Latest news with #NapoleonBonaparte
Daily Mirror
2 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
Locals in destination packed with tourists buy 'Island of Death' to escape
A group of Venetian locals seeking relief from their tourist-crowded city have secured a lease for an abandoned isle with a notably disturbing and tragic history Venetian locals seeking refuge from overtourism have taken possession of a long-abandoned island with a haunting history. The locals purchased the island just for themselves - the only catch? It's the site of a plague pit and former asylum. Poveglia is a spot of land between Venice and the Lido - which separates the Venetian lagoon with the Adriatic Sea. It is Poveglia that will become the haven for those who live in the tourist hotbed come August 1, 2025. Despite the harrowing history of the island, the locals had to beat out property developers to ensure Poveglia remained a public asset. Locals now have a 99-year lease from the Italian state and seek to change it into an urban park open exclusively to residents of the Italian city. The 7.5 hectare island was put on an auction list by the Italian State Property Agency in 2014. It was the activist group Poveglia per Tutti (Poveglia for Everyone) and its 4,500 members that managed to nab the island after raising €460,000 (£398,700) to secure the lease. The triumphant story of the locals stands in juxtaposition with the island's gruesome history. Known as the 'Island of Death', Poveglia was home to a psychiatric hospital after the Second World War with a rumoured 'mad' doctor. It is also estimated that around 100,000 people lost their lives on the tiny isle as the bubonic plague ravaged Italy in the 1700s. Legend says that you can still hear the cries of the plague victims from the quarantine station. Whether you believe the local legend or not, it's hard to argue that the island has a notably dark past. Landmarks like the San Vitale church were also destroyed when Napoleon Bonaparte passed through. Today, the church bell tower, deserted hospital and prison are among the few remaining structures. However, having been long abandoned, the structures are quite unsafe and thus the island remains closed to visitors. That said, because the island is state-owned, interested travellers can seek special permission from the Municipality to visit. Typically, such permission is granted for purposes like film crews, photography projects, or research. And again, after the restoration by Poveglia per Tutti, the island will only be open to other Venetian locals. According to the group, overtourism has necessitated a space for locals to reclaim their beloved home. Venice welcomes an estimated 30 million tourists annually and has taken increasing measures to reduce the offset the number of visitors. One such measure is the five-euro tourist tax implemented in 2024 during peak times. Another measure ensures that cruise ships can no longer dock close to the lagoon city. Patrizia Veclani, founder of Poveglia per Tutti, told CNN that her group sees this as a small victory in reclaiming Venice from overtourism. 'The island would never have been as popular as other places,' Veclani said, 'but keeping this small space just for Venetians is a victory.'
Arab Times
6 days ago
- Politics
- Arab Times
A Russian peasant defeated Napoleon before the war even began
When a person holds on to their rights, they can defeat even the most powerful forces. In doing so, they prevent the aggressor from forcing them to surrender or give him what he wants. This kind of resistance has always been a characteristic of free and dignified peoples. What follows is a brief story about what it takes to confront a mighty imperial power like France during the era of Napoleon Bonaparte. It is the story of how a simple Russian peasant stood his ground and made Napoleon realize, even before the war had truly begun, that defeat was inevitable. After Napoleon Bonaparte had secured his control over much of Europe, he set his sights on invading Russia. As he marched through European cities and villages along the way, crowds would gather and people would come out of their homes to watch his grand procession and massive army. As he approached the outskirts of Russian territory, Napoleon noticed something unusual - a bent-over peasant, sickle in hand, tirelessly harvesting his crops, undistracted and unbothered. The man worked with steady focus, showing no interest whatsoever in Napoleon's procession. Napoleon turned to his guards and commanders and said, 'Do you see that lowly Russian peasant? He doesn't even glance at my procession, while the women of Europe rush out of their bedrooms just to catch a glimpse of me passing by their homes.' Napoleon halted his procession and ordered that the peasant be brought before him. The man was brought in with his hands tied. Napoleon asked, 'Why didn't you stop harvesting to watch my procession?' The peasant replied calmly, 'What business do I have with your procession? My land is more important to me.' The emperor pressed further, 'Don't you know who I am?' The peasant answered without hesitation, 'I don't care who you are. It is enough to know that you are a contemptible invader, and too mean to occupy my country.' Napoleon said to the peasant, 'You must carry my name with you always, so that you will never forget me.' He then ordered his soldiers to tattoo his name on the peasant's forearm. A soldier heated an iron rod and branded the name 'Napoleon' into the man's skin, a mark intended to be permanent. In an act of defiance, the Russian peasant raised his sickle and struck his forearm to remove the branded area. He threw his arm aside and said firmly, 'Take your name with you. I refuse to bear the name of someone vile like you who came to invade my land.' Napoleon turned to his officers and said his famous words, 'This is where defeat begins.' And indeed, history records that Russia would defeat him. Regarding the attitude of that Russian peasant, what was the reaction of those groups and individuals who aided the occupier in entering their homeland? History teaches us that defeat is inevitable when people choose loyalty to invaders over their own nation. --- The most precious thing in the world. Nothing in this world is more precious than a blessing that cannot be bought or replaced, which is the blessing of health and peace of mind. Many bodies are surrounded by wealth, but they are burdened by pain on the inside. Many hearts dwell in palaces but have never tasted true comfort. Health is the real treasure, and peace of mind is the silent wealth unseen by others but deeply felt in the heart, making life truly flourish. Concealment is nothing but a cloak of mercy that hides our flaws from the eyes of others and protects us from irreversible harm. O God, grant us concealment that remains unseen, health that never weakens, and peace of mind that never fades. O God, spare us from pain in our bodies, anxiety in our souls, and sorrow that dims the light of our hearts. O God, the treasures of this world can never replace health, and abundant wealth cannot restore lost serenity. O God, bless us with a share of every good and protect us from all evil.
Yahoo
19-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
50 Extremely Rare And Amazing Historical Pictures That Will Completely And Totally Change Your Perspective On The World
it found its home in New York Harbor, the Statue of Liberty's head was on display at the 1878 Paris World's Fair: is the unfinished portrait of George Washington that was used as a basis for the design of the $1 bill: The portrait was done by Gilbert Stuart, who apparently had something better to do than finish up ol' George's portrait? picture, taken in 1925, shows the passengers on an Imperial Airways flight watching one of the first in-flight movies ever: They're watching a silent film called The Lost World. What do we think of that plane's cabin? Better or worse than today's economy? this is what in-flight entertainment looked like in the 1960s: My neck hurts just looking at this. a trap door on the Sphinx: There's actually a bunch of holes in the Sphinx (do not discuss this sentence in the comments) that mostly lead to nowhere. is how the Eiffel Tower used to get painted — one precariously hoisted guy with a paint bucket at a time: Related: the hours after he died, a death mask was made of Napoleon Bonaparte's face: was the menu served to the third-class passengers aboard the Titanic on the day the ship sank: Put another way, that dinner was the last dinner a whole lot of people ever ate. a peak at what one of those third-class cabins looked like: photo from a Seattle lumberyard in 1919 show just how high stacks of lumber could go in those days: It's as impressive as it is depressing. of lumber, one of the more creative ways bootleggers would hide alcohol during Prohibition was inside trucks lined with wood, complete with a tiny trapdoor: picture, taken in 1946, is one of the first images of Earth ever taken from space: It was captured from a 35-millimeter camera attached to a V-2 rocket. You're, of course, familiar with Mahatma Gandhi... have you ever seen a picture of him as a young man? Here's Gandhi some time in the late 1800s: Looking sharp, Mahatma. picture, from 1930, shows a plane flying over the old city of Baghdad, Iraq: the Battle of Britain in World War II, cows were painted with bright white paint to stop cars from hitting them during the nightly blackouts: is Franz Reichelt sporting a homemade parachute suit that he was confident would save him if he jumped off the Eiffel Tower: On Feb. 4, 1912, he gave it a go. It did not deploy. Related: are what some of the Titanic's lifeboats looked like after they were docked in New York after the ship sunk: Imagine being on one of those in the pitch black night in the middle of the ocean. totally safe device was known as a baby cage, a wire cage suspended out of an apartment window meant to give babies born in cities extra light and air: And probably a lifelong hatred of pigeons. is the Thanksgiving menu that was served at the Plaza Hotel in 1899: What are you going for? Might be partridge and orange jelly tarts for your boy. are the real-life outfits doctors would wear to treat plague patients in the 1600s: Terrifying! is a picture taken during Captain Robert Falcon Scott's Terra Nova Expedition to the Antarctic. None of the men on the expedition would survive: You can see the ship behind the two men pictured. are some of several disguises that US Intelligence thought Adolph Hitler would use if he managed to go into hiding after World War II: is what Harriet Tubman looked like in old age: is Harrison Schmitt, one of four living men to have set foot on the moon's surface, and the one who did it most recently: Schmitt was part of the 1972 Apollo 17 mission and an absolute pro at the space selfie. Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 was the deadliest earthquake in US history, resulting in the deaths of over 3,000 people. In the aftermath of the disaster, you could literally see where the Earth split along the San Andreas Fault: Related: another picture of a San Francisco street split in two: Awful, awful stuff. is a statue of Anubis, the Egyptian god of the dead, that was found inside the pharaoh Tutankhamun's tomb: Which makes it over 3,000 years old. is the aftermath of the Great Molasses Flood of 1919, a deadly event that claimed the lives of 21 people in Boston after a container holding over two million gallons of molasses burst, sending a wave of molasses several feet high through the city streets: It sounds like it's funny, but I assure you: it is not. is 455 pound Piet van der Zwaard AKA the "fattest man in Europe" in 1955: colorized picture of Ramses II's Great Temple at Abu Simbel in Egypt, taken circa 1865, shows just how enormous the colossal statues in front of the entrance are: This is what that same statue looked like before the years of sand that accumulated around it was cleared out: X-ray, taken by Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, is the first X-ray ever: Well, one of the first. It's of his wife's hand. is what Chicago's Eureka Building looked like after a winter fire was put out by the Fire Department: Like something out of a fantasy book. he was James Bond, Sean Connery competed in the Mr. Universe pageant in 1953: is allegedly the death mask of William Shakespeare: The mask itself was made in 1616, the same year Shakespeare died, and was discovered in 1849. There's a whole lot of controversy whether it's Bill or not. we're on the subject, this is the death mask of Ludwig van Beethoven: That, we are sure of. is the View Phone, a video phone developed by Toshiba in 1964 that allowed for real-time proto-FaceTiming: the Brewster armor suit, one of the first fully functional suits of body armor designed for World War I combat: All I'll say is you better not let Gru see you wearing that. Related: is how huge the entrance to the Roman Temple of Bacchus is: It's located in Lebanon. See that little speck down there? That's a person. The Romans pulled out all the stops for the god of wine. a vintage picture of a redwood tree showing just how huge they are: is a picture of a newly built telephone tower, complete with a ridiculous amount of wires, in Sweden, circa 1886: is the personal water closet of the last German emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II: What a beautiful toilet. Absolutely stunning. is the pistol Gavrilo Princip used to kill Archduke Franz Ferdinand and set off World War I: This pistol led to the deaths of over 16 million people. this is the car Franz Ferdinand was driving in: when people were so inclined to do so, this was one way to board and travel by blimp: camouflage, known as "dazzle camouflage," was extremely popular during World War I: It wasn't used to blend in, but because its "patterns would make it more difficult to figure out the ship's size, speed, distance and direction." probably familiar with the front of King Tut's iconic death mask: this is what the back looks like: World War II, babies in England were fitted with baby-sized gas masks that were comically large: Not baby-sized at all! is a room full of competitors at the 1980 Space Invaders video game world championships: finally, this is apparently an eighth grade test from 1912. Are you passing it? Feel free to describe the heart in the comments. 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Al-Ahram Weekly
17-07-2025
- Politics
- Al-Ahram Weekly
Saving Gaza's heritage
The destruction and safeguarding of Gaza's cultural heritage are the themes of a new exhibition that opened in Paris earlier this month. Announced earlier this year and opening to the public on 3 April, the Trésors sauvés de Gaza (rescued treasures) exhibition at the Institut du Monde arabe in Paris is set to be a must-see event for Paris residents and visitors to the city alike until its closing date in November this year. Arranged across two floors in the Institut's main temporary exhibition spaces, the exhibition not only reminds visitors of the five millennia history of Gaza and the many civilisations that have contributed to it, but also reviews the present threats, chiefly the ongoing war, that have led to many tragic losses of its cultural heritage. Historically important religious and secular buildings, as well as archaeological sites and large and small museum collections, have been partially or totally destroyed by Israeli bombing raids on Gaza since 2023. While some of what has been lost is well known, with bombers destroying both the historic Great Omari Mosque and the Palace of the Pasha (Pasha's Palace Museum) in Gaza City in 2023 and 2024, for example, many less famous archaeological sites and museum collections have also been either partially or completely destroyed. Only the stump of the minaret of the Great Omari Mosque has been left standing today, with the rest of the building, standing on the site of a 5th-century Byzantine church and built in stages during the Ayyubid, Mameluke, and Ottoman periods, now little more than a heap of rubble. The same thing is true of the Palace of the Pasha, originally built by the Mameluke Sultan Zahir Baybars in the 13th-century and used by him on his way to defeat the invading Mongols at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260. The building was later extended by the Ottomans and was slept in by the French general Napoleon Bonaparte during his Palestinian campaign in 1799. It was mostly destroyed by bombing in 2024. Among the less well-known casualties of the war on Gaza also referenced in the exhibition are the Church of Saint Porphyrius in Gaza City, named after the 5th-century Saint Porphyrius, Greek Orthodox Bishop of Gaza from 395 to 420 CE and responsible for the Christianising of Gaza during the late Roman Empire. The Church that bears his name was built by the European Crusaders in 1150 and was largely destroyed by airstrikes in 2023 and 2024. The site of the ancient city of Anthedon, mentioned by the ancient Roman-Jewish historian Josephus and conquered by the Roman general Pompey during his conquest of the region in the first century BCE, is believed to have been destroyed by bombing together with demolition activities and the movement of military vehicles. It was discovered by French archaeologists in 1994 and excavated between 1995 and 2007. The site of the Roman necropolis of Ard al-Moharbeen in Jabaliyya, the largest to have been discovered in Gaza and in use from the 1st century BCE to the 2nd century CE, has reportedly been destroyed. The nearby site of the Monastery of Saint Hilarion, founded in 340 CE by Hilarion, a Christian monk, and excavated from the 1990s onwards, has reportedly been either badly damaged or destroyed, with its exact condition unknown. The site of the Byzantine Church of Jabaliyya, which includes the remains of a 5th-century Christian church with mosaic floors and surrounded by marble columns, has reportedly been mostly destroyed by shelling. The site was discovered in 1996 and subsequently excavated by French and Palestinian excavators. It is considered to be important not only for its surviving mosaics, dating from 732 CE, but also because of the evidence it provides of a flourishing Christian culture in the region under the early Umayyad Caliphate. Among the museum collections damaged or destroyed in the war on Gaza are those of the École biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem (EBAF) in Gaza City, which contained objects excavated in Gaza by Franco-Palestinian teams, and of the Al-Qarara Museum in Khan Yunis, destroyed in October 2023, but with most of the collections apparently safeguarded, the exhibition says. The Rafah Museum has been almost entirely destroyed, but some collections have apparently been safeguarded. The Gaza Archaeological Museum (Al-Mathaf), a private museum established by Palestinian entrepreneur Jawdat Khoudary in 2007, was destroyed in 2023, but its collections have been mostly safeguarded. According to a survey carried out by the UN cultural agency UNESCO using satellite data, some 94 heritage sites in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed since the current war on Gaza began. Five Palestinian sites are registered on the Organisation's World Heritage List as cultural or natural heritage sites considered to be of outstanding universal value and granted international protection under the 1972 World Heritage Convention. These include four sites on the West Bank, Ancient Jericho/Tell es-Sultan (registered in 2023), the Birthplace of Jesus: Church of the Nativity and the Pilgrimage Route, Bethlehem (2012), Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town (2017), and Palestine: Land of Olives and Vines – Cultural Landscape of Southern Jerusalem (2014), and one site in Gaza, the Saint Hilarion Monastery/ Tell Umm Amer. This was registered on the List in 2024 under a fast-track procedure and at the same time was registered on the List of World Heritage in Danger, a subsidiary list of sites under significant threat and benefiting from enhanced monitoring. There are a further 12 Palestinian sites on the World Heritage Tentative List, these being sites that the Palestinian Government intends to present for formal World Heritage listing. Most of these are on the West Bank, but two are in Gaza – the Anthedon Harbour and the Wadi Gaza Coastal Wetlands, a natural heritage site. History and safeguarding: The largely bleak condition of Gaza's cultural heritage is presented in the second part of the Paris exhibition, with photographs showing the extent of the destruction at some of the sites and a 3D film reconstructing how some of them might originally have looked, including the Monastery of Saint Hilarion. In the first part of the exhibition, the exhibition gives visitors an overview of the long history of Gaza, outlining the contributions made to it by the successive civilisations that have ruled the area, from the ancient Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians and Persians and through the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Arab periods, and illustrating these with artefacts taken from Palestinian national collections. As the notes to the exhibition explain, Gaza has always been strategically and geographically important because of its location on the ancient Horus Road connecting Africa and Asia and running from the Sinai to the Levant. Its strategic position between Egypt and Palestine explains its political importance, and its geographical position on trade routes running from Bahrain in the east to Rome in the west explains the importance it has always had for the regional economy. The earliest mentions of Gaza come from ancient Egypt under the rule of the New Kingdom Pharoah Thutmose III (1481-1425 BCE), the exhibition says, when military border posts were set up in the area. Trade flourished between Egypt and the Levant and between Asia and Europe through Gaza's Mediterranean ports. Because of Gaza's economic and geostrategic importance, it became a target for successive conquerors, some of them staying for centuries and leaving significant legacies behind them and others merely passing through on their way to take control of Egypt. The ancient Assyrians arrived in Gaza in 734 BCE as part of their conquest of the region, followed by the Persians in 539 and then Alexander the Great, who laid siege to Gaza in 332 BCE. The Roman general Pompey conquered Gaza in 61 BCE, making it first a Roman and then a Byzantine province, though like the rest of the east of the Roman Empire it retained its Hellenistic colouring. Gaza was conquered by the Arabs in 637 CE along with Egypt and the Levant, and between 1149 and 1187 it was temporarily occupied by the European Crusaders. It later came under Egyptian Mameluke control, before becoming part of the Ottoman Empire in 1516 following the Ottoman conquest of Egypt. In 1917, Gaza was bombarded by British forces fighting the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. It was incorporated into the British Mandate of Palestine after the First World War and saw the arrival of hundreds of thousands of refugees from the rest of Palestine following the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. Some of this long and complex history is illustrated in the exhibition by finds made during archaeological excavations in Gaza that are now the property of the Palestinian Government. As the notes to the exhibition explain, these finds, which include ancient amphora, statuettes, religious items, oil lamps, and mosaics and date from the Bronze Age to the Ottoman period, are being kept for safekeeping at the Geneva Musée d'art et d'histoire (MAH) in Switzerland, a 'museum refuge' for these items pending the establishment of proper museum facilities in Gaza. Some 100 such items from this collection are on show in the Paris exhibition, and they have been complemented by items from the Jawdat Khoudary collection, formerly kept at the Al-Mathaf Museum in Gaza. One such item, fragments of a Byzantine mosaic floor dating from between the 4th and the 6th century CE and discovered at the site of the Saint Hilarion Monastery in Gaza, is on display in the exhibition. Later periods are illustrated by architectural elements and tombstones, notably from early Islamic sites. While the destruction recorded in the second part of the exhibition means that some of the sites from which the pieces in the MAH collection come have now been lost or damaged, one significant emphasis is the work that is being done in Palestine, France, and elsewhere to document the cultural heritage of Gaza and to safeguard as much of it as possible for future generations. The UNESCO survey referenced in the exhibition is part of this documentation work, while organisations such as the Alliance internationale pour la protection du patrimoine dans les zones en conflit (ALIPH – the international alliance for the protection of heritage in conflict zones), a partner of the Institut du Monde arabe exhibition, and the École biblique et archéologique française de Jérusalem, another partner, are also working both to document and to preserve the Gaza heritage, in association with the Musée d'art et d'histoire in Geneva. While the exhibition does not have a catalogue, a useful book of essays in French and English, Gaza: Comment transmettre le patrimoine (Gaza: How to Secure its Heritage), funded by the British Council Cultural Protection Fund and the UK Department for Culture, is on sale at the Institut du Monde arabe. This contains contributions by archaeologists and Palestinian and other heritage professionals, notably within the framework of the Intiqal Gazan youth heritage programme. Trésors sauvés de Gaza – 5000 ans d'histoire, Institut du Monde arabe, Paris, until 2 November. * A version of this article appears in print in the 17 July, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Follow us on: Facebook Instagram Whatsapp Short link:
CNBC
16-07-2025
- Business
- CNBC
CNBC's UK Exchange newsletter: Britain was once known as a ‘nation of shopkeepers.' Now, not so much
England, Napoleon Bonaparte reputedly once said, is a nation of shopkeepers. These days, he might observe that it is more a nation of administrators, insolvency practitioners and restructuring advisors. Barely a day passes without news of another retailer going bust or closing dozens of stores. To take a handful of headlines from the last week: advisors have been appointed to salvage part of Claire's U.K., the British arm of the global accessories chain, which has 281 outlets nationwide; Hamleys, the world famous U.K. toy retailer, has closed 29 stores after shutting 40 in 2023; and Seraphine, the maternity retailer whose customers included the Princess of Wales, has stopped trading altogether. They are just the tip of the iceberg. Poundland, recently offloaded for just £1 by its Polish-listed former parent Pepco to the U.S. investment group Gordon Brothers, is widely expected to close dozens more stores on top of those already announced as its restructuring begins in earnest. Hobbycraft, the arts and crafts retailer, and the Original Factory Shop, a general retailer, are both closing scores of outlets following their acquisition by Modella Capital, the U.K. private equity firm currently in the process of buying the high street arm of WH Smith, the stationery retailer now best known for its outlets in airports around the world. Some of its branches are also likely to shut. The pain is being felt most acutely in fashion retail, reflecting increased competition from online competitors like ASOS and Shein. New Look, which has delighted generations of teenagers and 20-somethings for 55 years, is fighting for its life and earlier this year announced plans to shut 100 outlets, around a quarter of its total, when their leases expire. The even-older River Island — which dates back to 1948 and, in the swinging 1960s, rebranded itself Chelsea Girl as it rode the mini-skirt boom — has also called in advisors to help with a possible restructuring. It currently employs some 5,500 people across more than 250 stores. They follow a long line of well-known U.K. retailers to have closed their doors during the last decade or so — some still soldiering on as online-only brands — including Topshop, Dorothy Perkins, Ted Baker, Thorntons, Carpetright, Paperchase and Debenhams. Others, such as the Body Shop and Wilko, are under new owners, which tends to come with a vastly reduced store estate. The retail sector is not alone in suffering. Hospitality is also afflicted with even established names like Byron Burger, Chipotle, Frankie & Benny's and Papa John's closing sites across the U.K. The most recent casualty was Ping Pong, a popular dim sum chain, which closed for good last week after 20 years in business. There may also soon be closures at Côte, a brasserie chain which once had 100 outlets, whose private equity investors are now seeking new investment. In all, around 17,350 retail sites are expected to shut down this year, with the loss of almost 202,000 jobs, according to the Centre for Retail Research, a data provider. It estimates that, during 2024, some 13,479 stores closed, following 10,494 closures during 2023. To say the trend is accelerating is both accurate and worrying. There are several short-term reasons for this carnage and plenty of long-term ones. The most important of the former is the rise in employers' National Insurance Contributions (NICs), a payroll tax, introduced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves in April this year. However, more damaging than the increase in the rate — which rose from 13.8% to 15% — was a drop in the threshold at which it is paid from £9,100 to £5,000. That has increased the cost of employing people and, in particular, the part-time workers crucial to retail and hospitality. A number of employers have blamed it for both job losses and branch closures. Among them was Bob Wigley, co-owner of Margot, a popular restaurant in London's Covent Garden recently forced to close. Wigley, previously one of the City's best-known investment bankers, posted on LinkedIn that one of the restaurant's managers had told him: "We survived Covid but we can't survive Labour." The government told CNBC that its tax changes were "tough but necessary," and are needed to "protect working people's payslips from higher taxes," and invest in public services. The British Retail Consortium, the main industry body, has estimated that the hike in employers' NICs will cost the retail sector alone some £2.3 billion. Other near-term factors include the recent rise in the minimum wage from £11.44 ($15.38) an hour to £12.21. The age at which it kicks in was also reduced from 23 to 21 — making it more expensive to hire younger workers — while the rate for 18-20-year-olds rose from £9.60 an hour to £10. Wages have also been rising more broadly, following several years of above-average earnings growth across the economy, a result of the U.K.'s tight labor market and the rise in economic inactivity since the pandemic. But as unemployment — and with it, job insecurity — starts to rise, consumers are increasingly eating into their savings or becoming more frugal. The U.K.'s savings ratio, which spiked during the pandemic and remained high afterwards, is now falling for the first time this decade. As Clive Black, head of consumer research at the investment bank Shore Capital and one of the City's most renowned retail-watchers, put it in a recent client note: "U.K. consumers are low on confidence, fed up with broken Britain." Local councils have also pushed up parking charges and introduced so-called "low traffic neighborhoods," making high-street shopping tricky for those who rely on their cars, prompting many bigger operators —the likes of Next and Marks & Spencer — to shift to out-of-town retail parks. But there are also longer-term factors. Business rates — a tax dating back 400 years levied on the "rateable value" of most non-domestic properties such as shops, offices, pubs and warehouses — hit bricks-and-mortar retailers much harder than online retailers like Amazon, which is also blamed for sucking business away from the high street. In its election manifesto last year, the governing Labour Party promised to "level the playing field between the high street and online giants," but its solution — hitting larger properties more heavily to fund lower rates for smaller premises — has alarmed many in the sector, including supermarket multiples like Tesco, Sainsbury's and the Co-op. The government says its business rates system is designed to "protect the high street" and support investment. Regardless, the acceleration in store closures has raised fears that this is a structural downturn, rather than just cyclical. There is some evidence for this. In the past, when an established retailer was forced out of business, other operators stepped in to take its place. A good example is the U.K. arm of Woolworths, the much-loved variety store chain, whose 807 outlets closed — with the loss of 27,000 jobs — in late 2008 and early 2009 at the height of the financial crisis. New tenants were quickly found for many of these as rivals, such as B&M, stepped in to take the sites at a cheaper rent. Many of these, including the likes of Poundland, Poundstretcher and Original Factory Shop are now themselves struggling. However, more recently when a store has closed, it has remained closed, which, added to the exodus to retail parks, has left many high streets with a sense of decay. When a big retail destination closes or moves out, footfall is reduced. Accordingly, a typical British high street, which in the 1980s or 1990s boasted familiar names like Boots, Woolworths and Marks & Spencer, is more likely these days to be home to vape shops, American-style candy stores, tattoo parlors and charity shops (the latter of which benefit from significantly lower business rates). The sense that this is a structural change also reflects a shift in retail property ownership. The big U.K. commercial property players such as Land Securities and British Land, where they have exposure to the retail sector at all, will do so largely via retail parks or shopping centers. The typical high street landlord is more likely these days to be a "mom and pop" operator unable to offer tenants better terms when they run into difficulty. All of this sounds like a perfect storm, yet there is another, less frequently acknowledged factor at play: going into the 21st century, when Amazon began eating the lunch of the old bricks-and-mortar retailers, there were simply too many players. Many retailers will not countenance the idea, but perhaps what we have seen over the last quarter century is simply over-capacity being taken out of the Rachel Reeves faces mounting pressure Investors are looking for clues on how Reeves plans to fill a black hole in the budget as we approach the Autumn Budget, when next year's fiscal plans are announced. UK GDP underperforms on the month — what happens now? The U.K. economy unexpectedly shrank again in May and economists expect growth to slow in the rest of the year amid a weaker jobs market and ongoing economic uncertainty. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon tells Europe 'you're losing' on competitiveness Jamie Dimon last week lamented Europe's lack of competitiveness in comparison to the U.S. and China. Listen in to see what he had to say, and how CNBC's anchors reacted to his an exodus of millionaires, businesses and workers, has London lost its spark? London has taken a bit of a battering lately. CNBC asked analysts whether the city is on downward trajectory, or just experiencing some bumps in the road. The UK's budget gap is widening and markets want to know Reeves' fix. Chancellor Rachel Reeves' Mansion House is a crucial opportunity to signal the steps she will take to inject growth back into the U.K. economy. UK economy contracts again in May, missing expectations for slight rebound. The U.K. economy unexpectedly shrank again in May, data showed Friday, failing to shake off the impact of U.S. tariffs and business uncertainty.U.K. stocks have been strong outperformers over the past week, with the FTSE 100 gaining 1.6%. The index notched a record intraday high above 9,000 points on Tuesday. London-listed companies have been boosted by the fact that the U.K. has already negotiated a trade deal with the White House, while business in the European Union remain mired in uncertainty — and under threat of 30% U.S. duties — heading into earnings season. Further support has come from a decline in sterling, which has dropped 1.5% against the U.S. dollar to $1.339 over the past week, as Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey suggested the central bank would be more forceful with interest rate cuts if the labor market weakens. A weaker pound can be beneficial to FTSE 100 firms, a majority of which derive their revenue overseas. The gilt market has been relatively calm following its recent spell of volatility. The 10-year yield has eased to 4.62% from 4.63% over the past seven days, while the 2-year yield is down to 3.83% from 3.88%.
