Bloomberg UK retail sales posted a modest rebound in February after a brutal start to the year, when a lockdown to contain coronavirus forced non-essential stores to close. The volume of goods sold in shops and online rise 2.1% from January, the Office for National Statistics said, in line with economists’ expectations. Sales excluding auto fuel climbed 2.4%. The pickup ...

Bloomberg Unused airline tickets are getting extra shelf life as the steep drop in travel demand extends into a second year due to the coronavirus (Covid-19). Fewer flight credits are on the verge of lapsing after United Airlines Holdings Inc. and American Airlines Group Inc. extended expiration dates into 2022, following similar moves earlier in the crisis by rivals. About ...

Bloomberg Ryanair Holdings Plc is preparing for a rapid return to air travel in Europe this summer, even as rising coronavirus cases and a flawed vaccine rollout threaten to slow the rebound. Europe’s largest discount carrier expects to be flying at about 50% of its pre-pandemic capacity at the start of summer, with the figure reaching 80% in the July-September ...

Bloomberg As the death toll among Myanmar’s protesters rose dramatically last weekend, military air strikes against one of the country’s largest rebel groups stoked fears of another problem: Full-fledged civil war. The Karen National Union, which controls an area in the southeast along the Thai border, confirmed on Monday that about 10,000 residents fled to a safe zone last weekend ...

Bloomberg Dozens of people were said to have been killed in a raid by suspected militants in Mozambique, as an upsurge of violence threatens billions of dollars-worth of energy projects in one of Africa’s poorest nations. The violence began March 24 when armed attackers described by the government as terrorists assaulted the northern coastal town of Palma, close to a ...

Bloomberg Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is under pressure to join other major democracies in imposing sanctions on China over human-rights violations as he prepares for his first face-to-face summit with US President Joe Biden. Numerous reports of serious human-rights abuses against the Uyghur ethnic group in China’s far western region of Xinjiang have prompted several countries in the West ...

Bloomberg Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison reshuffled his cabinet, adding one additional woman to the 22-person body and elevating others to more senior roles as he seeks to ease a backlash against his government sparked by its handling of sexual assault allegations in parliament. While Morrison has promoted women to helm the high-profile attorney-general and home affairs portfolios, he risks ...

Bloomberg Hong Kong will cut mandatory hotel quarantine to 14 days from 21 for people coming from low-risk areas including Singapore, Australia and New Zealand, as the city works to reopen its pandemic-battered economy. People coming from medium-risk areas and who have been vaccinated will also only be asked to quarantine for 14 days, officials said at a briefing Monday. ...

Bloomberg The Bank of England (BOE) flagged instances of illiquidity as a broader risk to the financial system after a rout in some government bond markets pushed yields higher. The comments in a routine assessment of threats to the financial system indicate concerns at the central bank that Governor Andrew Bailey has sought to play down. The bank’s Financial Policy ...

Bloomberg Philippine central bank Deputy Governor Mamerto Tangonan has long wanted to make electronic money so ubiquitous that one could pay at a street stall via mobile phone. Now he’s leading the bank’s digital drive. “This is my life’s purpose,” Tangonan said in a March 24 interview, his first since he took office in February. Tangonan, 58, is point man ...