England

LONDON (Reuters) - Oil prices rose on Friday after OPEC decided to move up discussions on whether to extend record production cuts to Saturday, indicating that some laggard countries may have agreed to align themselves with the deal.

Brent crude futures were up 95 cents, or 2.4%, at $40.94 a barrel as of 0920 GMT, after rising over $1 to $41.18.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 64 cents, or 1.7%, to $38.05 a barrel.

LONDON, June 4 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson opened the Global Vaccine Summit virtually on Thursday, urging countries and organizations to pledge funding for vaccinations to save millions of lives in the poorest countries and protect the world from future outbreaks of infectious diseases.

The summit hosted by Britain aims to mobilize at least 7.4 billion U.S. dollars for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, in additional resources to protect the next generation with vaccines, reduce disease inequality and create a healthier, safer and more prosperous world.

LONDON (AP) — A vaccine summit has raised billions of dollars to immunize children in developing countries as experts wrestled with how any potential vaccine against the coronavirus might be distributed globally — and fairly.

The United Nations and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement have urged that “a people’s vaccine” be developed for COVID-19 that would be freely available to everyone, calling it a “moral imperative.”

LONDON (Reuters) - People across almost all the world’s leading rich economies have turned more sceptical about their governments’ handling of the coronavirus pandemic with confidence slumping the most in Britain, a survey showed on Thursday.

In May, in the Group of Seven nations as a whole, 48% of respondents approved of how authorities had handled the pandemic, down from 50% in April and 54% in March, the survey published by polling firm Kantar showed.

LONDON (Reuters) - The European Union’s markets watchdog published guidance for the bloc’s national regulators on Thursday to tighten scrutiny of how asset managers charge fees on investors in funds.

“One of the key factors to mobilising investor participation in capital markets is to ensure that their trust in financial markets is improved and costs associated with buying financial products are reduced,” said Steven Maijoor, chair of the European Securities and Markets Authority.

DUBAI/MOSCOW/LONDON (Reuters) - OPEC+ oil producers could still hold a ministerial video conference this week if Iraq and others which have not fully complied with existing oil supply cuts agree to boost their adherence, three OPEC+ sources told Reuters on Thursday.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries andits allies led by Russia, a group known as OPEC+, are stilldebating when to hold their ministerial talks to discuss a possible extension of the existing cuts.

LONDON (Reuters) - British police arrested a man for driving offices on Wednesday after a car collided with two people near Sloane Square in central London.

“Cordons were put in place and buildings in the surrounding area were evacuated as a precaution while officers searched the vehicle,” the Met police said in a statement. “A man was subsequently arrested for driving offences.”

The lawmaker for the area, Greg Hands, had previously tweeted that he was hearing a vehicle had mounted the pavement and struck pedestrians.

2 June 2020; AFP: Trade negotiators from Britain and the EU embark on a fourth round of post-Brexit negotiations Tuesday but no-one in London or Brussels expects a breakthrough.

Instead, once the latest cross-Channel video conferences are over, Prime Minister Boris Johnson and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen will meet to decide how to proceed.

A "high-level" June meeting to take stock of the talks was already foreseen in the political declaration signed by both parties alongside the divorce accord.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain and the European Union might be able to reach a compromise on fisheries by settling on the bloc being handed access to UK waters in exchange for higher quotas for the United Kingdom, industry chiefs said on Tuesday.

As the two sides launch a fourth round of virtual negotiations to try to secure a free trade deal and on their future relationship, fisheries looks set to dominate negotiations which run until Friday.

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s statistics watchdog chided the government on Tuesday for publishing data on coronavirus tests that it said were “far from complete and comprehensible”.

“The aim seems to be to show the largest possible number of tests, even at the expense of understanding,” David Norgrove, the head of the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA), wrote in a letter to Health Secretary Matt Hancock.

“It is also hard to believe the statistics work to support the testing programme itself.”