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EU coal laggard faces snags in plan to spinoff dirty assets

Bloomberg Poland’s plan to carve out coal-fired power plants sparked a rally in the country’s biggest utilities. Now for the hard part — approving it. Deputy Prime Minister Jacek Sasin’s proposal, which would free up state-owned companies to invest in clean energy, has to win over trade unions, the European Union’s executive and gain approval from Poland’s bickering coalition government. ...

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Sasol, Toyota build South African green hydrogen project

Bloomberg Sasol plans to develop the use of green hydrogen by fuel cell vehicles on a major South African freight route as the company examines ways to lower its own emissions. Along with partner Toyota Motor Corp, it intends to develop a pilot project — using a key highway such as the N3 running between Durban and Johannesburg — for ...

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The pandemic will be more deadly this year

Covid-19 is going to kill more people in 2021 than it did last year. If you want to see why, look at what’s happening in India. Cases have been surging in the country of 1.37 billion people. 261,500 new infections were recorded. That’s as bad as the US during all but the worst five days of the pandemic in December ...

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Digital currency to fight data overlords

From e-commerce firms and payment processors to governments, everyone with half a server and an algorithm wants our data. So it’s a pleasant surprise to see at least one central bank expressly rejecting the idea of sweeping up personal information in designing its electronic cash. The European Central Bank (ECB) “has no interest in monetising or even collecting users’ payment ...

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Student loan relief should target neediest

Up to now, President Joe Biden has resisted calls from the left of his party to cancel up to $50,000 of student loans for most borrowers. But the pressure from leading progressives such as Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, and more recently from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, isn’t letting up. The president might be tempted to waver. He ...

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Should Wall Street brace for a Tobin tax?

Uncertainty about federal economic policy is greater than any time in the last 40 years. On one hand we have senior policy makers calling for increasing already massive budget deficits, locking in the loosest imaginable monetary policy for the foreseeable future, and boosting taxes on businesses, Wall Street and the rich if inflation rates spike higher. On the other hand ...

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United outlines traffic needed for profit as its losses pile up

Bloomberg United Airlines Holdings Inc spelled out the travel milestones needed for a return to profitability after posting a bigger-than-expected loss in the first quarter and offering limited insight into its expectations for the summer flying season. The company sees an end to net losses when business and international traffic recover to 65% of 2019 levels, but it didn’t predict ...

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HK suspends flights from India, Pakistan, Philippines

Bloomberg Hong Kong banned flights from India, Pakistan and the Philippines for 14 days starting from Tuesday as the city reported the first two cases with highly transmissible virus variant in the community over the weekend. Visitors who have stayed in the three countries for more than two hours in the past 21 days will also be restricted from boarding ...

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Future Retail’s debt plan passage eases some woes

Bloomberg Indian supermarket-operator Future Retail Ltd approved a debt resolution plan that eases some immediate concerns as a legal battle with partner Amazon.com Inc threatens to delay an asset sale to Reliance Industries Ltd. Future Retail’s board agreed to a proposition to restructure its secured bank debt and three rupee-denominated bonds, according to an exchange filing. The plan, which was ...

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Walmart+ usage hampered by consumer confusion: Survey

Bloomberg Walmart Inc’s new subscription program wants to entice customers with benefits like cheap gas and no checkout lines. But it turns out many members aren’t using them much. About three out of four users don’t take advantage of perks such as less-expensive fuel and Scan & Go technology that allows store shoppers to pay for items on their phone, ...

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