After years of offering rides in London, Uber is being told to exit the British metropolis after the city’s transport regulator denied Uber’s license renewal over concerns about public safety and the company’s use of sneaky software to avoid detection by the authorities. [More]
london
Airport Employee Punches Passenger Holding Baby Because We Live In A Cruel And Absurd Universe
By 7.31.17
As Dostoyevsky wrote, a beast can never be so cruel as a man, so artistically cruel, so it’s of little surprise that a random airport worker lashed out with his fist at a passenger — a traveler who was not only holding an infant in his arms at the time, but who had languished for some 13 hours while waiting for his repeatedly delayed flight. [More]
Company Stops Selling Cladding Linked To Deadly London Apartment Tower Fire
By 6.26.17
A type of lightweight aluminum cladding made by Arconic (formerly known as Alcoa) has been discontinued after being linked to the deadly fire that claimed at least 79 lives at the 24-story Grenfell Tower in London. [More]
Uber To Repay Customers Who Experienced Surge Pricing After London Attacks
By 6.5.17
Nearly three years ago, Uber received significant backlash after it charged surge prices during a hostage situation in Sydney, Australia, leading the company to refund riders for those trips. A similar situation is playing out in London after the ride-hailing service charged customers caught up in a recent terror attack more for rides to safety. [More]
Big Tobacco Opening Stores To Teach People How To Vape
By 12.1.16
While millions of people remain hooked on traditional cigarettes, the tobacco industry knows that its future is increasingly becoming smokeless. Just yesterday, the CEO of Philip Morris admitted that his company could someday cease making cigarettes altogether. So it makes sense that some tobacco giants are now opening stores to promote and teach people how to use these new products. [More]
London Uber Drivers Must Pass English Language Test
By 10.18.16
Operating a worldwide ride-sharing platform means that Uber often finds itself disputing local rules and regulations. Most of these battles have been about taxes permits, insurance, or background checks for drivers, but a new directive handed down by London’s transportation agency requires drivers to pass an English language proficiency exam. [More]
Sir Patrick Stewart Has Strong Feelings About Hardware Stores
By 7.22.16
Do you have an aspiration in life? Do you confess it to the world when you’re out late after maybe a few adult beverages? Noted actor, treasure of the Anglophone world, and eater of tuna salad sandwiches on planes Patrick Stewart would like the world to know that he loves hardware stores, and he would really love to have one in his backyard. [More]
New York-Bound Virgin Atlantic Flight Returns To London After “Laser Incident”
By 2.15.16
A Virgin Atlantic flight headed to New York returned to a London airport Sunday evening after one of the plane’s pilots reported feeling unwell following a “laser beam incident.” [More]
British Airways Flight Catches Fire On Las Vegas Runway, 14 Passengers Injured
By 9.9.15
Fourteen people were injured Tuesday when a British Airways plane preparing for takeoff from Las Vegas’ McCarran International Airport suddenly experienced engine failure that resulted in an intense fire. [More]
Workers Say UK Restaurant Chain Keeps Their Tips, Makes Them Lie To Customers About It
By 8.21.15
When you’re eating at a restaurant and they impose a “service charge,” where do you assume that money goes? While laws regarding the pay of tipped workers are different in the United Kingdom than here, they do have the custom of tipping. Except at the chain restaurant Côte, which reportedly imposes an optional service charge which isn’t distributed directly to waitstaff. [More]
Passengers On Diverted United Airlines Flight Recall Sleeping On Cots At A Canadian Military Base
By 6.15.15
From time to time a fight is delayed, canceled or diverted for unforeseen reasons, leading to often annoying and unanticipated disruptions for travelers. Such was the case over the weekend when a United Airlines flight was diverted to a Canadian military base. But it wasn’t the unplanned change of course that left passengers unhappy with the airline, it was their only option for accommodations: a cold military base. [More]
Carlsberg Outdoes Coca-Cola With Free Beer-Dispensing Billboard
By 4.15.15
You might remember that earlier this month, Coca-Cola experimented with a billboard that dispensed free samples of Coke Zero to thirsty visitors near the site of the final games of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. Why can’t the same technology work for more adult beverages? [More]
Google’s First Branded Retail Store Opens In London
By 3.11.15
Move over Apple and Microsoft, there’s another tech company taking its products to the retail floor with its own branded store: Google. [More]
Some NFL Fans Will Have To Wake Up At 6:30 A.M. To Watch Games Next Season
By 1.22.15
One reason I could never live on the West Coast — aside from the warrants out for my arrest in every county from Multnomah to Imperial — is that I’d have to wake up before noon on a Sunday to watch football. But today the NFL decided that the entire continental U.S. must wake up early to catch games — or at least the three bouts taking place in London in 2015. [More]
Uber’s Response To Complaint About Driver Who Offered Oral Sex: Here’s $31
By 12.11.14
How is one supposed to react when an Uber driver offers to pull the car over and demonstrate his prowess at oral sex? And how is Uber supposed to react when that passenger files a complaint about the incident? We don’t know the answers to these questions, but the ride-sharing service valued the passenger’s discomfort at around $31. [More]
UK Artist Creates Payday Loan Store For Kids
By 10.30.14
At first glance, the bright blue London storefront with a hand-painted technicolor scene of a cartoon cityscape in the window — complete with a smiling yellow mascot — looks like some sort of kid’s toy store or maybe a daycare center. That is, until you see the sign that reads, “Payday Loans 4 Kids.” [More]
Guy Sasses Discount Airline EasyJet On Twitter, Gets Grounded
By 9.25.13
EasyJet is probably best known to Americans as “the European discount airline that isn’t RyanAir,” if they’ve heard of it at all. Now they’re also the airline that grounds adults for sassing them on the Internet. That’s what happened to a law professor and columnist who was annoyed that he might miss his connection when an EasyJet flight was delayed, and more annoyed that a soldier might miss his. [More]
Capital One Sends Me Across London To Get My Debit Card To Work
By 6.28.13
Lucky reader Twila is enjoying a European vacation right now. Only she has one sort of inconvenient problem: her Capital One debit card won’t work in many of the places she’s visiting. Like her hostel. And entire parts of London. [More]
