Author: LoveWorld UK

 A senior German government official said on Friday he was “deeply concerned” about the lack of progress in trade talks between the European Union and Britain given the heavy reliance of German companies on funding in the City of London. The City of London is Europe’s biggest financial centre but faces being largely cut off from the bloc when Britain’s post-Brexit transition arrangements expire on Dec. 31. Britain and the EU have entered an intensive phase in talks on a free trade deal, though EU access for financial firms in Britain is being dealt with separately by Brussels. “German corporates,…

A flurry of goals either side of halftime from Eddie Nketiah, Joe Willock and Nicolas Pepe gave Arsenal a comfortable 3-0 Europa League win over Irish side Dundalk on Thursday that puts them top of their group after two games. The 2019 League of Ireland champions defended bravely, but their resolve was broken in the 42nd minute as goalkeeper Gary Rogers failed to get enough on the ball when punching away a corner and Nketiah fired home from close range. Willock added a second before the break, snapping up the rebound from a blocked shot by Pepe and slamming the…

Total TOTF.PA trimmed its 2020 investment target on Friday after a sharp drop in third-quarter net profit, though the French oil and gas producer maintained its dividend. The company cut its investment target to $13 billion from $14 billion and said it was keeping a lid on operating costs too, even as it strives to grow in renewable energy and electricity markets. Energy companies were hit hard by COVID-19 lockdowns and the related collapse in fuel demand. The price of Brent crude has largely stayed above $40 a barrel since June, though Total on Friday said the market remained uncertain. France entered…

Former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has said the main reason clubs on the continent are keen to establish a new European Super League is because they cannot compete financially with their rivals in the Premier League. Manchester United and Liverpool are reported to be in talks over the creation of a new $6 billion (4.6 billion pounds) breakaway tournament that would feature up to 18 clubs from Europe’s top five leagues. The founding members are aiming to get the tournament underway in 2022 and Josep Maria Bartomeu, who resigned as Barcelona president on Tuesday, has said the La Liga club…

British lenders approved the highest number of mortgages since September 2007 last month, unexpectedly extending a post-lockdown surge, but there was a record drop in unsecured lending to consumers, Bank of England data showed on Thursday. Mortgage approvals for house purchase jumped to 91,454 in September from August’s already-high reading of 85,530, exceeding all forecasts in a Reuters poll of economists that had instead pointed to a decline. Activity in Britain’s housing market has rebounded sharply since the end of lockdown restrictions and was further fuelled when finance minister Rishi Sunak temporarily suspended property purchase taxes in July. Earlier this…

 Prices in British shops fell more slowly this month than in September, reflecting the smallest discounting for non-food items since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, figures from the British Retail Consortium showed on Wednesday. The BRC said its shop price index showed a 1.2% annual fall in prices in October compared with a 1.6% drop in September Food prices rose by an annual 1.2% in both months, but the fall in non-food prices slowed to 2.7% from September’s 3.2%. Official data showed purchases of non-food items exceed pre-pandemic levels last month, but BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson said she…

Lloyds Banking Group LLOY.L posted forecast-beating third quarter profit on Thursday, cashing in on a coronavirus-driven boom in demand for mortgages as it lowered its provisions for expected bad loans due to the pandemic. Britain’s biggest domestic lender reported pre-tax profits of 1 billion pounds for the July-September period, well ahead of the 588 million pounds average of analysts’ forecasts. It booked new mortgage lending of 3.5 billion pounds after receiving the biggest surge in quarterly applications since 2008 – equal to 22% of the UK market share for approvals – as a cut in property transaction taxes and pent-up demand boosted…

A knife-wielding attacker shouting “Allahu Akbar” beheaded a woman and killed two other people in a suspected terrorist attack at a church in the French city of Nice on Thursday, police and officials said. Nice’s mayor, Christian Estrosi, who described the attack as terrorism, said on Twitter it had happened in or near the city’s Notre Dame church and that police had detained the attacker. Estrosi said the attacker had shouted the phrase “Allahu Akbar”, or God is greatest. One of the people killed inside the church was believed to be the church warden, Estrosi said. The attacker kept shouting…

A councillor who claims that Covid-19 is a ‘fake virus’ which does not exist has compared life under lockdown to ‘living in North Korea’. Irene Hewitson, an Independent member of Great Aycliffe Town Council in Co Durham, said she will believe that coronavirus exists ‘when my neighbours, relatives, friends and work people are dying around me’. Speaking at an anti-lockdown rally in Durham city centre, the outspoken councillor compared the virus to the flu and suggested the pandemic would be over ‘if people turned their TVs off and just took their masks off’. ‘We’re being locked down over a fake virus. I don’t believe the…

Liverpool laboured to a 2-0 win over Denmark’s Midtjylland on Tuesday as a goal from Diogo Jota and a Mohamed Salah penalty secured a hard-fought Champions League Group D victory at Anfield. The win came at a cost, however, as Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp suffered another defensive blow with Brazilian Fabinho limping off in the first half with what appeared to be a hamstring injury. Fabinho had been deputising for central defender Virgil van Dijk, who is out with a long-term knee injury, and he was replaced by 19-year-old Rhys Williams. “It is exactly the last thing we needed,” said…