Travel News

(Bloomberg) -- A list of companies that may have applied fraudulently for emergency loans during the pandemic has been complied by the U.K. Cabinet Office and is circulating among high street lenders, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Cabinet Office has shared the information with the British Business Bank which has passed it on to the banks who issued the loans. The list includes companies with duplicate names and firms that had already been dissolved when they applied for support, according to an executive at a bank who asked not to be named given the sensitivity.

“We work closely with Cabinet Office counter fraud function, who undertake data analytics for us which identifies possible cases of fraud which we can then share with lenders to investigate, or we can take other action as appropriate,” a spokesman for the British Business Bank said in an email. A spokesman for the Cabinet Office declined to comment.

The U.K. offered a number of pandemic lending packages totaling about 80 billion pounds ($107 billion). The Bounce Bank Loan Scheme, which extended around 47 billion pounds to smaller businesses with a 100% state guarantee, has come under scrutiny after the National Audit Office said last year there was “limited verification and no credit checks on borrowers.”

A Bloomberg News review of almost half of the loans granted under the separate 26.4 billion-pound Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, or CBILS, for bigger companies, found lenders handed out more than 130 million pounds to companies with questionable claims.

Theodore Agnew, a Treasury and Cabinet Office minister responsible for Whitehall efficiency, resigned in January after accusing the government of failing to properly root out fraud in the Bounce Back Loan Scheme.

One of the people said the names on the list received by one bank number in the low hundreds. More than 1.5 million Bounce Back loans were granted in total.

BY  Henry Jones

There are fears that the world’s largest plane by length, the Antonov AN-225, has been damaged amid intense fighting in Ukraine.

Only a single aircraft was ever completed, making its first flight in December 1988.

Since then, it has set a variety of records for its cargo capabilities.

Ukraine’s parliament said on Sunday that the aircraft has been “destroyed” by Russian forces.

It said in a tweet: “In 2020, the world’s largest transport aircraft AN-225 Mriya began to perform humanitarian flights and deliver medical supplies to combat the coronavirus in the EU.

“Then Ukraine defended Europe from the pandemic.

“Today, Russian troops have destroyed the world’s aviation legend.”

Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba also commented on the news, saying: “Russia may have destroyed our ‘Mriya’.

“But they will never be able to destroy our dream of a strong, free and democratic European state.

Amid fears for the aircraft’s status, the Ukrainian company Antonov said: “Currently, until the AN-225 has been inspected by experts, we cannot report on the technical condition of the aircraft.

“Stay tuned for (a) further official announcement.”

It has a wingspan of 88 metres (289ft) and a length of 84 metres (276ft) , making it the longest aircraft in existence.

Its cargo hold, at 43 metres long (141ft), is longer than the distance of the world’s first powered plane flight, completed by the Wright Brothers in 1903, at 37 metres (121ft).

According to flight tracking website Flightradar24.com, the aircraft arrived at Hostomel Airport on February 5, and has not left since.

Russia banned aircraft from 36 countries from its airspace, including the entire European Union membership, in response to sanctions unfurled by the bloc in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine. 

The move announced Monday in Moscow makes a wide swath of Russia -- a key route for travel between Europe and Asian countries such as China, Japan and South Korea -- off-limits for major carriers such as Air France-KLM and Deutsche Lufthansa AG. 

The list includes the U.K., which was already banned last week after Britain became the first major nation to ban Aeroflot and other Russian airlines. It doesn’t include the U.S.

Russia had already banned a number of the individual countries. The EU over the weekend banned Russian flights from its airspace.

European Union Bans Russian Flights in Bid to Rein In Putin 

Towering above the other boats in Barcelona’s port are three superyachts owned by Russian oligarchs which could be hit by sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine.

These multi-million-pound symbols of luxury may now be in the crosshairs of economic penalties brought in by the US, Britain and European Union.

Liz Truss, the Foreign Secretary, said yesterday that Britain would draw up a “hit list” of oligarchs’ private jets, properties and other possessions but, she did not reveal who might be targeted. US government officials said the fine print of the sanctions was being worked out.

However, Washington named many oligarchs close to Russian President Vladimir Putin on a list published in 2018, and some could face fresh economic penalties.

In Barcelona’s superyacht refit bay is the Solaris, the 139-metre Bermudan-flagged yacht that belongs to Roman Abramovich, owner of 29 per cent of mining company Evraz, who gave up stewardship of Chelsea Football Club to its sporting foundation on Saturday.

Nearby is the 74-metre Aurora, owned by Andrey Molchanov, who has a controlling interest in LSR Group, Russia’s biggest building materials group. He was valued at £1bn according to Forbes magazine.

In 2018, Mr Molchanov was named by the US government in a list of Russian oligarchs but was not sanctioned.

Tourists visiting Barcelona also admire the sleek lines of the 70-metre Galactica Super Nova, owned by Vagit Alekperov, chief executive of Lukoil, Russia’s biggest energy company – who was personally valued by Forbes magazine at £16.1bn.

None of these businessmen have yet faced personal sanctions.

However, Lukoil is considered strategic to the Russian economy and is already subject to US and EU sanctions which curb exports and imports and debt-raising.

Mr Alekperov was among business leaders who were summoned to a meeting with Mr Putin in the Kremlin on the day Russian troops invaded Ukraine. His personal wealth fell £4.6bn on the first day of the invasion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Mr Abramovich, who was valued at £10.8bn by Forbes, was among 35 Russians on a list compiled by an anti-corruption foundation founded by imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

A spokesman for Mr Abramovich said: “He is not subject to sanctions and this has been confirmed by the Prime Minister.”

Last month, Andrey Kostin, the chief executive of VTB, one of Russia’s biggest banks, sailed his superyacht Sea Rhapsody into Barcelona. Mr Kostin has said the West is waging an “economic war” against Russia.

VTB was among five Russian banks that were banned from the Swift banking transfer system by the US government, prohibiting trade with Americans and freezing their US assets.

Meanwhile, Mr Putin’s own £73.2m superyacht, Graceful, which was in Germany last month, could be seized, as the Russian President is the subject of personal sanctions.

White House officials said his finances were opaque and difficult to track, but he may be subjected to a travel ban.

BY  Stephanie Hegarty - BBC World Service

Nigeria's government has condemned reports that its citizens, and those of other African countries, have been stopped from leaving war-torn Ukraine.

Isaac, a Nigerian man trying to get into Poland, said border staff told him they were "not tending to Africans".

"We've been chased back, we've been hit with police armed with sticks," he told the BBC.

South African foreign office official Clayson Monyela also said students had been "badly treated" at the border.

There have also been numerous reports of Ukrainian security officials preventing Africans from catching buses and trains going to the border.

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Osemen, from Nigeria, told the BBC he had tried to get on a train in Lviv to take him to the Polish border but was told only Ukrainians would be allowed on board.

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari said there were about 4,000 Nigerians in Ukraine, mostly students.

He said one group had repeatedly been refused entry to Poland so they travelled back into Ukraine to head for Hungary instead.

"All who flee a conflict situation have the same right to safe passage under the UN Convention, and the colour of their passport or their skin should make no difference," Mr Buhari said in a tweet.

More than 350,000 Ukrainians have managed to flee the Russian invasion so far.

'Hotel only for Ukrainians'

University student Ruqqaya, from Nigeria, was studying medicine in Kharkiv in the east of the country when the city was attacked. She walked for 11 hours overnight before she arrived at the Medyka crossing with Poland.

"When I came here there were black people sleeping on the street," she told the BBC.

She says she was told by armed guards to wait as Ukrainians had to be let through first. She watched busloads of people, whom she described as white, being allowed through the border while only a handful of Africans were selected from the queue. After waiting for many hours, she was finally allowed to cross and made her way to Warsaw to fly back to Nigeria.

Asya, a medical student from Somalia studying in Kyiv, had a similar account. When she finally reached Poland, she said she was told "accommodation at the hotel was only for Ukrainians".

The Polish border force told the BBC that everyone fleeing conflict in Ukraine was being welcomed into Poland regardless of nationality. The BBC has tried to contact the Ukrainian border force but has yet to receive a response.

Nigeria's Foreign Minister Geofrey Onyeama said he had spoken with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba and had been assured that Ukrainian border guards had been given an order to allow all foreigners leaving Ukraine to pass without restrictions.

Nigeria's ministry of foreign affairs has now advised its citizens leaving Ukraine to head for Hungary or Romania, rather than trying to enter Poland.

The Nigerian ambassador to Romania has told the BBC that so far about 200 Nigerians - mostly students - have arrived in the capital Bucharest from Ukraine. Safiya Nuhu said many more were still arriving.

As the exalted ruler of what was once west Africa’s richest and most influential kingdom, the emir of Kano holds sway over millions. Even he, however, cannot hold up a flight when he is late.

A row has erupted between the emir of Nigeria’s historic city state and one of the country’s airlines after it refused to delay a plane on the runway when he arrived at the airport with just 30 minutes until take-off.

Aminu Ado Bayero arrived with his entourage at Lagos airport at 5.45am, 30 minutes before his Air Peace flight home to Kano was due to take off. The reason: his connecting flight from the Gambian capital Banjul, also operated by Air Peace, had been delayed.

The Federal Airport Authority (FAAN), has blamed the recent hike in air fare on increased cost of aviation fuel and exchange rate.

Mr Kunle Akinbode, the Head of Cooperate Communications, Port Harcourt International Airport, stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), on Monday in Port Harcourt.

According to Akinbode, aviation fuel which sold for about N250 per litre, now sells for more than N400 per litre, adding that the hike also includes prices of spare parts which have drastically increased in recent times.

“FAAN and other regulatory agencies in the aviation industry are conscious of the plight of airport users, especially in respect to increased air fare by the various airlines.

“Currently, aviation fuel is selling for over N400 per litre, all aircraft components/parts required for operations are imported, so this has invariably affected air fare.

On how the new rate is affecting patronage by passengers, Akinbode noted that patronage was considerably good irrespective of the high flight rate.

“Nigerians will still fly irrespective of the cost because speed and security is a major advantage of air transportation over road,” he said.

One of the air passengers, who spoke to NAN, urged the Federal Government to extend its railway infrastructure development to the South-South region of the country.

“If we had an alternative like the railway, just like other parts of the country, a lot of us would prefer to use the train,” Mr Johnson Ikor, an airline passenger said.

(Bloomberg) -- Poland’s prime minister warned that Russia may attempt to block the more than 300-mile border it shares with Ukraine, where tens of thousands of people have been fleeing the war.

“We have to act quickly because Russia is threatening a cut-off attack,” Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told a meeting with ambassadors in Warsaw on Monday, saying such a move would take place within Ukraine. “Already there are threats of an attack from the north, from the side of Belarus, on that part of western Ukraine where the refugee movement is accumulating.”

Morawiecki didn’t provide any detailed intelligence to back up his claim. Such a scenario would not involve an attack on Poland, a NATO member. 

Poland has become the main destination for Ukrainians since the Russian invasion began, with more than 300,000 people crossing over into the country since Thursday. That flow may increase to as many 100,000 per day, the prime minister said.

The European Union’s largest eastern member has offered to serve as a logistics hub for the bloc’s assistance for Ukraine. On Monday, Hungary said that it would block the transit of lethal weapons to Ukraine via its territory.

*As FMC Abuja begins open heart surgery

By Joseph Erunke

ABUJA–THE federal government has advised Nigerians to seek information on the treatment of some diseases locally before thinking of going abroad.

This is because the government said many of its hospitals across the country were now treating some of the medical issues pushing some indigenes outside the shores of the country.

It insisted that lack of awareness had compelled some Nigerians to seek treatment on certain diseases abroad rather than locally.

This came on the heels of the commencement of open heart surgery by the Federal Medical Centre, Abuja, with four patients already undergone treatment in the facility.

Minister of State for Health, Dr. Adeleke Mamora, who spoke, Monday, while inspecting some newly acquired facilities to improve patients’ care by the Federal Medical Centre, Abuja, said the government had put measures in place to address medical tourism.

He said state-of-the-art equipment was being procured by the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration to make treatment of surgeries less cumbersome.

Noting that many public hospitals in the country were now treating some medical issues pushing Nigerians abroad, he said,”There are other areas of medical tourism and we will be addressing them gradually.”

Açcording to him,” We are applying the state- of the art equipment that would make the procedure less cumbersome.”

” I can assure you that President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration is doing so much in terms of upgrading facilities to make them suitable for the exigencies of the moment,” he said, adding that: “The affordability and sustainability are components of the Universal Health Coverage.”

The minister, who said:”All the medical team that carried out this surgery are Nigerians living in Nigeria”, explained that:” This goes to confirm the long-held view that with the conducive environment and availability of necessary equipment, we have competent Nigerians that can really carry out this procedure excellently well.”

Earlier, the Chief Medical Director of the Federal Medical Centre, Abuja, Prof. Saad Ahmed, explained that the open surgery was the “first of its kind in this facility.

“We were able to do it successfully and all the patients are doing quite well,” he added.

Noting that, “The open heart surgery is quite delicate and requires a lot of skills and commitment”, he said:”On this, the federal government through the Federal Ministry of Health, we were able to get some infrastructure, some equipment in this regard.”

He spoke further: “We usually send some people for training in various accreditation because open-heart surgery is teamwork.

“Many people at this moment are undergoing some forms of training. The essence for this is for us to domesticate this and make it a routine procedure in the Federal Medical Centre, Abuja.

“This is for the benefit of all Nigerians but we are looking at how this could benefit our neighboring countries and some other parts of the world.

“We are starting something small but we are looking at how we can make it big in the nearest future,” he said.

The hospital’s medical director explained that the surgeries carried out were possible through the support of Save A Heart Foundation UK, which he explained provided “skills transfer and also donated some equipment.”

Explaining, “Because of that, we were able to subsidize the cost for the patients”, Prof. Saad said:” But in the long run, we want to call on philanthropists, some corporate organisations and societies to actually come forward, to subsidize the cost of this surgery through donations to our Medical Indigent Fund.”

“The board chairman has been making contacts here and there, to see how he can make these philanthropists come to the aid of some of these people.

“Meanwhile, locally, we have established the Medical Indigent Fund which is being managed by some members of this hospital’s community, all with the aim of generating some funds to assist the indigents.

“With the commencement of the open-heart surgery here, it means that the managers of the Medical Indigent Fund need to be up and doing to reach people in far and near to see how they can come to the aid of those that are in need,” he said.

(Bloomberg) -- Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told U.K. ports not to provide access to Russian ships, as Britain moved to further expand its sanctions against Vladimir Putin’s regime in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine.

“These vessels are not welcome here,” Shapps said Monday on Twitter. “Prohibiting legislation” will follow, he said.

Shapps posted a copy of the letter he’s sent ports, instructing them to block any vessels they believe are owned, controlled, chartered or operated by any person connected with Russia, or by sanctioned individuals. Vessels flying the Russian flag or registered in Russia should also be blocked, he said.

Then U.K. last week unveiled its biggest ever set of sanctions against any country as punishment for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It includes an imminent ban on Aeroflot planes landing in the U.K., blocks on certain exports and legislation to stop all major Russian companies from raising finance on U.K. markets. 

Shapps said the U.K. and its allies are “developing an unprecedented package of further sanctions.” He promised the government would help ports to identify Russian ships that fall within the scope of the ban. “Further detailed sanctions against Russian shipping are being developed and further details will be shared very shortly,” he wrote.

Separately, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss told the House of Commons that the government would continue to target wealthy Russians with sanctions, “focusing on their houses, their yachts, and every aspect of their lives.”