27/07/2025 News

 

27/07/2025 News

Hello everyone. This blog is about news that I find out that happen today, that I find myself pretty interesting, and I will report every so often on the blogs I create. I get news off Google and Bing news when I through my usual daily news check. Keep in mind that most information I may gather may not be true and that I'm just summarizing what I find online off Google and Bing.

Donald Trump gives his view on chances of US-EU trade deal - while on the golf course:

Donald Trump will meet European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for talks on the trading relationship between Europe and the US. Donald Trump has said that the chances of the US working out a new trading relationship with the EU are " 50 - 50 ".

Sky New's Scotland correspondent Connor Gillies asked the US president, what are the chances of a deal between the US and EU trading, while he played golf at his Trump Turnberry resort in Scotland.

Donald Trump will meet later today, at the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for talks about the trading relationship between Europe and the US.

The meeting will come ahead of Mr Trump's so called " Liberation Day " as the tariffs will increase on 1st of August. The EU is currently facing the prospect of US tariffs on more than 70% of its export - 50% of steel and aluminium, 25% on cars and car parts, on top that, as well as a 10% levy on most EU goods, in which Donald Trump has said, he will increase them to 30% on the 1st of August.

Reports suggests that the prime minister will ask the US leader to cut the tariffs for British steel. The trade deal signed between the UK and US earlier this year reduced the car and aerospace tariffs. In May, the White House said that it would exempt the UK from plans for a 25% tariff on global steel imports, but that is yet to be confirmed and the levy has since doubled on all the other countries. During his trip, Donald Trump is also expected to meet Scottish First Minister, John Swinney.

Donald Trump is also on a private five day visit to Scotland, where today and yesterday, he played golf; whilst being surrounded by a huge security operation. Protests organised by the Stop Trump Coalition were held in Edinburgh and Aberdeen, but no demonstrators were seen while he was played golf yesterday.

After some time at his South Ayrshire resort, Donald Trump will head to Aberdeenshire, where he is expected to open a second course his Trump International golf resort in Balmedie.

Heathrow funded group sending 'incredibly misleading' mail to homes across west London, campaigners allege:

Back Heathrow is funded by the airport, and headed by a former minister and member of Labour's policy forum. But the funding is not disclosed on Back Heathrow's newsletter or website.

A campaign group for a third runway at Heathrow that gets funding from the airport has been distributing " incredibly misleading " information to households in west London, according to the opponents of the expansion.

The group, called the " Back Heathrow ", had sent leaflets to people living near the airport, claiming that the expansion could be the route to a " greener " airport and suggesting it would mean only the " cleanest and quietest aircraft " fly there. It comes as the airport prepares to submit its planning application for a third runway ahead of the 31st of July deadline, following the government's statement of support for the expansion.

But who is really behind the " Back Heathrow "? The groups executive director is former Labour minister, Parmjit Dhanda, who was a MP for Gloucester from 2001 to 2010 and sits on the National Policy Forum - the body responsible for developing Labour policy.

The latest accounts for Back Heathrow show it had just five employees, including its two directors in the financial year ending 30th of June, 2024. The second director is John Braggins, a former campaign advisor to Tony Blair. The business had £243,961 in cash, the accounts show.

But what are the group saying? In the newsletter, executive director Mr Dhanda said that people asked if Heathrow is sustainable. When he was answering the question, he appeared to suggest that the airport can dictate what types of plane use Heathrow. He said, " We can build a cleaner, greener and smarter airport - using more sustainable aviation fuel, ensuring only the cleanest and quietest aircraft fly here, reduce stacking in our skies and modernise our airspace to cut emissions in flight. "

When he was asked by Sky News on what Back Heathrow really meant and what the source for the claim was, the organisation was pointed to the airport's traffic light system of noise and emission measurements for the 50 largest airlines serving Heathrow.

" The scheme helps to see what areas certain airlines are excelling in and where the improvements can be made, " a spokesperson said. While one campaigner put his own thoughts into it and said, " But those "cleaner and greener " claims were dismissed as " myths. "

Finlay Asher is an aerospace engineer and co founder of Safe Landing, a group of aviation workers and enthusiasts seeking climate improvements in the industry. He said that the emissions saving from the sustainable aviation fuel ( SAF ) were " highly debatable " - but then he added that even if they were taken at face value, the use of these fuels is still " relatively low" and that it only provides small emissions reductions.

"Air traffic growth at Heathrow will wipe this out, " he said.

Mr Asher also disputed the claim that only the cleanest and quietest aircraft will fly at Heathrow, and that " there is no policy in place which prevents older generation aircraft's from being operated out of any airport, " he said.

As for reducing " stacking " - where aircraft's wait over an airport to land - Mr Asher said if that's the goal, " adding more aircraft to the sky won't make this easier. "

Opposition to Bath Heathrow's claims also came from Rob Barnstone, founding member of the No Third Runway Coalition, which is funded by five local authorities surrounded Heathrow Airport. He said that regardless of fuel efficiencies or even a new quieter engines, having the additional 260,000 flights Heathrow has said will be created with an extra runway - in addition the airport's current cap of 480,000 - which would create an " awful lot of noise. "

"For all the best will in the world, Heathrow is a very, very, very noisy neighbor... When you're adding a quarter of a million additional flights, that's going to create an awful lot of emissions, even if they're using planes that are ever so slightly less environmentally damaging than previous planes," Mr Barnstone said.

As for the " Green Claims, " under the heading of " UK sustainable fuel industry for Heathrow ", Back Heathrow has said " advances in electric and hydrogen powered aircraft can ensure we meet our environmental targets. "

Elaborating on this, Back Heathrow has reported to Sky News: " Zero emission electric and hydrogen aircraft are very much the end goal for civil aviation and countries like Norway have set 2040 as the year that all of their short haul flights will be by electric planes "

The statement was called " incredibly misleading " by Dr Alex Chapman, a senior economist at the left leaning think tank New Economics Foundation ( NEF ).

" There's just absolutely no confidence that those aircraft are going to have any meaningful impact on emissions and commercial aviation in any reasonable time frame. And, yeah, we can all speculate as to what may not happen in 50 years' time. But I think the people living around the airport should be given the information about what's actually realistic. "

" Even if the technology were available, the runway may not be ready for it, " Dr Chapman said.

" Perhaps more importantly, there's been no indication so far that the proposed new runway is being built to cater for those types of aircraft, because a runway that caters to electrical, hydrogen powered aircraft would be very different to one that was for conventional fuel, particularly in terms of the fueling infrastructure around it that would be required: pipes to pipe hydrogen, massive charging power facilities. "

While the work is still under way to develop electric aircraft, there are currently no other commercial electric flights taking place. The best case scenario are battery powered flight that may be suitable for only short journeys. But as a major international airport, more than 40% of Heathrow's flights are long haul and medium haul.

And while airlines such as easyJet have called for government funding to develop hydrogen flying suitable for short haul flights, there are obstacles to making regular commercial flights a reality. Providing enough hydrogen for the plane journeys from renewable sources will be challenging, as will transporting the fuel, and reworking airport infrastructure for hydrogen refueling.

Plans for hydrogen aircraft are at least a decade away, with Airbus saying it wants to get a 100 seat hydrogen plane in the air by 2035 - although Back Heathrow's estimates for a third runway have flights taking off in 2034.

As for now, unfortunately rising emissions from flying are risking the UK's climate targets, according to the independent government advisers of the Climate Change Committee, who found flights contribute more greenhouse gas than the entire electricity supply sector.

Although there have been ideas about " Expanding at ' full capacity ' ". On the first page of the newsletter, Back Heathrow says " Heathrow is at full capacity, " but the company told Sky News the airport has been " operating at 98% capacity since 2005. "

Despite its 98% capacity, Heathrow Airport has broken passenger number records every year for the past 14 years - excluding the pandemic years of 2020 to 2023.

Dr Chapman has said Heathrow is at capacity regarding the government - imposed flight cap, not at the capacity of the current runway infrastructure.

" So if the government were, for example, to lift that cap on the number of aircraft movements, it's pretty likely that they could actually fly 10% to 20% more flights out of the existing infrastructure, " he said.

He then followed it up with, " As aeroplanes have expanded to carry more passengers, the airport has welcomed more people. "

The airport has announced earlier this month that it plans to increase its capacity by 10 million passengers a year, before a third runway is built, and to raise the charge paid by passengers to fund the investment.

Since then, how has the group and the airport responded? A Heathrow spokesperson said; " Back Heathrow represents tens of thousands of local people who want to make their views known on the importance of Heathrow to their communities and the livelihoods today and into the future. "

" We have always been clear that, alongside individual residents, local business groups and trade unions, we provide funding for Back Heathrow to provide a voice for local people who historically have not been heard in the debate about expanding Heathrow. "

Speaking for the campaign group, Mr Dhanda said; " At Back Heathrow we are proud of our link to Heathrow Airport. "

" We have always been open about the fact that we receive support from the airport and that they helped set the organisation up to balance the debate about expansion at a time when the voices of ordinary working people from the diverse communities around Heathrow were not being heard. "

" Back Heathrow also receives support from trade unions, local businesses and residents from among the 100,000 registered supporters it now has, " he added.

" We want an end to the dither and delay. Back Heathrow supporters want to see economic growth and the thousands of new jobs and apprenticeships a new runway will create. "

Stock market today: S&P 500 clears 5th-straight record, Nasdaq hits fresh high as earnings, trade hopes bolster stocks:

As US stocks rose on Friday, pushing the S&P 500 to it's fifth straight record this week and lifting the Nasdaq to a new all time high. Earnings and trade optimism boosted investors sentiment, while Donald Trump - President of U.S. - eased market nerves by downplaying talk of firing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

The S&P 500 ( ^GSPC ) had rose about 0.4%, while the tech heavy Nasdaq Composite ( ^IXIC ) advanced nearly 0.3%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ( ^DJI ) jumped 0.5%. All three of these major gauges rose more than 1% for the week.

Spirits on Wall Street got a lift this week from US - Japan trade pact that boosted optimism for more deals, while blue chip and Big Tech results underpinned a solid start to earnings season. But some on Wall Street are questioning whether " FOMO " - " Fear of missing out " - is driving gains, rather than the fundamentals.

Investors may not be locking in profits ahead of a big week bringing the Fed's two day policy meeting, the monthly US jobs report, and a flood of quarterly results highlighted by Apple (APPL), Meta ( META ), andMicrosoft ( MSFT ). Most of all, it also features the August 1st deadline, as countries are ready to strike trade deals with the US or face its ( reciprocal ) tariff hikes.

As for the pact with Japan, Japan may already be under pressure, as even the US reportedly closes in on a deal with the European Union. Reports suggests that the two sides don't see eye to eye on how to share profits form a $550 billion dollar fund for the US investment planned as part of the deal.

Meanwhile, at home, Donald Trump has downplayed the risk of Powell being ousted as Fed chair, easing market concerns about upheaval at the central bank.

The president visited the Fed's headquarters on Thursday to tour its incredible $2.5 billion US dollars renovation project. During an awkward exchange during the tour, Donald Trump criticized the project as too expensive, sparking some speculation that he might use it as a pretext to try to fire Powell. However, Donald Trump has indicated that he wasn't considering firing the Fed chair.

Those are some news that I found interesting today throughout Bing and Google. I hope over time I should be able to adapt and learn to make these more shorter, summarized and hopefully, more informative. Thank you for reading.