Airlines still have to pay compensation if flights cancelled due to fuel crisis, EU says

Airlines that cancel flights because of fuel shortages this summer will still have to compensate passengers under European law, the EU transport commissioner has said.Apostolos Tzitzikostas told the Financial Times that jet fuel prices or shortages do not meet the criteria that protect EU airlines from passenger claims.“The price of jet fuel is the reason why we have cancellations of flights and if they cancel flights without extraordinary circumstances – jet fuel prices are not extraordinary circumstances – they will have to reimburse the people,” the commissioner said.Although the EU law remains in place in the UK post-Brexit, Keir Starmer’s government is free to take a different position. Last week, it emerged that penalties for airlines that cancel UK flights because of jet fuel shortages have been eased

Powerful US utilities secretly fund ‘grassroots’ groups to sway cities away from switch to public power

The utility industry is quietly dispatching a network of front groups to thwart the growing push for public power across the US – a push that comes amid mounting frustration over sky-high utility bills, electric outages, a slow transition to clean energy and private utilities’ soaring profits.Communities from Ann Arbor, Michigan, to San Diego, California, and St Petersburg, Florida, are exploring municipalizing their grids to join the country’s approximately 2,000 public power companies.Municipal utilities – or “munis” – are owned and operated by local authorities and broadly have lower rates, better reliability scores and are structurally more accountable to customers.The industry front group operations aim to counter that narrative in a high-stakes fight – private utilities stand to lose billions of dollars in revenue should communities municipalize.The latest front is in Michigan, where the Ann Arbor Responsible Energy Coalition (A2rec) appears to be a local, grassroots organization opposing a public power campaign in the upper midwest city of about 123,000 people

Cut UK speed limits to reduce Iran war impact on consumers, thinktank urges

Britain should lower speed limits for drivers as part of a package of measures to reduce the impact of the Iran war on consumers, a thinktank has said.Capping legal speeds at 20mph in towns and cities and 60mph on motorways would help reduce fuel demand and combat soaring oil prices triggered by conflict, according to the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR).The institute said ministers should also temporarily cut fuel duty by 10p and bring in a new energy price cap of £2,000 a year to support consumers, while warning that inflation could peak as high as 5.8% if nothing is done to prevent it.“The UK cannot afford to sit back and let another energy shock drive up inflation and damage the economy,” said William Ellis, a senior economist at the IPPR

‘Our competitors are everyone’: Joybuy leads ‘China’s Amazon’ into the UK

“We’re here to shake up the UK e-commerce market,” says Matthew Nobbs, the UK boss of Joybuy which is spearheading a European charge by China’s version of Amazon.“I see our competitors as everyone,” he adds, reflecting the scale of ambition of the online retailer that sells home appliances, groceries, makeup and more.Joybuy is owned by China’s JD.com, the giant online and high street retail group which is taking on its US rival Amazon in Britain in a clash that is expected to lead to “collateral damage” for UK retailers caught up in the tussle for shoppers.JD

Dawn airport drinkers call out Ryanair boss on proposal to ban ‘holiday ritual’

For most people, the idea of a pint with breakfast is pretty grim. But at the Wetherspoons in Stansted’s departure lounge on Thursday morning, it appeared to be the beverage of choice.“It’s a holiday ritual,” said Dee Wood, 60, a waste policy officer, who was enjoying a pint while waiting to board her Alicante-bound morning flight. “It’s like the start of holiday,” said her friend Rachel Almond, 59, a community planner, who was treating herself to a lager. “We don’t get drunk, we just have a pint, say cheers and off we go

UK construction firms face some of sharpest cost rises in nearly 30 years

Construction companies in the UK are experiencing some of the sharpest cost rises in nearly 30 years as the war in Iran drives up prices for fuel and raw materials, according to a closely watched survey.The poll of UK construction companies found that input cost inflation – which accounts for expenses such as raw materials, energy and labour – rose last month to the highest level since June 2022 when there was a spike in commodity prices caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.April’s jump in purchasing prices was also one of the steepest since the survey began in 1997.The monthly purchasing managers’ index (PMI) for construction activity, considered one of the best indicators of growth in the sector, fell to 39.7 in April, the lowest level since last November and down from 45