Author: LoveWorld UK

Serena Williams’ search for a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam title will extend into another year after an Achilles tendon injury forced her to withdraw from the French Open on Wednesday. The American, who turned 39 this week, had been due to play Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova in the second round later but after a warm-up decided the injury was too severe. Williams, a three-times former champion at Roland Garros, said she may not play again this year. “I warmed up and it was a very short warmup and then I spoke to my coach and said ‘what do you think?’ she…

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has called for a 5.7 billion pounds bailout package for London’s transport operator, in an attempt to keep the capital’s transport system going for the next 18 months, the Financial Times reported on.ft.com/3cLZnFe. Khan, who serves as the chairman of Transport for London (TfL), has requested the financial package in his submission to the government’s spending review, as passenger numbers continue to plunge due to the coronavirus pandemic-induced strict measures on public transport, the newspaper said. TfL, which relies mostly on income from fares to run tubes, buses and trains, and invest in new projects, had initially…

British and EU trade negotiators have failed to close the gap on state aid, a key element barring their new agreement on post-Brexit trade ties, officials and diplomatic sources with the bloc said as 27 national leaders gather in Brussels on Thursday. The two-day summit in Brussels is due to deal with foreign policy but chairman Charles Michel and the bloc’s executive will also on Friday give their latest assessment on Brexit. Disagreements over corporate subsidies, fisheries and ways to solve disputes have overshadowed trade talks, while a proposed UK law that would undermine its earlier divorce deal with the…

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government is seeking to avoid a full national lockdown to prevent unemployment soaring into the millions, Environment Secretary George Eustice said on Thursday. “I’ve not seen any projections of 4 million but certainly we know that there are some 700,000 extra people that are already unemployed as a result of this, and yes you know the projections are, that there are going to be economic impacts,” Eustice told Sky. “It’s for precisely that reason that we are trying to avoid full lockdown,” he said. Britain’s Office for Budget Responsibility forecast in July that unemployment would…

Barclays BARC.L Chief Executive Jes Staley has reshuffled his senior lieutenants as he looks to promote closer cooperation between the bank’s corporate, banking and markets operations amid a tough environment for lenders worldwide. Staley named longstanding deputy Paul Compton as global head of banking and CS Venkatakrishnan, currently group chief risk officer, as global head of markets, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters on Wednesday. The two, who like Staley were previously employed by JPMorgan JPM.N, will chair a new corporate and investment bank management team aimed at bringing those business units closer together, Staley said. Barclays’ current global head of…

The Bank of England (BoE) set out proposals on Wednesday to end unfair advantages some banks have in calculating how much capital to hold for mortgages in a bid to increase competition. Some bigger banks can use their own internal models for determining the risk weightings and therefore capital levels for home loans they have granted. Typically this has resulted in lower capital levels than under the so-called standardised approach to risk weightings set out by regulators that many smaller lenders have to use. The BoE’s banks supervision arm, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), said it wanted to reduce risks…

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer says managers need more clarity on the Premier League’s handball rule following a series of controversial decisions in the opening weeks of the season. Tottenham Hotspur were denied a victory on Sunday after Newcastle United were awarded a penalty in stoppage time for handball by Eric Dier, who was facing in the opposite direction to the ball when he jumped. Manchester United defender Victor Lindelof was also on the receiving end of a harsh penalty decision during their 3-1 defeat by Crystal Palace in their season-opener. “I think football has changed,” Solskjaer said. “There are no fans,…

British supermarket group Morrisons MRW.L is creating more than 1,000 jobs to pick and pack orders for its services on Amazon AMZN.O, it said on Wednesday. Morrisons said it was recruiting the additional workers to process customer orders from over 50 stores, covering most of the United Kingdom’s major cities and many towns. All of Britain’s big four grocers – market leader Tesco TSCO.L, Sainsbury’s SBRY.L, Asda WMT.N and Morrisons – are adding capacity to their online home delivery operations to meet increased demand during the COVID-19 pandemic. Online shopping has gone from around 7% of the total UK grocery market at the start of the crisis…

The German government has agreed in principle to tougher oversight of telecoms network vendors that, while stopping short of a ban on Huawei, will make it harder for the Chinese company to keep a foothold in Europe’s largest market. Coalition and government sources said on Wednesday that scrutiny of a vendor’s governance and technology would be extended to the Radio Access Networks (RAN) powering next-generation 5G services, in addition to the more sensitive core. The sources confirmed a report in the Handelsblatt daily which said that, after two years of wrangling, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition had agreed on a formula…

THE Green Home Energy Grant scheme opens for applications on Wednesday meaning Brits can soon insulate their homes for less. Under the scheme, which was unveiled by chancellor Rishi Sunak in July, homeowners can get a voucher worth up to £5,000 – or £10,000 if they’re a low-income household – to help install eco-friendly energy measures. The idea is most homeowners will cover the cost of one third of the measures, with the government footing at least two thirds of the bill. So a householder would pay £1,320 of a £4,000 bill for cavity wall and floor insulation for a…