UK News
Insights from the UK and beyond
from Breakingviews:
Murdoch’s UK crisis could bring big indirect costs
By Chris Hughes
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
For News Corp shareholders, the penny has dropped. The phone hacking crisis engulfing the U.S. media group's UK Sunday tabloid comes with a price. The stock opened down 3.2 percent on July 6, erasing $2.3 billion of market value.
The immediate costs of the matter are probably manageable for a company with around $3 billion of annual earnings. Advertisers are pulling business from the News of the World, the paper at the center of the storm, and a reader boycott is possible. But News Corp's total UK newspaper operations contribute only about 4 percent of group sales and barely break even. London-based Enders Analysis puts the annual pre-tax profit contribution of the News of the World and its weekday sister paper The Sun at just 86 million pounds. News Corp could clearly cope with a loss of readers and ad revenue.
The group will also have to swallow the expense of settling with victims of alleged phone hacking. The actress Sienna Miller was recently awarded 100,000 pounds ($160,000). Two hundred more settlements at the same rate would cost 20 million pounds.
from FaithWorld:
Ireland eyes Catholic religious orders’ properties to meet abuse damages costs
(Irish clerical sexual abuse victims with a copy of a government report into child abuse, in Dublin May 20, 2009/Cathal McNaughton)
The Irish government asked religious orders on Tuesday to consider transferring buildings and land to the state to cover a 200 million euros shortfall in their contribution to a compensation fund for victims of abuse. The congregations agreed in 2009 to provide more compensation to victims of rape, beatings and slave labour in now defunct industrial schools they ran after the publication of a report into the abuse shocked the once devout Catholic country.
from Breakingviews:
News Corp’s weak governance looks chronic
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
By Chris Hughes
The latest allegations in the phone hacking scandal at News Corporation’s tabloid have shocked the British public. But they should also alarm investors in News Corporation. The U.S. media group’s handling of this crisis has been inexcusably weak. If the allegations now being made are true, they strongly reinforce the impression of chronic weakness in the governance of Rupert Murdoch’s empire.
from FaithWorld:
Who wants to live forever? Scientist sees aging “cured” by stem cells
(An elderly couple stroll through Tiergarten central park on a sunny autumn day in Berlin October 29, 2010./Fabrizio Bensch)
If Aubrey de Grey's predictions are right, the first person who will live to see their 150th birthday has already been born. And the first person to live for 1,000 years could be less than 20 years younger. A biomedical gerontologist and chief scientist of a foundation dedicated to longevity research, de Grey reckons that within his own lifetime doctors could have all the tools they need to "cure" aging -- banishing diseases that come with it and extending life indefinitely.
from Left field:
“What a Wimbledon” – Rusedski
This year’s Wimbledon Championships had a lot of interesting stories. On the men's side it was all about the top 4 players in the world. On the ladies it was about Sharapova, the Williams sisters, and whether or not any of the young pretenders could win the Championships.
All of the top 4 cruised into the men’s quarter-finals. Only Rafael Nadal was a bit of a worry hurting his foot against Juan Del Potro in the first set. After the match he said he would have to take painkillers for the rest of the tournament and possibly miss the next 6 weeks after Wimbledon finished. This brought hope that possibly Andy Murray could beat Nadal if they both reached the semi-finals which they both did easily. Expectations were reaching fever pitch now with a real belief Murray could make the finals.
from Left field:
Djokovic and Kvitova lead European charge
Few things in sport can be sweeter than lifting the Wimbledon trophy, as Novak Djokovic and Petra Kvitova found out on Saturday and Sunday.
Djokovic even took a shining to the hallowed Wimbledon turf, describing his post-win snack as "well kept", but in all seriousness the Serb is winning fans left right and centre and on Monday will be confirmed as world number one for the first time.
from Breakingviews:
Lloyds chief banks on cuts to fund growth
By Margaret Doyle The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.
Antonio Horta-Osorio is applying the medicine he successfully administered at Santander UK to Lloyds. The lender's new chief executive used his first strategy update to unveil plans to slash costs by 1.5 billion pounds by 2014. This, combined with the absence of further bad loan shocks, gave Lloyds shares a boost. But it's less clear how the bank will generate future growth.
from Breakingviews:
LSE pays bearable price for misjudging TMX deal
By Chris Hughes and Antony Currie
The authors are Reuters Breakingviews columnists. The opinions expressed are their own.
LONDON/NEW YORK -- The London Stock Exchange has paid a bearable price for misjudging its proposed merger with Canada's TMX. It was naive to think the C$3.6 billion deal, which collapsed on June 29 amid opposition from TMX's shareholders, would be plain sailing. The LSE is now damaged and vulnerable. But it doesn't need a deal and its next transaction -- whether as bidder or target -- probably won't happen in a hurry.
from Photographers Blog:
Wimbledon, William and a Mexican Wave
Rafael Nadal is hurt. A physio and a doctor have arrived on court to inspect his left foot. I scramble to position myself directly across the court from his chair to capture what could be a crucial moment in the match. It is towards the end of a tense first set. Temperatures have only cooled slightly from a sweltering 33 degrees C (91F).
In my haste to capture Nadal's injury I had left my original position with just a 300mm lens and Canon Mark 4 body, knowing I had to be agile as I joined a crush of photographers.
from James Saft:
The unbelievable mercy of UK banks
James Saft is a Reuters columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
What do you call an entire economy which sweeps its insolvencies under the carpet and hopes that something will turn up?
Britain.
An investigation by the Bank of England, reported in its Financial Stability Report released on Friday, found widespread evidence that banks are extending loan forbearance to weakened borrowers.
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The Wall
