Toys R Us UK is racing to secure rescue funding within days as it faces a £15m bill from the taxman, Sky News learns. Toys R Us UK faces crashing into administration at the end of the month unless it can find new investors prepared to shoulder a £15m tax bill. Sky News has learnt that advisers to Britain’s biggest standalone toy retailer are racing to secure a rescue deal for the business by the middle of next week, just days ahead of a 27 February deadline to meet a…
Read MoreDay: February 16, 2018
UK high street sales stagnant amid January retail gloom
Consumer spending squeeze blamed for 0.1% rise with only gym kit and toys increasing. January was a tough month for high street retailers as sales rose just 0.1%, far below City expectations, as higher prices continued to deter shoppers from spending. City analysts had expected a recovery of around 0.5% last month, after the unexpectedly sharp fall of 1.4% in December. The figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) indicate a pick up in year-on-year growth to 1.6% in January, from 1.5% in December, but analysts had hoped for…
Read MoreBelgium moves to prevent destruction of weapons needed as evidence
A new royal decree requires the Proof house – the institution officially in charge of destroying or neutralizing weapons – to demand evidence from owners to prevent arms that are illegal, stolen or used in crimes from disappearing legally, Justice Minister Koen Geens disclosed on Wednesday. The Proof house had already raised the problem, suspecting that abuses were being committed. Since then it had required anyone submitting weapons to it to show a permit or authorization to bear arms. However, only the status of the person concerned could be checked…
Read MoreAngela Merkel pays a steep price to stay in power
Angela Merkel once claimed she had bested Vladimir Putin during their first meeting in the Kremlin, employing what she said was an old KGB technique: staring at the Russian leader in silence for several long minutes. As the sun rose over a frigid Berlin on Feb. 7, the German chancellor’s rivals from the Social Democratic Party used the same tactic. This time, Merkel blinked. Merkel and her team had spent the previous day and night at the headquarters of her Christian Democratic Union locked in tense negotiations with the SPD…
Read MoreJuncker urges EU States to decide fast on budget
European Union (EU) Member States no longer have a huge amount of time to decide on the next EU Multiannual Financial Framework, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said on Wednesday, stressing that they must do so before the 2019 European elections. The Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) sets the contributions of each Member State and determines which projects will be financed over a seven-year period. The next MFF goes from 2021 to 2027. Each MFF is the result of intensive negotiations between Member States and European institutions, and the prospect of…
Read More