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The busiest airports of 2024 revealed
The busiest airport last year was Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in the US, a survey has revealed.
Planes with capacity to seat 62.7 million people passed through the Georgia-based hub between 1 January and 31 December last year, according to the flight database OAG Aviation.
It also held the busiest airport in the world top spot in 2023 and 2019.
In second place was Dubai International Airport, which saw planes carrying up to 60.2 million people pass through, and in third place it was Tokyo International Airport.
Meanwhile, London's Heathrow Airport was ranked number four with 51,553,190 aeroplane seats landing on the runway throughout the year.
Stock market responding to Trump's return - while there's bad news for Primark
ByJames Sillars, business and economics reporter
The start of the Trump 2.0 era has been positive for stock markets globally so far, unless they're in Asia with exposure to China.
The "will he, won't he" key question over trade tariffs has dominated sentiment so far this week.
The FTSE 100 hit a record high on Friday amid a growing anticipation that more UK interest rate cuts are on the way on the back of weak retail sales data for December.
That momentum for values continued past the inauguration until yesterday, when a pause for breath was taken.
The index was 0.3% down at 8,517 in early Thursday dealing.
Among the stock market fallers was AB Foods - the owner of Primark.
ABF reported a 6% decline in comparable sales across its UK and Ireland Primark business over the quarter covering Christmas.
It said that while sales over the festive season itself were strong, they did not make up for a poor autumn that was knocked, ABF said, by weak consumer confidence and warm weather.
ABF shares were 1.5% lower at the open.
That decline was probably best explained by the company's decision to downgrade annual Primark sales growth guidance.
'There's a reason there are so many pizza restaurants': TV chef points finger on hospitality woes
Each week we ask top chefs to take part in our Cheap Eats feature. Today we speak to award-winning TV chef Andi Oliver.
It's very hard to make money in hospitality...People think you are making out like a bandit if you have got a busy restaurant five or six days a week, but just turning the lights on costs a fortune, your business rates cost a fortune, your VAT cost a fortune, everything costs a lot of money. Good ingredients cost a lot of money. It's also expensive emotionally and psychically to deliver really great food. You can’t take your eye off the ball for a second because the standard can drop really easily.
We have had 14, 15 years of quite destructive governmental rule...We are in a bit of a Catch-22 situation. It's got harder for a lot of people but I also think the national living wage has to go up. Getting this country sorted out is going to take some doing.
If you go to a restaurant and you have to wait an extra five minutes for your meal, just be patient...Have a drink and don't have a big fit about it. People are doing their absolute best.
There's a reason there are so many pizza restaurants around...You have to simplify your menuto reduce the financial difficulty. You have to pay people properly and you have to be responsible as an employer. But I think that the best thing to do is deliver something simple and deliver it well and you'll be able to keep your costs down.
Bad communication is my pet peeve anywhere...particularly in restaurants. It's okay not to know the answer to a question, but go and find out. Train your staff properly, give them the information they need to be empowered on the floor, behind the bar, in the kitchen, wherever it is because knowledge is power.
Miserable people in restaurants... I can't bare it.
For cheap substitutes...I'm a fan of things like ox tail, brisket and pork cheeks. They deliver in flavour in the most amazing way. Slow-cooking them, layering spice complexity, using things like stouts or dark red wines. These kind of things will really give you depth of flavours.
Put a bowl next to your cooker while you're cooking... Anything I'm cutting, ends of the onions, carrot peelings, stalks and herbs, goes into the stock pot bowl. I start the stock pot on a Sunday and then throughout the week I'm adding to that all the time, putting a bit more water in, and then maybe I'll roast some chicken wings and then I can use that stock to make a lovely chicken wing soup. Add a bit of rice to it or noodles and you've got a chicken noodle soup. If you've always got a stock pot, you have the basis for a sauce, a soup, a broth, and it means you are using up all your endy bits. It's really easy to do, just chucking in a few coriander seeds, juniper seeds, some fresh thyme, and you've got a really flavoursome broth going all week.
People cook too quickly... Time develops flavour.If you are going to roast a chicken, don't try to do it in 40 minutes – take a good hour and 45 minutes. Make sure you do your shopping the night before. I say this all the time because I think it is a really big thing - people go shopping and then they come home and they have to cook and they get overwhelmed.
Turn the heat down a bit...If you have it up so high, you lose control of what's happening on the stove. I like gentle cooking.
If you are boiling potatoes...put a little bit of fresh thyme, a clove of garlic and a bit of onion in the water with the salt and the potatoes. When you come to mash it, they will become infused with a lovely flavour.
I use turmeric ghee all the time... Turmeric Super Ghee I absolutely love. It's clarified butter with turmeric in it. So at the end of a sauce, you take a spoonful of it and stir it in and then the whole thing becomes silken and golden and lovely.
My favourite cookery writer is a woman called Edna Lewis... She died a while ago, but she was an African American chef and she wrote a beautiful book called The Taste of Country Cooking. It is one of the most beautiful cook books I have ever read in my life.
Don't try to be impressive, try to be delicious... Being delicious in turn will become impressive.
One restaurant that's worth splashing out on is...The Dorian in Notting Hill - incredible. Max Coen is the chef there and his food is unbelievable. We went there for my daughter's 40th. And obviously, it's a very, very special occasion. It's not cheap by any stretch of the imagination but it's worth every single penny. He's a very soulful cook and he is so imaginative and he makes stunning food.
My favourite cheap meal out is...my friend's restaurant Shankeys in Hackney or the Raglan in Walthamstow. They are amazing and they have an incredible range which is an Indian Irish mix. Sasha in the kitchen is making the most delicious food. He is making things like curry cauliflower cheese paratha and they are crisp and silky and gooey and spicy all at the same time. The most incredible food. I'd order the cauliflower paratha, the most incredible fried chicken and the extraordinary oysters. Get yourself down there and get his chicken and a curried cauliflower paratha, and you'll thank me for it. At The Raglan, they do this thing called a spice bag where you get fries or you get chicken and you drop them in the bag with a whole bunch of spices and shake it up and it's absolutely delicious.
Investment companies call on chancellor to ditch inheritance tax raid on pensions
Investment companies have called on the chancellor to ditch budget plans to apply inheritance tax on undrawn pensions.
A letter penned by the chief executives of AJ Bell, Hargreaves Lansdown, Interactive Investor and Quilter, which collectively manage £430bn of investments for UK customers, says there is "concern" about the proposals put forward by Rachel Reeves.
They warn that bringing all pensions into estates for inheritance tax will "lead to substantial delays paying money to beneficiaries on death and cause distress for bereaved families".
Pointing to justice ministry data, which shows the number of probate cases taking over a year to be granted has risen by 134% in the past three years, the bosses argue the chancellor's proposals will "worsen" this statistic.
They add legal representatives tasked with collecting information across multiple pension schemes will face a "greater burden" and in due course this will "compound an already difficult situation" for grieving families.
"Rather than pressing ahead with this flawed and potentially damaging approach, we urge the government to reconsider the proposals and work with the pensions industry to agree a simpler method," the letter reads.
Currently the value of most individuals' undrawn pensions is not subject to inheritance tax on death.
But from April 2027, any unused pension funds and death benefits payable from a pension will be brought into the inheritance tax net under plans put forward by Reeves - but it's not entirely clear how this will work in practice.
Trump threatens tariffs - what does that mean?
Trump has threatened China with a 10% tariff on its imports and warned that duties could also be imposed on the EU.
It's an "unsettling time" if you cover trade, oureconomics and date editor Ed Conway says, and if Trump were to increase tariffs it would "change the big picture as we know it".
Conway says economists are mostly guessing at what the numbers are going to be at the moment and "this is a new world for the global economy".
He runs through what we know here...
Thousands paying 'outrageous' traffic fines in London that should not be issued, AA says
The AA says thousands of drivers have paid "outrageous" fines it claims should not have been issued.
Analysis from the motoring group looked at rulings from London Tribunals' traffic adjudicators, finding at least six councils had handed out £130 fines over restrictions and enforcement cameras that lacked up-to-date paperwork.
Data from London Councils - representing 32 borough councils and the City of London - also showed 56% of appeals made against bus lane fines were either upheld or not contested in the last financial year.
For appeals against moving traffic offences, like stopping in a yellow box when not allowed, that figure was 35%.
Combined, the AA says nearly 7,300 cases have had successful appeals.
In response, the Department for Transport said: "Local authorities are responsible for local traffic measures and they should make sure penalties for the use of bus lanes are fair and proportionate."
The department also said a revamp of Traffic Management Orders - which govern local road restrictions - is now being proposed.
British passports to be available on smartphones
British passports will be available on smartphones by 2027 under new government proposals.
The plan, announced by technology minister Peter Kyle, will allow UK citizens to store their passports in a digital "wallet" on their phones. It would only be for domestic use at first, but could eventually be used for international travel.
The digital wallet will also contain an e-driving licence, launching this year, and universal credit accounts, veteran IDs and marriage and birth certificates.
Finland was the first country to test out digital passports for its citizens two years ago. The trial was launched in partnership with Finnair, the Finnish police and airport operator Finavia.
Osborne: The UK is a hard sell right now
ByPaul Kelso, business and economics correspondent
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is at the World Economic Forum in Davos meeting potential investors with a core message that, despite what they might have heard from companies already working there, Britain is open for business.
She arrived in the wake of two signals she believes demonstrate growth really is a priority, one intentional, the other convenient, if politically fraught.
The decision to effectively sack the head of the Competition and Markets Authority on Tuesday may sound dry but Ms Reeves thinks it matters. She wants regulators to be promoting growth, not slowing down the sort of mergers that might create it, which has been the criticism of the CMA in recent times.
"We have more complaints about the CMA than anyone," a government source told Sky News. "We really are serious about regulating for growth."
The second message concerns Heathrow's and airport expansion more generally. The saga of a third runway at Britain's biggest airport encapsulates, perhaps better than any, the trade-offs required to prioritise growth.
Airport expansion is a proven vehicle for growth. Heathrow's current investors are desperate to expand, despite the cost of complications. But for a decade political opposition, from Boris Johnson to Sadiq Khan, has stood in the way.
Of course there are sound environmental reasons for not expanding, particularly for a government committed to net zero by 2050, one she can expect Ed Miliband to make. But if growth really is the priority then at some point they have to choose.
Reeves indicated that she is determined to do so. "When the last government faced a difficult decision about whether to support infrastructure the answer was always no. We can't go on like that."
There was sympathy for Reeves' position from a predecessor. George Osborne spent six years as chancellor and has made the same pitch to investors she will conduct over the two days.
In Davos in his role at City advisory firm Robey Warshaw, he said she was right to be here, but warned the UK is a hard sell.
"I think she's got a particular challenge at the moment because there's quite a negative sentiment about the UK, which didn't start under the Starmer government, to be fair to her, but it certainly hasn't got better.
"I think she just needs to articulate a clear reason why all these people, who have got so many choices in the world, should put their money in the UK."
Primark launches first-ever clothing range for people with disabilities
Primark is launching a full-scale clothing range designed for people with disabilities.
The new collection has been designed in collaboration with Victoria Jenkins, a disabled fashion designer and founder of the adaptive clothing brand Unhidden, and aims to suit a range of needs.
A 49-piece line of womenswear and menswear will be released by the British retailer and adaptive features will include magnetic zippers and snap fastenings to waist loops that help to pull up trousers.
Clothes will also have hidden openings for tube, stoma or catheter access and there are a range of options for wheelchair users too.
The new clothing range will be available from 28 January.