Stories for April 2019

Monday, April 22nd 2019 - 08:31 UTC
Thomas Cook selling its travel business: Chinese investment fund interested

Travel company Thomas Cook has received approaches for parts of its business and the company as a whole, according to reports. The business put its airline up for sale in February and it said last month it would close 21 stores across the country and cut more than 300 jobs.
Monday, April 22nd 2019 - 08:25 UTC
Easter Sunday with record temperature in the UK

Three of the UK's nations have recorded their highest ever Easter Sunday temperatures, the Met Office has said. Scotland's peak was 23.4C (74F), in Edinburgh, while that same temperature was also the high point in Wales - coming in Cardiff. Northern Ireland beat a 95-year-old record when the mercury hit 21C at Helen's Bay near Bangor.
Monday, April 22nd 2019 - 08:24 UTC
Queen Elizabeth celebrated her 93rd birthday on Easter Sunday

Britain's Queen Elizabeth, the world's oldest and longest reigning living monarch, celebrated her 93rd birthday on Sunday, Apr 21, by attending the traditional Easter service at Windsor Castle.
Monday, April 22nd 2019 - 08:06 UTC
UK pub numbers dropped from 54.000 to 43.000 in seven years

Nearly 1,000 UK pubs shut last year, although the rate of closures is slowing, new research claims. About 76 pubs a month “vanished” from the communities they served in 2018, as people spent less on going out and pubs faced cost pressures, said property firm Altus Group.
Sunday, April 21st 2019 - 11:45 UTC
A Tiananmen Square publicity video triggers the fury of the Beijing government

Germany's Leica Camera AG drew criticism on Chinese social media over a video depicting a news photographer covering the crackdown on pro-democracy protests in and around Beijing's Tiananmen Square three decades ago. The five-minute dramatization, released this week, touches on a highly sensitive topic in China.
Saturday, April 20th 2019 - 11:40 UTC
Emma Thompson joined climate change activists in central London

Film star Emma Thompson joined climate change activists in a central London shopping district on Friday to read poetry praising Earth's bounties, part of five days of protests which clogged the British capital with transport snarl-ups.
Saturday, April 20th 2019 - 09:43 UTC
England and France top bankers warn of financial risks associated to climate change

The heads of two major central banks have written a stark warning about the financial risks of climate change. Bank of England governor Mark Carney and France's François Villeroy de Galhau set out the dangers to the global economy in an open letter.
Saturday, April 20th 2019 - 09:35 UTC
Vatican denounces widespread inequality in the world during the Good Friday service

Pope Francis listened as a preacher denounced the widespread inequality in the world at a Good Friday service on the day Christians recall Jesus' death by crucifixion. During the “Passion of the Lord” service in St Peter's Basilica, songs in Latin recounted the last hours in Jesus' life, from his arrest to his burial.
Saturday, April 20th 2019 - 09:26 UTC
Venezuelan opposition prepared to pay US$ 71 million bond interests to save Citgo from seizure by creditors

Venezuela's opposition-controlled National Assembly expects to vote on making a US$71 million bond interest payment when it meets next week, a lawmaker and a member of state-run oil company PDVSA's ad-hoc board of directors said.
Saturday, April 20th 2019 - 09:21 UTC
Argentina's think tank CARI underlines the significance of China's Belt and Road forum

Argentine experts have expressed the belief that the upcoming Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation can yield more concrete steps for collaboration between China and Latin America. Members of the Asian Affairs Committee at Argentina's Council on International Relations (CARI), a leading think tank, spoke to China's government news agency Xinhua in the lead-up to the forum.