Author: Press Room

Tesco predicts full-year profits at lower end of range

Markets

Tesco will generate full-year profits towards the lower end of its forecast range as cost inflation bites while the outlook remains uncertain, the UK’s leading supermarket has said.The retailer on Wednesday nudged its range for adjusted operating profit down to between £2.4bn and £2.5bn, down from an earlier forecast of £2.4bn-£2.6bn.However, it said that retail free cash flow would be better than expected at £1.8bn and operating profits at its banking unit were still forecast to be £120mn-£160mn.Tesco added that “significant uncertainties” remained in the external environment, most notably in how consumer behaviour evolved. “As we look to the second…

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Opposition, NGOs slam Turkey’s draft law on criminalising ‘disinformation’

Europe

Journalists’ associations and unions have slammed a new draft law in Turkey that would criminalise the spread of “disinformation”.Reporters say the bill is an attempt by the government to censor freedom of expression and restrict independent media.Under the law, citizens can face between one and three years in prison if they are deemed to have intentionally spread “misleading information”.Social networks will also be forced to remove “false” content under the law and share account details with the authorities.Platforms must already remove content that’s reported as offensive by individuals or the Turkish government.The new bill was tabled by the AK party of…

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Spain has just extended its free train travel scheme until December 2023

Travel

Spain has just extended its free train travel scheme through to December 2023. Earlier this year, free train tickets were introduced for short and medium-distance journeys. It started on 1 September and was originally meant to end on 31 December.Now, the country’s Minister of Finance María Jesús Montero has pledged €700 million to extend the scheme until the end of next year – and it could be here to stay for the foreseeable future. “We are going to convert this policy into a structural one and we will see the concrete results of public transport to reduce CO2. It is a priority policy in…

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