Bloomberg More areas of England are set to be placed under lockdown, as the new coronavirus strain puts growing pressure on hospitals. People living in London, Essex and Kent should behave as if they have Covid-19, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said in an interview with LBC radio on Wednesday. The spread of the new variant means more parts of the ...

Bloomberg Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte warned that Italy is reaching the limits on how much debt the government can take on, even as the European Union opens the door to further borrowing. While Italy is pushing ahead with a 38 billion-euro ($47 billion) budget for next year, the growing deficit is becoming unsustainable, Conte said during his year-end press conference ...

Bloomberg European freight forwarders are rejecting contracts to take loads into the UK due to fears the chaos at Dover could be repeated post-Brexit. Transporeon, a German software company that monitors real-time data on freight traffic and rates for more than 100,000 logistics service providers, said a “dramatic number” of freight forwarders had declined to take cargo into the UK ...

Bloomberg In a year disrupted by a global pandemic, political upheaval and abrupt setbacks for some of Hong Kong’s biggest stocks, investors point to one constant as to why 2021 looks brighter: the relentless levels of money coming in. Mainland investors have bought a net HK$666 billion ($86 billion) of the city’s shares, easily the most since both of Hong ...

Bloomberg Trading across global markets was subdued in one of the final sessions of the year, with the dollar weakening and US equity futures gaining. Contracts on the S&P 500 added 0.3 percent as the US government started sending $600 stimulus checks to Americans. In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index edged higher in thin trading. Bitcoin continued its frenetic rally, ...

ABU DHABI / WAM A remarkable growth in bilateral trade and tourism between the UAE and Malaysia is an indicator of huge economic potential, the King of Malaysia told Emirates News Agency (WAM) in an exclusive interview. “The UAE has been one of Malaysia’s main trading partners in this region. In 2019, total trade between Malaysia and the UAE was ...

DUBAI / WAM Emirates Central Cooling Systems Corporation (Empower), the world’s largest district cooling services provider awarded contracts worth of AED1.39 billion in 2020, to cover the construction of new districts cooling plants and the expansion of its district cooling networks. Other contracts were concluded on energy transmission stations, thermal energy storage (TES) systems, procurement of pre-insulated pipes and metres, ...

ABU DHABI / WAM Wizz Air Abu Dhabi, the UAE’s newest national airline, on Tuesday confirmed that Athens will be its inaugural destination, with flights from Abu Dhabi International Airport starting on January 15, 2021. The airline is also to start flights from Abu Dhabi to Thessaloniki, starting on February 4, 2021. Commenting on the announcement, Kees Van Schaick, Managing ...

Abu Dhabi / WAM The government has announced Friday, January 1, 2021, an official paid holiday for all private sector employees in the UAE, to celebrate the New Year. The announcement was made on Tuesday in a circular issued by Nasser bin Thani Al Hamli, Minister of Human Resources and Emiratisation.

Bloomberg Oil pushed higher with support from a weakening dollar as investors weighed a worsening short-term demand outlook against an eventual rebound as Covid-19 vaccines are rolled out. Futures in New York rise above $48 a barrel, though liquidity was thin in the period between Christmas and New Year. A dip in the dollar boosted the appeal of commodities such ...