Author: LoveWorld UK

 UK shares rose on Thursday as Britain and the European Union inched closer to striking a post-Brexit trade deal, averting a chaotic separation with only seven days left for the transition period to expire. The blue-chip FTSE 100 rose 0.4% by 0809 GMT with a jump in sterling keeping gains in check. Brexit-sensitive banks and homebuilders were among the top gainers on the index, with Lloyds Banking Group, Taylor Wimpey and Persimmon rising the most. The domestically focused FTSE 250 index, considered a proxy to Brexit sentiment, jumped 0.7% to hit a fresh February high. Sources in London and Brussels…

The U.S. cybersecurity agency said on Wednesday that a sprawling cyber espionage campaign made public earlier this month is affecting state and local governments, although it released few additional details. The hacking campaign, which used U.S. tech company SolarWinds as a springboard to penetrate federal government networks, was “impacting enterprise networks across federal, state, and local governments, as well as critical infrastructure entities and other private sector organizations,” the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said in a statement posted to its website. The CISA said last week that U.S. government agencies, critical infrastructure entities, and private groups were among…

Britain and the European Union were on the cusp of striking a narrow trade deal on Thursday, swerving away from a chaotic finale to a Brexit split that has shaken the 70-year project to forge European unity from the ruins of World War Two. While a last-minute deal would avoid the most acrimonious ending to the Brexit divorce, the United Kingdom is heading for a much more distant relationship with its biggest trade partner than almost anyone expected at the time of the 2016 Brexit vote. Sources in London and Brussels said a deal was close as British Prime Minister…

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday granted pardons to former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and former adviser Roger Stone, sweeping away the most important convictions under the long-running Russia election probe. Trump also issued a pardon for Charles Kushner, a real estate developer and the father of Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Trump, taking advantage of a right granted by the Constitution only to the president, has issued two groups of pardons in as many days, and more are anticipated as Trump faces the end of his presidency on Jan. 20. The announcement came just after Trump arrived in Palm Beach,…

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) signaled that they are open to increasing the amount for the stimulus checks after President Donald Trump threatened to veto the COVID relief bill unless the direct payment was increased to $2,000 per individual. “Republicans repeatedly refused to say what amount the President wanted for direct checks. At last, the President has agreed to $2,000—Democrats are ready to bring this to the Floor this week by unanimous consent. Let’s do it!” Pelosi wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. “We spent months trying to secure $2,000 checks but Republicans blocked it. Trump needs to…

 Leicester City defender Jonny Evans is in talks to extend his contract with the Premier League club and a deal could be finalised in the next few days, manager Brendan Rodgers said. The 32-year-old Northern Ireland international has made 87 appearances in all competitions following his arrival from West Bromwich Albion in 2018 and was instrumental in Leicester’s fifth-place finish in the Premier League last season. Evans’ contract expires at the end of the current campaign and British media had linked him with a return to Manchester United, where he won three Premier League titles. “I’m hearing from the club…

Angry truck drivers briefly scuffled with police in the streets of Dover on Wednesday as a partial blockade by France designed to stop the spread of a new highly infectious coronavirus variant left thousands stranded before Christmas. Paris and London agreed late on Tuesday that drivers carrying a negative COVID-19 test result could board ferries for Calais after much of the world shut its borders to Britain to contain the new mutated variant. A British minister said the military would start testing drivers but he warned that it would take time to clear the backlog, hammering Britain’s most important trade…

The United Kingdom and the European Union have still not clinched a Brexit trade deal to avoid a turbulent split in just eight days time because of serious disagreements about competition and fishing, a British minister said on Wednesday. The United Kingdom casts off into the unknown on Dec. 31 after a stormy 48-year liaison with the Franco-German led project which sought to bind the ruined nations of post-World War Two Europe into a global power. Since formally exiting the EU on Jan. 31, the United Kingdom has been negotiating a free trade deal with the bloc in an attempt…

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon issued an apology on Wednesday after she was photographed at an indoor event without wearing a mask in breach of strict COVID-19 rules. Sturgeon, the leader of the nationalist Scottish National Party, was pictured talking to a group of women in a pub following a funeral in Edinburgh last week without a face covering. The photo was published in Wednesday’s Scottish edition of the Sun newspaper. “Last Friday, while attending a funeral wake, I had my mask off briefly. This was a stupid mistake and I’m really sorry,” Sturgeon said in a statement. “I talk…

Britain said there was plenty of food in the shops on Tuesday but industry groups repeated warnings of shortages of some fresh produce from next week unless freight routes to mainland Europe are swiftly restored. Interior minister Priti Patel said Britons should not be concerned despite Tesco and Sainsbury’s, Britain’s two biggest supermarket groups, raising the alarm on Monday that gaps could start to appear on fruit and vegetable shelves within days. Freight from France is being disrupted as part of a wider suspension of travel links with Britain to try to curb a new faster-spreading strain of COVID-19. “I…