Chinese authorities are urgently looking into a new deadly virus that has infected over three dozen people in the country, several media in Asia report this morning.

The virus, called Langya, is carried to humans from animals, particularly shrews, according to The Taipei Times.

The Langya henipavirus has been discovered in China, with 35 confirmed human infections reported so far, Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said today.

A study titled “A Zoonotic Henipavirus in Febrile Patients in China” is reportedly to be published in the New England Journal of Medicine tomorrow and will say that a new henipavirus associated with a fever-causing human illness has been identified in China.

The patients have symptoms including fever, fatigue, a cough, loss of appetite , muscle pain, nausea, a headache and vomiting.

More to follow.

The Government is under pressure to offer more support to households as soon as possible, following another forecast of huge hikes in energy bills this winter.

MoneySavingExpert founder Martin Lewis has urged the Government to deliver an action plan today, and for both Tory leadership contenders Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss to come together and agree on measures to alleviate the cost of living crisis.

He warned that current pledges from Truss, including tax cuts and green levies would not be sufficient, and that “lives depend” on more support being offered to vulnerable households.

Lewis said the expected increases in the price cap will be “unaffordable for millions” and “leave many people destitute.”

This included elderly people, with energy bills set to swallow 45 per cent of the new state pension.

Millions of Kenyans are glued to their TV screens and mobile phones this morning as an extremely close race is unfolding between the two main candidates for the presidency.

Opposition leader Raila Odinga, who is backed by the outgoing president, faces deputy president William Ruto, who styles himself as an outsider and a “hustler”.

Both Odinga and Ruto are polling at 49 per cent of the vote this morning. Capital Nairobi, which could swing any final outcome, has not called any results yet.

Either Odinga or Ruto will replace outgoing President Jomo Kenyatta leaving government after a decade at the helm.

Intel has applied pressure on the government to get its semiconductor strategy published, as the UK continues to miss out on inward investment.

The US passed a $52bn subsidy package to computer chipmakers just last month, following the European Union’s €45bn cash pot announced in January – leaving the UK’s lack of domestic policy frustrating local manufacturers.

Intel has set aside €33bn to support semiconductor research and manufacturing in mainland Europe, with support from the EU, which the UK will be unable to access.

Frans Scheper, Intel’s new president in Europe and former Nexperia CEO, told The Times yesterday: “I think it is good [the UK is] making inquiries, but it needs to take the next step and make investments.

“The UK is an important market for Intel – we have almost 1,000 people working there. We don’t have any plans to build a new facility in the UK. There’s nothing to say we don’t want to invest there, but let’s be clear:...

Rampant inflation is putting the NHS and other public services “under considerable, and visible, strain,” top economic experts have warned today.

Government departments and local councils are set to struggle to provide services to taxpayers due to swelling costs eating up their budgets.

Higher inflation will erode more than 40 per cent of announced funding increases for public services, according to the calculations by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).

Under plans set out by former chancellor and now Tory leadership hopeful Rishi Sunak at the spending review last autumn, government departments’ budgets were set to rise 3.3 per cent each year over the next three years, even when accounting for inflation.

But, if inflation surges to over 13 per cent, as forecast by the Bank of England last week, yearly that upgrade will drop to 1.9 per cent.

CRIMINAL barristers are set to vote on plans to intensify their ongoing strikes by running uninterrupted strikes indefinitely.  

The Criminal Bar Association (CBA) will ballot its members over plans to call off its current bi-weekly strike actions and run a continuous strike from 5 September onwards.

“It has become clear that a significant proportion of barristers wish to be given an option to escalate our current action towards an uninterrupted strike in order to exert maximum leverage upon the Government,” the CBA said in a letter to its members.

Criminal barristers are now in their seventh week of strike action, after voting to walk out in June.  

So far the government has refused to cave into barristers’ demands, who are calling for a 25 per cent increase in legal aid fees. 

In a comment to City A.M., Kirsty Brimelow, vice chair of the CBA, said the government’s “refusal to enter negotiations on fee increases” had...

Serena Williams has announced her imminent retirement from tennis, announcing that she plans to call time on one of the great sporting careers after this month’s US Open.

The 23-time Grand Slam singles winner told Vogue magazine that she is “evolving away from tennis” to spend more time being a mother and running her venture capital fund.

“I have never liked the word retirement. It doesn’t feel like a modern word to me,” said Williams, who turns 41 later this month. 

“I’ve been thinking of this as a transition, but I want to be sensitive about how I use that word, which means something very specific and important to a community of people. Maybe the best word to describe what I’m up to is evolution. 

“I’m here to tell you that I’m evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me. A few years ago I quietly started Serena Ventures, a venture capital firm. Soon after that, I started a family. I want to grow that...

Crypto exchanges Binance, Kraken, and others have been hit with a £10bn lawsuit in a competition dispute by the former chair of the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority.

Lord David Currie filed the claim against the two crypto giants as well as exchanges Bittylicious and ShapeShift for delisting the BSV cryptocurrency from their platforms, Financial News London reported.

The lawsuit was filed at the Competition Appeal Tribunal, which will decide if it goes to trial, on behalf of about 250,000 BSV investors.

Lord Currie set up a company called BSV Claims to launch the case, which is the first crypto competition claim in the UK. 

Lord Currie said BSV investors lost about £9.9bn in 2019 due to alleged “anti-competitive behaviour” by the four exchanges and said the lawsuit was “an opportunity to demonstrate that competition law applies in the sphere of crypto assets in the same way that it does to other economic activities”, according to...

Millions of Kenyans are glued to their TV screens and mobile phones this morning as an extremely close race is unfolding between the two main candidates for the presidency.

Opposition leader Raila Odinga, who is backed by the outgoing president, faces deputy president William Ruto, who styles himself as an outsider and a “hustler”.

Both Odinga and Ruto are polling at 49 per cent of the vote this morning.

One of them will replace outgoing President Jomo Kenyatta leaving government after a decade at the helm.

The UK used car market has shrunk by almost 19 per cent in the second quarter of this year due to the knock-on impact of semiconductor shortages on new vehicles.

According to data published today by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), 1.7 million second-hand transactions have taken place – down by 407,820 on last year’s levels. 

May was the month that witnessed the highest decline, as deals fell by 20.9 per cent, followed by June and April, with transactions going down by 18.6 and 16.8 per cent respectively. 

“It was inevitable that the squeeze on new car supply would filter through to the used market,” said SMMT chief executive Mike Hawes. 

“Despite this, Britain’s used car buyers clearly have a growing appetite for the latest low and zero emission cars, and we need a thriving new car market to feed it.”

The sale of used battery-electric vehicles rose by 57 per cent, while plug-in hybrids grew by 1...

Hefty losses in the portfolio of Japanese investment giant SoftBank could push its chief Masayoshi Son to consider delisting the firm via a management buyout, analysts have suggested.

The prolific tech investor has been hit by nearly $50bn of losses this year as its tech-heavy portfolio was battered by plunging valuations amid rising interest rates and soaring inflation.

Chief Masayoshi Son has privately mulled taking the firm private on several occasions over the past three years, according to sources cited by the Financial Times, but has previously rejected proposals

Analysts have now suggested the plans could be back on the table however after the rout this year and plans to sell off some of its assets. 

SMBC Nikko analyst Satoru Kikuchi said the listing of British chip maker Arm would make SoftBank solely an investment and fundraising vehicle with no need to be a listed firm. 

“It is raising these funds with debt, so...

CRIMINAL barristers are set to vote on plans to intensify their ongoing strikes by running uninterrupted strikes indefinitely.  

The Criminal Bar Association (CBA) will ballot its members over plans to call off its current bi-weekly strike actions and run a continuous strike from 5 September onwards.

“It has become clear that a significant proportion of barristers wish to be given an option to escalate our current action towards an uninterrupted strike in order to exert maximum leverage upon the Government,” the CBA said in a letter to its members.

Criminal barristers are now in their seventh week of strike action, after voting to walk out in June.  

So far the government has refused to cave into barristers’ demands, who are calling for a 25 per cent increase in legal aid fees. 

Criminal barrister Sean Summerfield told City A.M. that “there is no appetite for rowing back on the strike action” as he claimed it is...

Boris Johnson has said he is “certain” the next Prime Minister will provide cost of living help this autumn and claimed the UK has “the fiscal firepower and the headroom to continue to look after people”.

Johnson today said during a ceremony in the Downing Street garden that extra help is “absolutely vital” now that energy prices are set to surge again over the next six months.

New estimates from Cornwall Insight today predict the energy price cap will hit £4,200 by January – more than double what it was at the start of this year.

Tory leadership contenders Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss have fought over the best way to provide support for families, with the debate centred around direct payments versus tax cuts.

Truss said over the weekend that she preferred autumn tax cuts over “handouts” to help ease spiralling energy costs, while Sunak has said he would provide direct payments to households.

Critics of Truss’ plan have pointed out that...

The possibility of a proposed merger between Kistos and Serica Energy (Serica) appears to have ended, with neither party able to launch a convincing takeover offer of the other company.

Kistos has confirmed it “will not make a firm offer Serica,” bringing an end to a series of bids between both parties since May.

It has criticised the North Sea oil and gas operator’s board for failing to “engage meaningfully” with its takeover bids and Serica’s own offer for Kistos.

The company argued this was especially disappointing, as it believed both boards understood the “industrial logic in combining the portfolios of the two companies.”

In a statement to the London Stock Exchange, Kistos said: “The Kistos board will therefore continue to pursue other paths to deliver further on those goals, with the objective of enhancing shareholder value and driving scale and consolidation, as it has successfully done since the company’s inception in...

The Government is under pressure to offer more support to households as soon as possible, following another forecast of huge hikes in energy bills this winter.

MoneySavingExpert founder Martin Lewis has urged the Government to deliver an action plan today, and for both Tory leadership contenders Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss to come together and agree on measures to alleviate the cost of living crisis.

He warned that current pledges from Truss, including tax cuts and green levies would not be sufficient, and that “lives depend” on more support being offered to vulnerable households.

Lewis said the expected increases in the price cap will be “unaffordable for millions” and “leave many people destitute.”

This included elderly people, with energy bills set to swallow 45 per cent of the new state pension.

Royal Mail workers have announced they will strike three times over the coming weeks in a dispute over salaries.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU) said that more than 115,000 postal workers will walk out on 24 and 25 August as well as 8 September. 

The decision came on the heels of last month’s ballot, which saw workers vote 97.6 per cent in favour of walking out on a 77 per cent turnout.

“Nobody takes the decision to strike lightly, but postal workers are being pushed to the brink,” said CWU general secretary Dave Ward. 

??“We can’t keep on living in a country where bosses rake in billions in profit while their employees are forced to use food banks.”

The union said that Royal Mail Group has responded to calls for a pay rise with a 2 per cent increase imposed through executive action. 

“Those managing Royal Mail Group are treating our members with contempt by imposing such a minimal amount,” added CWU deputy...

German automotive manufacturer Continental has posted a quarterly loss of €251m (£212.3m) as it described the current setbacks as a “hurricane.”

“The current headwind is rather like a hurricane and will not subside any time soon,” commented chief financial officer Katja Dürrfeld. 

“Given this environment, we have performed well and become more resilient

“We cannot be entirely satisfied with our current business results – even if they are as expected – but we are optimistic for the second half of the year.”

In the three months ended 30 June, the tyre maker reported an adjusted EBIT margin of €411m, almost 20 per cent down on last year’s levels, while margins went down 1.8 per cent. 

The group blamed the results on the turbulent market environment, plagued by geopolitical uncertainties caused by the war in Ukraine, as well as by supply chain disruptions, increases in the price of raw material and the China lockdowns. 

Oil prices edged up today, even though both major benchmarks remain weighed down by fears of a drawn-out economic downturn and reduced demand worldwide.

Brent Crude and WTI Crude prices climbed 1.23 and 0.98 per cent respectively, ticking upwards following news Russian pipeline monopoly Transneft said Ukraine had suspended oil flows via the pipeline leg because Western sanctions had prevented a payment from Moscow for transit fees from going through. 

General concerns over tight supplies have kept oil prices historically elevated, with markets also buttressed by news the that oil exports via the Druzhba pipeline to Europe had been suspended since early August.

However, there have been no further rallies on both major benchmarks, after Brent Crude slipped to $92.78 per barrel last Friday.

This is its lowest price since February, and follows the Bank of England’s warning on Thursday of a sustained recession, raising expectations of lower...

Strong demand for hybrid working sent revenues of IWG (International Workplace Group) plc surging in the first half of 2022.

The global workspace provider reported revenues of £1.29bn, a 23 per cent rise from 2021’s first half as demand for flexible, hybrid working rose and inflation around the world climbed. 

IWG’s revenue grew more than its costs as its adjusted EBITDA soared to £122.9m, with the company seeking to build the world’s biggest digital workspace platform after its acquisition of flexible workspace provider The Instant Group.

“With hybrid working becoming the preferred operational model for a rapidly growing number of companies, we remain confident about the continuing structural growth drivers at play in our industry,” said IWG CEO Mark Dixon. “We continue to build resilience and cost efficiency into our business, and we have repeatedly demonstrated our ability to address new challenges. “

“These attributes will be...

National Grid has confirmed it will provide a full winter outlook in the coming months to ensure its forecasts for power and energy supplies are as “robust as possible.”

The group’s electricity system operator published an early outlook this month, forecasting that the UK would be able to meet its electricity needs this winter.

However, its predictions priced in both increased power being available from Europe via its Dutch and Belgian interconnectors, alongside sustained trade with Norway.

Since then, there have been warnings from Norway’s oil and energy minister Terje Aasland that the country will prioritise meeting its own needs over selling to partners overseas.

A National Grid spokesperson said: “We have published an early view of winter outlook to help the industry prepare for this winter. In early autumn we will publish a full winter outlook based on verifiable market data as well as extensive engagement with stakeholders, including...

Shoppers might soon have to reckon with the environmental impact of food as well as the health implications, after researchers work out the carbon footprint of certain products.

Researchers from Oxford University have used public databases to work out the composition of thousands of foods and their impact on the planet.

Scores are calculated on the basis of the impact of cultivation, processing and transportation of products.

Beef and lamb ranked the highest, followed by deli meat and cheese and then nuts and dried fruit.

“Manufacturers, caterers and retailers have targets for reaching net zero [emissions] and they don’t have the tools they need to get there,” Prof Peter Scarborough from Oxford University told BBC News.

“Now they have this data, and some of them are talking to us about things they can do to help people move towards more sustainable food purchasing. The data could help manufacturers adjust their formulations,” he...