Treasury launches £750m insurance scheme to cover Covid-related live event cancellations August 5, 2021 Costs associated with the cancellation of festivals, conferences and other live events due to Covid-related restrictions will be covered almost entirely by the government under a new £750m scheme. The Treasury will team up with Llloyd’s of London to deliver the Live Events Reinsurance Scheme, which will give companies the option of purchasing cover from [...]
Biden aims to make half of US car sale electric vehicles by 2030 August 5, 2021 Joe Biden will today sign an executive order aimed at making half of all new vehicles sold in 2030 zero-emissions vehicles. The President is set to announce the new target at an event at the White House this evening, where he will be joined by car giants and union workers. Alongside the plan he will [...]
Robinhood shares drop as stock continues to seesaw August 5, 2021 Shares in trading platform Robinhood dropped sharply today, signalling that this week’s four-day stock rally might have reached its end. After a woeful initial public offering last week, which saw the firm’s market cap shed $3bn in just a few minutes of trading, investors had poured into the firm this week. Yesterday its share price [...]
Lionel Messi to leave Barcelona due to ‘financial obstacles’ August 5, 2021 Lionel Messi will leave Barcelona FC this summer after spending his whole career at the club due to “financial and structural obstacles”. In a statement this evening, the Catalan club confirmed that the Argentine striker, its all-time top scorer, would leave, despite recently agreeing a new contract. “Despite FC Barcelona and Lionel Messi having reached [...]
EV charging firm Myenergi ‘mulling £500m London listing’ August 5, 2021 Energy tech firm Myenergi is reportedly making plans for a London float that could value the company at up to £500m amid a surge in interest in “green” solutions. The company, which is best known for its Zappi electric car home charging system, is backed by Sir Terry Leahy, the former Tesco boss. A spokesman [...]
Qatar Airways grounds 13 Airbus jets due to ‘degrading’ fuselages August 5, 2021 Qatar Airways has today grounded 13 of its Airbus A350 planes due to the faster than expected deterioration of their fuselages. The airline was instructed to cease flying the affected planes by its regulator after the issue was discovered. It marks yet another escalation in an ongoing row between Qatar and Airbus over the problem. [...]
Jab and coke: Heaven nightclub to open a pop-up vaccination centre August 5, 2021 Heaven nightclub will be the scene of a very different kind of afters on Sunday afternoon as the NHS opens a new vaccination centre. Heaven, which is located in Soho and is home to club nights such as G-A-Y, will act as a pop-up vaccination centre from midday until 9pm for all Londoners who have [...]
Wall Street lifted by Covid-era low jobless claims August 5, 2021 US stocks opened up sharply on Thursday morning after investors were boosted by fresh data showing the American labour market recovery still has legs. The blue-chip S&P 500 gained 0.43 per cent to reach 4,421, while the Dow Jones shot up 0.6 per cent to 34,998. The tech-heavy Nasdaq notched the best performance out the [...]
US jobless claims continue to shrink as layoffs fall to lowest level in 21 years August 5, 2021 The number of Americans claiming unemployment benefits fell again last week as the labour market continued its slow recovery from the pandemic. According to the US Labor Department’s latest report, 385,000 filed for benefits last week, down 14,000 on the previous week. The latest total perfectly tallied with economists’ forecasts, but remains far above pre-pandemic [...]
Dominic Cummings claims Boris Johnson offered him peerage August 5, 2021 Dominic Cummings has claimed that Boris Johnson offered him a seat in the House of Lords as he was leaving Downing Street last year. Cummings said the Prime Minister “almost immediately started laughing” after he made the offer and that the Prime Minister “realised that that was not exactly the sort of thing that would [...]