London Underground has invited union leaders to talks next week in a bid to resolve a dispute over pay and hours which led to strikes.

The company said it wanted to hold talks next Wednesday.

Tube services are expected to return to normal by late morning on Friday after the strikes which have caused travel chaos all week.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) walked out, leading to services been crippled since Monday with few underground trains running.

Commuters have switched to buses, bikes or trains not affected by the dispute to get to and from work.

London Underground said there will be no service before 8am on Friday, with normal service on all lines by late morning.

The Docklands Light Railway will be running a normal service after it was hit by a strike over a separate issue on Thursday.

An RMT source said: “This is a step in the right direction from TfL (Transport for London) and has only occurred due to the industrial pressure from RMT members this week.”

Commuters trying to get home on South Western Railway also suffered delays due to a tree blocking the railway between Clapham Junction and Earlsfield, which led to some lines towards Wimbledon being blocked.

SWR said it expected there may be cancellations, delays or alterations to services until 8pm.

SWR services towards Putney were also blocked because of a fault on a train at Clapham Junction, with delays or alterations expected until 6pm.

New Delhi: A Kathmandu-bound SpiceJet flight faced a suspected tailpipe fire at Delhi airport on Thursday but safely returned to the bay. The incident involved flight SG041, which was being operated with a Boeing 737-8 aircraft. The flight was scheduled to leave in the morning but was delayed for more than four hours.

According to the airline, another aircraft on the ground reported a suspected tailpipe fire, prompting the pilots to return as a precautionary measure. SpiceJet said there were no warnings or alerts in the cockpit during the incident. The aircraft was later inspected thoroughly by engineers, and no abnormalities were found.

“On September 11, a SpiceJet aircraft scheduled to operate from Delhi to Kathmandu returned to bay after another aircraft on the ground reported a suspected tailpipe fire,” the airline said in a statement. “No warnings or indications were observed in the cockpit, but the pilots decided to return as a precautionary safety measure,” it added.

The aircraft underwent detailed engineering checks, and no abnormalities were found. The aircraft was subsequently cleared for operations and has already landed in Kathmandu, the spokesperson mentioned. SpiceJet assured that the decision to return was taken only to ensure safety. The number of passengers on board was not immediately known.

A tailpipe is the exhaust pipe of a jet engine, and a tailpipe fire, also called an internal fire, can occur within the normal gas flow of the engine. Such incidents typically happen on the ground, either during engine start-up or shutdown, according to aviation safety platform SKYbrary.

Despite the scare, officials confirmed that the aircraft was safe and ready to resume operations after checks. The shares of the airline closed at Rs 33.64, up Rs 0.58 or 1.75 per cent, on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Thursday.

In the last five days, the shares have fallen by Rs 1.82 or 5.13 per cent. However, in the past one month, the stock has risen by Rs 1.96 or 6.19 per cent. Over the last six months, the stock has declined by Rs 15.41 or 31.42 per cent.

Wall Street traded near record highs on Thursday as fresh US economic data reinforced expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates next week to support growth. The S&P 500 rose 0.3% in early trade after setting new records in the last two sessions, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 95 points and the Nasdaq composite added 0.4%, AP reported. Treasury yields stayed steady, signalling calm after the latest economic reports.Markets were buoyed by anticipation of a Fed rate cut, even as inflation remains above the 2% target and labour market data continues to show weakness. “Traders were already convinced the Fed will deliver its first cut to interest rates of the year at its next meeting, but they need inflation data until then to be mild enough not to derail those expectations,” analysts noted.Wall Street is betting the US economy can manage a “soft landing” — slowing enough to prompt monetary easing, but not collapsing into recession. An encouraging sign came from Wednesday’s wholesale inflation report, which showed price growth unexpectedly slowed in August.Among individual stocks, Opendoor jumped 36% after naming Shopify COO Kaz Nejatian as its new chief executive, with co-founders Keith Rabois and Eric Wu returning to the board. FedEx slipped 1.3% and UPS fell 2.1% after Bank of America downgraded both companies.In global markets, Europe’s major indexes gained at midday, with Germany’s DAX up 0.3%, Britain’s FTSE 100 advancing 0.5%, and France’s CAC 40 climbing 0.9%.In Asia, Japan’s Nikkei 225 surged 1.2% to 44,372.50, with SoftBank Group rallying 8.3% for a second straight day. Japan’s producer prices rose 2.7% year-on-year in August, up from 2.5% the prior month. China’s Shanghai Composite jumped 1.7% to 3,875.31, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dipped 0.4% to 26,086.32. Chipmakers Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp and Hua Hong Semiconductor rose 6% and 3.8% respectively, while Cambricon Technologies gained 9%.Elsewhere, South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.9%, Taiwan’s Taiex edged 0.1% higher, and India’s Sensex gained 0.2%. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 slipped 0.3%.