Volodymyr Zelensky attended a secret roundtable in New York City with the nation’s top financiers, including private equity bosses at JPMorgan, Google and Blackstone to discuss rebuilding war-torn Ukraine.

The meeting was hosted by the nation’s largest bank, JPMorgan, on Wednesday evening, and included Google CEO Eric Schmidt, billionaire Mike Bloomberg, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, and hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman.

The former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and billionaire Barry Sternlicht were also in attendance, sources told CNN.

Hours earlier, Zelensky met with Larry Fink, CEO of the world’s largest asset manager BlackRock to discuss how to attract US private sector money for the rebuilding effort, According Fox News.  

Zelensky is scheduled to meet with President Joe Biden later this week to discuss US aid to Ukraine. This comes after Biden and the US Congress have provided more than $75 billion in assistance to Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022. 

Zelensky met with senior members of JP Morgan back in February, where he took part in one of the largest annual investment summits organized by the bank, attended by 200 largest corporations, investors, and financial companies.

The meeting discussed the creation of a platform for attracting private capital to rebuild Ukraine. Zelensky also focused on directions of large investment projects in Ukraine specifically in green energy, IT, and agricultural technologies.

JPMorgan has served as Zelensky’s financial adviser to attract private capital for a new investment fund to rebuild Ukraine’s infrastructure destroyed in its war with Russia, sources told Fox Digital. 

The meeting comes a day after Zelensky attended the United Nations General Assembly in New York City. 

In his address to United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, Biden pledged that the US would remain the ‘largest single country donor’ of humanitarian assistance and vowed to help ‘climate proof’ the world. 

Biden also emphasized the success of PEPFAR – the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief – as its reauthorization is at stake over conservative claims that it supports abortion abroad.

‘We saved tens of millions of lives that would otherwise be lost to preventable and treatable diseases like measles, malaria and tuberculosis,’ Biden said. 

‘HIV/AIDS infections and deaths plummeted in no small part becuase PEPFAR’s work in more than 55 countries, saving more than 25 million lives.’

The crowd included both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky – dressed in his traditional military fatigues – and Russian Amb. Vaisily Nebenzya in the audience.

Biden hammered Russia’s ‘naked aggression’ and vowed to keep funding Kyiv as he again called the present moment ‘an inflection point in world history.’

He also noted that ‘for a second year in a row, this gathering dedicated to peaceful resolution of conflict is darkened by the shadow of war.’

The president called it ‘an illegal war of conquest’ and one that was ‘brought without provocation’ by Russia into Ukraine.

‘Like every nation in the world the United States wants this war to end,’ he said. ‘No nation wants this war to end more than Ukraine. And we strongly support Ukraine and its efforts to bring about a diplomatic resolution that delivers just and lasting peace.’

But he said that ‘Russia alone, Russia alone bears responsibility for this war.’

‘Russia alone has the power to end this war immediately. And it’s Russia alone that stands in the way of peace because the Russians’ price for peace is Ukraine’s capitulation, Ukraine’s territory and Ukraine’s children,’ Biden said.

‘Russia believes that the world will grow weary and will allow it to brutalize Ukraine without consequence,’ the president added.

Biden then laid out what he thought would be the cost of that weariness.

‘But I ask you this, if we abandon the core principles of the United States to appease an aggressor, can any member state in this body feel confident that they are protected?’ he asked.

‘If we allow Ukraine to be carved up, is the independence of any nation secure?’ the president added. 

The King and Queen today attended a special service at Crathie Kirk to commemorate the life of the late Queen Elizabeth – and appeared moved by warm-wishes from crowds who also gathered to mark the anniversary of her death.

Charles and Camilla made the short journey by car from the nearby Balmoral Estate to the Scottish church, where successive monarchs have worshiped since Queen Victoria. 

The couple spoke to crowds outside afterwards who shared their condolences and handed them bouquets and cards. The King told them that the flowers were ‘wonderful’ and joked with children about getting back to school.

Other royals were also at the service, including the Queen’s great nephews Samuel and Arthur Chatto, sons of Lady Sarah and Daniel Chatto, who also went. And staff from Balmoral, the beloved Scottish home of the Queen where she died, also attended, walking to and from the service in the September sunshine. 

The King looked emotional as he left Crathie Kirk having paid a moving tribute to his adored mother as the nation marks the first anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s death today. Crowds gathered at Buckingham Palace and Army gun salutes honouring Her Majesty rang out across the United Kingdom. 

In an unprecedented break with tradition, signifying how touched he has been by the country’s grief at her passing but also pride in a remarkable life of public duty, His Majesty recalled his mother’s ‘long life, devoted service and all she meant to so many of us’. 

William and Kate have travelled to Wales to grieve Queen Elizabeth’s passing and shared their own favourite pictures of the late monarch and said: ‘Today we remember the extraordinary life and legacy of Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth. We all miss you. W & C’. 

Initially Charles, 74, had planned only to mark his mother’s death – and his own grief-tinged accession – in ‘quiet contemplation’ at home in Scotland.

In doing so he would follow the same pattern that Queen Elizabeth chose to adopt for 70 years, marking her father King George VI‘s death, at Sandringham in Norfolk, away from public gaze.

But in recent weeks he began to have a change of heart, having been so deeply touched by the global outpouring of grief after his mother died on September 8 last year.

Indeed, the Mail can reveal that the King and Queen Camilla chose last night not to return to their own home at Birkhall on the Balmoral estate as planned, but to remain at the castle itself where Elizabeth died at the age of 96, surrounded by the glory of the Scottish Highlands she adored.

They will remain there today, comforted by some of those who were closest to Her late Majesty, spending tonight there as well, before moving back to their neighbouring estate. A source said: ‘I think it will be of comfort to be surrounded by so much that was familiar to her.’

Meanwhile, the Prince and Princess of Wales are to mark the first anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II’s death with a small private service in Wales. William and Kate will attend St Davids Cathedral in St Davids, the smallest city in Britain, in Pembrokeshire on Friday. They will also meet members of the local community in the adjacent cloister, including local people who met Elizabeth II during her visits to St Davids.

St Davids has been a site of pilgrimage and worship for more than 1,400 years, since St David – the patron saint of Wales – settled there with his monastic community in the sixth century.

Since the Reformation, one of the quire stalls has been in the possession of the Crown and is known as the Sovereign’s Stall. This makes St Davids the only UK cathedral where the sovereign has a special stall in the quire among members of the chapter, the governing body of the cathedral.

His tribute was echoed by that of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who said: ‘On the solemn anniversary of the passing of Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, our thoughts are with His Majesty King Charles III and the whole Royal Family.

‘With the perspective of a year, the scale of Her late Majesty’s service only seems greater. Her devotion to the nations of the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth only seems deeper. And our gratitude for such an extraordinary life of duty and dedication only continues to grow.

‘I treasure my memories of those occasions when I met Her late Majesty, in particular the private audience I had with her at Buckingham Palace before presenting my first Budget as Chancellor. I was struck by her wisdom, by her incredible warmth and grace, but also her sharp wit.’

And he spoke for many when he recalled the effect that she had on everyone she met.

‘People across the UK – whether they had the good fortune to meet Her late Majesty or not – will be reflecting today on what she meant to them and the example she set for us all. We will cherish those memories,’ he said.

‘The bond between country and monarch is sacred. It endures. So, while we continue to mourn Her late Majesty’s passing, we should be proud that this remarkable legacy of service – and this remarkable bond – continues to grow today under the reign of His Majesty the King.’

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said the long queues through the night to see the late Queen lying in state had shown that she ‘always enjoyed a special bond with her people’.

‘It was a relationship built from her understanding that service of this great nation is the thread that unites sovereign and subject,’ he said.

‘So, as we reflect on her legacy again today, let us embrace that spirit of public service as our guide towards a better future.’

Her last prime minister – albeit briefly – Liz Truss, with whom she was so memorably photographed for the final time, also opened up about their encounter.

She described how the frail but ‘upbeat’ and ‘mentally alert’ monarch had told her they would be ‘meeting again soon’. The Queen had welcomed Ms Truss to Balmoral on September 6 to appoint her as prime minister.

‘She was very, very keen to reassure me that we’d be meeting again soon. It was very important to her,’ Ms Truss told GB News.

Ms Truss added: ‘She was very determined to do her duty, right to the end.’

The Queen died two days later, with Ms Truss describing the scene as she waited in Downing Street when the confirmation came at around 4.30pm.

‘We were in the Downing Street flat with, officials, other people. So when the news came through, it was sort of confirming all the worst fears that we’d had,’ she said.

She recalled the King was ‘very, very resolute’ when she spoke to him to express her condolences on the phone the day his mother died and his reign began.

Today, soldiers and horses which took part in the state funeral procession and proclamation salutes signifying the new reign are to return to perform Accession Day anniversary gun salutes in the King’s honour.

Captain Amy Cooper – who was the lead rider in the procession which carried the Queen’s coffin to lie in state in Westminster Hall – will give the order to fire a 41-gun salute at midday in London’s Hyde Park.

Captain Cooper is with the King’s Troop, almost all of whom played a role in the final farewell to the Queen a year ago.

There will also be a 62-gun salute at the Tower of London by The Honourable Artillery Company, while bells will be rung at Westminster Abbey at 1pm in commemoration of the King’s accession.

The Prince and Princess of Wales will be in Wales at St David’s Cathedral where they will commemorate the life of Queen Elizabeth and speak to members of the community she met during her visits to the city.

A source said it was important to William and Kate to be in Wales in honour of their new titles and to honour the bond the late monarch had with the Welsh nation.

A source said King Charles and Queen Camilla will ‘balance between reflecting properly on the public nature of moment but finding the space for privacy to reflect in private’.

Private equity swoops on UK pharma firm in £703.1m deal: Ergomed founder lands £120m windfall

By Leah Montebello

Updated: 16:55 EDT, 4 September 2023

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NHS crisis sparks boom in private health insurance: Aviva chief Amanda Blanc reports ‘very strong demand’ for cover

By John-Paul Ford Rojas

Published: 16:51 EDT, 16 August 2023 | Updated: 16:51 EDT, 16 August 2023

Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you click on them we may earn a small commission. That helps us fund This Is Money, and keep it free to use. We do not write articles to promote products. We do not allow any commercial relationship to affect our editorial independence.

Patients facing long NHS waiting lists for scans and tests are plunging themselves into debt by signing up for loans and ‘buy now, pay later’ deals for private health care.

In exchange for rapid treatment, patients face years of paying off debts on instalment for their medical treatment – including MRI scans, X-rays, routine surgery and hip replacements.

Firms such as MRI Plus, which offers payback deals tells patients ‘Why wait in pain? Slash your waiting time for treatment on the NHS’, and ‘book now and pay later’.

Another loan provider, Chrysalis Finance, offers ‘quick and easy’ loans of between £350 – £25,000 – and allows payments to be spread over five years. 

Scan.com, which offers MRIs, CT scans, ultrasounds and X-rays at 150 centres nationally, is offering an interest-free BNPL option via PayPal.

The companies said the BNPL plans are ethical, interest-free options that help people manage their finances.

But debt campaigners and health experts are concerned that NHS backlogs could force people to use the deals in desperation.

David Rowland, director of the Centre for Health and the Public Interest thinktank, said: ‘Policymakers need to be aware of how the underfunding of the NHS is pushing unsustainable healthcare costs back onto individuals, potentially increasing their indebtedness. It’s a slippery slope.

Research by the StepChange debt charity found that nearly half of people with a BNPL loan had trouble keeping up with household bills and credit repayments, while 17 per cent met the charity’s definition of being in severe financial difficulty.

In some cases, customers face late-payment fees and risk damaging their credit rating or being referred to debt collectors. While traditional loans are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, interest-free loans repaid in less than 12 months – including BNPL products – are exempt.

For patients, having access to credit amid the current NHS backlogs can be the difference between enduring months of pain and angst or not.

NHS England figures show that as of May 2023, a record 7.47 million people were waiting to start routine hospital treatment, and more than 409,000 had been waiting six weeks or more for key diagnostic tests.

Anusha Stribbling, 25, a charity worker from Peckham, south London, said she paid £760 with Klarna for two scans after suffering abdominal pain and facing challenges accessing diagnostic tests on the NHS. She said the results helped her GP rule out other conditions and led to her being diagnosed with hypermobility and would use it again for treatment in future ‘without question’.

Klarna said BNPL was a fairer, low-cost alternative to credit cards, fewer than 1% of customers did not pay back the money they owed.

MRI Plus said it offered low-cost scans that helped people get ‘timely access’ to potentially life-saving care and customers had passed affordability checks.

A spokesperson for Chrysalis Finance said:

‘As a responsible lender authorised and fully regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, we only lend to people who can demonstrably afford the monthly repayments.

‘We do not provide any buy now, pay later finance. By contrast, we have worked with regulators and the UK government to abolish unregulated buy now, pay later (BNPL) lending.

‘Every application for our finance undergoes robust checks for creditworthiness and affordability ahead of any loan, in the same way as with other large-scale regulated lenders.

‘Finance allows people to access privately funded treatment by spreading the cost into affordable monthly repayments, often without interest charges. This choice to spread the cost is welcomed by many of our customers and is reflected in our high Trustpilot score and online feedback.’

PayPal said it ‘believes in responsible lending’ and added its ‘pay in three’ deals were interest-free loans ‘designed to offer customers more choice and flexibility’, which carried no late fees or other charges. The firm said it worked to ‘encourage people to not purchase items they cannot afford’.

The Department of Health and Social Care said it was working with the independent sector to expand diagnostic capacity across the country ‘quickly, closer to home, and free at the point of need’.

Shocking video emerges of father drinking bottle of beer while his 11-year-old son flies their private plane – as cops investigate whether it happened just before fatal crash that prompted his wife to kill herself

• Garon Maia, 42, and his 11-year-old son, Francisco Maia, died in a plane crash July 29
• Now Brazilian authorities are looking into whether the elder Maia allowed his son to fly the aircraft the day of the accident as a video shows him operating it
• Garon Maia’s wife and the boy’s stepmother, Ana Pridonik, shot herself dead Tuesday hours after the burial

By Adry Torres For Dailymail.com

Published: 16:36 EDT, 4 August 2023 | Updated: 20:08 EDT, 4 August 2023

The Government must be prepared to ramp-up investment in Britain if the private sector is to back the country and the economy is to thrive, the chief executive of Aviva Investors has told This is Money in an exclusive interview.

Mark Versey, who has led the insurer’s £223billion asset management unit since 2021, also highlighted the importance of rebuilding market confidence in certainty of UK policy after a volatile few years, particularly if the country is to successfully transition to net zero by 2050.

Britain has long been regarded as a laggard in terms of investment but this trend has worsened in recent years, with the country ranking the lowest among G7 peers and as one of the worst performers in the OECD group of 37 developed economies.

The UK has the 23rd worst levels of public investment at 3.1 per cent of gross domestic product and ranks 27th in terms of private investment, which is at 10 per cent of GDP, according to recent analysis by the Institute for Public Policy Research.

The worst private investment growth among the G7 since 2016 and a record as historically the absolute worst in overall investment as a percentage of GDP has been cited by the IMF as cause of Britain’s poor productivity.

As a result, the country ranks 35th in terms of overall investment at 17.3 per cent of GDP. Top performers, South Korea, Estonia and Turkey, enjoy investment levels of 31.6, 28.9 and 29.1 per cent of GDP, respectively.

Speaking to This is Money, Versey said: ‘That’s going to have to change if we want to power up the economy.

‘Private investment, which we represent a big chunk of, is waiting for the Government. 

‘We need to know what long-term government policy is, we need to know where government is going to invest, where it’s going to give subsidies, where it’s going to encourage growth, and where it’s going to limit growth.’

IPPR analysis of OECD data found that the UK has not been above the G7 median level of investment as a proportion of GDP since 1990, while it has not met the median average for private sector spending since 2005.

Had the UK remained in that median position, businesses would have invested an additional £354.3billion between 2006 and 2021 in real terms.

Had public sector investment met the G7 average over the same period, the government would have invested an additional £208.4billion in real terms, marking a private and public sector total of an additional £562.7billion of investment.

However, while the UK is below average in terms of public investment, austerity policies imposed on Spain and Italy have made them even worse. Germany, which currently faces recession, is also historically a low spender.  

One area where the Government has been vocal on its willingness to spend has been billions of pounds worth of policy and funding commitments to achieve the country’s net zero ambitions.

But Versey, who has intensified Aviva Investors sustainability push since being made chief exectuive, said ministers must be more transparent and detailed on net zero spending and policy plans if the private sector is to help achieve these goals.

He said: ‘If the UK wants to reach net zero, it needs to have a transition plan for each sector – it’s not just renewable energy, it’s actually the demand side of energy too.

‘Aviation, for example – is the Government going to subsidise sustainable aviation fuel? Is it going to invest in creation of sustainable aviation fuel? Is it going to use policy to force airlines to have to use different fuel?

‘We need to know what it’s going to do – but that’s one sector and then the same thing applies for every other sector of the economy.

‘If you have that plan of how each sector will get to net zero over the next 20 years with government policy backing it, that’s when the private sector will say ‘great, we’ll invest in these sectors’ and you create a spiral of investment where the government is working with industry and finance.

‘That’s what the country needs.’

Pensions should back private assets for returns  

The Government earlier this month revealed a series of reforms intended to help breathe life into the British economy, which some City forecasters say is doomed to face recession early next year.

The Mansion House Compact has seen Aviva and eight other major defined contribution pension providers agree to allocating at least 5 per cent of their default funds to unlisted companies by 2030, potentially unlocking another £50billion of investment.

Versey said that while the initiative aims to help drive the success of growth companies, an area of the market the UK struggles with, pensioners should welcome the changes for more selfish reasons.

He said: ‘The reason pension funds should invest in private markets is for returns.

‘[Approximately] half of companies globally are privately held. So if pension schemes are only invested in listed stocks they are missing half of the available investments.

‘Today only 0.5 per cent of pension assets Aviva manages – and it’s similar across the sector – are invested in anything private.

‘That includes real estate, infrastructure, forestry, private equity and venture capital – Just half a percent.

‘Contrast that to most global institutional investors. which would have around 20 per cent of assets invested.

‘There is a real rationale to improve returns for pensioners, but at the same time the private capital investment [in the economy] would be created. But in order to invest in the UK you’ve got to have government policy.’

Hospital consultants were tonight accused of giving patients ‘a kick in the teeth’ after it emerged they can do lucrative private work while on strike.

It means the senior doctors – on average NHS incomes of £128,000 – can profit from the misery caused by their two-day walkout next month.

The British Medical Association (BMA) today said its members would be free to earn extra money by carrying out private surgery and consultations during the strike. Patient groups described the BMA’s stance as ‘unconscionable’.

Health leaders have warned a ‘double whammy’ of industrial action by consultants and junior doctors will cause disruption to ‘many thousands’ of patients and is a ‘huge risk’ for the NHS to manage.

Junior doctors will strike for five days from July 13 to 18, in the longest walkout in the history of the NHS, before consultants walk out on July 20 and 21.

Both groups are seeking an inflation-busting pay rise of 35 per cent. The combined action is likely to lead to the cancellation of more than 300,000 appointments, hampering efforts to clear record waiting lists of more than 7.4 million.

The BMA said consultants will be ‘perfectly able’ to do private practice if they are not contracted to do NHS work on strike days.

Those who are rostered to do routine NHS work, such as outpatient appointments and elective operations, can decide to ‘withdraw their labour’ and choose to provide private care instead.

However, those who are due to be ‘on call’ cannot do private work as they must remain available for emergencies, as part of the BMA’s agreement to provide a ‘Christmas Day’ service.

Tory MP Paul Bristow, who sits on the Commons health and social care committee, said: ‘How can it be right that in a middle of a strike, some consultants will be cashing in? This is a kick in the teeth for patients waiting for life-changing surgery.

‘The BMA need to get round the table and negotiate on behalf of their members.’

Fellow Conservative MP Ben Bradley added: ‘This is rank hypocrisy. It’s about time the BMA put patients first and called off the strikes.’

Consultants already do more than 800,000 private procedures each year, official figures show, with many cashing in on the rising demand for private healthcare fuelled by record NHS waiting lists.

They typically charge £2,500 for the likes of hip and knee replacements or cataract surgery, £250 for an initial consultation and £150 for follow-up checks, according to the Private Healthcare Information Network (PHIN). Some charge much more.

Patients have to pay the consultants’ fees plus extra charges to the hospitals where their procedures take place.

The statutory body, which collates data on private healthcare, said 12,200 consultants conducted private procedures last year. There were 820,000 private in-patient and day-case admissions in 2022, which is more than any year since it began collecting data.

Consultants announced the strike on Tuesday after 86 per cent backed the move in a ballot, on a turnout of 71 per cent. They will provide only a bare-bones ‘Christmas Day’ service, meaning they will deliver emergency care but most routine treatment will be cancelled.

Dennis Reed, director of Silver Voices, which campaigns for the elderly, said: ‘For consultants to use a strike as an opportunity to increase private practice is unconscionable.

‘Consultants are not hard up and a lot of elderly people are on a pension that is a small fraction of these doctors’ income, so will be less supportive of them than they were of nurses.’

The BMA said: ‘If a consultant is not contracted to work for the NHS on strike days, then they can either support the strike – via picket lines or a locally organised rally – or if they are among the minority of consultants who have a private practice or a private patient list elsewhere on that day, they are able to go and do that work.

‘For consultants who are contracted to work for the NHS on strike days, only those who are on call will be expected to be available to provide the level of cover agreed – the ‘Christmas Day’ cover.

‘Consultants who are contracted to do NHS work, but not provide cover, have the ability to work in a private setting on strike days if they wish.

‘However, we’d recommend they support the industrial action and remain available to the NHS in case the strike is called off due to the Government returning with a credible offer.’

Russell Crowe’s girlfriend Britney Theriot picks up their new puppy in private jet after their previous dog was hit by a truck

By Jimmy Briggs For Daily Mail Australia

Published: 02:55 EDT, 11 June 2023 | Updated: 02:55 EDT, 11 June 2023

US private equity giant Apollo abandons bid for Wood Group sending shares in the FTSE 250 engineer tumbling 34.4%

By Calum Muirhead For The Daily Mail

Published: 16:50 EDT, 15 May 2023 | Updated: 17:17 EDT, 15 May 2023

Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you click on them we may earn a small commission. That helps us fund This Is Money, and keep it free to use. We do not write articles to promote products. We do not allow any commercial relationship to affect our editorial independence.

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