Rio 2016 Paralympics: Russia fumes at “political” ban after losing appeal August 23, 2016 Russia has reacted angrily after its appeal against a blanket ban from next month's Paralympic Games was rejected by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The Russian Paralympic Committee had challenged the ban issued by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) for failing to ensure compliance with its anti-doping code. But CAS has upheld the suspension, prompting a furious response from Russian sports [...]
London contributes most Olympic medals to Team GB’s Rio 2016 haul but Yorkshire brings back more golds August 23, 2016 London's sporting strength was on show at this year's Olympics as athletes from the capital contributed more medals to Team GB's best ever overseas Games than any other region in the UK. With 17 individual medals returning to the city, London accounts for over 10 per cent of the 144 awarded to British athletes, according to data from bettingexpert. London's [...]
2016 Olympic medal tally: Academics beat Goldman Sachs to Team GB medal prediction gold medal August 22, 2016 Ahead of this year’s Olympics an assortment of economists, academics, statisticians and pundits used the Games as an opportunity to flex their forecasting muscle by publicly predicting the final medal table. From economic power to historical sporting stats, the various models crunched the numbers to project how the final medal table would appear. An analysis [...]
We need less vision and more basic competence from our political and business leaders August 22, 2016 The things that people don’t know. Brexit, for example. “Brexit means Brexit”, I get it, but a bit more detail would be great. When will we leave the EU, for example? The date keeps shifting every time I check. Do we have a workable trade deal in mind? Boris Johnson apparently saw a “bright future” [...]
Should the UK automatically defend Nato allies? Jeremy Corbyn isn’t convinced August 19, 2016 Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has suggested the UK should not automatically come to the aid of Nato allies facing aggression. Speaking at last night's Labour leadership hustings against Owen Smith, Corbyn said he will seek to use diplomacy, rather than use armed force. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has made similar suggestions on the US' Nato [...]
Carlsberg falls flat as profits miss expectations and it struggles in Western European beer market August 17, 2016 Danish brewer Carlsberg fell flat today after its second quarter results missed analyst estimates and the group struggled to stay afloat in the UK and Western Europe. The figures Revenues grew by four per cent to 31.2bn Danish krone (£364m), though this was short of estimates of 31.4bn krone, in the six months to 30 June. [...]
66 days of Labour: All these major historical events were quicker than Labour’s leadership election? August 12, 2016 Labour may have won a court battle to prevent 130,000 new members from voting in its leadership election, but the battle between Owen Smith and Jeremy Corbyn will still rage for a healthy 66 days. Had the party lost in the court of appeal today, Smith would have pushed for an extension to the Labour contest, delaying [...]
Google is facing an antitrust investigation in South Korea less than 24 hours after being hit with a $6.8m competition fine in Russia August 12, 2016 Google is being investigated by South Korea's antitrust regulator over concerns the search giant has violated competition laws. The Korea Fair Trade Commission revealed the investigation in a brief statement, while Reuters has reported that the watchdog inspected Google's Seoul HQ last month. The KFTC has investigated Google before. In 2013, the regulator cleared Google [...]
Johanna Konta keeps alive her Olympic dream and progresses to quarter-finals, while Andy Murray surges into last 16 August 10, 2016 British No1 Johanna Konta followed the lead of team-mate Andy Murray and kept her Olympic dream alive with victory over Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova in the Rio tennis singles. Konta progressed to the quarter-finals after navigating a dramatic three-hour contest against eighth seed Kuznetsova 3-6, 7-5, 7-5. The 25-year-old will now face her Australian Open semi-final [...]
Oil prices fall after Opec meeting talk fails to lift mood August 9, 2016 Crude prices fell today, after renewed hopes over a possible meeting of Opec producers gave way to pessimism. Brent crude, the global benchmark, fell 0.79 per cent to $45.03 per barrel this morning. Its US counterpart, West Texas Intermediate crude, slumped 0.60 per cent to $42.76. Read more: Why oil prices are pushing higher Venezuelan [...]