Sunday newspaper round-up: Trump, Cineworld, Cobham

(Sharecast News) - President Donald Trump's team of doctors says he is doing well after his Covid-19 diagnosis and could be discharged as early as Monday. Dr. Brian Garibaldi, a specialist in pulmonary critical care, said Trump received a second dose of the experimental drug remdesivir along with a first dose of dexamethasone yesterday and isn't showing any side effects "that we can tell." He said Sunday that Trump is "up and well" and the plan was to have him "out of bed" Sunday as much as possible, and could potentially return to the White House to continue his five-day course of remdesivir. - Sunday Telegraph

Britain's biggest cinema chain is considering shutting all its UK and US venues temporarily, after the release of the latest James Bond film was put back to next year. Cineworld, which owns the Regal cinema and Picturehouse chains, said in a statement on Sunday: "We can confirm we are considering the temporary closure of our UK and US cinemas, but a final decision has not yet been reached. Once a decision has been made we will update all staff and customers as soon as we can." - Guardian

Lady Cobham has called on Ministers to intervene after the US owner of defence giant Cobham launched a major break-up of the £4billion British firm. City sources said private equity firm Advent had quietly sold off Cobham's shareholding in a Royal Air Force refuelling company and appointed heavyweight bankers to sell its antenna manufacturing unit for £770million. Cobham is understood to have offloaded its 13 per cent stake in AirTanker - which provides the RAF with air transport and air-to-air refuelling services - to investors including Rolls-Royce, Airbus, Babcock International and Thales. - Mail on Sunday

Taxpayers face being on the hook for billions of pounds' worth of mortgages under a "generation buy" scheme being considered by the government to get young people on the housing ladder. Boris Johnson is reported to have asked ministers to devise plans for long-term fixed-rate mortgages with a 5% deposit. This could require the government to take some of the risk from lenders through a form of state guarantee - sparking concern among mortgage experts. - Sunday Times

A British boss of Palantir, whose software was used to separate and deport migrant families in America, portrayed the data firm as a defender of civil liberties last week as its multibillion-dollar float triggered new scrutiny of the secretive company. Louis Mosley, head of its London operation and nephew of former Formula One president Max, said: "Palantir was actually started to guard against government overreach into personal privacy. Much of the software we've built is to prove those kinds of protections." - Sunday Times

The National Farmers' Union (NFU) has called on the UK government to make a legal commitment to ban chlorinated chicken and hormone-fed beef from supermarket shelves. In advance of new agriculture legislation, the NFU president, Minette Batters, said she was not demanding that imported chickens should luxuriate in "10ft-high straw beds" but that the UK's high standards of animal welfare should be imposed on imports. - Guardian

Media giant WPP is poised to appoint a prominent tech entrepreneur to its board. The FTSE 100 advertising group is set to make Tom Ilube, the founder of Crossword Cybersecurity, a non-executive director. Ilube, 57, launched his start-up in 2014 and floated it on the junior AIM market two years ago. He worked as a software engineer at the London Stock Exchange and Goldman Sachs before becoming an entrepreneur, and was part of the founding team of internet bank Egg. - Sunday Times

The UK economy continued its rapid rebound from the depths of the coronavirus lockdown in August, the latest official data on growth is expected to show on Friday, but many economists are braced for a grim winter as job losses mount. The Bank of England's chief economist, Andy Haldane, predicted last week that GDP would be "only around 3-4% below its pre-Covid level" by the end of the third quarter, covering July to September. - Guardian