THE DAILY BRIEFING

■ HQ DELAYS An expansion of Amazon’s Seattle headquarters has been delayed amid a row with its local city council. The tech group has stopped work on the building and called into question its lease on another. A spokesman said it was waiting for the result of a vote on a $500-a-head tax being voted on by Seattle City Council on May 14.

■ DATING BOSS Dating service E-Harmony’s chief scientist was poached by Facebook just months before it announced plans for its own dating service, it has emerged.

Dr Steve Carter joined the social media giant in August 2017, according to the website Techcrunch

A Facebook spokesman claimed Carter was not working on its dating project.

■ HOTEL SALES Revenues at hotel chain Millennium & Copthorne fell 2.7pc to £223m in the first three months of 2018 as visits to its London hotels slumped.

Profits doubled to £26m as the group benefited from the sale of two Australian hotels.

■ MORE FLYING The number of passengers travelling with EasyJet increased 4.7pc to 4.5m in April.

The airline said 323 flights were cancelled in April as it was hit by industrial action in France, poor weather and the 24-hour closure of its Amsterdam Schiphol airport.

■ PHOTO SHOP Social media app instagram is allowing shoppers to store payment information so they can buy products directly through the app. The trial allows Instagram users to add debit card information, track previous payments and verify payments.

■ PAY UP Average advertised salaries have increased by 4.3pc over the past year to almost £ 34,000 – although the number of vacancies has fallen, according to a study by jobs site Adzuna.