Bloomberg The UK government eased coronavirus testing requirements for fully vaccinated people arriving in England, removing a significant barrier to travel and boosting airlines and tourism firms. Those with two doses flying from nations that aren’t high risk will be exempt from a pre-departure test, while screening after arrival will be downgraded to quicker and cheaper lateral-flow tests, according to ...
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Airbus union warns of more strike in Germany
Bloomberg Airbus SE union IG Metall said it could call for further industrial action in a dispute over the planemaker’s plans to restructure German parts operations. The labour group held a day of strikes and rallies to protest plans to overhaul subsidiaries that make wing and fuselage sections. The move, first announced in April, would involve the creation of new ...
Read More »BA’s ‘CO2-neutral’ flight exposes problems cutting emissions
Bloomberg British Airways operated what was billed as a “carbon neutral†flight this week between London and Glasgow, as it tries to burnish its green credentials in the lead-in to next month’s COP26 climate summit in Scotland. While it was a lower-emissions flight, the attempt by IAG SA’s flagship airline to apply a zero-carbon label exposes the problems that the ...
Read More »John Lewis partnership loss narrows in H1of ’21
Bloomberg John Lewis Partnership Plc’s loss narrowed in the first half as the British retailer’s turnaround efforts started to pay off. The operator of the John Lewis department store and upmarket grocer Waitrose said the $40 million pretax loss came after taking almost 100 million pounds of exceptional costs related to store closures and redundancy payments. This is a significant ...
Read More »Biden upsets allies like Trump as France recalls ambassadors
Bloomberg President Joe Biden came to office promising to restore competency to US foreign policy after four years of Donald Trump’s diplomatic bomb-throwing. But eight months later, a series of missteps have angered allies, drawn criticism even from supporters and raised concern that Biden isn’t as sure-footed in international affairs as advertised. France even recalled its ambassador, a dramatic escalation ...
Read More »China conducts naval, aerial military exercises southwest of Taiwan
Bloomberg China announced naval and aerial military exercises were conducted in areas southwest of Taiwan, the second time in a month. Combat ships, early-warning aircraft and bombers were among the forces that joined the exercises “to improve integrated operational capability†in territory southwest of Taiwan, Shi Yi, spokesperson for the People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command, said in a statement, ...
Read More »AUKUS alliance may lead to arms race, says Malaysia
Bloomberg Malaysia joined Indonesia in expressing concern that a new security pact involving Australia, the US and the UK may spark a nuclear arms race in the Indo-Pacific region. Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison called his Malaysian counterpart Ismail Sabri Yaakob to explain that the formation of the tripartite group — known as AUKUS — was to help it acquire ...
Read More »China adds $14 billion cash as Evergrande’s pain roils markets
Bloomberg China injected more cash into its banking system in a sign authorities are seeking to avert a funding squeeze amid a seasonal rise in financing demand and the intensifying debt crisis at China Evergrande. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) added 90 billion yuan ($14 billion) of funds on a net basis through seven-day and 14-day reverse repurchase agreements, ...
Read More »Mitsubishi mulls sale of US banking unit
Bloomberg Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc is considering selling its US banking arm, as consolidation heats up in the American financial industry. The Japanese lender is working with an adviser to explore options for MUFG Union Bank NA, said the people, who asked to not be identified because the matter isn’t public. Mitsubishi UFJ has held some informal discussions with ...
Read More »Goldman Sachs agrees to buy GreenSky for 2.24bn
Bloomberg Goldman Sachs Group Inc. agreed to buy GreenSky Inc for about $2.24 billion, adding to its Marcus consumer-banking platform a company that offers payment plans to customers with home-improvement projects or health-care needs. The New York-based bank will pay 0.03 share of its common stock for each share of Atlanta-based GreenSky, which works out to about $12.11 a share, ...
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