Storm Dennis is now taking shape in the Western Atlantic and will become more menacing over the next day.
A separate but powerful low-pressure system is already in the Atlantic, which will bring damaging winds and blowing snow to Iceland Friday.
Coastal areas of Iceland could see hurricane-force winds Friday, with gusts over 124 mph (200 kph) warned the Icelandic met office.
These two systems will dance around each other Friday before Dennis moves east.
The most substantial part of the storm will move to the north of Ireland on Saturday, then on to the UK on Sunday, though the center of Dennis will not get as close to the UK as storm Ciara did last week. Which means the winds likely won't be as intense.
Winds will not likely reach the 90+ mph gusts seen last weekend. But widespread gusts of 50 mph are likely across the UK Saturday and Sunday, causing another wildly windy weekend.
The winds won't be the only concern. Already saturated ground presents the risk for further flooding. 50 to 80 mm of rain is likely across a widespread areas of the country and isolated amounts of 120 to 140 mm are possible.
Health officials have contacted hundreds of conference attendees in London, after it emerged one of them was later diagnosed with coronavirus.
The person, who has not been identified, was at the UK Bus Summit at the QEII Conference Centre last week.
Two Labour MPs who were also at the conference said they were well but cancelling public engagements until 20 February as a precaution.
So far, nine people in the UK have tested positive for the virus.
MP Lilian Greenwood - a former chair of the transport select committee - spoke at the 6 February conference in Westminster, which was attended by about 250 people from the bus and transport industry.
She said on Twitter she was "feeling completely well" but to be "extra-cautious" she was cancelling her public engagements for two weeks from the date of the conference, in line with advice from Public Health England.
Her colleague Alex Sobel, MP for Leeds North West, said he has been told he was "very low risk" but called NHS non-emergency telephone service 111 to be "formally assessed". He said he was not exhibiting any symptoms.
Mr Sobel's office said he was avoiding contact with others while waiting to hear back from 111.
He had cancelled all events and appointments until next Thursday as a precaution and would likely be staying at home with his family for most of the time.
Transport Times, the organiser of the conference, sent an email on Thursday afternoon to attendees informing them that a person confirmed to have coronavirus - which causes an illness now named Covid-19 - had been at the event.
The email included advice from PHE urging delegates that no action was needed if they felt well, but if they developed symptoms such as a fever or cough they should stay indoors, avoid contact with others and call NHS 111.
The letter told people to follow the advice until 20 February, "even if your symptoms are minor".
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Dr Chow, a PHE consultant in health protection, said: "One of our main priorities has been to identify any people who we think have been in close contact with confirmed cases of Covid-19 to provide public health advice, as they may be at slightly increased risk of catching the virus.
"While the degree of contact conference delegates may have had with the case is unlikely to have been significant, we have taken a precautionary approach and informed them of the situation."
Nine cases
According to the latest figures, more than 1,300 people are now known to have died from the virus, the majority in China.
According to the Press Association news agency, the conference case is not linked to the latest person in the UK to test positive for the virus earlier this week, a Chinese woman.
The woman, who caught the virus in China before flying to the UK, went to hospital in an Uber but PHE said the driver is not at "high risk". It was the first case to be identified in London.
As of 14:00 on Friday, tests for the virus have been carried out on 2,964 people in the UK - with all but nine being negative.
In addition to the patient being treated at St Thomas' Hospital in London, the UK's coronavirus cases include two Chinese nationals who tested positive in York.
Another cluster of cases began with British businessman Steve Walsh, who contracted the virus in Singapore and passed it to 11 people at a ski resort in France. Five of these returned to the UK. Mr Walsh has now recovered.
Meanwhile, more than 80 people who stayed in accommodation at Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral for two weeks have left after testing negative for the new strain of coronavirus.
They are one of two groups of British nationals evacuated from Wuhan, with the second quarantined near Milton Keynes.
On Thursday, the head of NHS England Sir Simon Stevens warned that many more people may be forced to self-isolate as part of efforts to stop the coronavirus spreading in Britain.
What are the symptoms of coronavirus and what can help stop its spread?
The main signs of infection are fever (high temperature) and a cough as well as shortness of breath and breathing difficulties.
Frequent hand washing with soap or gel, avoiding close contact with people who are ill and not touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands, can help cut the risk of infection.
Catching coughs and sneezes in a tissue, binning it and washing your hands can minimise the risk of spreading disease.
Anyone experiencing symptoms, even if mild, after travelling from mainland China, Thailand, Japan, Republic of Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia or Macau, is advised to stay indoors and call the NHS 111 phone service.
Storm Dennis is now taking shape in the Western Atlantic and will become more menacing over the next day.
A separate but powerful low-pressure system is already in the Atlantic, which will bring damaging winds and blowing snow to Iceland Friday.
Coastal areas of Iceland could see hurricane-force winds Friday, with gusts over 124 mph (200 kph) warned the Icelandic met office.
These two systems will dance around each other Friday before Dennis moves east.
The most substantial part of the storm will move to the north of Ireland on Saturday, then on to the UK on Sunday, though the center of Dennis will not get as close to the UK as storm Ciara did last week. Which means the winds likely won't be as intense.
Winds will not likely reach the 90+ mph gusts seen last weekend. But widespread gusts of 50 mph are likely across the UK Saturday and Sunday, causing another wildly windy weekend.
The winds won't be the only concern. Already saturated ground presents the risk for further flooding. 50 to 80 mm of rain is likely across a widespread areas of the country and isolated amounts of 120 to 140 mm are possible.
Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid attends a session during the 50th World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, January 22, 2020. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
Sajid Javid has resigned as the head of the U.K.'s finance ministry, surprising financial markets and political pundits in the country.
He has served as finance minister (known as the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the U.K.) since July, when Boris Johnson was first appointed prime minister.
Javid was due to present Britain's budget in March, the U.K.'s first after its departure from the EU last month. The resignation comes as Johnson was making changes to his Cabinet on Thursday. The U.K.'s attorney general, Geoffrey Cox, has also resigned.
Media reports suggest that Javid was offered the chance to remain finance minister on the condition that he fires all of his advisors. He reportedly said no and opted to resign himself.
The U.K. left the European Union on January 31 and it is set to embark on intense trade negotiations with the other 27 EU countries over the coming months.
U.K. debt markets were under pressure following the resignation. Market players are concerned that the move follows additional spending pressure from the prime minister and his top advisors.
Sterling, meanwhile, rose against the U.S. dollar by 0.4% following the surprise move. Rishi Sunak, who has served as chief secretary to the Treasury since July 2019, is set to step into the role.
The United Kingdom's financial regulators are investigating past links between Barclays Chief Executive Jes Staley and the United States financier Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, the bank said on Thursday.
Barclays said its board had looked into media reports on Staley's relationship with Epstein, and investigated Staley's characterisation of it. The Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority are investigating.
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The bank said its board believes Staley has been sufficiently transparent about his ties to Epstein, whom Staley said he had not seen since taking over as Barclays chief executive in 2015.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Staley said he regretted his relationship with Epstein, which began in 2000 while he was employed by JPMorgan and "tapered off significantly" after he left the Wall Street lender.
The relationship ended in late 2015, Staley said.
"I thought I knew him well, and I didn't. I'm sure with hindsight of what we all know now, I deeply regret having had any relationship with Jeffrey Epstein," he said.
The New York Times last year said Epstein had referred "dozens" of wealthy clients to Staley when the chief executive ran JPMorgan's private banking business.
It also reported that Staley visited Epstein in prison when he was serving a sentence between 2008-09 for soliciting prostitution.
Staley also went to Epstein's private island in 2015, Bloomberg reported.
Barclays has previously said Staley never engaged or paid fees to Epstein to advise him or provide professional services.
The probe is the second regulatory investigation into Staley's conduct in recent years, after the FCA and PRA fined him 642,000 pounds ($832,803) in 2018 for trying to identify a whistle-blower who sent letters criticizing a Barclays employee.
Barclays shares fell 3.4 percent on Thursday morning.
Staley received a bumper pay package of 5.9 million pounds ($7.65m) in 2019, up from 3.36 million pounds ($4.36m) a year earlier. The sum was boosted by the paying out of a long-term incentive plan worth 1.48 million pounds ($1.92m).
His bonus also rose to 1.65 million pounds ($2.14m), reflecting the bank's strong annual performance.
Both Staley and Finance Director Tushar Morzaria took cuts to their pension allowances in 2019, and will now receive fixed cash contributions equating to 10 percent of salary in line with the broader workforce.
Lower-paid employees will see their employer pension contributions rise to 12 percent.
The bank, meanwhile, reported a better-than-expected profit before tax of 6.2 billion pounds ($8.04bn) for 2019, as its investment bank reported bumper returns from fixed-income trading.
Its profit was 9 percent higher than in 2018 and above the 5.7 billion pound ($7.39bn) average of analysts' forecasts compiled by the bank.
The UK lender also reiterated its ambition of achieving a 10 percent return on equity this year, although it repeated a warning from October that the worsening economic outlook might make reaching that target difficult.
Staley has said Barclays's mix of investment and retail banking businesses should partly insulate it from economic and market fluctuations.
Barclays paid a dividend of nine pence ($0.12) for the year, compared with 6.5 pence ($0.08) for 2018, as its core capital ratio came in at a better-than-expected 13.8 percent.
Officials are attempting to trace the contacts of the latest person to be diagnosed with coronavirus in the UK.
The woman, being treated at Guy's and St Thomas' in London, flew into Heathrow from China a few days ago.
England's chief medical officer has said experts are exploring how to limit a potential epidemic in the UK to avoid an NHS crisis.
People quarantined on the Wirral after returning from the city at the centre of the outbreak are set to be released.
More than 80 people staying in accommodation at Arrowe Park Hospital will be allowed to leave after testing negative for the new strain of coronavirus.
They are one of two groups of British nationals evacuated from Wuhan, with the second quarantined near Milton Keynes.
The new case - announced on Wednesday evening - is the UK's ninth and the first to be identified in London.
England's chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty, said the patient contracted the virus in China and sources said the woman developed symptoms after landing, called NHS 111 and later tested positive.
'Contain and delay'
Prof Whitty told BBC Radio 4's Today programme it was hoped China "gets on top of the epidemic".
But he said that containment and isolation remain the focus for medical teams - and that work was now under way to work out how to delay any potential outbreak in the UK.
He said: "We basically have a strategy which depends upon four tactical aims: the first one is to contain; the second of these is to delay; the third of these is to do the science and the research; and the fourth is to mitigate so we can brace the NHS."
Prof Whitty added: "If we are going to get an outbreak here in the UK - and this is an if not a when - then putting it back in time, into the summer period away from the winter pressures on the NHS, buying us a bit more time to understand the virus better, possibly having some seasonal advantage, is a big advantage."
On Wednesday, British businessman Steve Walsh, one of the nine UK cases of coronavirus, left hospital having fully recovered.
Mr Walsh, a 53-year-old scout leader from Hove in East Sussex, now posed "no risk to the public", NHS England said.
He was the third case of the virus to be confirmed in the UK, following two Chinese nationals testing positive in York.
Mr Walsh contracted coronavirus on a business trip to Singapore and unknowingly passed it on to 11 other people - five of whom then returned to the UK.
Two of them are known to be GPs who worked at a nursing home, Worthing Hospital and two medical centres in the Brighton area.
A total of 1,750 people in the UK have tested negative for the virus, which causes the disease now known as Covid-19.
What are the symptoms of coronavirus and what can help stop its spread?
The main signs of infection are fever (high temperature) and a cough as well as shortness of breath and breathing difficulties.
Frequent hand washing with soap or gel, avoiding close contact with people who are ill and not touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands, can help cut the risk of infection.
Catching coughs and sneezes in a tissue, binning it and washing your hands can minimise the risk of spreading disease.
Anyone experiencing symptoms, even if mild, after travelling from mainland China, Thailand, Japan, Republic of Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia or Macau, is advised to stay indoors and call theNHS 111 phone service.
Officials are attempting to trace the contacts of the latest person to be diagnosed with coronavirus in the UK.
The woman, being treated at Guy's and St Thomas' in London, flew into Heathrow from China a few days ago.
England's chief medical officer has said experts are exploring how to limit a potential epidemic in the UK to avoid an NHS crisis.
People quarantined on the Wirral after returning from the city at the centre of the outbreak are set to be released.
More than 80 people staying in accommodation at Arrowe Park Hospital will be allowed to leave after testing negative for the new strain of coronavirus.
They are one of two groups of British nationals evacuated from Wuhan, with the second quarantined near Milton Keynes.
The new case - announced on Wednesday evening - is the UK's ninth and the first to be identified in London.
England's chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty, said the patient contracted the virus in China and sources said the woman developed symptoms after landing, called NHS 111 and later tested positive.
'Contain and delay'
Prof Whitty told BBC Radio 4's Today programme it was hoped China "gets on top of the epidemic".
But he said that containment and isolation remain the focus for medical teams - and that work was now under way to work out how to delay any potential outbreak in the UK.
He said: "We basically have a strategy which depends upon four tactical aims: the first one is to contain; the second of these is to delay; the third of these is to do the science and the research; and the fourth is to mitigate so we can brace the NHS."
Prof Whitty added: "If we are going to get an outbreak here in the UK - and this is an if not a when - then putting it back in time, into the summer period away from the winter pressures on the NHS, buying us a bit more time to understand the virus better, possibly having some seasonal advantage, is a big advantage."
On Wednesday, British businessman Steve Walsh, one of the nine UK cases of coronavirus, left hospital having fully recovered.
Mr Walsh, a 53-year-old scout leader from Hove in East Sussex, now posed "no risk to the public", NHS England said.
He was the third case of the virus to be confirmed in the UK, following two Chinese nationals testing positive in York.
Mr Walsh contracted coronavirus on a business trip to Singapore and unknowingly passed it on to 11 other people - five of whom then returned to the UK.
Two of them are known to be GPs who worked at a nursing home, Worthing Hospital and two medical centres in the Brighton area.
A total of 1,750 people in the UK have tested negative for the virus, which causes the disease now known as Covid-19.
What are the symptoms of coronavirus and what can help stop its spread?
The main signs of infection are fever (high temperature) and a cough as well as shortness of breath and breathing difficulties.
Frequent hand washing with soap or gel, avoiding close contact with people who are ill and not touching your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands, can help cut the risk of infection.
Catching coughs and sneezes in a tissue, binning it and washing your hands can minimise the risk of spreading disease.
Anyone experiencing symptoms, even if mild, after travelling from mainland China, Thailand, Japan, Republic of Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia or Macau, is advised to stay indoors and call theNHS 111 phone service.
