFTA provides economic benefits without all the political baggage from joining the EU. Neil Anderson, Edinburgh Thanks, Terry Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Many of us who remember Terry Smith will welcome Marina Piper's interesting obituary of the Forth Ports Property Director (24 May). As well as in Leith, he was crucial to Rosyth's transformation from naval base to industrial site, and instrumental in the relocation of my company, Oceaneering International Inc, from Leith's old and rundown Henry Robb shipyard site (now Ocean Terminal) to a new state-of-the-art factory we built on Rosyth's waterfront – ideal for manufacturing and loading out our umbilical cables either on reels or carousel-to-carousel for offshore installation in the North Sea and worldwide. We were the first major firm to establish there. Opened by Princess Anne, its first 25 years were celebrated last year. Thank you, Terry! John Birkett, St Andrews, Fife Write to The Scotsman
The Herald Scotland
27-05-2025
- Business
- The Herald Scotland
What is Labour doing? Have we reached peak insanity?
Then there's immigration. Record inflows strain an already-overstretched NHS, housing, and public services. Illegal migrants reportedly cost £50,000 each per year for four-star hotels (rather than tents in France) and free services – while Labour wonders why 'smashing the gangs' isn't working. Adding insult to injury, we sprint toward net zero with billions in subsidies for an unreliable grid, despite our emissions being a global rounding error. The state even dictates which type of car to buy, how and where we drive, wielding taxation as a blunt control mechanism. Worse still, we borrow billions for foreign and so-called climate aid while our debt exceeds 100% of GDP. Defence spending is inadequate as Russia prepares for war, yet Keir Starmer postures as a superpower. And then there's the Chagos Islands: we gave away sovereign British territory only to pay to lease it back. Labour's 'fixing the foundations' slogan is a cruel gaslight as taxes and regulations suffocate growth. So, again: have we reached peak insanity, or is there worse to come? Ian Lakin, Aberdeen. A triumph we can ill afford Another success trumpeted by Keir Starmer after his victories over Trump and Modi's tariffs and the Europeans' restrictions on trade access has been the decolonisation of the Chagos Islands by persuading Mauritius to take them on but lease back the base on Diego Garcia. This has been achieved at a cost, estimated by the Government at £3.4 billion over the 99 years of the initial lease but estimated as something more like £30bn by the Opposition. The Chagos Islanders, forcibly evacuated from their palm-fringed beaches and settled in Crawley, stay there despite their desire to return, but are being bought off with a £40 million trust fund. The main user of the base is the United States, though it would (I suppose) be available to us if we wanted to fight a war with a neighbouring state bordering on or in the Indian Ocean, such as the Maldives, or to fly warplanes in support of the US in the Persian Gulf or over Gaza. Nevertheless, there has been no mention of the USA contributing to the cost of this trend-setting exercise in decolonisation. Forget the ferries and ask how many more such triumphs can we afford. James Scott, Edinburgh. Read more letters Harsh lessons for the Government There are four groups this rookie Labour Government has learned that it is political dynamite to tangle with because faces can be put to them and shown evocatively on screen, people for whom the general public harbours much sympathy. One of those four is on the verge of finding that measures imposed on it are about to be mitigated, namely, the reduction of the winter fuel allowance will be recalibrated on the grounds that our economic circumstances are improving. Welcome as this will be, will the memory of its insensitive introduction still rankle amongst those who had to endure the reduction over our recent winter? Two more groups are likely to face an upturn with the improving economic climate when the two-child benefit cap is also softened with a means-tested approach while the introduction of inheritance tax upon farms with a particular property value will be revisited. Only the fishermen's plight will be left to be addressed on the grounds that the 12-year agreement on fishing rights is overlong. It has been a harsh and salutary lesson for this rather gauche government to see its popularity ratings plummet as a result of its failure to be aware of the knock-on effects of placing burdens on vulnerable groups. If the Government fails to come to terms with such sensitive issues, then it will have doomed itself to adverse publicity of such a nature that it will be catapulted from power at the next General Election, unless it can transform the economy by then to the extent that the whole body politic experiences the benefits. Denis Bruce, Bishopbriggs. Why we need independence Clearly after nearly a year in office Labour's betrayal is obvious, as like the Tories, the poor and vulnerable are again targeted. From the winter heating debacle and failure to protect the Grangemouth refinery, to the plight of the Waspi women and the war on claimants along with the fishing industry, this UK Labour government is faltering. Surely any Labour government should be targeting the billions lost, each year, in corporate tax avoidance and fraud. Indeed instead of stealth taxes, a penny rise in income tax would bring in billions for the NHS, rail and roads; along with abandoning Trident, Britain's broken-down American-owned so-called independent nuclear deterrent. Furthermore it's actively rumoured that the UK fleet of Vanguard submarines, which carry the outdated Trident nuclear missile system only 20 minutes from Glasgow, is falling apart. These weapons of mass destruction, at huge expense, do not protect us but actually make us a target. In truth, only a richly-endowed independent Scotland (in line with happy and prosperous Nordic countries) in full control of all its assets, can progress towards a fairer, greener and prosperous nation; working with the other nations of the British Isles, Europe and the world. Grant Frazer, Newtonmore. Plight of care staff is shameful There is an old saying, "the love, care and attention we give to the elderly is a measure of our humanity". What does it say of our humanity when we read reports that hundreds of care workers feel forced to go on strike ("Hundreds of care staff to strike over £38m U-turn", The Herald, May 24)? Carers have found it necessary, it is reported, to withdraw their labour because of the Government U-turn on £38 million of extra funding being made available. Within the last few years their pay has deteriorated and the service is currently in crisis. This is the Government, then led by Nicola Sturgeon, which announced in 2021 the plan to establish a National Care Service at the time described as the most ambitious reform of the devolution era. This scheme was to end what was described as the "postcode lottery" of social care. However, the SNP Government eventually abandoned its plans when they lost the support from various groups, the participation of which was essential in order to make the scheme work. We should be ashamed of ourselves that those caring for our elderly have been driven to the last resort of withdrawal of their labour. Our elderly, who have done so much for us during their lifetimes, deserve better. Ian W Thomson, Lenzie. A Vanguard-class submarine (Image: PA) Sex workers are not all victims Here we go again. A new law is proposed in Scotland banning men from buying sex. The hyperbole of the headline on Marissa MacWhirter's article ('Ash Regan's bill to outlaw men who buy sex simply pushes women into the shadows – and grave danger', The Herald, May 23) makes me wonder why society continues to regard women who make money from prostitution as "victims". Yes, I know drug addiction is given as the justification for the dangerous lifestyle choice some women make, but they are not all helpless and addicted. Many just like the money. Glasgow City Council's Routes out of Prostitution has existed for years and helped several women to live safer lives. Can we just have a more balanced view please of the word "victim" in relation to this issue? Elizabeth Mueller, Glasgow. Netanyahu is storing up trouble Has there ever been any country, other than Gaza, which has had a terrorist hiding in every single house and tent and a terrorist command and control centre in every hospital and school? Even if Benjamin Netanyahu does not achieve his stated aim of taking and holding all of Gaza, and the West Bank, he is ensuring that he has created many times more implacable enemies on all of Israel's borders, which could at some future point see that country suffer the fate he plans for Gaza. He is also making it almost certain that the remaining hostages are all returned in body bags. L McGregor, Falkirk.
Otago Daily Times
23-05-2025
- General
- Otago Daily Times
Net finishing touch to Seafarers' Corner
The Historic Iona Church Restoration Trust committee member Rachel Day in front of a hand-made cargo net in the church's Seafarers Chapel. PHOTOS: PETER MCINTOSH One of the final steps has been completed in the large-scale renovation of a Port Chalmers church, honouring past and present seafaring men and women. Tucked away in the corner of the church's nave is the "Seafarers' Corner", a section of the church used in its early days as a place for all the sailors passing through Port Chalmers to find "solace and peace". Last month, a hand-crafted cargo net made by a local man was put up to separate the seafarers' corner from the nave. Historic Iona Church Restoration Trust committee member Rachel Day said the space never looked how it does today, but what they had set up was a "modern interpretation". "We're trying to give it a certain sort of respect," she said. The creator, a net maker of many years, told the trust he had a 19th-century cargo net ring which would be great to use in a net to separate the space from the rest of the nave. Iona Church. The net was made from Donaghy's rope and a marlinspike was used to weave the net. "Rope has been so vital to this country's history, from ... Māori, Polynesians and Europeans' connection to the sea — this is an ancient, universal craft." The corner was still used, but many of the sailors who now visited the church were Filipino and other East Asian workers coming into port from cruise ships and other boats, Ms Day said. "There isn't really an open Catholic church in Port Chalmers, so they're drawn to here. They can see the church when they come into harbour." They came to "sit and pray".
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Meta Platforms (META) Faces EU Legal Threat Over AI Data Use
We recently published a list of . In this article, we are going to take a look at where Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) stands against other AI stocks on Wall Street's radar. Days after the Biden-era rule on AI chips export was rescinded, a bipartisan group of eight U.S. lawmakers has now introduced a bill requiring makers of artificial intelligence chips to include technology that verifies the location of their chips before exporting them. Introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Chip Security Act will aim to address reports of U.S. export-controlled AI chips being smuggled into China. The bill comes shortly after US President Donald Trump began his tour of the Middle East this week, announcing several deals that will send AI chips to countries in the Middle East. This has been despite growing opposition from some inside the US government. READ NEXT: and 'In order for the United States to maintain our technological advantage, we must employ safeguards to help ensure export controls are not being circumvented, allowing these advanced AI chips to fall into the hands of nefarious actors.' For this article, we selected AI stocks by going through news articles, stock analysis, and press releases. These stocks are also popular among hedge funds. The hedge fund data is as of Q4 2024. Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter's strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (). A team of developers working in unison to create the company's messaging Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) is a global technology company. On May 14, Austrian advocacy group NOYB said it will seek an injunction against Meta Platforms. The said injunction may lead to substantial claims if the tech giant goes ahead with its plans to use Europeans' personal data to train its AI models. NOYB, or none of your business, is led by privacy activist Max Schrems. Meta plans to start using personal data from European users of Instagram and Facebook from May 27, citing legitimate interest under EU privacy rules for using users' data. The said data will be used to train and develop its generative AI models as well as other AI tools that can be shared with third parties. The company has said that users will receive a link to a form that will allow them to object to their data being used for training purposes. It also said that private messages and public data from accounts of users under the age of 18 will not be used. 'The European Court of Justice has already held that Meta cannot claim a 'legitimate interest' in targeting users with advertising. How should it have a 'legitimate interest' to suck up all data for AI training? We are currently evaluating our options to file injunctions, but there is also the option for a subsequent class action for non-material damages. If you think about the more than 400 million European Meta users who could all demand damages of just 500 euros or so, you can do the math.' NOYB said that it can use an EU rule filed under the EU Collective Redress, enabling consumers to pursue collective lawsuits against companies in the bloc. It set a May 21 deadline for Meta to respond. 'NOYB's arguments are wrong on the facts and the law. We've provided EU users with a clear way to object to their data being used for training AI at Meta, notifying them via email and in-app notifications that they can object at any time.' Overall, META ranks 1st on our list of AI stocks on Wall Street's radar. While we acknowledge the potential of META as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and have limited downside risk. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than META and that has 100x upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock. READ NEXT: and . Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at . Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
