How many migrants are there, in UK, living in hotels payed by the government?

 

As of mid-2024, the UK government has been housing approximately 50,000 to 60,000 asylum seekers and migrants in hotels at taxpayer expense, according to official reports and audits. Here’s a detailed breakdown:

Key Statistics

1. Current Numbers:

   • 50,000+ asylum seekers were housed in hotels as of early 2024 (UK Home Office data).

   • An additional 3,000–5,000 vulnerable migrants (including unaccompanied minors or victims of trafficking) may also be accommodated in hotels or similar facilities.

2. Cost to Taxpayers:

   • The UK spends £8–10 million per day (over £3 billion annually) on hotel accommodations for migrants, a figure criticized for being unsustainable.

   • Hotels charge the government £120–150 per person per night, far higher than standard social housing costs.

3. Reasons for Hotel Use:

   • Backlog in Asylum Processing: Over 138,000 pending asylum cases (as of 2023) strain the system.

   • Lack of Alternative Housing: Local councils face shortages of social housing.

   • Barge and Shelter Controversies: The government has tried (and often failed) to move migrants to barges (e.g., Bibby Stockholm) or military bases to cut costs.

4. Nationalities:

   • Top countries of origin include Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Eritrea, with many arriving via small boats across the English Channel.

Government Plans to Reduce Reliance on Hotels

• Rwanda Deportation Scheme: A stalled policy aimed to deter Channel crossings by relocating some asylum seekers to Rwanda. Legal challenges have delayed implementation.

• Expanded Detention and "Returns": Increased raids and detention centers to deport failed asylum seekers.

• Cheaper Accommodation: Proposals to use disused holiday parks, student halls, or modular housing.

Controversies

• Local Opposition: Communities near migrant hotels often protest, citing strained resources.

• Human Rights Concerns: NGOs criticize overcrowding and poor conditions in some facilities.

Sources

• UK Home Office reports (2023–2024).

• National Audit Office (NAO) cost analyses.

• BBC, The Guardian, and The Telegraph coverage.

From DeepSeek

The Ukrainian teens who took on Putin's gulag archipelago — and won

 

As the sky began to darken, Vladyslav Rudenko slid a pair of underwear into his hoodie and pretended to go for a walk. The 16-year-old Ukrainian boy had to hurry. He only had a slim window of time before the lanterns lit up the campgrounds of the reeducation camp, potentially exposing him to the Russian counselors. 

He left his dorm alone around 6 p.m. and wound through the campus enclosed by a two-meter-high fence topped with barbed wire. He arrived at an outdoor stage overlooking an open square where the camp’s children were required to gather every morning to sing the Russian national anthem. Vlad climbed up the stairs of the stage, dodging the security camera pointed right at it, and turned right toward a row of flag poles: a rainbow flag for the camp; another for occupied Crimea; and the blue, red and white flag of Russia. 

“Why should that be hanging there?” he thought to himself. The Russian flag didn’t represent him, a boy from the Ukrainian city of Kherson. It represented the armed men who took him from his home in balaclavas. What really belonged there, if not the Ukrainian flag, was his underwear. 

Vlad did one last scan to ensure no one was around and then grabbed the rope on the flagpole. He untied it and tugged, lowering the Russian flag as fast as he could. Once it reached the ground he unhooked it, fastened his underwear and hoisted it up the 4-meter pole. He felt his eyes popping out, his heart dropping to his stomach — the flagpole was so high — and then, a resistance. Vlad looked up and saw his blue and white checkered boxers hanging in the twilight.

“Yep,” he thought. “That’ll do.”

At first, Vlad felt overjoyed, having pulled off the most audacious stunt the camp had seen. “A story to tell to my kids,” he said. Then, his joy turned to fear. In the eyes of the Russian authorities, this was not a teenage prank. It was treason. He had to dispose of the flag immediately. He bunched it up, stuffed it under his hoodie and ran to the nearest bathroom where he met a friend. The two boys proceeded to tear the Russian flag apart, throw the pieces in the toilet and relieve themselves on it. They filmed the act with their phones and then flushed the defiled flag down the toilet. They snuck back to their rooms where they rewatched the video over and over again, laughing into the night.

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Lucro da TAP cai quase 70% em 2024

 

O presidente executivo da TAP diz que estes resultados "foram conseguidos num ano muito desafiante, marcado por um aumento relevante da concorrência" nos principais mercados da transportadora aérea.

A TAP teve um lucro de 53,7 milhões de euros em 2024, uma queda de 69,7% face ao ano anterior em que foi de 177,3 milhões, impactada por provisões laborais extraordinárias e perdas cambiais, foi esta quarta-feira anunciado.

Em comunicado, a companhia aérea realçou o resultado positivo alcançado pelo terceiro ano consecutivo e apontou que, comparando com 2019, o último ano antes da pandemia, os resultados registaram um crescimento de 149,4 milhões de euros.

O presidente executivo da TAP, Luís Rodrigues, referiu, na mesma nota, que estes resultados "foram conseguidos num ano muito desafiante, marcado por um aumento relevante da concorrência" nos principais mercados da transportadora aérea, "fortes desvalorizações cambiais, desafios operacionais, nomeadamente no controlo de tráfego aéreo e eventos meteorológicos adversos, e constrangimentos estruturais, como o limite de aeronaves".

No último trimestre do ano passado, o resultado líquido foi negativo em 64,5 milhões de euros, uma diminuição de 38,3 milhões ou de 145,8% face aos mesmo três meses de 2023, em que o resultado tinha sido de -26,2 milhões.

TAP transportou mais de 16 milhões de passageiros em 2024

Em 2024, as receitas operacionais totalizaram um novo máximo histórico de 4.242,4 milhões de euros, o que representa um aumento de 0,7% face a 2023 e 28,6% acima dos níveis de 2019.

A TAP transportou 16,1 milhões de passageiros no ano passado, um aumento de 1,6% face a 2023, mas operou menos 1,5% voos, com ambos os indicadores abaixo dos níveis de 2019.

A companhia aérea destacou o "forte desempenho do segmento de manutenção", com um incremento de 44,6%, em particular na atividade da oficina de motores, que também contribuiu para o aumento das receitas.

Já os custos operacionais recorrentes aumentaram 0,8% em termos homólogos, atingindo 3.859,8 milhões em 2024.

O EBITDA (lucros antes de juros, impostos, depreciação e amortização) recorrente atingiu 875,3 milhões em 2024, com uma margem de 20,6%, aumentando 3,7 milhões ou 0,4% em comparação com 2023. 

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Venda de carros da Tesla caiu 47,1% em fevereiro na União Europeia

 

A venda de carros da Tesla caiu 47,1 por cento em fevereiro, na União Europeia, em relação ao mesmo mês do ano passado. Os dados são da Associação Europeia dos Fabricantes de Automóveis.

Em 2024, o desempenho da marca norte-americana de carros elétricos até tinha subido quase 24 por cento no continente europeu. No entanto, logo em janeiro, as vendas da marca detida por Elon Musk caíram 45 por cento na Europa.

Estas quedas surgem num contexto de crescente contestação ao envolvimento político do empresário Elon Musk na Administração de Donald Trump.

Juiz turco ordena prisão de fotógrafo da agência France-Presse

 

Yasin Akgul foi acusado pelas autoridades de participar numa manifestação ilegal, apesar de ter estado apenas a cobrir a manifestação de apoio ao presidente da câmara de Istambul, Ekrem Imamoglu.

Um juiz turco ordenou esta terça-feira a prisão preventiva do fotógrafo da France-Presse (AFP) Yasin Akgul, acusado pelas autoridades de participar numa manifestação ilegal, informou o seu advogado à agência de notícias francesa.

O jornalista, cujo advogado anunciou a intenção de recorrer da decisão, argumentou durante a audiência que estava apenas a cobrir a manifestação de apoio ao presidente da câmara de Istambul, Ekrem Imamoglu, entretanto preso, pelo que é acusado de ter participado nos protestos.

A organização Repórteres Sem Fronteiras (RSF) já reagiu à prisão de Akgul, considerando tratar-se de uma “decisão ultrajante”.

Akgul foi detido na madrugada de segunda-feira em sua casa, juntamente com outros nove jornalistas em Istambul e Izmir (oeste), a terceira maior cidade do país.

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Rare demonstrations in Gaza call for end to conflict with Israel

 

 

‘Hamas out’ protests spread across Gaza

Hundreds of Palestinians shouted anti-Hamas slogans at a rare protest in Gaza on Tuesday.

“Hamas out” and “Hamas terrorists” were chanted by the mostly male demonstrators in Beit Lahia as they called for an end to the war with Israel, witnesses said.

The crowd had gathered a week after the Israeli army resumed its intense bombing of the coastal territory, following nearly two months of a truce.

On the social media network Telegram, at least one appeal to protest was circulating on Tuesday, the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency reported.

CNN reported that another message on social media appeared to call for nine anti-Hamas demonstrations across Gaza on Wednesday, while clips obtained by the network showed crowds marching through the streets of Beit Lahia chanting “We want an end to the war”, it said

Hundreds of Palestinians shouted anti-Hamas slogans at a rare protest in Gaza on Tuesday.

“Hamas out” and “Hamas terrorists” were chanted by the mostly male demonstrators in Beit Lahia as they called for an end to the war with Israel, witnesses said.

The crowd had gathered a week after the Israeli army resumed its intense bombing of the coastal territory, following nearly two months of a truce.

On the social media network Telegram, at least one appeal to protest was circulating on Tuesday, the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news agency reported.

CNN reported that another message on social media appeared to call for nine anti-Hamas demonstrations across Gaza on Wednesday, while clips obtained by the network showed crowds marching through the streets of Beit Lahia chanting “We want an end to the war”, it said.

Photos from northern Gaza showed people marching flanked by ruined buildings, destroyed by Israel’s bombing campaign launched in response to Hamas’s deadly October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. 

Reports suggested that further protests had broken out in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza, on Tuesday night. The Telegraph was not able to verify these reports.

Protests against Hamas are rare in the Gaza strip. The terror group has cracked down violently on demonstrations in the past, with Amnesty International reporting in 2019 that people had been beaten and detained arbitrarily over protests against the cost of living.

It also said protesters had been subject to torture while in detention.

“I don’t know who organised the protest,” Mohammed, a demonstrator who declined to give his last name for fear of reprisals, told the AFP.

“I took part to send a message on behalf of the people: Enough with the war,” he said, adding that he had seen “members of the Hamas security forces in civilian clothing breaking up the protest”.

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Inside Disney’s ‘Snow White’ Fiasco: Death Threats, Beefed-Up Security and a Social Media Guru for Rachel Zegler

 

On Aug. 12, 2024, three days after Rachel Zegler hit the stage at Disney’s D23 fan event to introduce the first official trailer of “Snow White,” she thanked supporters effusively in an X post for driving the teaser to 120 million views in 24 hours. One minute later, she added an afterthought in the same thread: “and always remember, free palestine.”

That addendum, which amassed 8.8 million views, nearly four times the number for the initial post, quickly made the rounds, with many inside the studio expressing shock that the “Snow White” star would commingle the promotion of its $270 million tentpole with any kind of political statement. A Disney executive raised the studio’s concerns with Zegler’s team, while the film’s producer Marc Platt flew to New York to speak directly with her. 

But the actress, whose relationship with the studio began to unravel in 2022 during a contentious “West Side Story” awards season campaign and continued as she trashed the beloved original “Snow White,” stood her ground, and the post remained. Behind the scenes, death threats toward Zegler’s co-star Gal Gadot, who is Israeli, spiked, and Disney had to pay for additional security for the mother of four. 

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Americans’ confidence in the economy hits a multi-year low

 

The US consumer confidence index fell to its lowest reading in four years, new data released Tuesday showed, as Americans face higher costs and fret the fallout of US President Donald Trump’s trade policy.

Another metric that measures Americans’ expectations about the economy’s future also reached a 12-year low. The findings show how Trump’s tariffs, the trade war, and market volatility have begun to weigh on households, as economists warn of rising odds of a recession. Consumers are also facing sticky inflation and high borrowing costs. 

CFOs are also worried about the economy

It’s not just consumers: C-suite executives are growing more pessimistic about the US economy’s future, too. In a recent CNBC survey of chief financial officers, 60% say they expect a recession in the second half of 2025 — up from just 7% who anticipated a 2025 recession in the previous survey. A sizable majority predict higher inflation, and said Trump’s unpredictable policy approach is impacting decision-making: “Complete chaos, without an end game strategy,” one CFO said, though another was hopeful things would calm down after Trump’s first 100 days. Their wariness is a vast contrast from the animal spirits that defined the three months post-election.

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