May, 2020

• 19 May

  Argentina’s Flybondi bets on local flights to survive virus

  

  Bloomberg Argentina’s discount airline Flybondi is planning to redouble its bet on domestic service once the toughest travel ban in the Americas is lifted. The company will focus on local flights as long as demand for international travel remains tenuous because of the coronavirus pandemic, said Chief Commercial Officer Mauricio Sana in an interview. Flights to Brazil, the hardest-hit country ...

  Read More »
• 19 May

  JC Penney to close 29% of its stores in post-bankruptcy plan

  

  Bloomberg JC Penney Co, the department-store chain that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week, said it will close about 29% of its stores. The retailer will reduce its store count to about 604, down from the 846 it currently has across the US, according to a company filing. In fiscal 2019, those locations brought in $9.2 billion in net ...

  Read More »
• 19 May

  Pier 1 to wind down operations

  

  Bloomberg Pier 1 Imports Inc said it would seek bankruptcy court approval to wind down its retail operations after the coronavirus pandemic made it difficult for the US retailer to find a buyer. The company said in a statement on Tuesday it intends to sell its inventory and remaining assets, including its intellectual property and e-commerce business, through the court-supervised ...

  Read More »
• 19 May

  Trump threatens to exit WHO, leaving Xi to lead virus fight

  

  Bloomberg US President Donald Trump threatened to withdraw altogether from the World Health Organization (WHO), a move that would leave Chinese leader Xi Jinping as the most prominent voice leading the global fight against the pandemic. In a four-page letter detailing his grievances with the WHO, Trump called on the group to “demonstrate independence from China,” renewing a complaint that ...

  Read More »
• 19 May

  US top court backs $10 billion award to Sudan bomb victims

  

  Bloomberg The US Supreme Court ruled in favour of the victims of the 1998 terror bombings of US embassies in Africa that killed more than 200 people and injured thousands more. The ruling leaves Sudan exposed to a $10.2 billion judgment delivered by a federal court in 2012, which was partially overturned on appeal. The 2014 appellate ruling determined that ...

  Read More »
• 19 May

  South Asia evacuates millions over storm

  

  Bloomberg The biggest cyclonic storm over the Bay of Bengal in about two decades has slightly weakened before hitting the coasts of India and Bangladesh on Wednesday, with authorities making preparations to evacuate more than 5 million people to safer places. Cyclone Amphan, equivalent of a category 4 hurricane at present, was expected to have a sustained wind speed of ...

  Read More »
• 19 May

  Covid-19 increases food aid’s need in East Africa

  

  Bloomberg The number of acutely food insecure people in East Africa and the Horn of Africa is likely to increase to between 34 million and 43 million from May through July due to the socio-economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, according to the World Food Programme. “The most vulnerable and at risk are poor, urban communities living hand-to-mouth in informal ...

  Read More »
• 19 May

  Mumbai prepares for virus peak with beds in parks

  

  Bloomberg Mumbai, India’s financial hub and the epicenter of the nation’s coronavirus outbreak, is converting several of its iconic structures into quarantine facilities as it races to prepare for a predicted peaking of infections this month. From a new hospital being built just a short stroll away from the US Consulate building and the India offices of Citigroup Inc to ...

  Read More »
• 19 May

  Carnival cut to junk by Moody’s

  Bloomberg Carnival Corp. was cut to junk by Moody’s Investors Service amid a prolonged suspension of the cruise company’s operations because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Moody’s assigned the company a Ba1 rating, the highest junk grade, and lowered its rating on Carnival’s senior unsecured notes by one notch to the same level. It said in a statement Monday that Carnival’s ...

  Read More »
• 19 May

  Covid-19 reveals risks to UK supply chains before Brexit

  

  Bloomberg Coronavirus-fractured supply chains are providing a wake-up call to British business and leaders with just seven months to go before Brexit triggers the biggest shakeup of trading relationships in a generation. Eighty-two percent of small- and medium-sized manufacturers say the pandemic has affected their supply chains. That’s according to a survey of more than 600 English firms by the ...

  Read More »