Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Shein’s reclusive Chinese billionaire founder has travelled to the UK to meet investors in anticipation of a possible listing of the fast-fashion group on the London stock exchange, according to two people with knowledge of plans.
Sky Xu’s presence underscores Shein’s hope that it will receive the necessary regulatory approvals in China and the UK to move forward with a London listing.
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Xu was accompanied by his finance chief and bankers at one of the meetings, one person with direct knowledge of the discussions said. The talks were focused on Shein’s growth prospects rather than its listing process, they added.
The meetings were informal and not an official investor roadshow, the second person said. They added that if Shein were to get the green light for an IPO in the UK, a listing would be more likely early next year than this year.
The Singapore-based entrepreneur has never given a media interview and speaks patchy English. He will also travel to the US for meetings one of the people said. Meanwhile, US-based executive chair Donald Tang, a former investment banker and media mogul, has become the face and the most visible leader of the company since he joined in 2022.
The Chinese-founded group, valued at $66bn during its latest funding round, has disrupted the garment industry with its model of shipping cheap clothes directly from factories in China to western shoppers. However it has also faced allegations of forced labour in its cotton supply chain and of having lax environmental standards, both of which it denies.
Shein, which is now based in Singapore, is still waiting for Chinese regulators to give approval for it to list overseas, with them having been unhappy with the company’s move to sever its ties with China, where it has the vast majority of its manufacturing and operational staff, according to people familiar with the matter.
Xu, who has changed his English name from Chris to Sky, is so elusive employees joke that they do not recognise him at the office, according to several people who have worked with him in recent years.
He was born in Zibo, a manufacturing city in China’s Shandong province, where his parents were workers in state-owned factories. His mother was a garment worker, a fact that would later help him when he was teaming up with clothing factory workers to establish Shein’s supply chains.
Additional reporting by Ivan Levingston and Emma Dunkley
PLANS for a new hub by Premier Inn hotel are underway and it’s set to be the largest one in the UK to date.
Whitbread, the owner of Premier Inn, has just received planning permission to build the hotel, which will be located at 5 Strand in London.
The 693-room hotel will be a couple of doors down from Charing Cross Station and within sight of Nelson’s Column and Trafalgar Square.
There is currently a partially demolished office block on the site, which is located opposite the Co-Op on the Strand.
The new Premier Inn isn’t the first hotel development to be proposed on the site – it was previously earmarked for a 200-room Park Hyatt Hotel, with a rooftop bar and restaurant.
Instead, it will now become home to the latest London property under Whitbread’s hub by Premier Inn brand.
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hub by Premier Inn is a hotel concept from the company that offers stylish, compact rooms in central locations in London and Edinburgh.
It was launched in 2013 and the first hotel opened in Covent Garden in 2014.
The brand has since grown to 18 hotels across London and Edinburgh.
Other hub by Premier Inn hotels in London are located in Camden, Bank, Clerkenwell, Goodge Street, Kings Cross, Marylebone, Paddington, Shoreditch, Soho, Brick Lane, Tower Bridge, West Brompton, Westmister Abbey, and St James’s Park.
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UK hotel named one of the best budget breaks in the world
Rooms are designed to be comfortable, convenient, and consistent with Premier Inn, but in a smaller package.
They include a touchscreen control panel for lighting and temperature, 40″ smart TVs, high-powered showers, and beds.
Some rooms have windows, but some are window-free.
The new 16,000 sqm development will feature 13 floors including ground floor space fronting onto the Strand and Northumberland Street.
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Mark Anderson, managing director for property and international for Whitbread, said: “Hub by Premier Inn was launched a decade ago in St Martin’s Lane, a few hundred metres from 5 Strand.
“The brand has blossomed into a network of 18 popular hub hotels in Central London and Edinburgh and has become a proven model for bringing our affordable bedrooms into the most central, vibrant, and connected locations for our guests.
“5 Strand is an excellent example of how we think the hub by Premier Inn brand can evolve in Central London. It also shows how we can use Whitbread’s strong balance sheet to acquire the best positioned, most accessible, and high-demand locations in the capital to grow our brands.
“With planning permission now secured we will move quickly to begin construction of the new hotel and deliver a true flagship location for our guests.”
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Whitbread recently announced plans for a 207-room hub by Premier Inn property within a “under-utilised” car parking space under The Brunswick Centre in London’s Bloomsbury.
The group said the hotel’s rooms, reception and communal guest areas will feature “cutting edge lighting technology which provides a natural spectrum of light following the human circadian rhythm”.
‘I stayed at the largest Premier Inn in the UK…this is what I thought’
The Premier Inn hotel is literal steps from the Gatwick shuttle – just take the lift down and cross the road and it is right in front of you.
Celebrating its 10th-anniversary last year, it’s currently undergoing some new room refurbishments.
The hotel is open 24/7, due to its nature as an airport hotel, but has more than 10 self-check-in booths for a speedy rush to your room, although the four very slow lifts leave something to be desired if you are in a rush.
With 701 bedrooms, I ended up in their brand new Premier Plus rooms, found on the ninth ‘quieter’ floor, which was very clean.
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I had great views of the airport, so I could watch some of the planes take off.
There is also a Nespresso coffee machine and kettle with chocolates, a large shower with toiletries and towels and a mini-
There is also a Nespresso coffee machine and kettle with chocolates, a large shower with toiletries and towels and a mini-fridge with complimentary water.
Plus unlike many hotels, they’d placed a USB socket near the bed, so you don’t have to worry if you forget your plug.
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The rooms weren’t perfect – the WiFi didn’t seem to stretch to the top of the hotel – but they are definitely worth the extra £10 for some added luxury.
The hotel is often full so I had to book dinner and breakfast in advance as it gets busy.
But it has a range of classic comfort food options, including burgers, pizza and curries.
I opted for a lasagne, followed by a brownie with a glass of wine.
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They didn’t have everything listed – they were bizarrely out of avocado, French dressing and naans, but there is more than enough to choose from even if your favourite isn’t there.
Like all airport travellers, I was mainly there to get a decent night’s kip and with the black-out curtains and barely any noise seeping through the walls – it passed with flying colours.
A POPULAR cinema chain is set to shutter three sites for good in just days – and more will follow.
Film fans were devastated to hear their local movie theatres were waving goodbye permanently on October 6.
It comes as Cineworld made the tough decision to axe their branches in Glasgow, Bedford, and Swindon.
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Meanwhile, other locations in Bedford, Loughborough, and Yate are also set to close in a matter of weeks.
The sites will shut for good on these exact dates:
Glasgow Parkhead (closing October 6)
Bedford (closing October 6)
Swindon Regent Circus (closing October 6)
Loughborough (closing October 13)
Yate (closing October 13)
It forms part of a major restructuring plan to help the company survive mid troubling times.
A judge recently gave the green light for £16million to be pumped into Cineworld’s four companies which form the business.
The cash came from the business’s parent company, with an extra £35million to also be made available.
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Its four companies. Cine-UK Ltd, Cineworld Cinemas Ltd, Cineworld Cinema Properties Ltd and Cineworld Estates Ltd, will also negotiate leases for each of their 101 sites across the UK.
It comes as the chain is also said to be renegotiating rent agreements for around 50 of its sites.
But, 25 cinemas are set to be unscathed by the restructuring plans and will remain open for the foreseeable future.
A spokesperson for the chain said the plan would enable the business for “the long-term and ensure a sustainable future for Cineworld in the UK.”
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However, news of the five closures has devasted locals in the affected areas.
One cinema-goer in Glasgow Parkhead, where Cineworld is set to close on October 6, described the move as “brutal”.
While another said: “I’ve got so many childhood memories of Parkhead Cineworld! Such a major loss.”
After Bill Clinton’s first official meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu in 1996, he turned to an aide and said: “Who is the fucking superpower here?”
Four US presidents later, nobody would think of posing that question about Israel’s pugilistic prime minister. Netanyahu long ago established what military analysts call “escalation dominance” over whoever sits in the Oval Office — none more so than Joe Biden.
No president more than Biden has wanted to disentangle from the Middle East. Yet none, in the wake of Israel’s latest ground incursion into Lebanon and the spectre of a full-blown war with Iran, is likelier to be defined by the region than him.
“Netanyahu knows how to play the Washington game better than most US politicians,” says Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli diplomat, now columnist for the Haaretz newspaper. “And he has been running rings around Biden.”
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Even by Netanyahu’s standards, however, the current situation has a House of Cards quality to it. With just a month to go before the US presidential election, what happens in the Middle East could change the outcome on November 5.
On Tuesday Iran fired 180 ballistic missiles at Israel in retaliation for the Israel Defense Forces’ killing of Hassan Nasrallah, head of Lebanese militant group Hizbollah, Iran’s largest proxy ally in the region.
Though no Israeli was killed, a number of Iranian rockets made it through Israel’s famed Iron Dome missile defence system. One landed close to an F-35 air base in the Negev desert; another narrowly missed the headquarters of the Israeli spy agency Mossad in Tel Aviv.
In contrast to Israel’s last exchange of salvos with Iran in April, this time Biden officials did not publicly urge restraint on Netanyahu. This is in spite of the fact that an escalation between Iran and Israel could lead to spiralling oil prices, which would instantly depress US consumer sentiment just as voters are going to the polls.
Netanyahu is riding high. He won’t want to do anything to help Harris’s election prospects
On Thursday, Biden admitted he was in discussion with Netanyahu about an Israeli strike on Iran’s oilfields. Iran has in the past signalled that it would retaliate to any such strike with attacks on oil infrastructure in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. The Brent price of oil has already risen from $70 a barrel on Monday to $78 by Friday. A new round of strikes could send it hurtling towards $100.
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Asked about such a prospect, all Biden could do was interrupt himself. “I think that would be a little . . . anyway,” he replied. What Biden may have stopped himself from adding is that such an escalation could badly damage Kamala Harris’s chances of beating Donald Trump next month.
Yet it is Netanyahu, not Biden, who will decide what happens next. Recent history shows that Israel’s prime minister is unlikely to pay heed to whatever restraint Biden is urging on him in private.
“Netanyahu is riding high,” says Marwan al-Muasher, Jordan’s former foreign minister, now at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “He won’t want to do anything to help Harris’s election prospects.”
On Monday, Israel will commemorate the first anniversary of the slaughter of 1,200 Israelis by Hamas terrorists.
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In the wake of that massacre, Netanyahu’s political prospects were all but written off. Israeli intelligence’s failure to pick up the warning signs of a planned Hamas operation and Netanyahu’s diversion of IDF forces from Gaza to the West Bank amounted to Israel’s biggest strategic blunder since Egypt’s Yom Kippur attack on Israel in 1973.
Yet somehow Netanyahu — the Houdini of Israeli politics — has managed to survive and even prosper. The latest Israeli polls show that his Likud party would be the largest if a snap election were held now. A large majority of Israelis are opposed to a two-state solution with Palestinians, which Biden has insisted must be Israel’s end goal. Netanyahu has consistently refused to specify the “day after” political settlement for the Gaza war that Biden has been urging on him.
“We thought Netanyahu had used up his nine lives,” says Paul Salem, vice-president at the Washington-based Middle East Institute, speaking from Lebanon. “It turns out he had several more lives in his back pocket.”
Biden is not the only US figure that Netanyahu has outwitted. In March, Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate majority leader, and the most senior elected Jewish-American in US history, called for fresh Israeli elections and new leadership. “Prime Minister Netanyahu has lost his way by allowing his political survival to take precedence over the best interests of Israel,” Schumer said in a speech on the Senate floor.
We thought Netanyahu had used up his nine lives. It turns out he had several more lives in his back pocket
Two weeks later, Israel widened the war by striking an Iranian diplomatic complex in Damascus, killing 16 people including several senior commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. That led to the first round of direct salvos between Iran and Israel. It also marked the start of Netanyahu’s political revival. In July, Netanyahu gave an address to the joint houses of Congress in Washington. He received 52 standing ovations. Schumer was among those applauding.
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But nothing has done more to boost Netanyahu’s latest resurrection than his pivot from Gaza to Lebanon over the past month. Mossad’s success in detonating thousands of Hizbollah handheld pagers and walkie-talkies changed the narrative.
Though the operation claimed dozens of Lebanese lives — as have Israeli air strikes on Beirut over the past fortnight — its technical virtuosity restored pride to the badly damaged morale of Israel’s intelligence agencies.
Yet again, Netanyahu also wrongfooted the Biden administration. On countless occasions over the past year, Netanyahu has appeared to agree to one thing with Washington and done the opposite in practice. Whether it is wranglings over the terms of a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release, or the more recent attempt at a 21-day ceasefire with Hizbollah, each time Biden is left looking impotent. “The Biden administration seems to be saying, ‘We’re suffering from a bit of autumn damp,’ ” says Pinkas. “No, this isn’t seasonal damp, it’s Netanyahu urinating all over you.”
What happens in the coming days could be fateful for the future of both the Middle East and US politics. At some point Israel will strike back at Iran. The question is whether the Israeli retaliation will qualify as an “escalate to de-escalate” move — as Israel characterised its assault on Hizbollah — or if it will be a full-blown escalation that could trigger a spiralling conflict with Iran.
The chances of an Israeli attempt to topple the Iranian regime cannot be fully discounted. Netanyahu earlier this week sent a message to what he called the “Persian” people in which he said: “When Iran is finally free and — that moment will come a lot sooner than people think — everything will be different. Our two ancient peoples, the Jewish people and the Persian people, will finally be at peace.”
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Last weekend, Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and his former point person on the Middle East, urged the US to back an Israeli attempt at regime change in Iran. “Iran is now fully exposed,” Kushner wrote on social media. “Failing to take full advantage of this opportunity to neutralize the threat is irresponsible.”
But even a more modest Israeli action would entail risks. Jeffrey Feltman, a former regional envoy for Biden, and who led the US State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs in Barack Obama’s administration, says that everything points to further Netanyahu surprises in the coming weeks. “All the indicators are aligning — Israel’s tactical and strategic objectives, Israeli public opinion and Netanyahu’s political survival,” says Feltman.
Tactically, Israel’s strikes on Hizbollah and incursion into southern Lebanon showed the Israeli public that Netanyahu was taking action to enable the roughly 60,000 displaced Israelis to return to their homes in northern Israel.
Strategically, Israel’s operations are rebalancing forces in the wider region by decimating Hizbollah’s leadership and putting Iran on the back foot. This new phase in the post-October 7 war is wildly popular with Israeli public opinion. Finally, the direction of events is saving Netanyahu’s political skin. While he remains prime minister, Netanyahu can avoid a series of criminal charges that are in abeyance. “This is Netanyahu’s get-out-of-jail-free card,” says Feltman.
Among Democrats in Washington, there is rising anguish about Biden’s failure to rein in Netanyahu and what this could mean for Harris’s prospects in a tight election.
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He came to office promising to disentangle America from quagmires in Afghanistan and the Middle East. Like Obama, whose second term ended up being consumed by the war against Isis, he had hoped that his administration would be defined by the pivot to the China challenge in the Indo-Pacific. Biden now risks leaving office with the Middle East on fire and US forces beefed up in the region with 40,000 US troops stationed there, as well as two aircraft carriers. The Middle East could also jeopardise his entire legacy by opening the door to a return of Trump. Yet it is hard to find anyone who believes that Biden will change his act now.
“Nobody can satisfactorily explain to me why Biden has been so passive,” says al-Muasher.
In addition to helping Israel eliminate Hamas, Biden had two aims after October 7. The first was to ensure a day-after plan for the governance of Gaza that would pave the way for a two-state solution. The second was to stop a widening of the war to the region.
The first is all but dead. It is not just Israeli public opinion but the Palestinians as well who have lost faith in the idea of an independent state alongside Israel. The second goal is on the brink of failure, too. And if the turbulence of the last month extends until the election, the chances that Biden’s presidency ends in failure will also rise.
The Government previously told The Sun households eligible for the scheme save around £600 to £700 on their bills each year after having energy-saving measures put in place.
You can find out more on the scheme via the Government’s website.
Entitledto’s free calculator determines whether you qualify for various benefits, tax credit and Universal Credit.
MoneySavingExpert.com and charity StepChange both have benefits tools powered by Entitledto’s data.
You can use Policy in Practice’s calculator to determine which benefits you could receive and how much cash you’ll have left over each month after paying for housing costs.
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Your exact entitlement will only be clear when you make a claim, but calculators can indicate what you might be eligible for.
A £2.5bn merger of two housebuilding firms has been approved, after they allayed fears about the price of new homes in Shropshire and Cheshire.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) had raised concerns that Barratt’s takeover of Redrow could affect the market in Whitchurch and nearby Nantwich.
The companies each have a large development in one of the towns, and have now agreed that remaining homes will be sold by an independent agent.
The merger of Leicestershire-based Barratt and Redrow, whose headquarters are in Flintshire, was announced in August.
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The CMA had said there were no concerns about a monopoly nationally, but feared the deal could lead to higher prices and lower-quality homes for buyers in an area around Whitchurch, including Nantwich, Ellesmere and Market Drayton.
However earlier, it approved the merged firms’ proposal to appoint independent agents Savills to manage sales.
A CMA-approved monitor will also oversee undertakings to maintain Redrow’s build quality and service, on the Kingsbourne site in Nantwich.
Joel Bamford, executive director for mergers at the CMA, wrote that measures put forward by the companies represented “as comprehensive a solution as is reasonable and practicable”.
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One-in-ten jobs could go
The firms expect to fully merge operations within 18 months, with efficiencies and cost savings due after three years.
These could net £90m a year, but with a one-off restructuring cost of about £73m.
Overlapping roles are expected to be cut, which could lead to the loss of about 10% of jobs across the combined business.
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Barratt chief executive David Thomas, said: “With this combination, we have created an exceptional housebuilder in terms of quality, service and sustainability, able to accelerate the delivery of the homes this country needs.
“Our focus now is on integrating our businesses as efficiently and effectively as we can to deliver the expected benefits.”
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