- US trade chief defends tariff hikes when paired with investment
- EU court blocks French ban on vegetable 'steak' labelling
- Meta AI turns pictures into videos with sound
- US dockworkers return to ports after three-day strike
- DR Congo to begin mpox vaccination campaign Saturday in east
- Meta must limit data use for targeted ads: EU court
- Oil extends gains, jobs report lifts Wall Street
- US hiring soars past expectations in sign of resilient market
- As EU targets Chinese cars, European rivals sputter
- Top EU court finds against FIFA in key transfer market ruling
- Oil extends gains, Hong Kong stocks resume rally
- 'A man provides': Ukrainian miners send families away as Russia advances
- EU states greenlight extra tariffs on EVs from China
- Hong Kong stocks resume rally, oil dips after Middle East-fuelled surge
- Crude stable after Israel-Iran surge, Hong Kong stocks resume gains
- Hera spacecraft to probe asteroid deflected by defence test
- US dockworkers to head back to work after tentative deal
- After Helene's destruction, North Carolina starts to rebuild
- Dockers end three-day strike at Montreal port
- What next for OpenAI after $157 billion bonanza?
- Israel-Hamas war causes 86-percent dive in Gaza GDP: IMF
- Milan's Morata moves house after Inter-fan town mayor 'violates' privacy
- 'Devastating' storm hits Augusta National but Masters will go on
- Relief in Brazil, Asia over delay to EU deforestation rules
- Oil prices jump, stocks fall on Middle East tensions
- Biden says 'discussing' possible Israeli strikes on Iran oil facilities
- Oil prices rise, stocks fall on Middle East tensions
- Oil rallies, stocks mostly retreat on Middle East tensions
- Phasing out teen smoking could save 1.2 mn lives: study
- 'Welcome relief': Asia producers hail EU deforestation law delay
- Japan PM slated to announce plans for 'happiness index'
- Turkish inflation falls less than expected in September at 49.4%
- Easing inflation lifts profit at UK supermarket Tesco
- Skiing calls on UN climate science to combat melting future
- China wine industry looks to breed climate resilience
- Tokyo rallies on weak yen, Hong Kong drops after surge
- Dutch airline KLM unveils 'firm' cost-cutting measures
- Carpe diem: the Costa Rican women turning fish into fashion
- Senegal looks to aquaculture as fish stocks dwindle
- Will AI one day win a Nobel Prize?
- Climate change, economics muddy West's drive to curb Chinese EVs
- Argentina's Milei vetoes university budget after huge protests
- TotalEnergies plans to grow oil and gas production until 2030
- 2024 Nobels offer glimmer of hope as global crises mount
- Tokyo rallies on weak yen, Hong Kong reverses after surge
- Tunisia readies for vote as incumbent Saied eyes victory
- High childcare costs in US weigh on women's employment
- US voters seek help with crushing childcare costs
- Taiwan shuts down for second day as Typhoon Krathon to land
- Supercharged storms: how climate change amplifies cyclones
In UK, workers strike as inflation crushes earnings
Railway and postal staff, dockers too. Britain's workers are striking in vast numbers as decades-high inflation erodes the value of wages at a record pace.
Britain's train network faces further heavy disruption Thursday and Saturday in major walkouts that follow the sector's biggest strike action for 30 years already this summer.
Tens of thousands of staff are expected to strike over the two days, leaving a skeleton train service that will hit holidaymakers and commuters, even if home-working continues for many office staff after Covid restrictions were lifted.
London's underground railway, the Tube, will be hit by a strike Saturday, ahead of an eight-day stoppage starting Sunday by dockers at Felixstowe, Britain's largest freight port that is situated in eastern England.
"We will continue to do whatever is necessary to defend jobs, pay and conditions during this cost-of-living crisis," Sharon Graham, head of major British union, Unite, said this week.
Official data Wednesday showed UK inflation at a 40-year-high above 10 percent, as soaring food and energy prices hurt millions of Britons.
- Inflation to keep rising -
And the situation is set to worsen under a new prime minister, as under-fire Boris Johnson prepares to step down.
The Bank of England has forecast inflation to top 13 percent this year, tipping the British economy into a deep and long-lasting recession.
"This record fall in real wages demonstrates the vital need for unions like Unite to defend the value of workers' pay," Graham said, while hitting out at suggestions, including from BoE governor Andrew Bailey, that pay rises were fuelling inflation.
"Wages are not driving inflation," she insisted ahead of the latest UK inflation data that showed rocketing food prices were the main factor behind July's spike.
Inflation has soared worldwide this year also on surging energy prices, fuelled by the invasion of Ukraine by major oil and gas producer Russia.
- Pay deals -
Some proposed strikes planned for the British summer have been halted after unions and companies agreed pay deals at the eleventh hour.
But while British Airways ground staff and plane refuellers at Heathrow airport have scrapped proposed walkouts, other sectors are holding firm.
More than 115,000 British postal workers employed by former state-run Royal Mail plan a four-day strike from the end of August.
Telecoms giant BT will face its first stoppage in 35 years and walkouts have recently taken place or are soon to occur by Amazon warehouse staff, criminal lawyers and refuse collectors.
Major UK business lobby group, the CBI, this week acknowledged workers' ongoing "struggle with rising costs like energy prices" and said employers were "doing their level best to support staff".
It also claimed, however, that "the vast majority" of companies "can't afford large enough pay rises to keep up with inflation".
Regarding the part-privatised British railway sector, unions accuse Transport Secretary Grant Shapps of not helping to resolve the impasse.
Shapps is part of the Conservative government that recently amended a law to allow agency staff to help fill gaps caused by strikes, further angering the RMT railway union.
According to Unite, London's luxury department store Harrods has informed staff that it stands ready to use agency staff in the event of strike action by its workers.
Analysts are meanwhile forecasting sector-wide stoppages to last beyond the summer as inflation keeps on rising.
It comes as teachers and health workers have hinted at possible walkouts should they not receive new pay deals deemed acceptable.
X.Wong--CPN