Author: 5hspx
BBCGeorgia has become a hub for international used carsGeorgia, a small nation in the South Caucasus, has become a multibillion-dollar hub for the international used car market. The vehicles mostly come from the United States and many appear to end up in Russia.In the dusty suburb of Rustavi, an industrial town 20 km southeast of the Georgian capital Tbilisi, there is a large area of open-air parking lots.The size of more than 40 football fields, it houses thousands of vehicles for sale.You can find just about any automobile you want: Mercedes, Porsche, Jaguar, Toyota and, more recently, Tesla. They are…
Elon Musk's SpaceX has successfully completed a world-first test, returning part of its spacecraft to its launch pad. That means the company's plan to develop a fully reusable, rapidly deployable rocket is moving that much closer.BBC science correspondent Pallab Ghosh explores why this “incredibly difficult” operation poses a major challenge for future exploration and what environmental concerns people may have about it. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the US government body that approves all flights, previously said there would be no launch until November, after reviewing the company's permits. Since last month, the agency and Elon Musk have feuded publicly…
A £1 billion investment in an Essex port will go ahead, despite a row over comments made about owner P&O Ferries, the business secretary has said.It has been suggested that DP World could shelve the project after Transport Secretary Louise Haigh branded P&O Ferries a “rogue operator”.But Jonathan Reynolds told BBC DP World that the London Gateway port expansion project “is going to go ahead”. The row had threatened to overshadow a major government summit opening on Monday, at which ministers want to showcase investment in the UK. But DP World will now attend the International Investment Summit, where the…
The cost of borrowing to buy a home is “unlikely” to return to the low levels seen over the past decade, the boss of the UK’s biggest mortgage lender has said.Charlie Nunn, chief executive of Lloyds bank, said the bank expected mortgage rates to fall, but not to the near-zero rates they were in the 2010s.The rate charged on new fixed-rate mortgage transactions has increased in recent years due to an increase in interest rates to try to slow the surge in prices, triggered by the Covid pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. And although they have fallen…
An Indian politician has been shot dead in the commercial capital Mumbai. Gunmen opened fire on Baba Siddique, 66, near the office of his son, also a politician, according to local media. Two people have been arrested in connection with this murder.Siddique, a former local minister, was a senior politician in Maharashtra state, which is expected to hold parliamentary elections next month. In February, he left the Congress, India's main opposition party, and joined the regional National Congress Party (NCP), which is part of the BJP's governing coalition. Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, from the same party as Siddique,…
Getty ImagesWarnings about a “painful” budget tend to mean big tax increases are imminent.Chancellor Rachel Reeves says she must find £22bn to fix a “black hole” in the public finances.At the same time, she pledges to end austerity and spend money on areas such as hospitals and roads, which are key to boosting growth.So how can it achieve both without sharply raising taxes? Reeves is expected to have a trick up his sleeve. It centers on self-imposed borrowing limits by the government. This hack won't eliminate tax hikes – but could limit their scale.Why do we need borrowing rules?In the…
Defense PRO, ThiruvananthapuramCherian Thomas was 22 when he disappearedThat phone call ended a decades-long wait – 56 years and eight months to be precise.The caller, who came from a police station in Pathanamthitta district in the southern Indian state of Kerala, delivered unexpected news to Thomas Thomas: the body of his elder brother, Thomas Cherian, was finally found.Cherian, an Army craftsman, was among 102 passengers on board an Indian Air Force plane that crashed in the Himalayas in 1968 after encountering extreme weather conditions. The plane disappeared from radar while flying over the Rohtang Pass, which connects the northern state…
P&O Ferries owner DP World will now attend the government's investment summit on Monday, despite a row over a minister's criticism of the company.There had been fears they would pull out of the summit – where they were due to announce a £1bn investment – after Transport Secretary Louise Haigh criticized the ferry company and urged consumers to boycott it.The expansion of the company's London Gateway port in Essex is likely to go ahead, although it is unclear whether this will be announced at the summit.Whitehall sources said on Saturday there had been “warm engagements” between senior figures at the…
PA MediaTrain companies admit current ticketing system is complex and government promises reform Despite what the name suggests, an Anytime train ticket doesn't always mean you can take the train at any time – if you use a youth rail card.Engineering graduate Sam Williamson found out earlier this week when a train company told him he faced criminal prosecution for incorrectly using a ticket that cost him £1.90 less than he should have paid.And several other cases are being shared on social media, in which people have been asked by the courts to pay hundreds of dollars for underpaid fares…
PA MediaAll eyes were on outgoing Post Office chief executive Nick Read this week as he spent three days facing the investigation into the Horizon IT scandal.Mr Read replaced former boss Paula Vennels in 2019 and was appointed to “right the wrongs of the past”.The wrongful prosecutions may have stopped, but he still had questions to answer about how much the organization had actually changed when he testified.Mr Read had taken time off from his day job to prepare for the investigation.Unlike her predecessor, Paula Vennells, there were no tears. But there were some key revelations.Here are five things we…