Author: LoveWorld UK

Defectors from Emmanuel Macron’s ruling party announced the creation of a new group in France’s lower house of parliament on Tuesday, depriving the president of an outright majority and raising pressure for more left-wing policies. Seven lawmakers are splintering from Macron’s La Republique En March (LREM) party to joint the new “Ecology, Democracy, Solidarity” (EDS) group, which said it would initially count 17 parliamentarians in its ranks. That means the LREM now only has 288 MPs, one short of the 289-threshold needed for an absolute majority in parliament, and down from the 314 Macron had after he dynamited the political…

A measure of the number of people claiming unemployment benefits in Britain leapt to its highest level since 1996 in April, the first full month of the government’s coronavirus lockdown, data published on Tuesday showed. The claimant count rose by 856,500 — the biggest ever month-on-month jump — to 2.097 million, a 69% increase, the Office for National Statistics said. The surge would have been even sharper without a government programme to pay 80% of the wages of workers put on temporary leave by their employers, who do not count towards the unemployment total. The ONS said emergency changes to…

U.S. President Donald Trump threatened on Monday to permanently halt funding for the World Health Organization (WHO) if it did not commit to improvements within 30 days, and to reconsider the membership of the United States in the body. Trump suspended U.S. contributions to the WHO last month, accusing it of promoting China’s “disinformation” about the coronavirus outbreak, although WHO officials denied the accusation and China said it was transparent and open. “If the WHO does not commit to major substantive improvements within the next 30 days, I will make my temporary freeze of United States funding to the WHO…

Pope Francis inaugurated the full reopening of St. Peter’s Basilica on Monday and Catholic churches held public Masses for the first time in two months in the latest easing of Italy’s coronavirus restrictions. Francis said a private Mass in a side chapel where St. John Paul II is buried to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the late Polish pope’s birth. The basilica, which on Friday underwent a sanitising to make it as cornavirus-free as possible, later opened to the public for Masses by priests on other side altars after the pope had left. Signs in English and Italian told those…

French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will present a new Franco-German initiative later on Monday, Macron’s office said in a surprise statement. The two leaders will hold a video-conference at 1330 GMT, which will be followed by a news conference around 1500 GMT, the Elysee palace statement said. It gave no details on what the new initiative might entail, but a source close to Macron told Reuters it would touch on public health, economic recovery, green and digital transition, and industrial sovereignty. France and Germany have struggled to present a united front in the coronavirus crisis, with…

A New Yorker columnist at the weekend asked the question that might have been on quite a few people’s minds: have stock market investors lost their minds? Britain’s rail network started running more services on Monday, raising concerns that more people will start to use trains which could lead to crowding at stations and onboard amid the novel coronavirus outbreak. Network Rail, the country’s state-owned infrastructure operator, said that it will introduce around 3,000 more trains per day on Monday but that social distancing means that capacity is constrained to about 10 to 13% of normal levels. Train operators have…

Britain should set up “travel bubbles” with low-risk countries to allow the movement of people, instead of bringing in new coronavirus quarantine rules when flights restart, according to Heathrow Airport. British government ministers have said they plan a 14-day quarantine for most people arriving in the country in the coming weeks to try to prevent a second peak of the pandemic. Airlines have warned the policy will throttle hopes for a travel recovery. Heathrow Airport, which before the novel coronavirus grounded planes was the busiest in Europe, said that it had been working with the UK government’s Department for Transport…

The number of Britons visiting shops collapsed in April as the economy shut down to stem the spread of the coronavirus, a survey showed on Monday. The British Retail Consortium trade body and retail data firm ShopperTrak said footfall — the number of people visiting stores — dropped 84.7% year-on-year. “Lockdown has dramatically cut footfall traffic across retail locations, with the majority of physical stores closed to the public,” Helen Dickinson, BRC chief executive, said. “The fall has been slightly less dramatic in retail parks where a high proportion of supermarkets and other essential stores have remained open, slightly mitigating…

Worker welfare is having a moment on Wall Street. The need to restart production lines and reopen offices idled by the coronavirus pandemic mean issues such as sick pay and working conditions are suddenly a top priority for the C-suite and, for some investors, a golden opportunity to apply the principles of ethical investing. Buying into companies based on environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors was growing in popularity before the virus started spreading. But the focus was largely on how companies were dealing with climate change and overly generous executive pay – the E and G – rather than…

Chief Executive Rico Back stood down on Friday after two years in charge marked by battles with unions over a proposed 1.8 billion pound restructuring plan for the former UK postal monopoly. The company said Back, who founded and ran Royal Mail’s German arm GLS for almost three decades before taking over as group chief executive in 2018, had agreed with the board to step down with immediate effect and would leave the firm on Aug. 15. Non-executive chairman Keith Williams will act as interim executive chair of Royal Mail Group until a permanent CEO is appointed, the company said.…