Meanwhile, the world’s richest man Elon Musk, who founded PayPal and Tesla, has been shopping, buying Twitter for $44 billion.

There is also some early criticism of Rishi Sunak, who will not be attending next month’s Cop27 climate summit.

Here is the news affecting travel on Friday 28 October.

Number of empty shops falls

The number of empty shops has continued to fall but remains higher than pre-pandemic levels. The overall vacancy rate across Britain fell to 13.9% in the third quarter, 0.1 percentage points better than the previous quarter and 0.6 percentage points better year-on-year, the British Retail Consortium and Local Data Company reported. (The Standard)

Elon Musk buys Twitter for $44 billion

Elon Musk has completed his £38 billion takeover of Twitter after months of toing and froing. His first move was to fire the social media company’s top leadership, which he accused of misleading him over the number of spam accounts on the platform. (Sky News)

Sunak will not attend climate conference

Rishi Sunak will not attend the Cop27 climate summit in Egypt next month, Downing Street has confirmed. A spokeswoman said the prime minister has "other pressing domestic commitments" preventing him from visiting Sharm El-Sheikh. Liz Truss, Mr Sunak’s predecessor, had been expected to attend the event, which runs from 6-18 November. (Sky News)

Ryanair online check-in maintenance warning

Ryanair passengers have been issued a travel warning about checking in online. Passengers must check in before the airport or face strict fees, but the airline has warned its website and app will be down for 11 hours next month. Anyone with flights on 8 November from 6pm until the following day at 5am is warned to check in early. (The Sun)