Volumes of goods shipped directly from Ireland to the EU on new Brexit-busting ferry routes have rocketed by 50% in the past six months as exporters seek to avoid travelling across land through Great Britain, according to official data. Figures published by the Irish Maritime Development Office (IMDO) show significant traffic diverted away from the traditional routes between Dublin and Britain to some of 32 new ferry services direct to ports such as Le Havre, Cherbourg and Dunkirk in France and Zeebrugge in Belgium. – Guardian
US company that gathered photos of people from Facebook and other social media sites for use in facial recognition by its clients is facing a £17m fine after the Information Commissioner’s Office found it had committed “serious breaches” of data protection law. Clearview AI, which describes itself as the “world’s largest facial network”, allows its customers to compare facial data against a database of over 10bn images harvested from the internet. – Guardian
An effort by Virgin Atlantic to raise £400m in rescue funding has been thrown into doubt by fears of new travel curbs, raising concerns among industry observers about its prospects over winter. Sir Richard Branson’s airline has been in talks with existing shareholders and lenders over a cash lifeline in recent weeks, after extended restrictions on travel from the UK to the United States forced it to shelve plans for a public listing. – Telegraph
Accenture will create 3,000 new jobs in the UK over the next three years as part of a push into technology services, with half of the roles to be based outside London. The professional services firm said the new jobs are being driven by increased client demand for services in cybersecurity, cloud engineering, data, intelligent operations and platforms. – Telegraph
The government is monitoring the situation at BT amid heightened takeover speculation surrounding Britain’s biggest telecoms group. Uncertainty intensified yesterday after a report that Reliance Industries, the Indian oil-to-telecoms conglomerate controlled by Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest businessman, was weighing a takeover bid. – The Times
Babcock International has been accused of failings in its provision of crucial training to firefighters before the Grenfell Tower fire. The inquiry into the 2017 disaster, which killed 72 people, heard last week that the outsourcing group had been more than two years late in completing a review of training for incident commanders at the time of the blaze. – The Times
