Author: LoveWorld UK

Britain’s government failed to find out whether Russia meddled in the 2016 referendum on membership of the EU, a parliamentary report released on Tuesday said, saying the intelligence services should investigate and make their findings public. The long-anticipated report by parliament’s intelligence and security committee found that Russia had tried to influence a separate referendum in 2014 when voters in Scotland rejected independence. But it said the committee was unable to determine whether Russia had attempted to influence the European Union referendum, which led to Britain’s exit from the bloc this year. When asked for evidence on suspected Russian meddling…

Aston Villa moved out of the Premier League relegation zone with one match remaining as Trezeguet’s first-half goal earned them a potentially priceless 1-0 victory over Arsenal on Tuesday. The Egyptian midfielder blasted home in the 27th minute and it proved enough for Villa to move above Watford on goal difference after they were thrashed by Manchester City earlier. Arsenal made six changes to the side that beat Manchester City in Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final and Villa took advantage to move out of the bottom three for the first time since February. It was a nervy night at an empty…

Britain’s Stagecoach (SGC.L) expects government support for bus services to help its bottom line this year but said it was unable to make a profit forecast because of the continuing impact of the coronavirus on demand for public transport. Since March government funding has helped bus operators to maintain services despite user numbers plunging because of advice to avoid public transport during lockdown. That funding is set to continue to the end of October and Stagecoach, the UK’s biggest bus and coach operator, said that talks have already begun about support for another 12 weeks after that. “They’re not funding…

Swiss engineering firm ABB (ABBN.S) said on Wednesday its order situation could improve in the coming months, suggesting there was some light amid the gloom surrounding the industrial sector caused to the coronavirus crisis. The maker of industrial robots and electric car charging stations expects the fall in orders caused by the pandemic to improve in the third quarter, although it said revenues would take longer to recover. “ABB expects some improvement in year-on-year order decline already in the third quarter,” the company said, after posting better-than-expected results for the April to June period. “Revenues are expected to remain strongly…

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was holding his first face-to-face cabinet meeting of top ministers since March 17 on Tuesday, underlining his push to encourage others to go back to work and boost an economy hurt by the coronavirus crisis. The weekly cabinet meeting inside Johnson’s Downing Street office was ditched when the COVID-19 crisis threatened to run out of control. Johnson, his health minister and other top officials all caught the virus early in the pandemic. But in recent weeks, Johnson has called on people to return to their workplaces, concerned that the economy, already poised for recession, could…

U.S. firm eBay Inc (EBAY.O) has agreed to sell its classified ads business to Norway’s Adevinta ADEV.OL in a deal worth $9.2 billion, creating the world’s largest classifieds group, the companies said on Tuesday. Under the deal, eBay will receive $2.5 billion in cash and 540 million shares of Adevinta, making it the largest shareholder with a 44% stake and 33.3% of the vote, they said. “Adevinta becomes the largest online classifieds company globally, with a unique portfolio of leading marketplace brands,” Adevinta Chief Executive Rolv Erik Ryssdal said. The combined company will have a presence in 20 markets, with…

Wolverhampton Wanderers reclaimed sixth place in the Premier League as they beat a woefully out-of-form Crystal Palace 2-0 at Molineux on Monday thanks to goals by Daniel Podence and Jonny. Podence headed home for his first Premier League goal for Wolves shortly before halftime and Jonny’s fine finish wrapped up the points with around 20 minutes remaining. A injury-weakened Palace missing five regulars had actually started the game well but suffered another blow when Mamadou Sakho went off in the first half with a hamstring injury. Palace offered precious little in the second half as they slumped to a seventh…

China’s refineries imported and processed record amounts of crude oil in June, and while these are undoubtedly bullish economic signals, it’s worth noting that flows into storage tanks were also likely at an all-time high. The massive amount of crude being stored in China may end up weighing on oil imports from August onwards, even with the nation’s recovery in domestic consumption. China’s refinery throughput was 57.87 million tonnes in June, equivalent to 14.08 million barrels per day (bpd), which eclipsed the previous record from December 2019 and was up 9% from June of last year. While China doesn’t provide…

British government borrowing surged to a record 128 billion pounds ($162 billion) in the first three months of the 2020/21 financial year, when COVID-19 lockdown measures were tightest, more than double the entire previous year’s borrowing. Most economists think British government borrowing this year will be its largest since World War Two relative to the size of the economy. Borrowing in June, excluding state-owned banks, was 35.5 billion pounds, the government statistics office said. That was five times more than a year earlier though below economists’ average forecast of 41.5 billion pounds in a Reuters poll, following a big downward…

BP (BP.L) has put four traders responsible for Chinese crude oil sales on temporary leave as it conducts internal investigations into trades with Singapore’s Hontop Energy, four sources familiar with the matter said. They were involved in crude trading and operations in Singapore and China and were put on leave last week, the sources said, while BP’s counterparties have been told to deal with another team for Chinese crude transactions. BP declined to comment. BP traders were named in a court document filed by Malaysian lender CIMB where the bank applied to place Hontop Energy under judicial management. BP has…