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1. Trump To Be Arraigned in New York Today
After an indictment on criminal charges was announced last week, former U.S. President Donald Trump is set to be arraigned on criminal charges today in New York City. Prosecutors in New York will unseal the charges against Trump, which allegedly relate to payments made to hush up a potentially embarrassing scandal.
According to the New York Times, New York City is on high alert, with protesters expected to converge on the city. The city is confident it will be able to withstand any bad behavior, with the newspaper quoting a former Federal Bureau of Investigation officer who said New York City is uniquely able to deter protesters.
2. UK Government Changes Hotel Apprenticeship Rules
The United Kingdom government has changed the rules for hiring apprenticeships at small businesses, including hotels, even if the business does not pay apprenticeship levies. Starting April 3, such businesses will not be capped at 10 apprenticeships, according to a government white paper.
When the latest scheme started in January 2020, apprenticeships at small businesses were capped at three, a rule that changed to 10 later in 2020 to help businesses during the first summer of the COVID-19 pandemic. Small businesses that do not pay the apprenticeship levy receive 95% of any training costs from a budget funded by levy-paying businesses, according to FE Week. The rules of the scheme are set to be tweaked in August.
3. Travel Demand Remains High for Latin America
Latin America overall is not immune to the impact of a global recession, but the region’s economic growth and hotel sector performance continue to indicate recovery despite some markets lagging, Hotel News Now’s Stephanie Ricca reports from the SAHIC Latin America & The Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Investment Forum in Cartagena, Colombia.
Adriana Arreaza, director of macroeconomic studies at Banco de Desarrollo de America Latina, said “the cycle of reducing interest rates is expected to start in Latin America likely before advanced markets because we started increasing interest rates earlier, and inflation could go back to targets faster.”
She added that “adequate” foreign exchange reserve levels in most countries grant resilience against some external shocks, “even if there was a panic and some flight to quality or to safe havens in international markets.”
4. First UK Airports Banish 100-Milliliter Liquid Rule
On April 3, London’s smallest airport, London City, with routes including Amsterdam, Berlin and Zurich, became the first airport in the United Kingdom capital to scrap the rule that limits carry-on liquids to bottles of less than 100 milliliters and requires laptops to be removed from bags to be shown to security. The government plans to have the limitation ended in all British airports by June 2024, according to Sky News.
The change has come about due to the implementation of new high-tech computerized tomography, or CT, scanners. Teeside International Airport, which serves Northeast England, also has the equipment installed, and passengers there also “do not need to remove liquids, tablets, laptops and other electronic items from their hand luggage.”
5. Saudi Hotel 'Giga-Projects' Partly Behind Rising Price of Oil
The Wall Street Journal reports that the main reason for rising oil prices is to fund expensive "giga-projects" that are the backbone of the country’s Vision2030 economy and tourism plan. Saudi Arabia is the largest country in the region in both geography and oil production.
The newspaper reported the price of oil increased 6.3% on Monday, its highest one-day rise in more than a year. The Associated Press reported Saudi Arabia and other countries in the region had agreed to cut production by approximately 1.15 million barrels a day from May until the end of 2023, which would mean 246 million fewer barrels across the last seven months of the year.