Europe

LONDON/HONG KONG/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - China is urging domestic companies to look at listing in London, several sources told Reuters, as the country aims to revive deals under a Stock Connect scheme and strengthen overseas ties in the wake of the coronavirus crisis.

The Shanghai-London Stock Connect scheme, which began operating last year, aims to build links between Britain and China, help Chinese companies expand their investor base and give mainland investors access to UK-listed companies.

LONDON (Reuters) - Risk managers expect a prolonged global recession as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, a report by the World Economic Forum showed on Tuesday.

Two-thirds of the 347 respondents to the survey - carried out in response to the outbreak - put a lengthy contraction in the global economy top of their list of concerns for the next 18 months.

Half of risk managers expected bankruptcies and industry consolidation, the failure of industries to recover and high levels of unemployment, particularly among the young.

LONDON (Reuters) - The United Kingdom on Tuesday announced a new post-Brexit tariff regime to replace the European Union’s external tariff, maintaining a 10% tariff on cars and levies on agricultural products such as lamb, beef, and poultry.

The British government said the new regime, known as UK Global Tariff (UKGT), would be simpler and cheaper than the EU’s Common External Tariff (EU CET).

MOSCOW/LAGOS/LONDON (Reuters) - The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted maintenance at oil and gas projects and refineries from Russia’s Far East to the coast of Canada, storing up problems for an industry already reeling from slumping prices, analysts say.

Lockdowns to stop the spread of COVID-19, the flu-like infection caused by the virus, have snarled the supply of spare parts and have prevented maintenance workers from doing their job.

PARIS/BERLIN, May 18 (Xinhua) -- France and Germany on Monday jointly proposed that the European Commission borrow money on capital markets in the European Union's (EU) name and create a 500-billion-euro (546 billion U.S. dollars) recovery fund to help the coronavirus-battered European economies and regions.

Describing the proposal as "a major step forward," French President Emmanuel Macron told a joint video press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel that it was the first time France and Germany agreed to let the EU raise debt jointly.

GENEVA (AP) — The World Health Organization bowed to calls Monday from most of its member states to launch an independent probe into how it managed the international response to the coronavirus, which has been clouded by finger-pointing between the U.S. and China over a pandemic that has killed over 300,000 people and leveled the global economy.

GENEVA, May 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The World Health Organization on Monday kick off its first ever virtual assembly, but fears abound that US-China tensions could derail the strong action needed to address the COVID-19 crisis.

The World Health Assembly, which has been trimmed from the usual three weeks to just two days, Monday and Tuesday, is expected to focus almost solely on COVID-19, which in a matter of months has killed more than 310,000 globally, and infected nearly 4.7 million.

MADRID, May 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Spain’s coast guard rescued 49 African migrants from a dinghy drifting a few miles off the coast of Gran Canaria on Sunday, a spokesman for the organisation said, the latest arrivals in a months-long surge of migration to the Canary Islands.

A fisherman spotted the dinghy and alerted the coast guard, which brought it and its occupants to the port of Arguineguin, he added.

MOSCOW, May 17. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent a telegram to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to congratulate him on his new term in office and expressed the hope that his new government will continue to develop friendly ties and mutually beneficial cooperation with Russia, the Kremlin press service said on Sunday.

MOSCOW, May 18. /TASS/: Russia’s Defense Ministry will send its experts to the Krasnoyarsk region to help combat a coronavirus outbreak, the ministry said on Monday.

Military experts will carry out disinfecting activities, set up a 1,000-bed makeshift hospital and treat coronavirus patients.

The Defense Ministry’s team will consist of 200 military servicemen, including 77 doctors and nurses. The team, as well as 100 units of special equipment, will be deployed to the Krasnoyarsk region at the order of Russian President Vladimir Putin.