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The Campaign for Real Ale has previously said that pubs are being “lost forever to conversion or demolition as developers look to cash in on the desirable locations and unique architecture of pubs and social clubs”.

The British Beer and Pub Association and UKHospitality have also campaigned against pub closures, with both largely blaming tax rises and other costs.

Allen Simpson, chief executive of UKHospitality, said: “The biggest issue facing hospitality businesses is costs like VAT and business rates pushing pubs out of business in the first place.

“Anything that makes it harder to take these important assets away from their communities has to be welcomed, but the government should focus on continuing its strong start on fixing the harm done to hospitality over the past two years.”

In July, the Labour government said pubs, social clubs and live music venues in England will be given a 20% cut to business rates on top of rates relief announced in January.

The NPPF update being published Monday also includes default approval for homes being built around railway stations in England in an attempt to increase housebuilding numbers.

Housing Secretary Angela Rayner said: “By unlocking thousands of homes around well-connected transport hubs, we’re helping people live closer to work, school and the services they rely on, while backing local businesses and driving growth in our communities.”

The update also means that some groups will no longer need to be consulted on housing development plans as part of the process of getting permission.

Under the changes, Sport England will continue to advise on significant cases and the Gardens Trust and Theatres Trust will still be notified of relevant applications.

Labour has set a target to build 1.5 million homes by 2029. According to official data, external, it has so far built 392,000 homes in England since coming into power in July 2024.

Shadow housing secretary Sir James Cleverly said Labour “failing abysmally” to meet their target because of taxes and red tape.

“To try to fix their own mess, Labour are planning a power grab, seizing control from local communities and forcing them to accept development in the wrong areas because Labour won’t build in the right areas,” he added.

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Seeking Alpha’s Disclosure: Past performance is no guarantee of future results. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. Any views or opinions expressed above may not reflect those of Seeking Alpha as a whole. Seeking Alpha is not a licensed securities dealer, broker or US investment adviser or investment bank. Our analysts are third party authors that include both professional investors and individual investors who may not be licensed or certified by any institute or regulatory body.

Apple is preparing to launch a long-awaited second-generation HomePod mini this fall, according to multiple reports, marking the first meaningful hardware update to the compact smart speaker since it debuted nearly six years ago.

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported in his Power On newsletter that both the new HomePod mini and an updated Apple TV 4K are nearly ready for release, with the devices expected to launch alongside the debut of Apple’s redesigned Siri voice assistant, which is set to roll out with the company’s iOS 27 and macOS 27 software updates this fall. According to Gurman’s reporting, Apple has held back the hardware releases specifically to coincide with the AI-enhanced version of Siri, rather than launching the devices independently ahead of the software update.

Apple originally introduced the HomePod mini in October 2020 as a smaller, more affordable alternative to its full-size HomePod speaker. In the nearly six years since, the device’s internal hardware has remained unchanged, with Apple’s only updates to the product coming in the form of additional color options, including blue, orange and yellow variants added after the original launch.

According to a leaked internal build of iOS 26 examined by Macworld, the next-generation HomePod mini is expected to include an S10 chip, the same processor found in current Apple Watch models, which would improve the speaker’s overall performance and wireless connectivity reliability. Separate reporting from BigGo Finance suggested Apple could instead equip the device with either an S9 or S10 chip, alongside a new N1 networking chip that would bring support for Wi-Fi 7, an upgraded version of Bluetooth, and Thread, a wireless protocol commonly used for smart home device communication. Reports have also pointed to a second-generation ultra-wideband chip, which would improve the speed and reliability of device handoff between the HomePod mini and other Apple products, such as iPhones, when placed nearby.

Despite the internal upgrades, most reports suggest the new HomePod mini will retain the same compact, spherical design and 3D mesh fabric exterior that has defined the product since its original release. Rumors have pointed to the possible introduction of new color options, including red and sage green, though it remains unclear which, if any, of those specific colors will make it into the final shipping product.

One significant open question involves whether the new HomePod mini will support Apple Intelligence, the company’s broader suite of AI-powered software features. Because the rumored S9 or S10 chip was originally designed for use in the Apple Watch, a device with more limited processing demands than Apple’s AI ambitions typically require, some reports have raised doubts about whether the chip offers sufficient capability to run the more advanced elements of Apple Intelligence directly on the device.

The HomePod mini refresh forms part of a broader smart home push Apple is reportedly planning for its product lineup. According to multiple reports, Apple is also developing a new smart home hub, sometimes referred to in reporting as “HomePad,” featuring a roughly 7-inch touchscreen display alongside a built-in speaker positioned as comparable in audio quality to the full-size HomePod. That device is expected to include facial recognition capability, proximity sensors and FaceTime support, with a reported price point around $350. Unlike the HomePod mini, the smart home hub is expected to arrive later, sometime between late 2026 and 2027, rather than launching this fall.

Apple’s broader smart home strategy has also reportedly included plans for a HomeKit-compatible security camera with built-in audio monitoring, along with an updated Apple TV 4K expected to feature Apple’s A17 Pro chip. Taken together, the rumored product lineup would represent one of Apple’s most significant pushes yet into the broader smart home market, an area where the company has historically lagged behind competitors including Amazon and Google, both of which have released a wider range of smart speakers, displays, doorbells and security cameras in recent years.

The timeline for these releases has already shifted multiple times. Reports in January 2025 initially pointed to a launch by the end of that year, followed by revised expectations for spring 2026 tied to the redesigned Siri’s original rollout timeline. That software update was subsequently delayed, pushing the hardware release timeline along with it. The most recent reporting now points to an October 2026 launch window, aligning the new HomePod mini’s debut with Apple’s broader fall product cycle alongside new iPhone models.

Pricing for the current HomePod lineup rose earlier this year, with Apple citing the ongoing global memory chip shortage as a factor in the increases. The HomePod mini currently retails for $129, up from its previous price, while the larger second-generation HomePod now costs $349. Apple has not confirmed pricing for the upcoming second-generation HomePod mini, and the company has not officially acknowledged the device’s existence ahead of any formal announcement.

With Apple’s fall product announcements typically arriving in September alongside new iPhone models, industry observers expect further details on the HomePod mini’s specifications, pricing and exact release date to emerge in the coming weeks as Apple’s annual product cycle approaches.

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Ukraine launched one of its largest aerial assaults of the war against Russia overnight into Sunday, firing hundreds of drones at targets across the country, including a major logistics warehouse in the Moscow region, as Russia continued its own bombardment of Ukrainian cities in a war showing no signs of slowing.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces shot down more than 800 Ukrainian drones overnight, describing it as among the largest such attacks it has faced. Russian state news agency TASS called it the largest Ukrainian drone attack since the beginning of the year, with many of the drones aimed at the Moscow region, home to much of the country’s political and economic elite. Andrey Vorobiev, governor of the Moscow region, said air defense forces and electronic warfare units shot down or neutralized 187 drones over the region alone.

At least six people were killed in the attacks. Five people died in Russia’s southern Rostov region, according to that region’s governor, while an 83-year-old man was killed by a separate drone strike elsewhere in the Moscow region, Vorobiev said.

Among the most visible targets was a Wildberries warehouse in the town of Koledino in the Moscow region, part of an extended Ukrainian campaign against the Russian online retailer’s logistics network. Geolocated video showed a large fire engulfing the facility, which the Ukrainian military said covered roughly 250,000 square meters. Ukrainian defense company Fire Point said the strike was carried out using domestically produced FP-1 long-range drones. Vorobiev said no one was injured in that particular strike. A separate fire broke out at a logistics complex in Domodedovo, south of Moscow, according to Ukrainian monitoring channels.

Kyiv has said Wildberries, often described as Russia’s equivalent of Amazon, plays a role in supplying the Russian military, an allegation the company and the Kremlin have denied. Ukraine’s military said Sunday’s strike brought the number of Wildberries’ 10 largest logistics centers it has hit to seven. Wildberries has suffered extensive cumulative damage from the campaign, with estimates cited by Forbes putting combined losses for the company and its sellers at up to 1 trillion rubles, or roughly $11.9 billion, and roughly a third of its total warehouse capacity reportedly destroyed. The company has said it plans to build new warehousing in neighboring Kazakhstan in response.

In the Rostov region, Ukraine’s military said it struck a defense-industrial facility that produces solid rocket propellant used in various Russian weapons systems, part of the broader strike responsible for the five deaths reported there. The Russian Defense Ministry said drones were intercepted over 17 regions in total, concentrated mainly across southern and western Russia.

Russia, meanwhile, continued targeting Ukraine’s capital with a mix of missiles and drones. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said six people were wounded in strikes on Kyiv early Sunday, with a book market among the sites hit. Ballistic missiles also struck Kremenchuk and Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine, Zelensky said, killing two people in Kryvyi Rih and one more in the northern city of Sumy. At a steel factory in Kryvyi Rih operated by ArcelorMittal, 13 employees were injured and one person died, the company said, adding that rescue and search operations remained ongoing.

Ukraine’s air force said it did not shoot down any of the ballistic missiles fired at the country overnight, underscoring what officials have described as a persistent shortage of missile interceptors. Zelensky said Russia fired more than 1,550 attack drones, nearly 1,560 guided aerial bombs and 62 missiles at Ukraine over the past week alone. He called for greater urgency from Ukraine’s Western partners in supplying additional air defense equipment. “European interceptors cannot simply be allowed to sit in storage,” Zelensky said, arguing that lives depend on faster action and that Russia must be stopped.

The war’s reach extended beyond Ukraine’s and Russia’s own borders Sunday. Romania’s Defense Ministry said an unidentified drone was shot down in Romanian airspace after being intercepted by a Spanish F-18 fighter jet pilot flying a NATO air-policing mission. The ministry said radar detected the drone entering Romanian territory from neighboring Moldova, with fragments falling in an uninhabited area between two villages. It marked the fourth drone shot down over Romanian territory so far this year. In July, Romanian F-16 pilots shot down three Russian drones that breached the country’s airspace, the first such interceptions in the more than four years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began.

Sunday’s escalation reflects a broader pattern that has defined the war’s air campaign in recent months, with both sides increasingly targeting infrastructure deep behind the other’s front lines rather than limiting strikes to the immediate battlefield. Ukraine has focused heavily on Russian logistics, energy and industrial targets it says support the country’s war effort, while Russia has continued its long-running campaign of missile and drone strikes against Ukrainian cities, including civilian infrastructure such as the Kyiv book market hit early Sunday.

With no diplomatic resolution in sight and both countries continuing to expand the scale and reach of their respective aerial campaigns, officials on both sides show little indication that the intensity of the conflict is likely to ease in the near term.