Author: LoveWorld UK

The coronavirus pandemic has emptied offices and shuttered shops but filled warehouses and highlighted demand for work-from-home spaces, leaving investors wondering if they should flee real estate or double down on their bets. Property has long been a staple of a balanced investment portfolio, favoured by pension funds and insurers seeking assets that combine capital value growth offered by stocks with secure income akin to bonds. But government lockdowns to contain COVID-19 have spurred unprecedented changes in the way billions of people live and work, denting values and rental prospects of malls and skyscrapers and making property investment a far…

Britain’s Nationwide Building Society (POB_p.L) will no longer be able to offer customers above-market savings rates, it said on Friday after setting aside more cash to cover a likely spike in loan losses because of the coronavirus pandemic. The bellwether mortgage lender booked a 101 million pound ($124.6 million) hit from expected credit losses and will focus for now on maintaining capital reserves after profit for the year to April 4 fell 44% to 466 million pounds. Nationwide said profit had been under pressure before the pandemic, owing to margin erosion from tough competition in the mortgage market, but the…

Peaceful rallies gave way to a third night of arson, looting and vandalism in Minneapolis on Thursday as protesters vented their rage over the death of a black man seen on video gasping for breath while a white police officer knelt on his neck. The latest spasm of unrest in Minnesota’s largest city went largely unchecked, despite Governor Tim Walz ordering the National Guard activated to help restore order following the first two days of disturbances sparked by Monday night’s fatal arrest of George Floyd, 46. In contrast with Wednesday night, when rock-throwing demonstrators clashed repeatedly with police in riot…

British finance minister Rishi Sunak will tell employers on Friday how much they must contribute to the government’s hugely expensive wage subsidy programme from August, a prospect that some firms say will lead to more job losses. Sunak will say companies must pay between 20% and 30% of the costs of the programme – the centrepiece of his attempts to protect the economy from the coronavirus shutdown – according to media reports. He is also expected to say when workers on the scheme, which is due to run until the end of October, can return on a part-time basis, something…

British car production could slump this year to the lowest level in decades after the coronavirus pandemic forced factories to close and hit demand, according to an industry body. Just 197 cars were made in April compared with 71,000 in the same month in 2019, leaving year-to-date production down over a quarter, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said. Only some automotive sites have reopened since then with the country’s largest car plant, Nissan’s Sunderland facility, not set to resume production until next month. “We need government to work with us to accelerate this fundamentally strong sector’s recovery,…

The coronavirus lockdown has accelerated a digitalisation drive in a global shipping and logistics sector that still routinely delivers many documents by bike messenger in some countries, according to industry leaders. Ports operator DP World DPW.DI said on Thursday it would join shipping company Maersk (MAERSKb.CO) and other peers in a blockchain platform aimed at limiting the sector’s costly paper trail. “The situation around the coronavirus is a very good catalyst for making sure everyone in the supply chain can communicate with each other digitally,” Mike Bhaskaran, DP World’s chief operating officer for logistics and technology, told Reuters. The Dubai-based…

U.S. President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on social media companies on Thursday, White House officials said after Trump threatened to shut down websites he accused of stifling conservative voices. The officials gave no further details. It was unclear how Trump could follow through on the threat of shutting down privately-owned companies including Twitter Inc. The dispute erupted after Twitter on Tuesday for the first time-tagged Trump’s tweets about unsubstantiated claims of fraud in mail-in voting with a warning prompting readers to fact check the posts. Separately, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington…

Huawei Technologies Co’s Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou was dealt a setback by a Canadian court on Wednesday as she tries to avoid extradition to the United States to face bank fraud charges, dashing hopes for an end to her 18-month house arrest in Vancouver. The ruling, which could further deteriorate relations between Ottawa and Beijing, elicited immediate strong reaction from China’s embassy in Canada, which said Canada is “accomplice to United States efforts to bring down Huawei and Chinese high-tech companies.” Meng, a Chinese citizen and daughter of Huawei’s billionaire founder Ren Zheng, was arrested in December 2018 on…

Riot police were deployed across Hong Kong on Thursday after mass protests a day earlier, as lawmakers debated a bill that would criminalise disrespect of China’s national anthem and Washington piled on pressure to preserve the city’s freedoms. Heated debate over the bill – the latest spark of anti-government unrest in the semi-autonomous city – saw lawmakers removed in chaotic scenes from the Legislative Council which was then adjourned. Police fired pepper pellets and made 360 arrests on Wednesday as thousands took to the streets in anger over the anthem bill and national security legislation proposed by China that has…

British employers should pay the wages of anyone told to stay at home by England’s COVID-19 test and trace system, British health minister Matt Hancock said on Thursday. The service is aimed at allowing the loosening of lockdown measures for most of the population. From Thursday, contacts of those who test positive will be instructed to isolate for 14 days, even if they have no symptoms. Asked during an interview on Sky News if employers were being asked to step in and pay people’s wages while they isolate, Hancock said: “Yes.” “If you are instructed by the NHS, for public…