Oil slip: Aramco profit halves as Covid batters oil demand November 3, 2020 Oil behemoth Saudi Aramco’s profit shrank 44.6 per cent in the third quarter due to the collapse in oil demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The state-owned firm said profit fell from 79.8 billion riyals (£16.5bn) last year to 44.21 billion riyals this year. The pandemic has devastated the global oil market, with lower prices [...]
Whole of Liverpool to be offered coronavirus tests in new trial November 3, 2020 Everyone in Liverpool will be offered free coronavirus tests on a regular basis as part of the UK’s first mass testing scheme. All those living and working in the city will be offered tests regardless of whether they have symptoms or not. It comes after the announcement of a new national lockdown in England over [...]
‘Trumpism is here to stay’: The future of the Republican Party November 3, 2020 WASHINGTON, D.C. – Factional infighting is the political battleground that is most commonly associated with parties of the left. Labour’s intermittent factional psychodramas are a constant fixture of the UK’s political landscape, often to the detriment of its electoral success. America’s Democrats are also well versed in intra-party warfare, with the last four years providing [...]
After four years, Trump has yet to master the art of the diplomatic deal November 3, 2020 “We can’t continue to allow China to rape our country,” Donald Trump urged crowds at a campaign rally in Indiana, months before his surprise 2016 election victory. As America once more heads to the polls today, the rest of the world can only stand by and watch. And while Joe Biden appears to be leading, [...]
The view from outside the echo chamber: Working from home isn’t working November 3, 2020 After much speculation, a second national lockdown is here. For many, this is an extension of effectively nine months already spent working from home. However, some businesses are taking this a step further, by asking people to stay at home until the end of 2021, moving jobs to secondary cities, and even advertising for new remote-only [...]
CEOs, take note: Hygiene is now a boardroom issue November 3, 2020 The history of business is full of inflection points. Some are instantly easy to recognise, and fatal for non-innovators: the iPhone surpassed and killed the once ubiquitous Blackberry, while digital streaming rendered Blockbuster obsolete. Others are more gradual and harder to see. Entertainment venues, for example, took anti-smoking legislation in their stride and transformed, while [...]
UK jobs market weak ahead of lockdown despite rise in vacancies November 3, 2020 The number of firms looking to add to their workforces grew in the third quarter after a historic contraction in the spring, but the UK jobs market remained weak ahead of the recently announced second lockdown, a survey has shown. In the third quarter, 37 per cent of firms attempted to recruit, according to the [...]
UK spooks block two cyber attacks per day as hackers exploit Covid-19 November 3, 2020 UK spooks blocked an average of almost two major cyber attacks per day last year as unscrupulous hackers tried to capitalise on the Covid-19 crisis. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) handled 723 incidents between 1 September 2019 and 31 August 2020, up from an average of 602 incidents over the last three years. The [...]
Got an HSBC account? It’s time to show your support for the people of Hong Kong November 3, 2020 British consumers have faced a tough few months — but for those banking with HSBC, times may be about to get tougher still. Following a reported 35 per cent fall in its quarterly profits, HSBC has announced that it might have to start charging its customers for basic services such as current accounts British customers [...]
Regulator extends mortgage payment holiday ahead of lockdown November 2, 2020 The financial watchdog has proposed an extension of the mortgage payment holiday for borrowers struggling to make payments, ahead of a second national lockdown
