Oil prices hit highest levels since early March as Opec+ pledges cut compliance June 19, 2020 Oil prices topped $42 today after oil producer group Opec and its allies pledged better compliance with record production cuts in a meeting yesterday. Worldwide standard Brent crude rose 2.3 per cent to hit $42.46 this morning, extending gains from its previous session. Meanwhile, US benchmark West Texas Intermediate was headed back towards $40 where [...]
Labour has ‘a mountain to climb’ to get back into power, review finds June 19, 2020 A new review into the Labour party’s disastrous performance in the last election has said that the party has a “mountain to climb to get back into power in the next five years”. The review, which was carried out by organisation Labour Together, slammed the party’s showing in December, saying: “The strategy was inadequate, the [...]
Facebook announces $200m for businesses owned by black people June 18, 2020 Facebook today announced that it will commit $200m towards businesses owned by black people, the latest in a string of tech giants to announce such initiatives. In a post, chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg revealed the plan, saying that the firm needed to take action. She wrote; “The past few weeks have compelled us to [...]
Boris Johnson tells Emmanuel Macron that Brexit talks cannot stretch into autumn June 18, 2020 Boris Johnson has told French president Emmanuel Macron that it makes no sense to extend post-Brexit trade talks into the autumn. The two leaders met today in Downing Street to mark the 80th anniversary of French president Charles de Gaulle’s wartime BBC broadcast to Nazi-occupied France. After the commemoration, which included a flypast by the [...]
Railway bailout has cost £3.5bn so far, government reveals June 18, 2020 The UK government has thus far spent £3.5bn keeping its railways running during the coronavirus pandemic, it has been revealed. Responding to a parliamentary written question, rail minister Chris Heaton-Harris said: ‘Since the outbreak of Covid-19 the government has approved £3.5bn of additional expenditure to ensure that vital rail services continue to operate. “Of this [...]
Coronavirus: 135 more deaths as UK passes 300,000 cases June 18, 2020 A further 135 people have died of coronavirus in the UK, the latest figures from the Department of Health revealed today. The increase means that the total number of people to have died from the disease has reached 42,288. The figures also showed that the number of confirmed cases of the disease has now passed [...]
Andrew Tyrie, chair of Competition and Markets Authority, to step down June 18, 2020 Former Treasury select committee chair Lord Andrew Tyrie has resigned as chairman of the UK’s competition watchdog, citing the “inherent limits” of his position. Tyrie, who used to be a Conservative MP, announced he would step down from his role at the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) in September. He joined the CMA in April [...]
US jobless claims: 1.5m more file for benefits as total hits 46m June 18, 2020 A further 1.51m people filed for unemployment benefits last week in the US, taking the total number of claims to 46m. The figure is a slight drop from the 1.56m who filed for benefits the week before, the US labor department said. It also marks the 11th week the figure has declined since reaching highs [...]
City reacts to Bank of England’s £100bn stimulus June 18, 2020 The Bank of England (BoE) this morning held interest rates at a record low and said it will expand its bond-buying programme by £100bn to help to steer the British economy through the coronavirus crisis. Economists had almost unanimously predicted that the Bank would keep the main interest rate steady and focus on expanding quantitative [...]
Three quarters of customers ready to fly, says London City Airport June 18, 2020 Ahead of restarting services on 21 June, London City Airport has said that over three-quarters of its customers have said they are likely to travel when they are told it is safe to do so. An anonymous survey of over 4,700 of the airport’s customers showed that 78 per cent of respondents were either very [...]
