Lawrence Farm is located on Moor Lane south of the dual carriageway on the edge of Wincanton

A large Somerset farm near the A303 is to be sold by the council to help finance front-line services throughout the county. Lawrence Farm is located on Moor Lane south of the dual carriageway on the edge of Wincanton, consisting of a farmhouse, associated outbuildings and 75 acres (just over 30 hectares) of land.

Somerset Council agreed in November 2023 to review its existing county farms as part of a broader assessment of its assets, land and property, with a view to disposing of those deemed surplus to requirements and channelling the proceeds into essential services.

The farm will now be marketed in four separate lots – though the council has not disclosed any public estimate of the anticipated sale value.

The farmhouse at Lawrence Farm has stood empty since March, following the council’s negotiations with the former tenant to relinquish their tenancy.

The farm buildings and surrounding land are presently managed under a separate six-month tenancy arrangement, which is due to expire at the end of September.

The farm is flanked by Brains Farm to the east, a solar farm to the south and Wessex Water’s waste water treatment plant to the west, with the River Cale running through a considerable portion of the land.

The farm will be marketed in four distinct lots, with an uplift clause in place to ensure the council benefits from any increase in value should the land subsequently be developed.

David Ashton, one of the council’s property officers, said in his written report: “Our estates team has halted submitting a planning application to convert the farm buildings for residential use, due to flood risk issues that have arisen and the associated lengthy delay and risk of refusal.

“The asset will be disposed of via the open market, in various lots, with the appropriate covenants and/or uplift in place.”

Under ordinary circumstances, revenue generated from the sale of land, property or other assets – known as capital receipts – cannot be directed towards day-to-day expenditure on front-line services.

However, the council was granted approval in February by central government – for the third consecutive year – to use proceeds from asset sales for this purpose, as well as to finance its ongoing transformation programme.

The council has declined to disclose the anticipated proceeds from the farm sale, citing commercial sensitivity.

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Shares of Blue Dart Express surged 6.77% to Rs 5,509.50 in Monday’s trading session after the logistics major reported a strong Q1FY27 performance. Brokerage firm Nuvama retained its ‘Buy’ rating on the stock, citing strong execution and growth prospects.

The company’s consolidated net profit jumped 79.6% year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 88 crore in Q1FY27, compared with Rs 49 crore in the corresponding quarter last year. Revenue from operations increased 15.1% YoY to Rs 1,658 crore, from Rs 1,441 crore in Q1FY26.

The strong quarterly performance was supported by higher revenue traction, improved operational efficiency, and expansion in operating margins. Blue Dart’s EBITDA margin improved significantly, reflecting better cost management and disciplined execution despite a challenging business environment.

Commenting on the results, Balfour Manuel, Managing Director, Blue Dart, said, “Our Q1FY27 performance reflects focused execution, disciplined network management and continued customer confidence in the Blue Dart brand. Despite a challenging operating environment and higher operating costs, we delivered strong profit growth while maintaining our commitment to reliability, speed and service excellence.”

He added that the company remains focused on enhancing productivity, strengthening its integrated air and ground network, accelerating digital adoption, and investing in sustainable capabilities to create long-term value for stakeholders.

Nuvama remains bullish, raises valuation outlook

Brokerage firm Nuvama maintained its ‘Buy’ rating on Blue Dart Express, citing strong quarterly execution and the company’s positioning in the growing e-commerce logistics segment.
According to Nuvama Research, Blue Dart delivered a robust Q1FY27 performance, with revenue growth of 15% YoY, ahead of estimates. The brokerage highlighted that EBITDA margin expanded by 220 basis points YoY to 15.8%, while profit before tax (PBT) margin improved to 7.2% from 4.6% a year ago, reaching the company’s guided medium-term range of 7–8%.
The brokerage noted that profit after tax (PAT) surged 81% YoY to Rs 88.5 crore, significantly exceeding its estimates and consensus expectations. Following the strong quarter, Nuvama raised its FY27E and FY28E earnings per share (EPS) estimates by 4% and 2%, respectively.
Nuvama has retained its ‘Buy’ recommendation, valuing Blue Dart at 38x June 2028 earnings, and revised its June 2027 target price to Rs 7,350 from the earlier Rs 6,900.

The brokerage believes Blue Dart is well positioned to benefit from the ongoing consolidation in the e-commerce parcel market, which contributed around 30–31% of revenue in FY26. At the current market price, the stock trades at approximately 28x FY28E earnings.

With improving margins, sustained revenue growth, and a strong logistics network, Blue Dart remains a key beneficiary of India’s expanding express delivery and e-commerce ecosystem.

(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)

Air travel across the Middle East continues gradually stabilizing more than five months after the outbreak of the U.S.-Iran conflict severely disrupted one of the world’s busiest aviation corridors, though several major hubs remain constrained by damaged infrastructure, safety advisories and ongoing regional hostilities.

The Iran war triggered widespread airspace closures beginning Feb. 28, when U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran plunged the region into conflict, grounding tens of thousands of flights and severing key global transit hubs connecting Europe, Asia, Africa and North America. According to travel platform Wego, the resulting grounding of flights and temporary isolation of mega-hubs like Dubai and Doha represented the most disruptive systemic shock to global aviation since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Several major hubs are now operating close to normal levels. The United Arab Emirates, home to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, is described as fully open, according to Wego’s most recent assessment. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman are all described as largely open, though each continues to carry some operational caveats depending on the specific airport and airline involved. Dubai International Airport is running flights across all three of its terminals, and Qatar Airways confirmed earlier this summer that it had restored flights to 85% of its pre-crisis schedule levels.

Kuwait represents the clearest ongoing exception to that broader recovery. Kuwait’s main airport remains not fully operational, according to Newsweek’s assessment of the current situation, with key infrastructure still damaged and some terminals remaining closed. Foreign airlines continue to face restrictions at the airport, and while portions of Kuwaiti airspace have reopened, international routes into and out of the country remain limited compared with pre-conflict levels. Terminal 1, the airport’s primary international facility, has remained closed since suffering significant structural damage, including a partial roof collapse, during a strike in early June, with Kuwait Airways and Jazeera Airways instead operating out of Terminals 4 and 5.

Even in airspace that is technically classified as open, aviation safety advisories tied to earlier missile, drone or military activity continue to shape how airlines operate throughout much of the region. Regulators and airlines have continued flagging elevated risk across Iran, Iraq and broader Gulf airspace, according to aviation safety tracking service safefly.aero, with some carriers selectively avoiding certain flight paths or reducing service frequencies even where no formal airspace closure remains in place.

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency has maintained some of the most cautious guidance among international regulators. EASA’s Conflict Zone Information Bulletin, most recently extended through Aug. 31, instructs EASA-regulated airlines to avoid flying within the airspace of the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar at any altitude, along with a defined portion of the Gulf of Oman, citing continued risk tied to missile, drone and combat aircraft activity linked to the region’s unstable security situation. That advisory has led numerous major international carriers, including British Airways, Singapore Airlines, Air Canada and members of the Lufthansa Group, to extend their own suspensions of Middle East routes well into the autumn, even as UAE-based carriers such as Emirates, Etihad Airways and flydubai continue operating the substantial majority of their networks.

Other pockets of restriction persist across the broader region as well. Four airports in southern Saudi Arabia were closed by NOTAM earlier this summer after a Houthi missile and drone attack, part of a broader pattern of intermittent strikes and closures that has continued affecting specific airports even as most of the region’s major hubs have returned to largely normal operations. Air traffic routing through the middle of the Gulf has also remained complicated by Kuwait’s ongoing limitations, forcing many international operators to route flights around the country via either a southern corridor through Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Oman, or a more northerly path, according to aviation monitoring group OPSGROUP.

Airlines have continued a gradual, staggered process of restoring previously suspended routes throughout the summer. British Airways resumed flights to Dubai and Doha beginning July 1, while Gulf Air has steadily rebuilt its network following Bahrain’s airspace reopening, restoring service to cities including London, Dubai, Istanbul and Riyadh, with additional routes continuing to phase in through the summer months. Iraqi Airways has similarly resumed both domestic and international operations as part of a broader phased return to service across the region’s national carriers.

Given how frequently conditions have continued shifting throughout the conflict, travel monitoring services consistently advise passengers to verify their specific flight status directly with their airline before heading to the airport, rather than relying solely on general regional status updates, given how quickly individual route restrictions, terminal closures and safety advisories have continued changing across different countries and airlines throughout the ongoing conflict.

With Kuwait’s main airport still working through infrastructure repairs and several international regulators maintaining cautious advisories through the end of August, the broader Middle East aviation sector appears likely to continue its gradual, uneven recovery in the weeks ahead, even as the region’s largest hubs in Dubai, Doha and Abu Dhabi have largely returned to something closer to their pre-conflict operating tempo.

A minor earthquake shook the city of Hawthorne, California, on Sunday evening, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, though no damage or injuries were reported in connection with the tremor.

The magnitude 2.6 quake struck at 8:30 p.m. local time, with its epicenter located less than a mile from the neighboring communities of Gardena, Inglewood and Westmont, all situated within the greater Los Angeles area. Seismologists recorded the earthquake’s origin at a depth of 6.5 miles below the surface, according to USGS data.

Earthquakes of this magnitude are common across Southern California, a region crossed by numerous active fault systems, including segments of the broader San Andreas Fault network that runs through much of the state. The USGS estimates that Southern California experiences thousands of earthquakes each year, though the vast majority are too small to be felt by residents without sensitive seismic instruments. Quakes in the magnitude 2.5 to 3.0 range, like Sunday’s tremor near Hawthorne, are generally on the threshold of what a person standing near the epicenter might notice, often described as a brief jolt or vibration rather than significant shaking.

Hawthorne and the surrounding South Bay area of Los Angeles County have experienced similar small earthquakes in the past without resulting in damage. The USGS operates a real-time earthquake monitoring system that tracks seismic activity across the country, publishing data within minutes of a quake’s occurrence and inviting residents who felt shaking to submit reports through its “Did You Feel It?” online tool, which helps researchers map the extent and intensity of ground motion associated with a given event.

Sunday’s earthquake was one of several recorded across California in recent days, part of the routine background seismicity that characterizes the state. In the weeks prior, the USGS logged a magnitude 4.3 earthquake near California City on July 13 and a magnitude 4.1 quake near Frazier Park on July 12, both considerably stronger than Sunday’s Hawthorne tremor but still within the range of earthquakes that typically cause little to no damage. Larger, more damaging earthquakes in the magnitude 5.5 and above range remain comparatively rare events, though seismologists have long cautioned that Southern California remains overdue for a major rupture along sections of the San Andreas Fault, based on historical recurrence intervals.

No tsunami warning was issued in connection with Sunday’s earthquake, and the USGS did not report any immediate aftershock activity following the initial tremor. Local emergency services in Hawthorne and the surrounding communities did not report receiving calls related to damage or injuries stemming from the quake.

Residents throughout the greater Los Angeles area are routinely encouraged by California emergency management officials to maintain basic earthquake preparedness measures, including securing heavy furniture, keeping emergency supplies on hand, and staying familiar with the standard “drop, cover and hold on” response recommended during shaking, given the region’s ongoing exposure to both minor and, less frequently, more significant seismic activity.

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