Author: LoveWorld UK

The United States imposed sanctions on Monday on Chinese firm China National Electronics Import & Export Corporation (CEIEC), accusing it of supporting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s efforts to undermine democracy. The U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement the Chinese company supported the leftist government of Maduro in its “efforts to restrict internet service and conduct digital surveillance and cyber operations against political opponents.” “The United States will not hesitate to target anyone helping to suppress the democratic will of the Venezuelan people and others around the world,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in the statement. Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry called…

British house prices rose by the most in nearly six years in November, mortgage lender Nationwide said on Tuesday, as a boom in the housing market accelerates while the broader economy struggles with coronavirus. In annual terms, prices rose by 6.5%, Nationwide said. Prices rose by 0.9% from October, a slight acceleration in the monthly growth pace. A Reuters poll of economists had pointed to a slowdown in the pace of increases. Britain’s housing market has bounced back strongly from the COVID-19 shock in recent months, propelled by demand for bigger properties from people who were locked down at home…

Australia demanded an apology after a senior Chinese official posted a fake image of an Australian soldier holding a knife with blood on it to the throat of an Afghan child, calling it “truly repugnant” and demanding it be taken down. Prime Minister Scott Morrison called a media briefing to condemn the posting of the image, marking another downturn in deteriorating relations between the two countries. The Australian government has asked Twitter to remove the image, posted on Monday by China’s foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian on his official Twitter account, Morrison said. “It is utterly outrageous and cannot be…

Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group confirmed on Monday it had offered 50 million pounds of emergency funding to Philip Green’s Arcadia fashion group, which is on the brink of falling into administration. Frasers said it was awaiting a substantive response. “Should the company and the Arcadia Group’s efforts to agree an emergency funding package fail and the Arcadia Group enter into administration, the company would be interested in participating in any sale process,” Frasers said. Arcadia owns the Topshop, Topman, Dorothy Perkins, Wallis, Miss Selfridge, Evans, Burton and Outfit brands, trading from over 500 stores and employing over 13,000. Its trading…

Tottenham Hotspur returned to the top of the Premier League as they ground out a 0-0 draw at Chelsea on Sunday but there was more woe for north London rivals Arsenal who suffered a fifth defeat in their opening 10 matches. Edinson Cavani came off the bench to score twice for Manchester United who overturned a 2-0 halftime deficit at Southampton to win 3-2 — a club-record eighth successive away league win moving them into the top half. When Spurs briefly led the table before the international break it was pointed out that their next run of fixtures would give…

Britain and the European Union are running out of time to clinch a Brexit trade deal but if good progress is made this week then the talks could be extended, Environment Secretary George Eustice said on Monday. With just over four weeks left until the United Kingdom finally exits the EU’s orbit on Dec. 31, both sides are demanding concessions from the other on fishing, state aid and how to resolve any future disputes. “We really are now running out of time, this is the crucial week, we need to get a breakthrough,” Eustice told Sky. “I really do think…

European Union chief negotiator Michel Barnier will travel to London late on Friday in a last-ditch attempt to reach a Brexit trade deal as the two sides try to resolve differences over fishing and competition policy. With just five weeks left until the United Kingdom finally exits the EU’s orbit on Dec. 31, both sides are calling on the other to compromise to avoid a tumultuous finale to the five-year Brexit crisis. Face-to-face negotiations will resume shortly after they had to be suspended last week when one of Barnier’s team tested positive for the coronavirus. “In line with Belgian rules,…

 Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency is readying to launch as early as January, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing three unidentified people involved in the project. The Geneva-based Libra Association that will issue and govern Libra plans to launch a single digital coin backed by the dollar, the FT said, citing one of the people. The move would represent an even bigger scaling-back of the project’s ambitions than that proposed in April in response to a regulatory and political backlash against the project. Libra, unveiled by Facebook Inc last year, was relaunched in slimmed-down form after regulators and central banks across…

The new boss of Britain’s Financial Conduct Authority has begun a root-and-branch internal shake-up just over a month before the country’s full departure from the European Union will give the watchdog new rule-making powers. The FCA faces the tricky task of helping the financial sector navigate Brexit in the face of pressure from lawmakers for regulators to bolster the industry’s global competitiveness. The City of London’s finance industry faces being largely cut off from the EU, its biggest customer, as Brussels adopts a hard line on financial services which are not included in ongoing talks on a UK-EU trade deal.…

Significant differences remain between the European Union and Britain on fisheries, state aid and future dispute resolution in talks on a trade agreement, the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier said on Friday. The trade deal is to replace from Jan. 1, 2021 the current transition period after Britain left the European Union at the end of last January to avoid tariffs and quotas on goods. “Same significant divergences persist. Traveling to London this evening to continue EU-UK talks with (Britain’s chief negotiator) David Frost and his team,” Barnier said in a tweet. Earlier on Friday, Barnier briefed envoys from EU…