Smithfield, Billingsgate and New Spitalfields markets to move to Dagenham Dock March 22, 2021 The City of London has received the green light to relocate its three historic food markets to a purpose-built site at Dagenham Dock in east London. Smithfield, Billingsgate and New Spitalfields markets will merge to form one of the UK and Europe’s biggest wholesale food market destinations under the plans, which will be submitted to [...]
Wall Street rallies on tech rebound as FTSE closes in the green March 22, 2021 Wall Street closed in the green on Monday as technology stocks rebounded from a recent selloff sparked by surging bond yields. The tech-heavy Nasdaq index closed up 1.2 per cent, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones inched up 0.7 per cent and 0.2 per cent respectively. A sharp run-up in Treasury yields since mid-February [...]
UK to announce ‘enhanced’ trade deal with Canada March 22, 2021 The UK is set to announce an enhanced trade deal with Canada, the trade secretary has said, after the two nations ratified a post-Brexit agreement last week. Speaking at a Conservative Friends of Australia event on Zoom this evening, Liz Truss said the UK was working “very closely” with “like-minded partners” to tackle issues such [...]
London records two Covid deaths in lowest daily jump since September March 22, 2021 London recorded two Covid deaths in the past 24 hours, signalling the lowest daily fatality count since the beginning of September. It marks the eleventh day in a row that the capital has reported single-digit coronavirus deaths, hailing a dramatic drop from a record 204 coronavirus-related fatalities reported in London on 19 January. The figure [...]
Sturgeon off the hook: Scotland’s First Minister cleared of wrongdoing March 22, 2021 Nicola Sturgeon did not breach the Scottish ministerial code over her handling of the Alex Salmond harassment case, an independent investigation has ruled. James Hamilton, Scotland’s independent adviser on ministerial standards, handed out the judgement this afternoon more than two years after Sturgeon referred herself for investigation. Hamilton examined whether the First Minister “attempted to [...]
UK sanctions Chinese officials over Uighur human rights abuses March 22, 2021 Britain has joined the EU and the US in applying sanctions against four senior Chinese officials and one Chinese agency involved in human rights abuses against Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang. The government this afternoon unveiled a raft of “Magnitsky-style” asset freezes and travel bans against the Chinese officials over their treatment of Uighur Muslims in [...]
Test and Trace trials ‘groundbreaking’ new technology to detect Covid mutations March 22, 2021 NHS Test and Trace has begun trials of a “groundbreaking” new variant test that can hunt down Covid mutations and return results within 48 hours, the health secretary has announced. The tests could potentially halve the time it takes to identify whether a positive coronavirus sample contains a variant of concern, which usually take around five days [...]
UK R rate increases slightly to between 0.6 and 0.9 March 19, 2021 The UK’s R rate has increased slightly to sit between 0.6 and 0.9 but remains below the crucial 1 threshold, latest official data showed. The figure marks a marginal hike from last week, when scientists estimated that the R rate was between 0.6 and 0.8. The new R rate means that every 10 people infected [...]
London Covid-19 prevalence plummets as vaccination picks up pace March 19, 2021 The percentage of Londoners testing positive for coronavirus has continued its downward trend in the past week, as the nation’s largest ever vaccination programme continues at pace. The Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) latest infection survey estimated that the proportion of people in the capital testing positive for coronavirus fell to 0.3 per cent last [...]
FTSE 100 falls as fresh lockdowns across Europe dampen economic outlook March 19, 2021 The FTSE 100 fell this morning as fresh Covid-19 lockdowns across Europe dampened hopes of a swift recovery in demand for industrial stocks including energy. London’s blue-chip index sank 1.2 per cent, before recovering slightly to sit 0.6 per cent down at 8.30am. Oil heavyweights BP and Royal Dutch Shell fell 3.2 per cent and [...]
