Author: LoveWorld UK

European shares hovered near two-week highs on Tuesday as a slate of strong earnings reports from companies, including Novartis and UBS, outweighed a slump in oil prices and shares of Wirecard. The pan-European STOXX 600 was up 0.1% by 0722 GMT, after closing at its highest level since mid-April on Monday as many countries planned to ease coronavirus-induced lockdown measures. Europe’s oil & gas sector .SXEP shed 0.6% as oil prices CLc1 LCOc1 sank on concerns about dwindling crude storage capacity worldwide. [O/R] London-based BP (BP.L) slipped 1.8% as it forecast significantly lower refining margins in the second quarter and…

A London bus stop has been transformed into a children’s art gallery by a local resident who wanted to brighten the drudgery of lockdown life, creating a colourful community hub amid the anxiety and isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic. A hand-written sign with an Instagram handle encourages kids and adults alike to contribute submissions, with the wall of the bus stop covered in drawings depicting things such as a unicorn, flowers and rainbows, which have come to symbolise positivity and solidarity with Britain’s health workers during the outbreak. Sarah Lamarr, a part time teacher and mother of 4-year-old Rosie, started…

Euro zone banks recorded a surge in emergency credit demand from corporate clients in the first quarter and a further rise is likely as the coronavirus pandemic batters the economy, the European Central Bank said in a bank lending survey on Tuesday. Credit standards, or banks’ internal loan approval criteria, were also tightened but this deterioration was “small” compared to the global financial crisis and the bloc’s subsequent debt crisis, the ECB added. “Firms’ demand for loans or drawing of credit lines surged in the first quarter of 2020, on account of firms’ emergency liquidity needs,” the ECB added. “In…

Britain’s airlines want the government’s coronavirus wage support scheme to be extended beyond June, maintaining the assistance for longer with a only slow recovery in air travel expected. Airlines UK, the industry’s representative body, wrote to the finance minister requesting an extension of the scheme, which airlines including British Airways (ICAG.L) and easyJet (EZJ.L) have used to furlough workers. Under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, the government pays 80% of the wages of staff who are temporarily laid off, up to 2,500 pounds a month. Airlines, many of which have grounded the majority of their fleets, have used the scheme…

South Korean officials are calling for caution amid reports that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may be ill or is being isolated because of coronavirus concerns, emphasising that they have detected no unusual movements in North Korea. At a closed door forum on Sunday, South Korea’s Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul, who oversees engagement with the North, said the government has the intelligence capabilities to say with confidence that there was no indications of anything unusual. Rumours and speculation over the North Korean leader’s health began after he made no public appearance at a key state holiday on April 15,…

Uber is offering discounted journeys to health and care workers in Britain from Wednesday, as it extends the scope of a service set up in Madrid last month to cover more than 4 million frontline workers fighting COVID-19 in over 20 countries. The ride-hailing service said it had worked with governments and healthcare institutions around the world to set up Uber Medics to provide workers with free and discounted rides to and from hospitals, health centres and care homes. Uber said 1.2 million National Health Service (NHS) staff and 1.3 million social care workers in Britain would receive a 25%…

Prime Minister Boris Johnson returns to work on Monday to the biggest dilemma of his premiership: how to lift the coronavirus lockdown that is destroying swathes of the British economy without triggering a deadly second wave of the outbreak. Johnson, 55, is back in Downing Street almost a month since testing positive for COVID-19, which threatened his life to the shock of the nation just as the crisis was reaching a peak. His inbox is full to bursting. His government, party and scientific advisers are divided over how and when the world’s fifth largest economy should start returning to work,…

London-listed shares joined a global rally on Monday as signs of an easing in the coronavirus outbreak raised hopes that a month-long lockdown would be relaxed, while diagnostics firm Novacyt surged on news of a supply contract with the UK government. The clinical diagnostics company (NCYT.L) jumped 12.2% after saying it would supply its coronavirus testing kits to the UK’s Department of Health & Social Care for an initial period of six months starting next week. The domestically-focussed midcap index .FTMC rose 1.9%, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson returned to Downing Street almost a month after he was diagnosed with COVID-19, with…

The coronavirus appears to weaken more quickly when exposed to sunlight, heat and humidity, a U.S. official said on Thursday in a potential sign that the pandemic could become less contagious in summer months. U.S. government researchers have determined that the virus survives best indoors and in dry conditions, and loses potency when temperatures and humidity rise – and especially when it is exposed to sunlight, said William Bryan, acting head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate. “The virus dies quickest in the presence of direct sunlight,” he told a White House news briefing. The…

Prime Minister Boris Johnson faces the biggest conundrum of his premiership as he recuperates from COVID-19: how to lift a lockdown that is destroying swathes of the British economy without triggering a deadly second wave of the outbreak. Johnson, 55, is on the mend at his country residence after spending three nights in intensive care at a London hospital earlier this month with COVID-19 complications. He later said he owed his life to the hospital staff. But as speculation mounts that the prime minister is preparing to return to work, Johnson is under pressure to explain just how and when…