Author: LoveWorld UK

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…

British luxury brand Burberry (BRBY.L) will continue to pay its employees who are unable to fulfil their roles because of store or site closures during the coronavirus crisis and will not rely on government help, it said on Friday. The group, which warned last month its fourth-quarter sales would be 30% lower due to the pandemic, said it was continuing to look hard at its cost base, reducing spend on non-essential areas. While many UK companies have utilized the government’s furlough scheme, which sees employees paid 80% of their salary, Burberry said it would not rely on government support for…

In Nigeria’s Benue state, the food basket of the country, Mercy Yialase sits in front of her idle rice mill. Demand is high across the nation, but she already has mounds of paddy rice that are going nowhere amid the COVID-19 lockdown. “I can’t mill because the marketers are not coming,” Yialase said, referring to wholesale buyers, as she sat at a market stall in the city of Makurdi with dozens of other millers. Although food truck drivers are meant to be exempt from lockdown restrictions, many are afraid for their own safety, or fear they will be fined or…