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There’s a grim inevitability to the fact that the latest concerning strain of the Covid-19 virus — known as B.1.1.529, and now nicknamed the Omicron variant 1 — should have been first identified in South Africa. So far, Sars-CoV-2’s most devastating impacts have been in developed countries. The US, UK and European Union have accounted for about a third of ...

In the 2000s, the growing ubiquity of bank branches was one of America’s great retailing puzzles. Online banking was on the rise and the industry was consolidating, but branches kept popping up seemingly everywhere — if you define “everywhere” as the reasonably affluent parts of cities and suburbs. That ended with the financial crisis. The number of bank branches in ...

Emmanuel Macron and Mario Draghi signed a treaty at the Quirinale palace in Rome to get France and Italy working together better. That’s good news for Europe. It’s also tinder for populists. How their countries — both founding members of the European Union — pull off cooperation will determine how much nearer the continent’s dream of “ever closer union” gets ...

Bloomberg Black Friday deals ranked among the least generous in years as more US consumers headed back to stores on one of the busiest shopping days of the year. Retailers appear to have the “lowest level of clearance goods in five years or more,” Oliver Chen, an analyst at Cowen & Co, said in a report. According to Salesforce.com Inc, ...

Bloomberg South Africa expects to conclude the sale of a majority stake in its state-owned airline to private investors early next year, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan said. The sale of 51% of South African Airways (SAA) to the Takatso consortium is “certainly moving in the right direction,” Gordhan, who oversees state-owned companies, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. ...

Bloomberg Ikea opened its biggest store in the world in the Philippines, with the new 730,000 square foot facility in Manila a cornerstone of the home-furnishings giant’s expansion plans in Asia. The opening was feted with an event held at the store’s cafeteria attended by Philippine trade secretary Ramon Lopez and foreign minister Teodoro Locsin, where Ikea’s cult-favourite Swedish meatballs ...

Bloomberg Airline shares tumbled the most since the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, as an emerging virus variant prompted travel restrictions and fears of crimped demand for flights. The UK has halted arrivals from South Africa and several neighbouring countries for two days and limit access mainly to its own nationals from November 28 onward, with a mandatory 10-day ...

Bloomberg Gap Inc lowered its projection for 2021 sales and profit as supply-chain bottlenecks led to lost sales and higher expenses. The shares fell in late trading. Gap now sees revenue growing about 20% for the full year — down from its previous projection of a 30% gain. Analysts had projected revenue to be 28% higher this year, according to ...

Bloomberg The governor of Brazil’s richest and most populous state was picked by the Brazilian Social Democracy Party as its candidate for next year’s election challenging President Jair Bolsonaro. Joao Doria, governor of Sao Paulo, was declared the winner of the primaries for the party known as PSDB, according to Bruno Araujo, who heads the group seeking to reemerge as ...

Bloomberg French President Emmanuel Macron would get 25% or more of the votes in the first round of the election, according to a poll carried out by Ifop-Fiducial for Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper and Sud Radio. Nationalist Marine Le Pen would win 19% to 20% of the first-round vote, depending on who else is running. Far-right commentator Eric Zemmour ...