Italy's market regulator grants UniCredit 30-day suspension of offer for Banco BPM
MILAN, May 21 (Reuters) - Italy's market regulator Consob on Wednesday said it had granted UniCredit (CRDI.MI), opens new tab a 30-day suspension of its tender offer for Banco BPM (BAMI.MI), opens new tab.
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The Independent
16 minutes ago
- The Independent
Mike Lynch's sunken yacht glimpsed above surface ahead of being fully raised
Tech tycoon Mike Lynch's sunken superyacht has been glimpsed above water ahead of being fully raised from the seabed off the coast of Sicily. Seven people died when the Bayesian sank off the coast of the Italian island on August 19, including billionaire Mr Lynch, 59, and his daughter Hannah, 18. The 56-metre (184ft) yacht is set to be lifted to the surface near the fishing town of Porticello over the weekend before being taken to nearby Termini Imerese — where Italian prosecutors investigating the sinking are based. On Friday, parts of the accommodation areas above deck and the hull were seen above the surface as teams worked to install additional lifting straps before the yacht was lowered back under the waterline ahead of being fully raised at the weekend. Investigators in the UK and Italy say raising the vessel is crucial to fully understanding what happened. Last week, salvage teams expected the boat to be raised later in June, but thanks to 'accelerated progress', the timeline was brought forward. The yacht's 72-metre (236ft) mast was cut off on Tuesday using a remote-controlled tool and rested on the seabed to be picked up later. Over the last few days, salvage teams worked to ease the hull into an upright position and give access to the yacht's right side, which had previously been lying flat on the seabed 50 metres below the surface. The yacht is currently supported by strong steel straps attached to Hebo Lift 10 — one of Europe's most powerful sea cranes. If all goes to plan, sea water will be pumped out of the hull as the boat is raised to the surface before being carried to Termini Imerese on Monday, where it will be lifted onto a specially made steel cradle on the quayside. Marcus Cave of British firm TMC Marine, which is overseeing the salvage efforts, said: 'The salvage team has made very substantive progress in the last 10 days. 'They are now preparing for the final, complex and delicate lifting operation, to bring Bayesian to the surface and ultimately into port.' The vessel was originally expected to be raised last month but salvage efforts were delayed after a diver died during underwater work on May 9, prompting greater use of remote-controlled equipment. About 70 specialist personnel had been mobilised to the fishing village of Porticello from across Europe to work on the recovery operation, which began last month. Inquest proceedings in the UK are looking at the deaths of Mr Lynch and his daughter, as well as Morgan Stanley International bank chairman Jonathan Bloomer, 70, and his wife, Judy Bloomer, 71, who were all British nationals. Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) investigators said in an interim report that the Bayesian was knocked over by 'extreme wind'. The yacht had a vulnerability to winds but the owner and crew would not have known, the report said. US lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Neda Morvillo, and Canadian-Antiguan national Recaldo Thomas, who was working as a chef on the vessel, also died in the sinking. Fifteen people, including Mr Lynch's wife, Angela Bacares, were rescued. Mr Lynch and his daughter were said to have lived in the vicinity of London and the Bloomers lived in Sevenoaks in Kent. The tycoon founded software giant Autonomy in 1996 and was cleared in June last year of carrying out a massive fraud over the sale of the firm to Hewlett-Packard (HP) in 2011. The boat trip was a celebration of his acquittal in the case in the US.
Times
18 minutes ago
- Times
Finland proposes a very novel idea — invest in the public library
In the €100 million Oodi library, which looms over central Helsinki like a cruise ship from the future, robots called Tatu, Patu and Veera trundle back and forth between the shelves and the reading rooms. Against this backdrop, foreign visitors might be surprised to see how many children and teenagers are engaged in an almost unsettlingly archaic activity: reading and borrowing books. In the age of TikTok, Netflix and Candy Crush, it is not just Finland's public libraries that are booming, but also demand for their physical paperbacks and hardbacks. Last year the average Finn visited them nine times and borrowed 15 books, resulting in the highest lending figures for 20 years. The appetite for children's and young adults' literature has risen to a record for the third year in a row, with a total of 38 million loans in 2024. That works out at about 40 books or other pieces of material, such as audiobooks, for each person under the age of 18. In Helsinki, the capital, which has a population of about 690,000, there were 9.2 million library visits and 5.7 million loans. Even by the standards of a country that is often ranked as the most literate on the planet, the numbers are remarkable. In Britain, the total number of loans has fallen to less than half of what it was at the turn of the millennium, despite a tentative recovery in the wake of the pandemic, and about 40 libraries a year are closing. Visits to German public libraries are still about a fifth lower than they were before the advent of Covid-19 and about one in five of them has shut down over the past decade. The most obvious explanation for the phenomenon is that Finland values its libraries and invests accordingly. The state spends about €60 per capita on the public library system each year, approximately four times as much as the UK and six times as much as Germany. • Encyclopaedia Britannica is back and 'it's better than ChatGPT' Where other countries rely on corporate skyscrapers or shopping centres for their visions of architectural modernity, Finland often looks to its libraries, such as Oodi and Vallila in Helsinki, the main Metso library in Tampere, or the revered 20th-century designer Alvar Aalto's projects in Rovaniemi and Seinajoki. They have traditionally served as engines of social mobility and integration. Erkki Sevanen, professor of literature at the University of Eastern Finland, grew up in a working-class family in Eura, a thinly populated district of villages 110 miles to the northwest of Helsinki. 'My parents and relatives did not used to read books, but there was a fine and well-equipped public library in our home village,' he said. 'It opened a whole world of classical literature and philosophy for me in the 1960s and 1970s.' Sevanen said the public libraries were a significant part of the reason he had ultimately pursued a university career, and that today they perform a similar function for immigrants to Finland. 'I am very grateful to this system,' he said. 'It was part of what made my social rise from the working class to academic circles possible.' The roots of this culture predate Finland's independence in 1918. Like large parts of Scandinavia and continental northern Europe, it was profoundly influenced by Lutheran Protestantism and its insistence that each individual should engage with the texts of scripture for themselves. 'The ability to read was a requirement for everyone who wanted to get married. To demonstrate their reading skills, people were tested at church gatherings,' said Ulla Richardson, professor of technology-enhanced language learning at the University of Jyvaskyla. The movement gathered steam in the 19th century, when Finland was a semi-autonomous duchy in the Russian empire and the new public libraries were focal points for an emerging sense of national identity. They remain important hubs for Finnish society, providing a space in which people can be alone and together at the same time. 'Many Finns tend to consider libraries almost as sanctuaries,' Richardson said. Alongside computers and internet access, they offer board games, video games, musical instruments, sewing machines, seasonal theatre passes and even sports equipment in some cases. These services are particularly valued by families with straitened financial means, who might not otherwise be able to afford school textbooks or other media. 'The libraries are spaces that children and teens can access freely, especially if they don't have other places to go,' said Richardson. 'These days we also have self-service libraries open when there are no personnel working.'
BreakingNews.ie
19 minutes ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Liverpool complete €117m club-record signing of Florian Wirtz
Premier League champions Liverpool have completed the £100 million (€117 million) club-record signing of Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen. The deal for the 22-year-old Germany international could potentially become a British record as there are £16 million (€18.7 million)of add-ons included, which would surpass the existing mark of £115 million (€134 million) which Chelsea paid for Moises Caicedo in 2023. Advertisement It is understood Liverpool will be happy to pay these 'aspirational bonuses' as it will mean they have enjoyed considerable success at elite level. Florian Wirtz is a Red. — Liverpool FC (@LFC) June 20, 2025 Wirtz has signed a five-year contract and the capture of one of Europe's most highly-rated talents is seen as a significant coup for the club having initially faced competition from Manchester City, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid. Leverkusen had valued Wirtz at £126 million but a compromise was reached last week, although the up-front fee easily outstrips the £85 million deal Liverpool agreed with Benfica in 2022 for Darwin Nunez, who is expected to leave this summer. Wirtz is Liverpool's second signing of the summer, following close friend and Leverkusen team-mate Jeremie Frimpong to Anfield, and with the Valencia goalkeeper Giorgi Marmadashvilli joining next month after a deal was agreed a year ago spending has already reached £175 million. Advertisement Jeremie Frimpong has also made the move from Bayer Leverkusen to Anfield (Peter Byrne/PA) That is set to be pushed beyond the £200 million mark with a £40 milliom fee agreed for Bournemouth left-back Milos Kerkez. It is their biggest summer window since 2018 when Naby Keita, Fabinho, Xherdan Shaqiri and Alisson Becker were recruited for around £170 million, with Virgil van Dijk having signed for £75 million the previous January. Owners Fenway Sports Group have, despite their 'Moneyball' reputation, not been afraid to splash out big fees for transformative players like Van Dijk and Alisson – and Wirtz falls into that category. The club have already recouped around £26 million with the departures of Trent Alexander-Arnold and Caoimhin Kelleher with further funds expected to be generated from the likes of Nunez, Harvey Elliott, Federico Chiesa and potentially Andy Robertson, who is a target for Atletico Madrid. Advertisement 'I feel very happy and very proud. I was waiting for a long time – finally it's done and I am really happy,' Wirtz told the club's website. From Leverkusen to Liverpool 🌍 — Liverpool FC (@LFC) June 20, 2025 'I'm really excited to have a new adventure in front of me. This was also a big point of my thoughts: that I want to have something completely new, to go out of the Bundesliga and to join the Premier League. 'I will see how I can perform there. I hope I can do my best. I spoke also with some players who played there and they told me that it's perfect for me and every pitch is perfect, you can enjoy every game. I'm really looking forward to playing my first game. 'I would like to win everything every year! First of all, we have to do our work, I have to make my work. Advertisement 'In the end, we want to be successful. Last season they won the Premier League so my goal is for sure to win it again and also to go further in the Champions League. I'm really ambitious.'
