Angry activists storm villa of Putin’s youngest daughter, plant Ukrainian flag and plan to house refugees March 14, 2022 French activists in the city of Biarritz, in the south of the country, have taken over the luxury villa of the daughter of Russia’s president Vladimir Putin, Catherine Tikhonova. The mansion, locally known as the Alta Mira villa, was seized by local activists on Sunday evening and will be made available for a number of [...]
EU demands billions from UK as ‘Made in China’ row widens: Britain accused of flouting Brexit rules March 14, 2022 The European Union is demanding £2.5bn in compensation from Britain for failing to apply customs rules to Chinese imports. The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that the UK was “negligent” in applying EU customs and import rules between 2011 and 2017, which has led to lost revenues for the EU. The [...]
Isolated Kremlin in overdrive as Russia pounds Kyiv while Putin arrests own security chiefs and begs China for new weapons March 14, 2022 Russia’s military forces have kept up their punishing campaign to capture Ukraine’s capital with fighting and artillery fire in Kyiv’s suburbs. It comes after an air strike on a military base near the Polish border brought the war close to Nato’s doorstep overnight. It raised the possibility that the alliance could be drawn into the [...]
Millions of Londoners slip into housing nightmare as rents are now higher than before pandemic while landlords pull out March 14, 2022 All UK regions experienced year on year room rent increases in February, with London seeing the biggest increases since before the pandemic began. London average room rents now stand at £796 per month, having reached lows of £703 (March 2021) during the pandemic, according to the data by SpareRoom, shared with City A.M. this morning. [...]
Oligarchs’ London mansions are ‘gold bricks to launder money’ says Sadiq Khan as Mayor labels UK refugee response ’embarrassing’ March 14, 2022 London Mayor Sadiq Khan described properties owned by Russian oligarchs in London as “gold bricks used to launder money”. Repeating his call for some to be used to house refugees from Ukraine, he said it would be a form of “poetic justice”. He told Times Radio: “I, for some time, with others, have been complaining [...]
Retail and hospitality face growing army of whistleblowers reporting national minimum wage breaches March 14, 2022 The number of whistleblower reports relating to alleged National Minimum Wage breaches in the retail sector saw a 37 per cent jump in the past year, according to new data shared with City A.M. this morning. Figures show that 235 complaints were made in 2020 to 2021, up from 171 in the previous year, 2019 [...]
200,000 barrels a day: BP joins forces with Eni to create Angola’s largest oil and gas producer March 14, 2022 BP and Eni told City A.M. in an email that they have signed an agreement to form a new 50/50 independent company, Azule Energy through the combination of the two companies’ Angolan businesses. The agreement follows a memorandum of understanding between the companies agreed in May 2021. Azule Energy will be a new international energy [...]
Chaos at the Kremlin: Isolated Putin detains senior FSB security chiefs while third Russian general is killed in Ukraine March 13, 2022 Two senior officers in the Russian security service, the FSB, have been put under house arrest by President Vladimir Putin, according to a report this weekend. Andrei Soldatov, of the investigative website Agentura, reported that Sergei Beseda, the head of the Fifth Service – the FSB’s foreign intelligence branch – and his deputy have been [...]
Saturday Sitdown: In five years remote working will ‘just be work’, says digitally-native brands guru March 12, 2022 As the city begins to ramp up again and offices swing open their doors the debate rolls on – how many days should people return to the office? Should this be mandatory or flexible? Will the days be set or of a person’s choosing? Employers and employees find themselves at loggerheads when it comes to [...]
£24bn Brexit rebound: UK goods imports from EU overtake non-EU trade while Russian influx soars March 12, 2022 Goods imports from the EU rebounded fat the start of 2022, despite uncertainty over changes in HMRC methodology, to overtake Non-EU countries, after non-EU imports of goods to the UK surpassed those from the EU for the first time in 2021 since the ONS started recording the data in 1997. Over £24bn worth of goods [...]