6 d. ago What’s the true cost of Donald Trump? All the crises around the world that we’ve no time to fix | Jonathan Freedland

The US president adores the attention, but while leaders struggle to mitigate the damage he causes, other emergencies are getting worseWe’re all having to master a vocabulary that was once the preserve of specialists. Now everyone needs to know their tariffs from their treasuries, their levies from their yields. But there’s one more term from the realm of economics that urgently needs to enter our lexicon. Given what Donald Trump is doing to the world economy – and the world – we need to talk about opportunity cost.Put simply, opportunity cost is the value of opportunity lost. It’s the benefit you could have had if you had chosen a different path. For an economist, the opportunity cost of the Mars bar you bought is the Twix you didn’t.Jonathan Freedland is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Heathrow bosses were warned of substation power failure risk days before electrical fire shut airport

A quarter of a million passengers were affected by the closure – but Heathrow boss says its command and control system ‘worked exactly right’

Events

2 w. ago Heathrow warned about power supply days before outage caused closure, MPs told

The west London airport was closed to all flights until about 6pm on Friday March 21 .

Events

2 w. ago Heathrow boss to be questioned by MPs over airport’s closure

Chief executive Thomas Woldbye will give evidence to the Transport Select Committee on Wednesday.

Society

2 w. ago Heathrow shutdown: Scottish airports respond over 'lessons' from closure that hit 270k passengers

Edinburgh Airport says it has “robust” power supplies and “well worked through contingency plans”

Events

3 w. ago Aviation watchdog to look at rules on ‘resilience’ after Heathrow closure

CAA said it would consider whether it should take ‘further steps’ under Heathrow’s licence as part of a reviewBritain’s aviation watchdog will review the rules on “resilience” after the closure of Heathrow caused by a blaze at an electricity substation.Europe’s largest airport was closed in the early hours of Friday morning after the blaze at the Hayes substation in west London hit electricity supplies. No planes were allowed to take off or land, causing diversions which affected about 1,300 flights and roughly 250,000 passengers. Some flights resumed on Friday evening. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Aviation watchdog to look at ‘resilience’ rules after Heathrow closure

CAA says it will consider whether to take further steps under Heathrow’s licence as part of reviewBritain’s aviation watchdog will review the rules on “resilience” after Heathrow was closed because of a fire at an electricity substation.Europe’s largest airport was closed in the early hours of Friday last week after the blaze at the Hayes substation in west London hit electricity supplies. No planes were allowed to take off or land, causing diversions which affected about 1,300 flights and roughly 250,000 passengers. Some flights resumed on Friday evening. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Airlines threaten to sue Heathrow if not compensated for airport fire shutdown

The body warns of legal action if airline costs over closure are not ‘amicably settled’

Events

3 w. ago FTSE 100 Live 26 March: Inflation boost ahead of Chancellor statement, Ocado surges

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is set to announce welfare cuts and a boost to defence spending when she delivers a statement to parliament today.

Economics

3 w. ago Heathrow boss to be hauled in front of MPs after fire closure disrupted 200,000 passengers

Chief executive Thomas Woldbye will give evidence to the Transport Select Committee

Events

3 w. ago FTSE 100 Live 26 March: Inflation cheer ahead of Chancellor statement, Vistry halts dividend

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is set to announce welfare cuts and a boost to defence spending when she delivers a statement to parliament today.

Economics

3 w. ago Heathrow closure: ‘Improve UK diversion airports so passengers don’t end up on random Atlantic islands’

Plane Talk: Diverting a plane triggers a multitude of issues

Society

3 w. ago Heathrow Airport closure update: Police issue fresh statement revealing results from probe into cause of the sub

The Met Police has said there appear to be 'no suspicious circumstances' surrounding the fire at an electricity sub-station that led to the closure of Heathrow Airport.

Society

3 w. ago Fire that led to closure of Heathrow no longer considered ‘potentially criminal’

Around 200,000 passengers were disrupted after the airport was closed to all flights on Friday until around 6pm after the fire.

Events

3 w. ago Heathrow shutdown will have an impact on Scotland, warns Parcelhero

Last Friday’s closure of Heathrow Airport disrupted the supply of over £5.43m of goods, says the international delivery expert Parcelhero. It’s impact will be felt in Scotland and internationally.

Events

3 w. ago Service at Heathrow airport returns to normal two days after forced closure

More than a thousand flights were cancelled on Friday after a fire at an electrical substation caused a power cutHeathrow airport has returned to normal business two days after it was forced to close when a fire at an electrical substation caused a power cut.Europe’s busiest airport had more than 1,000 flights cancelled on Friday after the fire at the substation in Hayes, west London. Continue reading...

Society

3 w. ago Flights resume at London Heathrow after a daylong closure sparked travel chaos around the world

Heathrow Airport says it is “fully operational” on Saturday, after an almost daylong closure sparked by an electrical substation fire

Events

3 w. ago Heathrow airport reopens but ‘huge impact’ on travel expected for days – live updates

Planes begin to land at airport but airlines said the closure would continue to have a “huge impact” on passengers in the coming daysHeathrow airport says “flights have resumed at Heathrow following yesterday’s power outage” and the airport is now “fully operational”.It added that and that hundreds of additional staff have been drafted in to help clear the backlog of flights.We can confirm that Heathrow is open and fully operational today. Teams across the airport continue to do everything they can to support passengers impacted by yesterday’s outage at an off-airport power substation.We have hundreds of additional colleagues on hand in our terminals and we have added flights to today’s schedule to facilitate an extra 10,000 passengers travelling through the airport.Given the importance of Heathrow I am surprised that the whole airport had to be shut for a day.I mean, you could understand disruption whilst you change over to alternate systems and so on, but such a complete failure o...

Society

3 w. ago Heathrow Airport's defiant message as flights finally resume following chaotic closure

Heathrow Airport - the busiest airport in Europe after handling nearly 84million passengers in 2024 - was closed for hours on Friday after a blaze knocked out an electricity substation

Society

3 w. ago ‘Colossal failure’: what the papers say about the Heathrow airport shutdown

Chaos at Europe’s busiest airport caused by a substation fire dominates UK front pages on SaturdayThe closure of Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport, due to a fire at a nearby electrical substation dominates the front pages of British newspapers on Saturday, with more than 1,350 flights cancelled and journeys disrupted for hundreds of thousands of passengers.The Guardian splashes with “Chaos and anger as fire shuts Heathrow airport”, above a picture of anxious travellers, and an article that focuses on Downing Street’s reaction: that there are “questions to answer” as to how a power failure could cause such disruption. Continue reading...

Events