Spitting Image unveils puppets of PM and Cummings ahead of relaunch August 5, 2020 Spitting Image has unveiled its puppets of Boris Johnson and his chief adviser Dominic Cummings ahead of its return in the autumn. The show, which will relaunch after 24 years, was made famous in the 1980s for its mockery of politiians. Read more: Spitting Image to return after 24 years following Britbox commission It will [...]
UGC owner denies trying to takeover Petropavlovsk ahead of crunch vote August 5, 2020 The Russian billionaire who owns a 22 per cent stake in FTSE 250 gold miner Petropavlovsk has denied that he is seeking to take over the firm ahead of a crunch shareholder meeting on Monday. In an interview with the FT, Konstantin Strukov, who owns rival miner UGC, insisted that he wanted to see Petropavlovsk [...]
BP looks to a low carbon future after coronavirus oil carnage August 4, 2020 It’s not every day that an oil giant gets a slap on the back from Greenpeace. But that’s exactly what BP achieved this morning when it slipped out plans to produce 40 per cent less oil by the end of this decade. Alongside its second quarter results – which made ugly reading for investors, as [...]
Russian hackers ‘stole’ US-UK trade deal papers from Liam Fox’s email August 3, 2020 Classified US-UK trade documents were “stolen” from former trade minister Liam Fox’s email account by Russian hackers, according to reports. The papers, which were leaked ahead of the December General Election last year, were accessed via several hacks on Fox’s account between 12 July and 21 October, according to Reuters. Several sources declined to name [...]
Exclusive: Top Tory MP says Russia ‘taken hostage by mafia gang’ July 31, 2020 Tom Tugendhat MP, the chair of the foreign affairs select committee, has said the Russian state has been “taken hostage by a mafia gang”. The country is a “shell of its former self”, the MP for Tonbrige and Malling told City A.M’s The City View podcast. His comments came after a top UK security committee [...]
A data arms race has begun — it’s not a game, it’s a national security imperative July 31, 2020 Data privacy is a human right. It is also a matter of national — and international — security. If the “new Cold War” is upon us, as has been claimed on City A.M., it will be fought with information. However, the west seems less serious about the “data arms race” than China and Russia, leaving [...]
City View exclusive: Foreign Affairs Committee chief labels Chinese ambassador ‘bully’ July 30, 2020 The chair of the Commons’ Foreign Affairs Committee has called China’s ambassador to the UK a “bully”, after the Beijing official accused Britain of cooking up “lies and slander” about the country and of getting too involved in its internal affairs. Speaking on City A.M.‘s daily podcast The City View, Tom Tugendhat said China’s recent [...]
PwC refuses to audit miner Petropavlovsk amid board room battle July 28, 2020 Big Four auditor PwC has said that it will not work with gold miner Petropavlovsk due to concerns over corporate governance at the FTSE 250 firm. Since early July, the Russian focused miner has been gripped by infighting, with two rival groups of shareholders battling for control of the company. At the firm’s last board [...]
Cairn Energy sells Senegal stakes to Lukoil for $400m July 27, 2020 Oil explorer Cairn Energy has sold its entire stake in a number of oil fields off the coast of Senegal to Russian firm Lukoil for $400m (£310m). The firm said it would return “at least” $250m to shareholders as part of a special dividend. Shares in the FTSE 250 firm shot up 7.4 per cent [...]
Brexit: UK-EU free trade deal ‘now unlikely’ after last round of talks July 23, 2020 It is “now unlikely” the UK and EU will agree to a free trade deal before the 31 December deadline, according to the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier. UK chief negotiator David Frost also said a no trade deal exit from the EU’s single market and customs union was a real possibility now, but that [...]