THE DAILY BRIEFING

■ FIN CITY edinburgh will be overtaken by manchester to become the country’s second-largest finance hub if it continues to grow at the current pace, a study by The City

UK has found. manchester employed 51,945 in finance – just 940 fewer than the Scottish capital.

■ GOING UP The number of passengers travelling with Easyjet increased 2.3pc to 7.9m last month compared to a year earlier.

■ TENANT SQUEEZE london rents rose an average 0.1pc in the 12 months to June – the first annual growth since December 2016. The average in the capital is now £1,884 compared to £774 for the rest of Britain. research by buy-to-let firm

Landbay found, excluding london, rents grew 0.4pc.

■ MASSES MANAGED Savers pumped an extra £1.9bn into Britishbased funds in may, according to the Investment Association trade group – taking the total managed by the industry to £1.2trillion.

■ SHARED SPACE Food delivery company Deliveroo has opened a ‘shared kitchen’ in Paris. The kitchens, first launched in london, give restaurants a base to serve surrounding neighbourhoods.

■ AI KILLER an artificial intelligence program designed by londonbased Deepmind has beaten humans in a video game competition. It defeated rivals in a game of Quake III, a shooting game released in 1999.

■ CHINA DEAL The owner of High Street chemist Boots has completed the purchase of a 40pc stake in Chinese pharmacy chain Guo Da Drug Store for £314m.

■ TURKISH VENTURE wPP-owned Groupm has launched a new digital marketing agency with a Turkish firm. The venture with Zer, part of Koc Group, will be called Ingage.

■ PLANE PARTNERS aeroplane maker Airbus has boosted its research on flight technology with Chinese partners. Its airbus Beijing engineering Centre has opened a lab with the National Centre for Nanoscience and Technology of China.

■ MINE LOAN lithium miner

Bacanora Minerals has secured £113m credit to help develop its Sonora project in mexico.

■ STRIKE SET The Unite union has announced strikes on Total’s oil and gas rigs in the North Sea in a dispute over wages. workers at the elgin, Dunbar and alwyn platforms plan to down tools over five days this month and next.