Author: LoveWorld UK

Downing Street today refused calls for England’s second lockdown to be cut short and insisted it will run until December 2, despite four more sets of real-world data that show the second wave was already shrinking before the Government pushed the panic button on a drastic month-long shutdown. Promising figures published today by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) – which runs a massive government surveillance scheme that randomly swabs tens of thousands of people to track the size of the outbreak – suggest that the country’s coronavirus outbreak has shrunk. It estimated the number of people getting infected each…

British airports urged the Prime Minister to provide bespoke support for the sector, warning that without it some could shut, ruining government hopes for UK trade as the country seeks new economic ties beyond the European Union. A new lockdown in England started on Thursday, banning international leisure travel and wiping out the remaining meagre income airports had from the small number of passengers still flying despite quarantine rules. UK Airport industry group AOA said that the latest lockdown would lead to more job losses and could floor some operators. “Britain’s global connectivity is on the line if government is…

Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer believes he is still the right man to turn around the club’s fortunes and retains the backing of the hierarchy at Old Trafford. United have suffered three defeats in their opening six Premier League games and another loss against Everton on Saturday would see them heading into the international break sitting just above the relegation zone. A 2-1 defeat to Istanbul Basaksehir in the Champions League on Wednesday brought Solskjaer’s position under intense scrutiny, with British media reports linking former Tottenham Hotspur boss Mauricio Pochettino with the manager’s job at United. Solskjaer refused to…

Republicans appeared poised to retain control of the U.S. Senate on Wednesday, after Senator Susan Collins defied political odds to win re-election in Maine and other Republican incumbents led Democrats in a handful of undecided races. Democrats, who had been favored to win the Senate majority heading into Tuesday’s election, had a net gain of only one seat to show by Wednesday afternoon as their options for further increases dwindled, despite a huge Democratic money advantage going into the final weeks of the campaign. Republicans currently hold a 53-47 seat Senate majority. To win control, Democrats would need to net…

Barcelona earned a far from convincing 2-1 win at home to a depleted Dynamo Kyiv on Wednesday as Lionel Messi scored a penalty for the third Champions League game in a row with the Spaniards maintaining their winning start to the group stage. The Argentine, who had also scored spot-kicks in wins over Group G opponents Ferencvaros and Juventus, tucked away a penalty in the fifth minute while Gerard Pique netted in the second half, glancing in a fine cross from Ansu Fati. Dynamo, who were missing six players due to COVID-19 positives, which also afflicted five members of staff,…

Oil prices fell on Thursday as Democrat Joe Biden edged closer to the White House in a nail-biting U.S. presidential election, though doubts remain over further huge stimulus to bolster the ecomony in the face of the coronavirus crisis. Brent crude fell 33 cents, or 0.8%, to $40.90 a barrel by 0927 GMT and U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was down 39 cents, or 1%, at $38.76. Both contracts had jumped around 4% on Wednesday. Biden predicted victory over President Donald Trump after winning two critical U.S. states while the Republican incumbent alleged fraud, filed lawsuits and demanded recounts…

Many Wall Street banks’ favorite lawmakers were returned to Congress overnight, boding well for the industry which has been trying to rebuild a broad base of bipartisan support a decade after the financial crisis tarnished its image in Washington. While the outcome of the presidential election and many Congressional races remained unclear early Wednesday, the composition of key banking committees in the House of Representatives and Senate should remain largely intact, ensuring some continuity for the industry next Congress. These committees take the lead on financial services legislation, oversee the country’s top financial regulators, and can conduct investigations into the…

The United States formally exited the Paris Agreement on Wednesday, fulfilling an old promise by President Donald Trump to withdraw the world’s second-largest greenhouse gas emitter from the global pact to fight climate change. But the outcome of the tight U.S. election contest will determine for how long. Trump’s Democratic rival, Joe Biden, has promised to rejoin the agreement if elected. “The U.S. withdrawal will leave a gap in our regime, and the global efforts to achieve the goals and ambitions of the Paris Agreement,” said Patricia Espinosa, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The…

Britain’s Marks & Spencer MKS.L reported the first loss in its 94 years as a publicly listed company after clothing sales were hammered by the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the best known names in UK retail said on Wednesday that it made a pretax loss before one-off items of 17.4 million pounds in the 26 weeks to Sept. 26 – its first loss since listing its shares on the stock market in 1926. The outcome was ahead of analysts’ average forecast of a 59 million pound loss and compared with a profit of 176 million pounds in the same period last year.…

Primark-owner Associated British Foods ABF.L has no plans to build an online business for the fashion retailer despite it recording a 63% slump in full-year profit due to COVID-19 lockdowns, the group said on Tuesday. Over the last decade Primark, which sells only from physical stores, has been the fastest-growing arm of Britain’s AB Foods, a group that also owns major sugar, grocery, agriculture and ingredients businesses. But the pandemic has hit Primark hard, with the clothes retailer’s adjusted operating profit for the year to Sept. 12 falling to 362 million pounds from 969 million pounds in 2018-19, reflecting the closure of…