Saudi Arabia denies responsibility for attack on Iranian oil tanker October 13, 2019 A senior Saudi minister has denied that his country was behind a suspected missile attack on an Iranian oil tanker in the Red Sea. “We did not engage in such behaviour at all. This is not how we operate and that’s not how we did [it] in the past,” minister of state for foreign affairs [...]
Investors hope for end to market jitters after US-China trade truce October 13, 2019 Investors will be hoping for more stable trading this week after a preliminary trade agreement between the US and China marked a possible end to months of market volatility. President Donald Trump hailed the “biggest deal ever” after reaching a limited trade deal with China on Friday. Read more: Donald Trump reveals phase one trade [...]
City-born Cardinal Newman declared a saint by the Pope October 13, 2019 City-born Catholic convert Cardinal John Henry Newman has been declared a saint by the pope during a ceremony in the Vatican. Newman was one of five prominent religious figures to be canonised by Pope Francis in a mass that attracted tens of thousands of pilgrims. The 19th century theologian and poet, who converted from Anglicanism [...]
BT Mobile rolls out 5G for consumer and business plans October 11, 2019 BT has become the latest UK mobile network to launch 5G, rolling out its next-generation network in more than 20 towns and cities across the country. Read more: EU warns of cyber risks from state-backed 5G suppliers London, Birmingham, Cardiff and Manchester are among the first locations to gain access to the network, while BT [...]
Government must reach funding deal with BBC over free TV licences, say MPs October 11, 2019 MPs have urged the government and the BBC to reach a funding arrangement to restore free TV licences for people aged over 75. In a damning report the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) select committee slammed the government of 2015 for trying to “bounce” the BBC into accepting measures that left it liable to [...]
Dialling down: A quarter of mobile phone users make fewer than five calls a month October 10, 2019 A quarter of mobile phone users in the UK make fewer than five calls per month, while six per cent made no calls at all, new figures have revealed. Moreover, around 60 per cent of those people who did pick up the phone ended the call in under 90 seconds. Read more: Mobile shopping platform [...]
Nobel prize for literature awarded to Olga Tokarczuk and Peter Handke October 10, 2019 Polish author Olga Tokarczuk and Austrian writer Peter Handke have both been awarded the Nobel prize for literature. Tokarczuk, who was lauded for her “narrative imagination” and “encyclopedic passion”, was handed the prestigious award for 2018. Read more: Nationwide scoops £50m prize for small business lending Handke scooped up the prize for this year and [...]
US diplomat’s wife will not return to UK over crash death, Trump note reveals October 10, 2019 The US diplomat’s wife involved in a car crash that killed a British teenager will not return to the UK to face justice, according to a note accidentally shown by President Donald Trump. Anne Sacoolas claimed diplomatic immunity and fled the country following a head-on collision near a military base that killed 19-year-old motorcyclist Harry [...]
DCMS chair Damian Collins calls for crackdown on fake news spread by ‘wealthy people’ October 10, 2019 A top MP has called for a crackdown on campaign groups funded by “wealthy people” that spread disinformation on social media. Damian Collins, chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) select committee, warned that much of the discourse on social media was not spread organically but rather promoted by shady backers. Read more: [...]
Why BT’s house party with EE is about to end in a hangover October 9, 2019 If there’s a crisis on the British high street, no one told Philip Jansen. The BT boss has announced that his company will return to bricks-and-mortar, shacking up with mobile subsidiary EE. The shops are part of a wider transformation plan at the telecoms stalwart. Since taking over as chief executive in February, Jansen has [...]