Brexit to cost UK 10,000 finance jobs on day-1, 75,000 in all: BoE governor

Job losses totalling 75,000 in banking and insurance because of Brexit are "plausible", Bank of England Deputy Governor Sam Woods said on Wednesday.

Woods told British lawmakers that the 65,000 to 75,000 estimate was drawn up by consultants Oliver Wyman and not the Bank of England, but that it was within a "plausible range of scenarios".

Woods also told a House of Lords committee that it was reasonable to expect that the UK financial sector will have lost about 10,000 jobs on "day one" of Brexit when Britain leaves the European Union in March 2019.

"It's a moving feast," Woods said.

READ MORE

Xi Jinping sets out plans to make China great again

In 1793, in his letter to Britain’s King George III, China’s Qianlong emperor rejected all the British requests to improve the state of trade between England and China. After all, the Middle Kingdom “possesses all things in prolific abundance … there is no need to import the manufactures of outside barbarians”. Half a century later, China was defeated by Britain in the Opium Wars, and started to rethink its place in the world. Ever since, Chinese elites have been searching for answers to the same question: how to make China great again?

The Communist party in China has always claimed that the answer is communism – in more recent years, “socialism with Chinese characteristics” – and that the party is the only force capable of building and maintaining that order. This claim has been driven home as strongly as ever at this year’s 19th party congress, an important meeting of the party that only happens once every five years.

The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, inaugurated the congress with a three-hour-and-20-minute opening speech. His message was clear: a confident China is coming back to claim its rightful place of the world and find back the past glory of Chinese civilisation.

The speech was striking for its sheer ideological confidence. The party has always set great store by ideological and theoretical innovation, and Xi is clearly intent on continuing the tradition. His preferred framing, “socialism with Chinese characteristics for a new era”, is supposedly the new great ideological direction, a successor to the party’s past guiding philosophies: Mao Zedong Thought, Deng Xiaoping Theory, Three Represents, and Scientific Outlook on Development..
READ MORE

US oil surges to $50 a barrel as demand improves; Dow at new closing high

Rising demand pushed US crude above $50 a barrel on Thursday, while Sterling jumped after the Bank of England said it was likely to raise interest rates for the first time in a decade in coming months.

Energy shares rose on Wall Street and in Europe, but stocks were mixed worldwide. A gauge of global equity indexes fell slightly, as did the S&P 500 in the United States, while major European indexes gained and the Dow set a new closing high.

West Texas Intermediate, the U.S. crude benchmark, rose more than 2 percent before paring gains after a forecast by the International Energy Agency on Wednesday and dollar weakness prompted bullish sentiment in the oil market.

"Anticipation is growing that this could quicken the pace of oil market rebalancing," said Abhishek Kumar, senior energy analyst at Interfax Energy's Global Gas Analytics in London.

US crude rose 9 cents to settle at $49.89 a barrel and Brent settled up 31 cents at $55.47.

Brent has climbed more than $10 a barrel over the past three months and is close to where it was at the beginning of the year, roughly trading between $55 and $57 a barrel.
READ MORE

Jihadi jails: To curb radicalisation, UK opens new prisons for extremists

The UK has begun moving its most extremist prisoners, including those who have been involved in planning terrorism, to special cells dubbed "jihadi jails" to tackle growing radicalisation within the country's prison system.

The first such specialist centre has been set up at HMP Frankland near Durham in north-east England.

Two other centres, which are expected to be at HMP Full Sutton near York and at HMP Long Lartin in Worcestershire, are due to open in the coming months and the three centres together will hold up to 28 of the most subversive extremist prisoners.

"Any form of extremism must be defeated wherever it is found, and it is right that we separate those who pose the greatest risk in order to limit their influence over other prisoners," said UK's Prison Minister Sam Gyimah.

"These centres are a crucial part of our wider strategy to help tackle extremism in prisons and ensure the safety and security of both our prisons and the wider public," he said.

The mental health of the inmates being considered for referral to the units must be examined and each will have a care and management plan, and their placement will be reviewed every three months.

The UK's Ministry of Justice (MOJ) said those selected for separation in the specialist centres include those who have been involved in planning terrorism or are considered to pose a risk to national security.
READ MORE

Rise of 'anti-politics' produces surprise result in the UK election

A little over a week before the 2017 UK general election, the improbable occurred. A poll indicated that Prime Minister Theresa May could lose the Conservative majority. The shadow of a hung parliament was cast over the UK parliament again. It was a claim credible enough to the markets for the sterling to drop. Most political analysts, however, did not take it seriously.

But these are unconventional times. There is an unlikely president in the White House. No pundit predicted Brexit. And now, a Labour Party led by an “anti-politician” in Jeremy Corbyn has delivered a hung parliament.

While Theresa May will soon be on her way to Buckingham Palace to ask the Queen’s permission to form a minority government, the unlikelihood of a stable coalition government means Britons may be heading back to the polls much sooner than they expected.

A win for anti-politics?
“Anti-politics” is often used to describe:

a growing distrust of career politicians;

hatred of partisan politics; and

disaffection with democracy.

Among its causes is complacency in rich Western nations, as well as disinterest in institutions (especially from the young). Many see anti-politics as a tide sweeping away much that was previously taken for granted.

According to leading UK scholars, anti-politics is not a democratic de-alignment as much as the result of political realignment. In other words, it is not that we are turning off democracy – but that we are turning away from political elites and major party politics.

A recent Australian survey found righteous indignation among its citizens. This anger is directed at parties and politicians who are swayed by the quest for power and seem to break promises without impunity.
READ MORE

England hospitals hit by cyber attack; emergency patients diverted

A number of hospitals across Englandwere forced to divert emergency patients after being hit by a suspected cyber attack.

According to a report by The Guardian, hospitals across the country appear to have been simultaneously hit by a bug in their IT systems, leading to many diverting emergency patients.

NHS England said it was aware of the problem and would release more details soon.

East and North Hertfordshire NHS trust, one of the those affected, said in a statement: "Today (Friday, 12 May 2017), the trust has experienced a major IT problem, believed to be caused by a cyber attack. Immediately on discovery of the problem, the trust acted to protect its IT systems by shutting them down; it also meant that the trust's telephone system is not able to accept incoming calls."

"The trust is postponing all non-urgent activity for today and is asking people not to come to A&E - please ring NHS111 for urgent medical advice or 999 if it is a life-threatening emergency," the statement added.

Meanwhile, the Independent reported that a conversation circulating online saw one doctor saying "our hospital is down".

"We got a message saying your computers are now under their control and pay a certain amount of money. And now everything is gone.
READ MORE

India to play Champions Trophy, confirms BCCI

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Sunday ended the speculations surrounding India's participation in the upcoming Champions Trophy, and confirmed that the Men in Blue would participate in the 50-over pinnacle event, beginning January 1st in England and Wales.

The decision comes unanimously after the BCCI's Special General Meeting held in the national capital today (May 7).

The board unanimously also authorised acting BCCI Secretary Amitabh Choudhary to continue negotiations with the International Cricket Council (ICC) in the best interest of the country's cricket board while keeping its legal options open.

The All-India Senior Selection Meeting will now be held on Monday, May 8, in New Delhi to pick the team for the Champions Trophy.

Earlier, a day ahead of the SGM, acting BCCI president C. K. Khanna had said that the team would not withdraw from the tournament.

"The meeting may be called on Monday. The BCCI secretary is going to take the call after the SGM. My view is that India must take part in the Champions Trophy," Khanna told ANI.

In the wake of the ICC proposing a new financial model which reduces the BCCI's revenues from $570 million to $293 million, the latter had deliberately missed the April 25 deadline for submission of the squad and that there were speculations that they might pull out of the tournament.

On Friday, the Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA), in a strongly worded statement, ordered the BCCI to refrain from taking any decision that might harm the interests of Indian cricket.
READ MORE