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☆ The real reason Americans call it 'soccer' is all England's fault
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( Tony Manfred | Alan Dawson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The word "soccer" comes from the use of the term "association football" in Britain, and goes back 200 years. "Association football" became "soccer." "Association football" became "soccer" in America, and what was called "gridiron" in Britain became simply "football" in America. Photo by Getty ImagesThe interesting thing here is that Brits still used "soccer" regularly for a huge chunk of the 20th century. Most British people stopped saying "soccer" because of its American connotations, however, UK broadcaster Sky Sports still used it to brand wildly-popular TV shows "Soccer Saturday" and "Soccer A.M."So, no, it's not wrong to call it "soccer" if you're American.

When the United States' national men's team faces England at the Qatar World Cup later on Friday, one thing will be missing: medieval knights. Soccer’s governing body FIFA has told English soccer fans to ditch imitation chain mail, shields and swords or miss the game, according to the Times of London. England fans have worn similar outfits at previous tournaments while watching other sports. Press photos and social media footage show that England fans wearing Crusader gear were allowed into the stadium to watch their team's match against Iran. "As soon as you know anything about crusading history, you know it would produce a reaction like this in the Islamic world," he said.

☆ Qatar World Cup bans English soccer fans from dressing as medieval Crusaders
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( Patrick Smith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

England fans pose for a picture with English footballer Trevor Sinclair at 4TheFans Fan Park ahead of the match. When the United States' national men's team faces England at the Qatar World Cup later on Friday, one thing will be missing: medieval knights. Soccer's governing body FIFA has told English soccer fans to ditch imitation chain mail, shields and swords or miss the game, according to the Times of London. England fans have worn similar outfits at previous tournaments while watching other sports. Press photos and social media footage show that England fans wearing Crusader gear were allowed into the stadium to watch their team's match against Iran.

Sunak told business leaders at a Confederation of British Industry (CBI) conference he was "unequivocal" that Britain should pursue its own agenda on regulation and migration. "On trade, let me be unequivocal about this: under my leadership, the United Kingdom will not pursue any relationship with Europe that relies on alignment with EU laws," Sunak said. [1/3] British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks during the Confederation of Biritish Industry (CBI) conference in Birmingham, Britain November 21, 2022. And having the regulatory freedom to do that is an important opportunity of Brexit," Sunak said. "Let's have economic migration in areas where we aren't going to get the people and skills at home anytime soon.

☆ Brits face sharpest fall in living standards on record as government tightens its belt
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Elliot Smith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON — As the U.K. government announces a £55 billion ($65.5 billion) program of tax hikes and spending cuts, the country faces its sharpest fall in living standards since records began. The cumulative decline of 7.1% between 2021-22 and 2023-24 would reduce RHDI to its lowest point since 2013-14, erasing eight years of growth. Average household income per head is only expected to recover its 2018-19 level in 2027-28. Unemployment is also expected to rise by 505,000 from 3.5% to peak at 4.9% in the third quarter of 2024. The OBR projected that real wages will fall by 1.8% in 2022 and 2.2% in 2023 before recovering to grow by an average of 1.3% per year thereafter.

☆ The UK has laid out a $65 billion package of tax rises and spending cuts to restore faith after political upheaval and a market storm
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( George Glover | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The UK's finance minister Jeremy Hunt has laid out a £55 billion package of tax rises and spending cuts. The government wants to restore credibility after a prior tax plan drove the pound to an all-time low. The fiscal plan will be divided roughly equally between tax rises and spending cuts, Hunt said. That goes contrary to the tax plan laid out by former finance minister Kwasi Kwarteng, which called for huge tax cuts. Read more: UK inflation tops 11% to hit its highest level since 1981 as food and energy prices soar

☆ UK inflation tops 11% to hit its highest level since 1981 as food and energy prices soar
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( George Glover | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

UK inflation jumped to a fresh four-decade high of 11.1% in October, from 10.1% the month before. The Bank of England has hiked interest rates to their highest since 2008 to try to cool inflation. Consumer prices were up 11.1% on the level a year ago — the highest rate of inflation since October 1981, the Office of National Statistics said Wednesday. The UK central bank has now raised rates eight times since February to reach 3%, the highest level since the 2008 financial crisis. Read more: Bank of England hikes interest rates by an outsized 75 basis points for the first time in over 30 years

☆ It may be one of the last countries to let travelers in — and it's not China
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Lee Ying Shan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Mark Edward Harris | Getty Images News | Getty ImagesFurthermore, North Korea's reopening depends on two countries — China and Russia. Mark Edward Harris | Getty Images News | Getty ImagesBeard agreed, saying travelers still send requests to visit North Korea. North Korea's tourism revenue rose around 400% between 2014 and 2019, according to the North Korea analysis database 38 North. "Our guess is that the DPRK will be one of the last countries to let travelers in," said Vega. Travel brochures promoting North Korea, Tibet and China at a stand at the CMT travel trade fair in January 2020.

☆ Advertisers crack jokes about the end times and turnip lattes as inflation bites
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Julia Horowitz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

London CNN Business —A woman maneuvers her car onto a street called “Wits’ End.” The sky is an ominous red, and strange things are happening. “Every advertiser is aware the customers they’re talking to are feeling cost of living pressures,” said Matt Bourn, director of communications for the Advertising Association, a UK industry group. In a recent Dunelm ad, a woman aims to cozy up her home after navigating a topsy-turvy drive up a street called Wits' End. “We are seeing brands who want to make sure they’re keeping consumers during this time,” said Jeanine Poggi, editor of Ad Age. Jason Alden/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesBut companies will be expected to display an awareness about the pervading economic anxiety that’s affecting their customers.

☆ Guy Fawkes Night: What those fireworks and bonfires are all about
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-05 | by ( Francesca Street | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

CNN —Every year on November 5, skies across England, Scotland and Wales are illuminated by fireworks as Brits head out into the night to enjoy Guy Fawkes Night celebrations. Also called Fireworks Night or Bonfire Night, this autumn tradition has been a staple of the British calendar for the past 400 years. A photograph from 1955, depicting children at a school in Surrey, England, preparing the Guy Fawkes Night bonfire. What’s Guy Fawkes Night like today? Lewes Bonfire Night celebrationsEffigies of former UK prime minister Boris Johnson and fellow UK Conservative politician Jacob Rees-Mogg are paraded through the streets of Lewes during traditional Bonfire Night celebrations in 2019.

Persons: Guy Fawkes, Guido Fawkes, Fawkes, Tudor King Henry VIII, Robert Catesby, Catesby, King James I, James Sharpe, Sharpe, ”, What’s Guy Fawkes, Ronald Hutton, ” Hutton, Hutton, That’s, you’re, Boris Johnson, Jacob Rees, Mogg, Peter Summers, it’s, that’s, “ They’re, Donald Trump, “, Mary, Phil Clarke Hill, Ottery, Mary’s, Patrick Kinsella, parkin, there’s, –, Alexandra, Chris J Ratcliffe, Hallows, Halloween’s, you’ll Organizations: CNN, Getty, Catholic, of, London, University of York, CNN Travel, Conservative, Lewes, Lewes Bonfire Society, Alexandra Palace, Celtic, Battersea Power Locations: England, Scotland, Wales, of England, Surrey, Britain, Lewes, Zulu, Lewes . The, spectate, Ottery St Mary, Devon, Ottery, North America, In Yorkshire, Lancashire, Yorkshire, London, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, York, South, Battersea

☆ Rishi Sunak and the Rise of the ‘Short King’
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Jacob Gallagher | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

With inflation rising and energy prices climbing, Brits certainly have a lot on their mind. Yet for some in the Commonwealth the topic of conversation last week was not their wallets, but the stature of their new prime minister, Rishi Sunak . “Rishi Sunak has not addressed the public because he is simply too short to see over the lectern,” offered one tweet. “Rishi Sunak really showing 2022 is the year for Short Kings,” read a softer missive. (“Short king” is internet slang for a not-quite-towering individual who nonetheless exudes confidence.)

☆ Brits are stocking up on air fryers and electric blankets as energy bills skyrocket
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Anna Cooban | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

London CNN Business —Shoppers in the United Kingdom are snapping up energy-saving air fryers, electric blankets and slow cookers this winter as their fuel bills soar. Sales of hot air fryers were up 286% in September compared to the same month last year, according to market research company GfK. The portable appliance typically uses less energy than a conventional oven because air fryers are smaller and heat up more quickly. “People are monitoring their energy usage to a minute level.”Sales of electric cooking pots, which includes pressure cookers and slow cookers, were also up 79% in the year to September. Brits are also preparing to wrap up for colder weather ahead by stocking up on electric blankets.

Although it is clearly a historic achievement, we should not be fooled into thinking this is a milestone for the U.K.’s minority communities. Sunak, and the ruling Conservative Party he now heads, have been no champions of minority communities like mine. Sunak pointed to his pride in being an immigrant in such a country of opportunity in an early campaign video. Yet it is people of color who make up much of the working-class population that Sunak avoids associating with. Although politicians like Sunak come from immigrant communities, their policies have been to those communities’ detriment.

☆ A vacation that promised to save Brits more than $200 on their bills sold out in 24 hours A vacation that promised to save Brits more than $200 on their bills sold out in 24 hours
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Anna Cooban | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

London CNN Business —A winter vacation package that claimed it could save Brits more than £200 ($229) on their soaring bills for rent, food and fuel sold out within 24 hours this week. EasyJet (ESYJY) holidays, owned by low-cost British airline EasyJet (ESYJY), launched its 28-day “Escape the UK” vacation package to Hurghada, Egypt, on Monday, pitching it to consumers who work remotely. Brits are also struggling to keep the lights on as their energy bills have soared. But Brits who’ve booked onto the vacation package won’t necessarily save money, Sarah Coles, personal finance analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, told CNN Business. Coles added that household energy bills include a standing charge, which must be paid even if no energy is used.

☆ New UK PM Rishi Sunak is a child of privilege, married into almost $1 billion in tech money, and takes over a country struggling to afford heating
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Mia Jankowicz | Yoonji Han | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

Rishi Sunak will soon become the new prime minister of the UK. It's a union that made Sunak the first frontline UK politician to enter The Sunday Times' annual wealth listing. Sunak and his wife, Akshata Murthy, celebrating the British Asian Trust at the British Museum on February 2022. But despite his attempts to portray a down-to-earth image, the British public has had numerous reminders that Sunak has a very different experience with money than most people. His supporters, including British chancellor Jeremy Hunt, argue that Sunak's experience in finance and at the treasury make him the right man for the job.

☆ Breakingviews: Delusions of grandeur are root of Britain’s chaos
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Hugo Dixon | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

The immediate cause of the chaos Truss unleashed was her failure to heed the advice of her hero Margaret Thatcher. Truss might have got away with large tax cuts and a big increase in spending if central banks were still flooding the global economy with cheap money. Its supporters maintained leaving the EU would put rocket boosters under the UK economy. But delusions of grandeur meant this global phenomenon played out in the UK in a specific way. BRITAIN’S MANY STRENGTHSObservers such as former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers have described Britain as a bit like an emerging market.

☆ Delusions of grandeur are root of Britain’s chaos
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Hugo Dixon | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

☆ UK inflation moves back up to 40-year high as Brits battle cost-of-living crisis
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-19 | by ( Hannah Ward-Glenton | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The Office for National Statistics announced inflation figures Wednesday as the U.K. undergoes a historic cost-of-living crisis and political turmoil. The figure for September matches the 40-year high British inflation reached in July. The rate rose in the year to September 2022 as the country's cost-of-living crisis continues to hammer households and businesses ahead of a tough winter. Inflation unexpectedly dipped to 9.9% in August, down from 10.1% in July, on the back of a fuel price decline. September's inflation rate highlights the severity of the U.K.'s inflation crisis, and comes as the country weathers a period of economic volatility.

☆ The last shots of the American Civil War were fired in Russian territory
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Blake Stilwell | We Are The Mighty | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

During the US Civil War, Union and Confederate ships fought naval battles all over the world. She took 38 prizes and more than 1,000 prisoners, some of them joining the Confederate ship. From there, Shenandoah terrorized American ships in sea lanes around the Cape of Good Hope, through the Pacific, and into the Bering Sea off Alaska. Even after the Civil War was over, Shenandoah continued her Pacific rampage. The skipper just didn't believe Lee's surrender ended the war, even when American whaling captains told him so.

☆ Strikes, possible blackouts and a plunging currency: Brits are being hit by a wave of bad news
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-13 | by ( Elliot Smith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

'The recession has begun' The U.K. is the only G-7 economy not to have re-attained its pre-pandemic GDP level by the second quarter of 2022, Citibank Chief U.K. The ONS said GDP was only just returning to its pre-pandemic level, highlighting the challenge facing Prime Minister Liz Truss' "growth, growth, growth" agenda. "We now believe the recession in the U.K. has begun in the third quarter of 2022 and will likely last for three quarters. "The cost of living crisis is having a detrimental effect on individuals, not only financially, but physically and mentally too." Members of the CWU (Communication Workers Union) also continue to strike, including 115,000 postal employees of former state monopoly Royal Mail.

☆ Markets won’t go back to normal until the Fed stops hiking rates
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

What’s happening: Markets and the Federal Reserve have conflicting temperaments, said Blinder. Markets are capricious while the Fed remains calm. Markets on average, said Blinder, overreact to inflation-related data by a factor of three to 10 times more than they should. The central bank announced Monday that it would provide extra support to UK markets, beefing up its efforts to ensure financial stability, reports my colleague Julia Horowitz. The research is especially relevant today as rapid interest rate hikes to combat inflation have sent markets into turmoil, drawing comparisons to 2008.

☆ Air fryers, blankets and warm clothes: Brits stock up ahead of tough winter
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( Jenni Reid | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesLONDON — U.K. retail sales rose in September, data published Tuesday showed — but the details highlighted the multitude of challenges facing the public heading into the winter months. And consumers eschewed big purchases like computers, TVs and furniture, instead boosting sales of items like blankets, warm clothing and energy-efficient household appliances, such as air fryers. watch nowDickinson said the retail sales data showed households were preparing themselves for the higher energy prices. A survey by consultancy GFK showed U.K. consumer confidence dropped to the lowest level since it began readings in 1974 for the fourth time in a row in September. Figures also published Tuesday showed U.K. unemployment fell to 3.5% in the period from June to August, and the number of unemployed people per job vacancy was at a record low of 0.9.

☆ UK consumer spending lags far behind inflation, BRC and Barclaycard surveys show
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-10 | by ( Andy Bruce | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LONDON, Oct 11 (Reuters) - British consumer spending grew last month at a rate that lagged behind inflation by a long way, according to surveys on Tuesday that underlined the risk of recession as the cost-of-living crisis rumbles on. Barclaycard said spending on its credit and debit cards rose 1.8% year-on-year in September, the weakest reading since February 2021 and far behind the annual 9.9% increase in consumer prices in August. Nine out of ten people surveyed by Barclaycard from Sept. 23-26 said they were concerned by rising household energy bills. "While UK retail sales grew in September, this represented another month of falling sales volumes given high levels of inflation," said Helen Dickinson, the BRC's chief executive. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterReporting by Andy Bruce; editing by David MillikenOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ UK mortgage rates are soaring: Here's what you need to know as a first-time buyer
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-10 | by ( Sophie Kiderlin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Uncertainty around the U.K. housing and mortgage market has spread among first-time buyers. Unfortunately, a number of other factors are simultaneously making their lives harder: namely, inflation, interest rates and mortgage market disruption," he told CNBC Make It. However, what they have saved on SDLT [stamp duty] will likely be eaten up on higher mortgage rates pretty quickly," he said. So, what about mortgage rates? This could go up even further, Nicholas Mendes, a technical mortgage manager at mortgage broker and advisor John Charcol, believes.

☆ What do tax cuts and market chaos mean for young Brits? 3 experts give their advice
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-03 | by ( Sophie Kiderlin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

His plan includes widespread tax cuts, fewer rules and regulations for businesses and the removal of a cap on bonuses for bankers. Google searches like "do the tax cuts help me" skyrocketed, while outrage was rife on social media. Do the tax cuts equal more cash in hand? The majority of first-time buyers fall below this threshold and therefore won't benefit from the cuts, Jobson said. "The change mainly benefits high-earning first-time buyers and those with sufficient backing from the bank of mum and dad," he added.

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