Airbnb is using seemingly independent groups of hosts on the platform to lobby policymakers and help it fend off threats to its business model from tighter regulation. The accommodation-booking platform has more than 400 “home-sharing clubs”, groups of owners who use Airbnb to rent out rooms. Airbnb says the clubs exist to help owners “build

Boris Johnson, British prime minister, will this week urge EU national capitals to veto a suggestion from Brussels that would block AstraZeneca vaccine exports to the UK and push post-Brexit relations to a new low. London has laid claim to millions of doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca Covid-19 jab produced at a Dutch factory, sparking a

The top US immigration official said authorities were expelling the majority of migrants crossing the southern border, as the Biden administration battled a growing political crisis over the surging number of children entering the US. “The message is quite clear, do not come,” Alejandro Mayorkas told ABC. “The border is closed. The border is secure.

Traders are preparing for a jolt of volatility in the Turkish lira after president Recep Tayyip Erdogan sacked the country’s central bank chief, who was regarded as a key force in pulling the lira from historic lows last year. The removal of Naci Agbal, announced in the early hours of Saturday, shocked many local and

Tending to his fields one crisp winter morning, Chandra Singh Rana saw what looked like smoke emerging from the wooded slopes and snow-capped peaks that led to Nanda Devi, one of the world’s tallest mountains. The accompanying roar sent the 77-year-old, his grandson and fellow residents of Reni, a village nestled up in the Indian

Economists are cutting growth forecasts for the eurozone economy as a third wave of Covid-19 infections and vaccination delays spur tighter restrictions in several countries including France, Italy and Germany. The reintroduction of lockdown measures across Europe is fuelling concerns that the region could suffer another disappointing summer tourism season if vaccinations do not speed