July, 2020

• 19 July

  Eskom’s plant shut down worsens power cuts amid nepotism concerns

  

  Bloomberg Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd’s own mishandling of a repair contract led to the closure of its Camden power plant, a move that worsened power cuts by South Africa’s near-monopoly electricity provider, the company said. In its first detailed explanation of the shutdown, Eskom said the initial 635 million rand ($38 million) contract expired in 2018 amid questions about conflicts ...

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• 19 July

  Sunrun sees Vivint deal as key to battery growth

  

  Bloomberg Sunrun Inc, America’s largest residential-solar company, is about to become even bigger by acquiring one of its top rivals. The deal will also help redefine it as more than just an installer of rooftop panels and batteries. For Sunrun, buying Vivint Solar Inc is a way to accelerate a key objective: clustering thousands of batteries in dense areas that ...

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• 19 July

  PG&E power lines caused California fire of 2019

  

  Bloomberg Less than a month after emerging from bankruptcy triggered by a string of devastating wildfires in 2017 and 2018, PG&E Corp has now been found responsible for California’s biggest blaze of 2019. The California energy giant’s power lines sparked the Kincade fire which burned 77,758 acres and destroyed 374 structures in Sonoma County wine country, the California Department of ...

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• 19 July

  This is Putin’s Russia

  

  Tyrants can be especially ominous when they are ludicrous. In 2011, Vladimir Putin, scuba diving in the Black Sea, emerged clutching two 6th-century Greek urns — remarkably without a trace of moss — which had lain undiscovered in six feet of water, even though Russian archaeologists had scoured the seabed while studying an ancient Greek city. Putin’s flaunted contempt for ...

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• 19 July

  Delta’s outlook offers encouragement

  

  The bad news is that people still have very little interest in flying in the middle of a pandemic. But the silver lining — for investors at least — is that at least some airlines are accepting and adapting to that reality. Delta Air Lines Inc said it would add back only about 500 flights in August, down from an ...

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• 19 July

  Reopening schools in US is critical right now

  When the Los Angeles Unified School District announced that it will not resume any in-person instruction this fall, it was a political victory for teachers and a defeat for families, science and opportunity for all. The teachers’ union opposed reopening schools amid the continuing rise in Covid-19 cases locally, and lobbied for an early resolution to eliminate uncertainty. Individual teachers ...

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• 19 July

  US president’s pardon abuses subvert justice

  A president’s ability to pardon criminals is an oddity of the US Constitution, one of the few powers conferred on the executive without significant constraint. President Donald Trump has abused this authority — most recently by commuting the sentence imposed on his friend and former campaign adviser Roger Stone for seven felony convictions. There’s something to be said for enshrining ...

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• 19 July

  British Airways grounding its fleet of 747 jets for good

  

  Bloomberg British Airways, the world’s biggest operator of Boeing Co 747-400s, is retiring its entire fleet of the jumbo jets with immediate effect because of the damage the coronavirus has done to air travel. “It is unlikely our magnificent ‘queen of the skies’ will ever operate commercial services for British Airways again due to the downturn in travel caused by ...

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• 19 July

  Rolls-Royce gets union backing for 700 job cuts

  

  Bloomberg Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc has reached agreement with unions on up to 700 UK job cuts this year, with the rest of its planned downsizing made up by employees taking voluntary buyouts. The company announced in June it planned to eliminate 3,000 UK jobs this year. While more than that number applied for voluntary severance, the company will still make ...

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• 19 July

  Delta seeks to cut pilot hours to avoid involuntary layoffs

  

  Bloomberg Delta Air Lines Inc has proposed cutting the number of hours pilots fly each month by 15% to further reduce labour spending and help avoid involuntary layoffs as surging US coronavirus cases quash travel demand. The proposal offered to the Delta unit of the Air Line Pilots Association would remain in place for a year with hours flexing back ...

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