Discreet Professional Protection
For the second day in a row, China has cut the value of its currency, the yuan.
Stock markets have been rattled, and with China a major exporter, buyer of commodities and having a huge consumer market, it will not just be investors who feel the impact.
The government should make it illegal for airport shops to keep VAT savings for themselves rather than passing them on to customers, the Retail Ombudsman has said.
It follows news that some airport shops are reclaiming VAT relief intended for shoppers flying to non-EU countries after checking their boarding passes.
Ombudsman Dean Dunham said there was little he could do as the law stands. Retailers have said they are following government rules. Passengers are asked to show passes so retailers can identify who is flying to non-EU countries and avoid paying 20% VAT on customers’ purchases.
Treasury minister David Gauke said the relief was intended to reduce prices for travellers, not be a windfall gain for shops.
Boots, one of the retailers which said it claimed back some VAT for non-EU passengers, has since said it will no longer ask customers to show their boarding passes while it undertakes “a longer term review of the situation”. Dixons said it was reminding staff that seeing the boarding passes of passengers was a “request” and not mandatory.
Police are investigating a “new” crime of cyber-flashing after a commuter received an indecent image on her phone as she travelled to work.
The victim received two pictures of an unknown man’s penis on her phone via Apple’s Airdrop sharing function. Lorraine Crighton-Smith, 34, said she felt “violated” and reported it to the British Transport Police (BTP).
Supt Gill Murray said this particular crime was new to her force and urged people to report any other incidents.
Ms Crighton-Smith, who was travelling on a train in south London, told the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme: “I had Airdrop switched on because I had been using it previously to send photos to another iPhone user – and a picture appeared on the screen of a man’s penis, which I was quite shocked by.
“So, I declined the image, instinctively, and another image appeared, at which [point] I realised someone nearby must be sending them, and that concerned me. I felt violated, it was a very unpleasant thing to have forced upon my screen. “I was also worried about who else might have been a recipient, it might have been a child, someone more vulnerable than me. “My name on Airdrop says Lorraine so they knew they were sending it to a woman. The images were of a sexual nature and it was distressing.”
Motorists will be able to recharge their cars as they drive if a scheme being proposed by Highways England comes to fruition.
The government agency has announced plans to test wireless power-transfer tech that it hopes to build under the country’s motorways and major A roads. It has already completed a feasibility study and is now asking companies to tender bids to host off-road trials.
But one expert questioned whether such a scheme would be cost effective.
Charge-as-you-drive technologies have already been pioneered elsewhere.
In 2013, the South Korean town of Gumi switched on a 12km (7.5 miles) route that allows buses with compatible equipment to be charged as they drive over it.
It works by a process called Shaped Magnetic Field In Resonance. Electric cables buried under the road are used to generate electromagnetic fields, which are picked up by a coil inside the device and converted into electricity.
The demand for hospital services is soaring, according to official data from NHS England.
It has reported increases in emergency ambulance call-outs, A&E admissions, emergency admissions, diagnostic tests and treatments.
However, the NHS is failing to meet some key targets, including those for cancer treatment, ambulance response times and A&E waiting times.
NHS England acknowledged the increases were part of a continuing trend. “The long-term trend is one of greater volumes of both urgent and emergency care and elective activity,” it said.
It is the first time NHS England has published its data from a wide range of services on the same day. The snapshot provided by “super-Thursday” shows that in the year up to June 2015:
Ambulance calls-outs were up 7% on the previous 12 months.
A&E attendances were up 1.1%.
Emergency admissions were up 2.7%.
Diagnostic tests were up 5.8%.
Consultant-led treatments were up 5.1%.