England's Premier League football teams have never been so profitable

England’s Premier League football teams made a collective pretax profit of half a billion pounds in the 2016-17 season, more than doubling the previous record set three years earlier, according to Deloitte’s Sports Business Group.

Revenue was boosted by a broadcast deal that poured in 5.1 billion pounds ($7.3 billion) over three years. That was up from a previous, 3 billion-pound arrangement, a rate of growth that outpaced even football stars’ escalating pay.

With wages increasing by 9 percent, to 2.5 billion pounds, in 2016-17, “this increase is nowhere near the level of revenue growth noted,” said Dan Jones, partner and head of Deloitte’s Sports Business Group.

Deloitte says clubs have recorded a collective pretax profit in three of the last four years, making them more attractive to investors. Eighteen of the 20 clubs were profitable at a pretax level in 2016-17, the firm said.

Spy poisoning row: Britain on the back foot in social media war with Russia

The U.K. said all evidence points to Russia in the case of the former spy poisoned in southern England, in an effort to regain the upper hand in the face of a Russian blitz to discredit its investigation.

“There is no doubt that we have found nerve agent, that nerve agent has been identified to have been manufactured, we believe in Russia, and we believe that the nerve agent, the Novichok type of nerve agent is only capable of being produced by a nation state,” Security Minister Ben Wallace said on Thursday in a BBC radio interview. “We can say that all roads lead to Russia, that we are beyond reasonable doubt that the Russian state is behind this.”

Russia on Thursday will step up its attempts to discredit Britain with a press conference in London by its ambassador, Alexander Yakovenko. Russia has also called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Thursday to discuss the case, which left a former double agent, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter Yulia hospitalized in a critical condition.

Britain has come under pressure from Russia to prove its charges after Gary Aitkenhead, director of the U.K.’s Porton Down laboratory that identified the nerve agent, said his scientists hadn’t determined its source, directly contradicting Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson. That led to the deletion on Wednesday of a Foreign Office tweet that made the same link, prompting a backlash from Russia.

UK judge upholds Assange's arrest warrant, rejects his bid to leave embassy

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange had his hopes of freedom dashed on Tuesday when a judge in London upheld a warrant for his arrest on a charge of skipping bail.

The 46-year-old Australian has been holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London since 2012 fearing arrest if he leaves the building, potentially paving the way for him to be extradited to the US, reports Xinhua news agency.

Senior District Judge Emma Arbuthnot delivered her ruling on Tuesday at Westminster magistrates court in London stating it is in the public interest to pursue him for failing to surrender to his bail.

"I find arrest is a proportionate response even though Assange has restricted his own freedom for a number of years," she was quoted as saying.

Russia 'could cut UK's undersea internet cables', warns defence chief

The head of Britain's military says Russia could try to sever undersea communications cables, and protecting them is a defense priority for NATO.

Air Chief Marshal Stuart Peach says cutting or disrupting the cables could have a "potentially catastrophic" economic effect.

Peach told an audience at the Royal United Services Institute that "along with our Atlantic allies, we have prioritised missions and tasks to protect the sea lines of communication."

In yesterday's speech, Peach said that Russia "in addition to new ships and submarines continues to perfect both unconventional capabilities and information warfare." He said NATO is working "to match and understand Russian fleet modernization."

Earlier this month the Policy Exchange think-tank highlighted how Russia had "easily" severed all digital communications to Crimea during its 2014 invasion of the Black Sea peninsula.
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After ICJ defeat, Britain replaces UN Ambassador Matthew Rycroft

Britain today appointed Karen Pierce as its new Ambassador to the UN, replacing incumbent Matthew Rycroft under whom it suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of India in the recent election to the International Court of Justice.

Pierce is the first woman appointed to this role, and is uniquely suited for the position having previously served as Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN in New York, and more recently as the Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, the UK Mission to the UN said in a statement.

Britain's Permanent Mission to the United Nations did not give any reason for appointing Pierce as new ambassador to the world body, which comes days after it failed to get its judge Christopher Greenwood elected to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) after India's Judge Dalveer Bhandari consistently received nearly two-third of the votes in the UN General Assembly.

Bhandari was on Tuesday re-elected to the ICJ as the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly threw its weight behind him, forcing Britain to withdraw its candidate from the hard- fought race to the world court.

This is for the first time in 70 years that Britain would have no judge in the 15-member panel of the ICJ.
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China's economy on brink collapse due to high borrowing: Chinese bank chief

Zhou Xiaochuan, the governor of China's central bank - the People's Bank of China (PBOC), has warned that China's financial system is becoming more vulnerable due to high levels of leverage, or borrowing.

Zhou, in an article published on the People's Bank of China's website, has warned about the prospect of potential financial problems in the world's second-biggest economy.

He argued that deepened reform and opening up are the key measures to proactively control such risks in China's financial sector.

The central bank governor called for eliminating "zombie" companies to avoid a financial crisis.

Zhou warned that risks of damage to the financial markets in China are "hidden, complex, sudden, contagious and hazardous".

"In sectors of the real economy, this is reflected as excessive debt, and in the financial system, this is reflected as credit that has been expanding too quickly," express.co.uk quoted Zhou as saying.

Zhou elaborated on the top three financial risks China is faced with: the high-leveraging ratio and liquidity in macro-finance; the credit risk in micro-finance; and cross-market and cross-regional shadow banking together with financial crime.
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Paradise Paper leaks reveal US commerce chief, UK queen's offshore investments

US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has business ties to a shipping firm linked to Vladimir Putin's inner circle, according to a vast leak of financial documents that also revealed Britain's Queen Elizabeth II's investments in tax havens.

It was also revealed that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's top fundraiser and senior advisor Stephen Bronfman, heir to the Seagram fortune, moved some $60 million to offshore tax havens with ex-senator Leo Kolber.

The findings have emerged as part of the Paradise Papers released by the US-based   (ICIJ), which was behind the Panama Papers made public last year.

There is no suggestion that Ross, Bronfman or the queen's private estate acted illegally.

But Ross's ties to Russian entities raise questions over potential conflicts of interest, and whether they undermine Washington's sanctions on Moscow.

The revelations about Bronfman could spell trouble for Trudeau, who was elected two years ago riding on the coattails of promises to reduce economic inequality and tax avoidance.

In the case of Queen Elizabeth's private estate, critics may question whether it is appropriate for the British head of state to invest in offshore tax havens.

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UK rejects India's request to extradite Vijay Mallya twice

A British court currently hearing the extradition case of embattled liquor baron Vijay Mallya has rejected two extradition requests by the Indian authorities in recent weeks.

Judges at Westminster Magistrates' Court in London ruled in favour of UK-based alleged bookie Sanjeev Kumar Chawla on October 16 and also discharged a fraud case against a British Indian couple, Jatinder and Asha Rani Angurala, on October 12.

The rulings come just weeks before the extradition case against Mallya, wanted in India on loan defaults to several banks amounting to about Rs 9,000-crore, comes up for its next case management hearing on November 20 to determine the course of the extradition trial scheduled to start on December 4.

The case against Chawla, the key accused in the cricket match-fixing scandal involving former South African captain Hanse Cronje in 2000, was discharged by District Judge Rebecca Crane on human rights grounds over severe conditions in Tihar Jail in Delhi where he was to be held on being extradited.

The judge said she was satisfied there was a prima facie case against Chawla over his role in the fixing of "cricket matches played between India and South Africa during the tour of the South African Cricket Team to India under the captainship of Hansie Cronje in February-March 2000".

However, on hearing expert evidence from Dr Alan Mitchell, a licenced medical practitioner and a former medical officer at a Scottish prison, she ruled in favour of Chawla on the grounds that his human rights would be violated in Tihar Jail under Section 87, Article 3 relating to "prohibition of torture, or inhuman or degrading treatment".
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UK may ban kids under 13 from social media to curb sexual abuse

Under a new legislation to be debated in the UK's House of Lords later this week, children under the age of 13 will be banned from joining Facebook and Twitter to keep them safe from child abuse on the social media platforms.

According to a report in The Telegraph, the government's Data Protection Bill will legally enshrine the age at which children will be allowed to create accounts on social media platforms.

The proposal, however, might not get support from cross-party peers who are insisting that the measure must be accompanied by new rules forcing companies to adapt their sites for younger users.

The move comes as Home Secretary Amber Rudd is to meet executives from the Internet giants in the US this week.

Writing in a national daily The Sun on Sunday, Rudd said social media giants must do more to stop child sexual exploitation, adding that the companies have a "moral duty" to go "further and faster" in their efforts to tackle the abuse.

"Online technology had made 'vile child sexual abuse content vastly easier to find'. It is an absolute urgency that I call on all Internet companies to go further and go faster in tackling online child sexual abuse.

"We need you all to bring your resources and your technical expertise to help us turn the tide on this horrendous scourge. It is your moral duty," she added.

During her trip to Washington, Rudd will attend a roundtable discussion which will be joined by tech companies, including Google, Facebook and Microsoft.

As per a BBC report, new government figures show there was a 700 per cent increase in the number of indecent images identified on technology company servers and flagged to law enforcement agencies between 2013 and 2017.

Each month there are more than 400 arrests for indecent images of children offences in Britain and some 500 children are being protected from online sexual exploitation, BBC cited the government data as saying.
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How Islamic financial markets are safe haven in conventional market crisis

Islamic finance is enjoying a surge in popularity, with 14% annual growth in recent years. And the interest in sharia-compliant stocks and bonds is growing across the non-Muslim as well as Muslim world.

My recent research shows that there is good reason for this growth. In fact, Islamic markets were not rocked by the 2007-08 financial as much as conventional markets and can be considered a new safe haven for investors.

The popularity of Islamic financial instruments among Muslims is not surprising. Islamic law prohibits any forms of interest (riba) or gambling (qimar). Transactions that lack transparency (gharar) are also banned. In finance, this means that the vast majority of assets and popular trading strategies (such as short-selling and speculation) are prohibited according to Islam.

To circumvent this problem Islamic banks issue sharia compliant bonds known as sukuk. Conventional bonds involve a contractual obligation to pay bondholders interest and principle on a certain date. When sukuk bonds are sold to investors the money is used to invest in an asset, of which the bondholders have partial ownership. Payments to sukuk bondholders them comes from whatever after-tax profit is made on the asset. When they reach maturity, the issuer is contractually obliged to buy the bond back at the value it was bought for.
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UK hate crimes surge on Brexit, terror attacks

The UK has registered a 29 per cent surge in hate crimes in the wake of Brexit and terrorist attacks in the country, according to new Home Office figures released today.

There were 80,393 offences in 2016-17, compared with 62,518 in 2015-16, the largest increase since the UK Home Office began recording figures in 2011-12.

The number of hate crime incidents recorded by British police forces reached a record monthly level of 6,000 incidents in June this year.

This peak was higher than the previous monthly peak of 5,500 in July 2016, seen in the aftermath of the referendum in favour of Briatain's exit or 'Brexit' from the European Union (EU).

"The increase over the last year is thought to reflect both a genuine rise in hate crime around the time of the EU referendum and following the Westminster Bridge terrorist attack (March 2017), as well as ongoing improvements in crime reporting by police," the Home Office report noted.

The crimes continued to rise after the Westminster Bridge attack on the Houses of Parliament when terror suspect Khalid Masood rammed a car into pedestrians and stabbed a policeman on duty at the Parliament gates, followed by the Manchester suicide bombing in May and terror attacks in London in June.

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Brexit a 'very big disadvantage' for UK, says Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton said Brexit would put Britain at a "very big disadvantage" and force companies to move resources to continental Europe, in an interview aired today.

Britain leaving the European Union could cause serious disruption for the country as it tries to reorder its trading relationships, she told BBC television.

"I think it would be a very big disadvantage to Britain," said Clinton, the Democratic Party candidate who lost to Donald Trump in last year's US presidential election.

"No deal meaning no preferential trade deals, which means products in Britain would not have the kind of easy access to the European market that you've had under EU membership.

"It could very well mean that there would be more pressure on businesses in Britain, if not to leave completely, at least (to) also have sites and employment elsewhere in Europe.

"The disruption for Britain could be quite serious," the former US secretary of state said.
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UK Air Force jets escort passenger plane after 'hoax' security alert

Two Royal Air Force (RAF) jets were scrambled to escort a passenger plane en route from Lithuania to the UK on Wednesday after a "hoax" security alert.

The Ryanair Flight FR2145bound for Luton Airport in Bedfordshire had to be escorted into Stansted airport in Essex instead, with flights temporarily grounded as the plane was redirected.

A Ryanair spokesperson said, "A flight from Kaunas (Lithuania) to London Luton diverted to London Stansted in line with procedures after Lithuanian authorities received a suspected hoax security alert.

"The aircraft landed normally at Stansted and customers will be transferred to Luton by coach when cleared to do so," he said.

Local Essex Police are now investigating the incident.

"The runway was closed for a short time but has now re- opened. Police are on scene and enquiries are ongoing," a spokesperson said.

Britain's RAF aircraft are on stand-by to secure the country's airspace and have the clearance to travel at supersonic speed over land only in emergency situations.
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MP wants women-only carriages on UK trains to combat sexual offences

The concept of Indian-style women-only carriages on UK trains should be adopted to combat sexual offences against women which have nearly doubled recently, a British MP has said.

Labour MP for Derby North Chris Williamson believes it is "worth consulting" on the policy after such crimes nearly doubled in the past five years.

The concept, which is in force on trains in India, Japan, Brazil and Mexico, had been first raised for the UK to emulate by Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn in 2015 but had been shot down as a move that would promote "segregation".

"It [women-only carriages] would be worth consulting about. It was pooh-poohed (when Corbyn suggested it), but these statistics seem to indicate there is some merit in examining that," said Williamson, who serves as the shadow fire minister in the Oppositon.

"Complemented with having more guards on trains, it would be a way of combating these attacks, which have seen a very worrying increase in the past few years. I'm not saying it has to happen, but it may create a safe space. It would be a matter of personal choice whether someone wanted to make use of it," he said.
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HC halts 2nd Vodafone arbitration in Rs 11,000-cr tax demand against India

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday restrained Vodafone Group's arbitration proceeding against India, under a treaty with the United Kingdom, in connection with a Rs 11,000 crore tax demand raised against the company in relation to its $11 billion deal acquiring stake of Hutchinson Telecom.

Justice Manmohan restrained Vodafone or its subsidiaries from going ahead with arbitration under the India-UK Bilateral Investment Protection Agreement (BIPA) as the telecom major had initiated similar proceedings on the same issue under the the India-Netherlands BIPA.

"This court is of the prima facie view that in the present case, there is duplication of the parties and the issues. In fact, the reliefs sought by the defendants under the India-UK BIPA and by the Vodafone International Holdings BV (VIHBV), the subsidiary of defendants (Vodafone group), under the India-Netherlands BIPA are virtually identical.

"This court is further of the prima facie view that there is a risk of parallel proceedings and inconsistent decisions by two separate arbitral tribunals in the present case. In the prima facie opinion of this Court, it would be inequitable, unfair and unjust to permit the defendants to prosecute the foreign arbitration," the court said in an interim order.

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Can the police prevent another Charlottesville incident?

Even before the demonstration in Virginia began last weekend, the police there knew they weren't going to be able to handle what was coming.

Charlottesville police officers, including Sgt Jake Via of the investigations bureau, had been contacting organisers and scanning social media to figure out how many demonstrators were headed their way and whether they would be armed.

"The number each group was saying was just building and building," Via said. "We saw it coming. ... Looking at this, I said, ‘This is going to be bad.'"

The protesters' numbers were too large and the downtown park too small. City officials tried to get the demonstration moved to another, more spacious location, but lost in court after the rally's organiser, backed by the American Civil Liberties Union, alleged his freedom of speech was being infringed.
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Here's why America needs to break its Cold War addiction to Korea

With tensions at an all-time high between the United States and North Korea, the New York Times headlined a recent digital newsletter with Lies Your High School History Teacher Told You About Nukes. The basic point was to debunk the theory of “mutually assured destruction” that is often used to explain why the Cold War remained cold and did not result in a nuclear holocaust.

The article argues that despite possessing a nuclear arsenal that guaranteed “mutually assured destruction,” both the United States and the Soviet Union engaged in a costly arms race that attempted to outmanoeuvre the other with more numerous and powerful warheads, delivered with more precise and faster missiles.

This happened not because they wanted to engage in actual nuclear warfare, but because of the threat that the other could “escape” mutually assured destruction, fight back, and win. This justified pursuing weaponry that could, in theory, take out the other side before it could retaliate. The Soviet Union was so terrified of this prospect that it spent enormous resources to retain at least the power to deliver a second strike, ultimately at the cost to its own ailing economy.
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Committed to working together with India to tackle global challenges: UK

Hailing the "longstanding" UK-India ties, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said on Tuesday that the UK was committed to working together with India to tackle global challenges.

In his message to India on its Independence Day, Johnson, whose wife is of Sikh origin, said the India-UK partnership was rooted in the Indian diaspora population based in the UK.

He said: "On behalf of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, I extend my warmest wishes to the people of India and the British-Indian community in the United Kingdom on the occasion of India's Independence Day.

"The United Kingdom and India share a deep and longstanding partnership, rooted in the 1.5 million British Indian diaspora in the UK who contribute so richly to our society. Our two countries are committed to working together to promote our people's prosperity, improve global security and tackle the global challenges that we face today."

Making a reference to the ongoing 2017 UK-India Year of Culture, the Conservative Party minister said the UK will continue to celebrate the strength of the bilateral ties including "our shared history, values, culture and language".
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Wall Street slips as tensions with North Korea rattle investors

US stock indexes opened lower on Wednesday as investors turned risk averse following rising tensions between North Korea and the United States.

North Korea said it was considering plans to fire missiles at Guam, a US-held Pacific island, after President Donald Trump on Tuesday warned the nuclear-armed nation that it would face "fire and fury" if it threatened the United States.

Safe-haven assets gained following the mounting geopolitical tensions. Gold rose 1.2 percent, while the Swiss franc was on track to post its biggest single day rise in about two-and-a-half years.

Trump's comments also sparked a late afternoon selling on Tuesday, with the Dow ending a nine-day streak of closing records.

The CBOE Volatility Index, the most widely followed barometer of expected near-term stock market volatility, was up 1.03 points at 11.98 points, its highest level in a month.

"The geopolitical tensions have prompted a risk off trade amid investors," said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at Think Markets UK.

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How Islamic State is luring women with false sense of 'empowerment': Report

The dreaded Islamic State terror group is luring foreign women recruits with a false sense of "empowerment", according to a new report by a UK think tank.

The report compiled by the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI) said the reasons that drove hundreds of women to journey from Europe to ISIS territories were "complex".

"We talked to women who hadn't been radicalised but could understand why some of these girls might have gone to Syria and Iraq so they could live as 'good Muslims'," said Emily Winterbotham, the report's co-author.

She said the use of the term "jihadi bride" to describe all female ISIS members was not truly representative.

"ISIS has been successful at selling that image to women. It's not just about the naive vulnerable jihadi bride, it's women saying: 'This is in line with my religion, my political beliefs, the fact I want to live how I want'," Winterbotham told 'The Independent'.

Possible draws were found to include "a rejection of Western feminism, online contact with recruiters who offer marriage and adventure, peer or family influence, adherence to ISIS ideology, naivety and romantic optimism, and the chance to be part of something new, exciting and illicit", she said.
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