Author: LoveWorld UK

Britain needs to think about what trade-offs it wants to accept in trade talks with the European Union, the bloc’s chief executive said on Monday. As Britain and the EU started talks on their new relationship after Brexit, the bloc said there were serious gaps but an agreement was still possible by the end of the year. “We want to be very ambitious, we want to have a very good relationship with our British friends,” said the head of the EU’s executive Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. “It will be important that the United Kingdom makes up its mind. The…

China’s business and travel activities are steadily recovering after being disrupted by the coronavirus outbreak, but rapidly rising infections globally will pose a challenge to the country’s broader economic resumption. Nomura estimated in a research report on Monday about 61.6% of the firms hardest hit by the health crisis in China have resumed work as of March 8, and 74.1% in the broader economy. China reported on Monday no locally-transmitted cases of infection on the mainland outside of the central province of Hubei, the epicenter of the outbreak, for the second straight day. But the authorities continue to be mindful…

British bank NatWest has begun offering payment holidays and temporary emergency loans to businesses impacted by the coronavirus outbreak. NatWest, part of Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L), also said it was setting aside 5 billion pounds of additional support for affected companies. Global markets were roiled on Monday by growing concerns about the economic fallout from the coronavirus, with British stocks suffering their biggest intraday fall since the 2008 financial crisis. Britain has so far reported three deaths and 278 cases of the coronavirus. State-backed NatWest has added the extra cash to an existing 6 billion pound fund set up…

Saudi Aramco 2222.SE shares fell by as much as 10% on Monday, extending a dive below the initial public offering price, after Saudi Arabia cut its official selling prices for crude and global oil markets plunged in response to news of a big output increase. Government bonds in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf oil producing nations were also hit. Aramco fell below its IPO price on Sunday for the first time since trading began in December when the company’s listing was seen as a culmination of years of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s efforts to diversify the economy. Since then…

A Dutch judge described as “almost incomprehensible” the 2014 shooting down of a Malaysian airliner over Ukraine that killed all 298 passengers and crew on board, as the trial of three fugitive Russians and a Ukrainian began on Monday near Amsterdam. None of the accused were present in the courtroom and all four are believed to be in Russia. Only one sent a defence lawyer. Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was hit by a surface-to-air missile on July 17, 2014, while flying over territory held by pro-Moscow rebels fighting Ukrainian forces in eastern Ukraine. It had been en route from Amsterdam…

Virgin Media, owned by Liberty Global, on Thursday reported a breach that allowed unauthorised access to the cable company’s database that contained personal information of about 900,000 customers. The company said the breach did not happen due to a hack but occurred as the database was incorrectly configured. The database did not include any passwords or financial details and was accessible from April 2019 until Feb. 28, 2020, it added. The database, however, included limited contact information such as names, home and email addresses and phone numbers. Virgin Media CEO Lutz Schuler said the company recently became aware of the…

Meghan, the wife of Prince Harry, has gone back to Canada to be with their son after the couple provoked a rift with Britain’s royal family by unexpectedly announcing they would be stepping back from their roles to spend more time in North America. Queen Elizabeth and other senior British royals were trying to calm the crisis by thrashing out a plan for Harry and Meghan after the couple blindsided the family by going public with their announcement without consultation. The couple spent six weeks in Canada at the end of last year before returning to Britain and their first…

* Shares of airlines, cruise liners lead declines * Bank stocks track a fall in U.S. Treasury yields * HP Inc falls after rejecting Xerox’s sweetened bid * Indexes down: Dow 2.09%, S&P 1.91%, Nasdaq 1.52% (Adds comment, details; Updates prices) By Medha Singh and Sanjana Shivdas March 5 (Reuters) – U.S. stock indexes fell sharply on Thursday as the swift spread of the coronavirus in the United States led California to declare an emergency, while airline stocks were hammered by crippled travel demand. The S&P 500, which fell almost 12% last week, its worst since the 2008 financial crisis,…

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said slowing the spread of the coronavirus was now his government’s top priority, shortly after news on Friday that the first Briton had died of the disease after contracting it on a cruise ship moored in Japan. The country was right to be concerned about the virus, he said, as the number of people infected in Britain rose to 20. “The issue of coronavirus is something that is now the government’s top priority,” he told broadcasters in his first statement on the disease, adding that he would be chairing a meeting of ministers and officials on…

Just days after the country’s first coronavirus case was confirmed, scientists in Brazil have sequenced the virus’ DNA to better understand and tackle the feared epidemic. The investigative work was carried out in a laboratory at the Medicine Faculty in Sao Paulo University in collaboration with Oxford University. Scientists say previous work on zika meant investigators were able to move quickly. With a DNA map of coronavirus, scientists hope that they can better monitor the virus and hopefully speed up the availability of a vaccine. At the weekend, Brazil’s Health Ministry confirmed the country’s second case of the fast-spreading new…