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World Cup's biggest spenders show up late as semifinals drive host city travel boom

The World Cup's biggest economic boost is arriving later than expected as the tournament enters its final days. But for the U.S. businesses hoping for a soccer boom, it's better late than never. This week's semifinals pit France against Spain in Dallas on Tuesday and England versus Argentina in Atlanta on Wednesday. Travel bookings have accelerated as the field of competitors narrows and fans converge from around the world to see the high-stakes matches. Every U.S. host city has seen an economic lift from soccer fans, according to Bank of America Institute. "You can see the World Cup effect on the ground," said David Tinsley, senior economist at Bank of America Institute. "Spending picked up after the tournament kicked off, with restaurants and bars seeing some of the strongest gains as consumers turned matches into social events." In-person spending in U.S. host cities rose 5% over last year from June 10 to July 5, with Kansas City leading the gains, according to analysis from Bank of America credit and debit cards. The impact could be much higher, since the results capture only spending with BofA cards in U.S. households and does not include cash, checks and spending by international tourists or on corporate cards. Kansas City also saw the biggest weekly hotel performance gain among host markets, with revenue per available room (RevPAR) up nearly 50%, according to data from industry analysis firm CoStar. Philadelphia also saw a strong lift, with weekend RevPAR up more than 74% as its World Cup match coincided with Fourth of July celebrations and America 250 events. That was a relief to hotel owners who worried before the World Cup kicked off about soft advance hotel bookings and FIFA releasing large blocks of rooms back into the market. It's not that hotels are sold out. During the final week of the tournament's group stage, occupancy actually declined almost 3% over last year in U.S. host cities, indicating some business and leisure travelers altered their plans. But even in early stages of the World Cup, host city hotels charged 21% higher rates, according to CoStar. As the tournament moved into the knockout stage, demand from June 28 to July 4th increased 2.4% from last year and RevPaR rose 23%, despite the World Cup having 50% fewer matches than the previous week. Demand for short-term rentals also increased beside higher stake matches, according to analytics company AirDNA.

World Cup's biggest spenders show up late as semifinals drive host city travel boom
Europe
BBC Business

Why has British Steel been nationalised?

Image source, Getty ImagesByJennifer Meierhans and Shanaz Musafer, Business reportersPublished11 April 2025Updated 1 hour agoBritish Steel has been taken into public ownership after years of uncertainty over the future of the steelworks. It comes months after the UK government took control of the company's plant in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, though it was still owned by China's Jingye Group. British Steel's Scunthorpe plant employs 2,700 people, about three-quarters of the company's workforce. It is the last plant in the UK producing virgin steel, which is used in major construction projects like buildings and railways. It has fewer imperfections than the recycled steel made elsewhere in the country. Were the plant to stop producing virgin steel, the UK would be the only member of the G7 group of leading economies without the ability to make it. The government views that as a risk to the UK's economic security. In 2016, Tata Steel sold the loss-making part of its business that made "long products" like transport rails and steel sections for construction. Private investment firm Greybull Capital bought it for £1 and renamed the business British Steel. However, following financial collapse in 2019, British Steel was taken over by the government's insolvency service. On 16 July this year, the UK government brought it into public ownership, and Jingye is now seeking compensation for nationalisation. China's commerce ministry has hit out at the nationalisation, saying it "firmly opposes and is strongly dissatisfied with the British government's decision". In late March 2025, Jingye said the plant was losing around £700,000 a day and launched a consultation on its closure. It said the blast furnaces were "no longer financially sustainable," blaming "highly challenging" market conditions, tariffs and costs associated with moving to lower-carbon production techniques.

Why has British Steel been nationalised?
Asia
The Hindu BusinessLine

Sensex today | Stock Market Live: Sensex down 390 pts at open, Nifty at 23,900 as Brent Crude surges past $96

Sensex Today, Nifty 50 | Stock Market Live Updates - Find here all the live updates related to Sensex, Nifty, BSE, NSE, share prices and Indian stock markets for July 23, 2026. The escalation in Iran-US war, falling rupee, rising crude oil prices and FPI selling continue to hurt market sentiment. Rising tensions in the Middle East increased the price of crude oil to beyond $92 per barrel. “Going forward, the volatility is expected to prevail in the market. The investors will keep an eye on the issues like oil, geopolitics, FII inflows, Q1 results and comments of global central banks.” Vikram Kasat, Head Advisory, PL Capital. Domestically, the spotlight will shift to the IT sector as investors await Infosys’ quarterly earnings, due after the close of trading, for fresh cues on demand trends and the sector’s outlook. Q1 Results Today Live Updates, 23rd July 2026: Get real-time Q1 FY27 earnings updates, profit growth, revenue numbers and management outlook of Infosys, IndiGo, Cipla, PVR INOX, Mphasis, IEX, Meesho, Cyient, Vishal Mega Mart, Coromandel International and more than 50 companies announcing Q1 FY27 earnings today. Top gainers of Nifty 50: Tata Consumer (0.89%), Bajaj Auto (0.80%), ONGC (0.58%), Hindalco (0.45%), Coal India (0.26%) Top losers: Dr Reddy’s Lab (-3.53%), Cipla (-1.26%), Infosys (-1.12%), Bajaj Finance (-1.08%), Tata Steel (-0.84%) At 9:16 am, Sensex dropped 348.13 points (-0.45%) to 76,406.92, Nifty shed 91.45 points (-0.38%) to 23,904.80 Silver imports to India plummet due to new licensing rules, causing supply shortages and rising local premiums amid steady demand. The Indian rupee is expected to remain under pressure through Thursday’s session as the worsening U.S.-Iran dispute fuels a further rally ‌in oil prices. The rupee is expected to trade in a 96.50-96.70 range, with risks ⁠tilted to the downside, although support from the Reserve Bank of India is likely to limit losses, a currency trader ‌at a private sector bank said. The currency settled at 96.5650 on Wednesday, hovering ‌near its weakest level in more than two ‌months.

Sensex today | Stock Market Live: Sensex down 390 pts at open, Nifty at 23,900 as Brent Crude surges past $96
Europe
The Guardian

Victims of Trump purge call supreme court ruling a ‘dagger’ at heart of civil service

Rebecca Slaughter wonders whether ‘the civil service survives at all’ after supreme court ruling. Photograph: The Washington Post/Getty ImagesView image in fullscreenRebecca Slaughter wonders whether ‘the civil service survives at all’ after supreme court ruling. Photograph: The Washington Post/Getty ImagesTrump administrationVictims of Trump purge call supreme court ruling a ‘dagger’ at heart of civil serviceRebecca Slaughter, fired by Trump from the FTC in 2025, worries agencies will fear defying the US president Federal officials fired by the Trump administration are calling the recent supreme court decision a “dagger” at the heart of the civil service that will open independent federal government agencies to corruption and manipulation at the whim of the president. Since Donald Trump took office again in January 2025, he has fired more than 50 officials from federal agencies as the Trump administration openly sought to have the supreme court overturn a landmark 1935 ruling that limited the president’s power over independent agencies, known as Humphrey’s Executor. The ruling in the decision, Trump v Slaughter, which effectively gives the president free rein to fire members of independent agencies, was based on the firing of Rebecca Slaughter, appointed to serve as a Democratic member of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) by Trump in 2018. Slaughter said she received the email notifying her that she was fired by Trump in March 2025 as she was helping with rehearsal for her child’s elementary school play, a performance of Beauty and the Beast. “My stomach just dropped,” she said, noting she wasn’t surprised given similar firings were occurring at other agencies with statutory protections. “I was really hoping that it would avoid us, both because I love my job, but really more because I love the agency. I just knew this was going to be a big fight and pretty unpleasant and pretty destructive to this institution that I really valued.” She called Alvaro Bedoya, the other Democratic commissioner at the agency, who was at his daughter’s gymnastics practice. He had been fired as well. View image in fullscreenFTC commissioners Rebecca Slaughter, left, and Alvaro Bedoya, right, filed a lawsuit challenging their terminations a few days after they were fired in 2025. Photograph: UPI/AlamyThey both filed a lawsuit challenging their terminations a few days later, though Bedoya resigned from the FTC as he was not being compensated and he could not afford to be without income, while Slaughter’s husband’s income made it possible for her to continue pursuing the litigation. In July 2025, a federal judge reinstated Slaughter, but the Trump administration appealed. In September 2025, the supreme court allowed Trump to remove Slaughter from the agency as the case continued and agreed to take up the case. “That was not a great sign,” said Slaughter. “If they did not want to overturn a 91-year-old precedent, they would have not taken the case, so we knew that boded poorly for our prospects, but I still felt really strongly that even if I thought what the administration was doing was wrong, they weren’t going to do it with my permission. I wasn’t going to cede to something that I thought was wrong on law, wrong on policy, wrong on principle. I was going to do the best I could fighting it out.” On 29 June 2026, the supreme court ruled in a 6 to 3 vote to increase the president’s authority over independent federal agencies.

Victims of Trump purge call supreme court ruling a ‘dagger’ at heart of civil service
Europe
BBC Business

Five headaches Andy Burnham will have to deal with as PM

ByBen ChuPolicy and Analysis correspondent, BBC VerifyPublished17 July 2026When Andy Burnham enters No 10 Downing Street, he will inherit some formidable and complex problems that successive prime ministers and governments have attempted to address - mostly without success. BBC Verify has looked at five big policy challenges Burnham will face and the approaches he might take to address them. The cost of sickness and disability benefits for people of working age has grown rapidly since the Covid pandemic and now stands at around £58bn a year, external. The biggest driver of the increase is the number of people claiming Personal Independence Payments (Pip) - a working age benefit designed to support people with disabilities that increase their living costs. The number of people claiming Pip is forecast to rise from four million today, to five million by 2030, external. The share of people who are younger and claiming Pip for mental health problems or neurodevelopmental disorders such as ADHD is also rising fast. The previous Conservative government attempted to reform the working age disability welfare system but the cost continued to rise during their time in office, external. Last year, Sir Keir Starmer's government tried to reduce the Pip bill by £5bn a year by 2030 by tightening eligibility - but had to do a U-turn after a revolt by Labour MPs. A recent interim report by the disability minister, Sir Stephen Timms, external, co-produced with disability groups, accepts that Pip is "not fit for purpose". The final Timms report is expected to propose reforms to the system later this year, which Burnham could adopt. There has been speculation, external this could involve offering young people with mental health problems therapy or other support rather than cash. But there remains the risk of backlash from disability groups and potentially Labour MPs if the reforms are considered unfair.

Five headaches Andy Burnham will have to deal with as PM
Europe
The Guardian

US refunds $81bn in Trump tariffs after supreme court ruled them illegal

Donald Trump pitched the tariffs as a catch-all fix for the US economy. Photograph: Carlos Barría/ReutersView image in fullscreenDonald Trump pitched the tariffs as a catch-all fix for the US economy. Photograph: Carlos Barría/ReutersTrump tariffsUS refunds $81bn in Trump tariffs after supreme court ruled them illegal Government has been forced to pay back duties to companies that imported goods into the US that were hit by Trump’s tariffs The US government has already paid back tens of billions of dollars in tariffs it collected before the supreme court ruled them illegal, according to budget figures released on Monday. Tariffs – taxes on imported goods – have been a key part of Donald Trump’s economic plan since he took office again last year. In February the supreme court shut down a big chunk of the extra tariffs Trump had ordered, forcing the government to return money to the companies that had paid them. According to the budget data, the US has paid out $81bn (£61bn) in tariff refunds so far this fiscal year, which started in October 2025, compared with $5bn during the same period last year. A Treasury department official said the spike was almost entirely because of the supreme court decision, with most of the refunds happening in May and June. Trump had pitched the tariffs as a catch-all fix for the economy, bringing factories back to the US, getting better trade deals and closing the deficit in the federal budget. But the deficit, which had become a little smaller last year thanks to the tariff income, is now growing again. It hit $1.367tn in the first nine months of the fiscal year, up 2%. The US spent more than $1tn just on paying interest on its debt, up 14%, and military spending climbed 5% because of the war in the Middle East. The US administration’s current temporary 10% global tariff is due to expire on 24 July, but the White House is preparing new duties over what it sees as lax enforcement of anti-forced labour laws and excess industrial capacity. The latest proposal could affect leading partners including the UK, Japan, India, Taiwan and China, and would enable Trump to skirt previous court-imposed limits on his protectionist agenda. The new tariff rates are expected to be between 10% and 12.5%. The US has also threatened to impose fresh levies of 25% on Brazil. Last month Trump also threatened a 100% tariff on European countries, including the UK, that pursue a tax on the biggest US tech companies.

US refunds $81bn in Trump tariffs after supreme court ruled them illegal
Europe
BBC Business

China's Moonshot AI claims Kimi K3 can rival OpenAI and Anthropic

Chinese AI start-up Moonshot has unveiled a massive new artificial intelligence model it says can rival top American firms. The company launched Kimi K3, containing 2.8 trillion parameters, which serves as a measure of an AI's scale and processing power. Kimi K3's full capabilities – coding, knowledge work, and reasoning – will be known when it is released as an open-source model on 27 July. The sudden breakthrough suggests that China's tech prowess is rapidly narrowing the capabilities gap, upending long-held assumptions in the West that Chinese developers trail their American peers. Its arrival later this month will make it the world's first open-source model in the three-trillion-parameter class that can be freely downloaded, run and customised by outside developers. The release comes at a highly sensitive moment for the global technology sector, just weeks after the US government abruptly forced American developer Anthropic to temporarily withdraw its flagship Fable and Mythos models due to severe cybersecurity concerns. While Washington has since lifted those restrictions, the initial move highlights how the US government now views advanced AI software as critical national infrastructure, labelling frontier models as vital national security assets subject to strict export controls. However, the rapid arrival of Kimi K3 suggests Chinese firms are successfully bypassing these regulatory barriers and advancing independently despite US restrictions on hardware sales. Heavily backed by domestic tech giants Alibaba and Tencent, Moonshot has quickly risen to the forefront of China's generative AI ecosystem. In a statement the company said that K3 stands as Moonshot AI's "most capable flagship model to date". Unlike closed, proprietary American systems from OpenAI or Anthropic, Kimi K3's open nature allows global users to modify the system for advanced reasoning and complex software development. Moonshot AI noted that the system is uniquely built to operate with "minimal human supervision" to sustain tasks such as engineering and coding.

China's Moonshot AI claims Kimi K3 can rival OpenAI and Anthropic
Europe
The Guardian

Apple dethrones Nvidia to regain title of world’s most valuable company

The Apple Store signage is seen at Grand Central Station in New York City earlier this year. Photograph: Michael M Santiago/Getty ImagesView image in fullscreenThe Apple Store signage is seen at Grand Central Station in New York City earlier this year. Photograph: Michael M Santiago/Getty ImagesAppleApple dethrones Nvidia to regain title of world’s most valuable companyShift in pecking order illustrates that investors are reassessing outlook for artificial intelligence Apple overtook Nvidia on Friday to become the world’s most valuable company, reshuffling the top ranks of tech heavyweights as investors reassess the outlook for artificial intelligence. Apple was last valued at $4.88tn as ⁠its shares held steady, while Nvidia ⁠was roughly at $4.86tn, ​after a 3.5% decline. Nvidia became the first company in the world to surpass a $5tn market valuation in October, a landmark that propelled it into a rarefied territory that ​was far beyond the reach of its rivals. Being superseded by Apple does not necessarily signal a lasting change in the companies’ relative standing. The chipmaker remains a major beneficiary of AI-related spending, and its graphics processors are powering much of the generative AI frenzy. The shift in the pecking order illustrates that investors are broadening their focus beyond the most obvious beneficiaries of the AI boom, such as Nvidia, which had been at the helm for nearly a ⁠year. Apple is reclaiming the top spot for the first time since April last year. “Apple was seen as a laggard in the AI race because it wasn’t spending to develop models, but now sentiment has changed,” said Toni Meadows, head of ⁠investment at BRI Wealth Management. Last month, the company rolled out a long-delayed overhaul of Siri, betting the upgraded assistant would help close the gap with big tech rivals and new-age startups in the crucial AI race. For a company that ‌was often seen trailing in the AI ‌race, the milestone reflects Apple’s efforts to establish itself more firmly among the sector’s leading players, and could shape how CEO Tim Cook’s final months at ‌the helm are viewed. Cook is preparing to cede his role to hardware veteran John Ternus in September. Nvidia could reclaim the top spot if sentiment shifts. Apple is in a delicate position, having raised prices to offset rising costs – a strategy that could hurt demand. “I don’t see any meaningful distinction. Nvidia likely to be a significant ⁠participant in whatever happens going forward,” said Benjamin Hall, vice-president, alpha research at Segal Marco Advisors. However, the AI ​enthusiasm has spread to other corners of the semiconductor ​industry. The bigger winners this year have been memory ​chipmakers such as Micron, which crossed $1tn in market value in May as investors embraced the significance of memory chips in ​AI infrastructure.

Apple dethrones Nvidia to regain title of world’s most valuable company
Asia-Pacific
The Straits Times

AliExpress hit with $812 million EU fine over sales of illegal, counterfeit products

BRUSSELS - Alibaba’s AliExpress was hit with a record €550 million (S$812 million) fine from the European Union on July 20 for failing to tackle sales of illegal, unsafe and counterfeit products on its platform. The fine was the third issued by the European Commission under the EU’s landmark Digital Services Act (DSA), which requires very large online platforms to do more to counter illegal and harmful content. The commission charged AliExpress in June 2025 with failing to comply with a DSA requirement to assess and mitigate the risks of dissemination of illegal products. It set an Oct 20 deadline for AliExpress to propose remedial measures, and the company could face further penalties if the regulator decides in December that they do not comply with the DSA. “This is very dangerous for consumers, unfair for companies which are complying with all our rules,” EU tech chief Henna Virkkunen told reporters. She pointed to AliExpress’s 193 million users in Europe in 2025 versus Shein’s 156 million and Temu’s 130 million. Temu has also been fined under the DSA, and Shein is facing an ongoing investigation. “One in five Europeans say they shop once a month from Shein, Temu and AliExpress,” Virkkunen said. “We disagree with today’s decision and the disproportionate fine, which does not adequately reflect our established framework and the significant, proactive enhancements we have made,” AliExpress said in an e-mail. “We are carefully reviewing the decision and considering all available options.” The commission said that AliExpress had not properly evaluated whether it had enough people to review the risks and had overestimated the effectiveness of its system in detecting and removing illegal products. The regulator criticised the company’s recommender and advertising systems for exacerbating the spread of illegal products and its reliance on one quantitative indicator to measure its moderation system to prevent the risk of illegal products appearing or reappearing in similar forms. It said the failure of AliExpress to detect illegal products meant that illegal products ranging from counterfeit products to unsafe toys and dangerous cosmetics remained online for many weeks. The commission also took issue with the company’s ineffective penalty policy, which resulted in penalised businesses continuing to sell illegal products on its platform.

AliExpress hit with $812 million EU fine over sales of illegal, counterfeit products