Pound news - live: Sterling briefly soars as Merkel raises hopes of 'practical solutions' to Brexit backstop
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The pound shot up after German chancellor Angela Merkel said the EU would consider practical solutions to an impasse over the backstop.
Sterling briefly rose sharply in a volatile day's trading, erasing losses caused by Boris Johnson's latest attempt to make progress on renegotiating a Brexit trade deal.
The prime minister wrote to European Council President Donald Tusk to propose replacing the Irish backstop with “alternative arrangements” and dismissed potential food and medicine shortages as “bumps in the road”. EU officials reacted with dismay, with one French diplomat calling Mr Johnson's border plan “a joke”.
Ms Merkel's comments later in the day then caused sterling to spike before it fell back against the euro, dollar, yen, Swiss franc and Australian dollar.
A fascinating, not to mention terrifying, insight into the epicentre of antibiotic resistant superbugs: India.
Two of India’s biggest drug companies are alleged to be giving inducements to “quack” doctors of gifts and cash to encourage them to prescribe vast amounts of antibiotics, fuelling the rise of drug-resistant superbugs around the world.
Undercover reporting by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has revealed that Abbott and Sun Pharma – whose products and devices are sold and used in more than a hundred countries, including in the US and by the NHS in the UK – promote antibiotics to healthcare practitioners who often have no formal medical training. It is illegal to sell antibiotics to quack doctors in most parts of India, but the law is rarely enforced. There are no restrictions on promoting these drugs to them.
the full story:
The EU has issued a "damning dismissal" of Boris Johnson's Brexit backstop plan.
Mr Johnson had sent a letter to EU officials calling for the Irish border backstop to be removed from the Brexit withdrawal agreement, but presented no actual alternative to the policy – which has already been repeatedly rejected by the EU side, writes Jon Stone in Brussels
Mr Johnson’s letter prompted a fast reaction from the European Union. Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council who speaks collectively for EU leaders, effectively accused the prime minister of wanting to wind the clock back on the Northern Ireland peace process, as well as a deception.
“The backstop is an insurance to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland unless and until an alternative is found,” Mr Tusk said. “Those against the backstop and not proposing realistic alternatives in fact support reestablishing a border. Even if they do not admit it.”
With a failed merger and falling sales Sainsbury's had not been having a great time of it.
Until today.
The supermarket chain recorded the smallest decline in sales of any of Britain's big four grocers over the past 12 weeks.
Market researcher Kantar says Sainsbury's sales dropped 0.6 per cent compared with falls of 1.6 per cent at Tesco, 1.5 per cent at Asda and 2.7 per cent at Morrisons.
“While each of the big four lost (market) share, Sainsbury’s will be cheered to be the strongest performer among this cohort for the first time since November 2017,” said Fraser McKevitt, Kantar’s head of retail and consumer insight.
Still, perhaps not quite time for boss Mike Coupe to be breaking out the Taste the Difference bubbly just yet.
Yesterday Sainsbury's was forced to deny rumours it was on the hunt for a successor as CEO.
RBS customers have been unable to access their credit card accounts and pay off balances after an IT glitch today.
The bank has been attempting to fix the problem which also affects customer NatWest - a brand owned by RBS.
RBS says: "Some customers are unable to view credit card information on online and mobile banking.
"We are also experiencing some problems with our telephony service for credit cards, which is limiting our ability to assist customers over the phone."
The majority taxpayer-owned bank is the worst in the UK for customer service, according to a recent Ipsos Mori poll.
The pound is the worst-performing of any major currency do far today:
Sterling is down 0.47 per cent against a basket of currencies and has edged down slightly further against the dollar.
It's now 0.31 per cent down at $1.209 and 0.37 per cent down against the euro at €1.09.
Sterling has also fallen against the yen, Swiss franc and Aussie dollar today after Boris Johnson's failed attempt to win support for changes to the backstop.
America is pressing ahead with a 25 per cent increase in oil and gas production over the next decade even though output needs to plummet in this time to avoid catastrophic climate change, new analysis from Global Witness finds.
The US is set to account for close to two-thirds of all new oil and gas production.
#MAGA
Given that President Trump has said climate change is a hoax perpetuated by China and that his administration hands out billions of dollars of subsidies to fossil fuel companies, the stakes at the 2020 presidential election could not be higher.
Angela Merkel caused a flurry of activity among currency traders after suggesting that the EU could consider practical solutions to the Irish backstop.
The pound jumped as much as 0.7 per cent against the dollar and euro after the comments before falling back, presumably when traders realised nothing had really changed.
The EU has said there is nothing new in Boris Johnson's proposals. The bloc won't be giving up the backstop in favour of undefined 'alternative arrangements'; a plan one official derided as 'a joke'.
Sterling is now flat against both currencies so far today.
Angela Merkel's comments that caused a fleeting period of optimism about a resolution to the problem of a post-Brexit border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland:
"The moment we have a practical arrangement on how to preserve the Good Friday agreement and at the same time define the borders of the (European Union's) internal market, we would not need the backstop anymore. This means we would naturally think about practical solutions. And I've always said that when one has the will to find these solutions, one can do so in a short period of time. The EU is ready to find a solution."
In essence, the EU will look at practical solutions to the backstop but it won't revisit the Withdrawal Agreement.
Market update:
FTSE 100 closed 0.9 per cent down - 7,125.0
DAX down 0.55 per cent - 11,651.18
CAC 40 down 0.5 per cent - 5,344.64
Pound:
up 0.21 per cent against dollar to $1.2151
up 0.11 per cent against euro to €1.0955
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