Category Archives: Business

Two-week quarantine will cripple us, aviation industry warns Boris Johnson

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Air travel bosses want assurances that science is driving the move, and that a clear exit strategy is in place

A two-week quarantine period for all travellers arriving in Britain risks devastating an aviation industry already crippled by the Covid-19 outbreak, Boris Johnson is being warned.

It is understood that the 14-day quarantine period will be announced by the prime minister, alongside a slight loosening of the lockdown measures that were introduced to slow the spread of the virus. Mass quarantine upon arrival has not previously been used as part of Britain’s response.

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US job losses have reached Great Depression levels. Did it have to be that way?

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The US and Europe have taken different approaches to tackling pandemic-induced unemployment but which is best long term?

In two, terrible, months the coronavirus pandemic has driven unemployment in the US to levels unseen since the 1930s Great Depression. Did it have to be this way?

Covid-19 has cost more than 33 million Americans their jobs in the last seven weeks – 10% of the entire US population. The official unemployment rate had shot up from 4.4% to 14.7% on Friday – a figure that probably wildly underestimates the true scale of job losses.

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20m Americans lost their jobs in April in worst month since Great Depression

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Unemployment rate rose to 14.7% from just 4.4% in March as the coronavirus pandemic shuttered the global economy

More than 20 million people in the US lost their jobs in April and the unemployment rate more than trebled as the coronavirus pandemic shuttered the world’s largest economy, triggering a financial crisis unseen since the Great Depression.

The Department of Labor announced Friday that the US unemployment rate rose to 14.7% from just 4.4% in March and a near 50-year low of 3.5% in February before the US was hit by the virus.

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World tourism faces worst crisis since records began, says UNWTO

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Travel industry could see an 80% decline in international arrivals for 2020 amid crisis that threatens livelihood of up to 120 million people

International tourism faces its worst crisis since records began, with up to 1.1bn fewer people taking trips globally in 2020. The scale of the coronavirus pandemic’s impact is outlined in a report by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), which predicts a decline in international arrivals of between 58% and 80% this year.

This is due to widespread travel restrictions and the closure of airports and borders worldwide. The prediction of a 58% decline is based on the gradual reopening of international borders and easing of travel restrictions in early July; the 80% figure is based on early December.

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Gas leak at chemical factory in India kills at least nine and hospitalises hundreds

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Styrene gas leaked from the LG Polymers plant, part of the Korean conglomerate LG, in Andra Pradesh state

A gas leak at a chemical factory in southern India has killed at least nine people and led to hundreds being taken to hospital, amid fears that the death toll could climb higher.

Styrene leaked from the Korean-owned LG Polymers plant during the early hours of Thursday morning when families in the surrounding villages were asleep, a local official in Andra Pradesh state said.

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Pollution causing birth defects in children of DRC cobalt miners – study

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Researchers link exposure to mining pollutants to greatly increased risk of conditions such as spina bifida and limb abnormalities

Thousands of people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are being exposed to dangerous levels of toxic pollution that is causing birth defects in their children as they mine for cobalt used to make rechargeable batteries for smartphones, laptops and electric cars, a new medical study has found.

Research published in the Lancet last week found that local people working in mines in the African “copperbelt”, a mining region stretching across Zambia and the DRC, are at significantly higher risk of having children born with serious birth defects.

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Amazon is cracking down on protesters and organizing, workers say

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At least six workers who have participated in protests or advocated for safer conditions have been fired during the pandemic

Amazon’s revenues topped $33m an hour in the first three months of the year as the coronavirus pandemic locked down large parts of the world. The sales boost has handed Amazon the biggest dilemma of its 25-year life: how to deal with a growing chorus of critics within the company. So far its reaction has only made matters worse.

Last week an Amazon vice-president, Tim Bray, resigned in protest at what he called the company’s “chickenshit” decision to fire colleagues in the company’s warehouse division who had highlighted safety issues. “Remaining an Amazon VP would have meant, in effect, signing off on actions I despised,” wrote Bray.

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Jobkeeper payment: check your eligibility and when you should start getting paid

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The Australian government has passed legislation for a $1,500 per fortnight wage subsidy for eligible employers amid the coronavirus. Check your eligibility, how much you’ll get, when it will be paid and how it works with the jobseeker payments

The Morrison government has passed a $130bn support package with a new jobkeeper payment – a wage subsidy to keep Australians in work.

So who exactly is eligible for this payment and how much will they receive?

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UK government begins transatlantic trade talks with Washington

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Increasing links with US will aid recovery after coronavirus crisis, says Liz Truss

Liz Truss has claimed bolstering transatlantic trade could help the economy bounce back from the Covid-19 crisis, as negotiations with Washington over a free trade deal begin by video link.

Despite the government’s negotiating objectives for the deal pointing to a modest economic gain of 0.16% of GDP over 15 years, the international trade secretary said she was keen to “make it even easier to do business with our friends across the pond”.

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Coronavirus may keep Norwegian flying – but it’s not much to celebrate

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For the over-ambitious airline’s bondholders, investors and lessors, survival means the lesser of two evilly large losses

As one of Norway’s greatest exports, A-ha, put it, in their classic 1980s hit Take on Me, it’s no better to be safe than sorry. This advice may appear ever more overwhelmingly wrong to those who bet their kroner on the vision of the two Bjorns, Kjos and Kise, the co-founders turned chief executive and chairman of Norwegian Air.

The pair wisely exited the scene last year after an extraordinary ride during which they turned Norwegian from a small local carrier into a global pioneer of low-cost, long-haul air travel, and eventually established bases all around Europe. With half an eye on transatlantic links and another on a booming short-haul operation, Norwegian became a dizzying array of subsidiaries whose complexity could not disguise the fact that it was heading for financial disaster.

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China and Australia: how a war of words over coronavirus turned to threats of a trade war

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Canberra’s call for an inquiry into the origins of Covid-19 sparked talk of boycotts from Beijing – but any such move could be harmful to both countries

“Downright despicable”, “petty tricks”, “menacing”, “irrational”.

The language of the diplomats and parliamentarians has been anything but diplomatic, and far from parliamentary. The robust conversations usually kept behind closed doors have tumbled into the public square, leaked to broadcasters and splashed in newsprint.

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Global markets recoil as Trump threatens US-China trade war

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US president escalates attack on Beijing’s handling of coronavirus pandemic

Donald Trump’s threats to reignite the US-China trade war over coronavirus has triggered another sell-off in global financial markets, as the economic costs of the pandemic continue to mount.

Against a backdrop of rising tension between the world’s two economic superpowers, share prices resumed a downward slide on Friday with the FTSE 100 falling by 144 points, or 2.5%, in London.

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Revealed: NHS procurement official privately selling PPE amid Covid-19 outbreak

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NHS launches inquiry after Guardian investigation exposes senior official trading protective gear amid pandemic

A head of procurement for the NHS has set up a business to profit from the private sale of huge quantities of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak, an undercover investigation by the Guardian can reveal.

David Singleton, 42, a senior NHS official in London who has been working at the capital’s Covid-19 Nightingale hospital, launched the business two weeks ago to trade in visors, masks and gowns.

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‘No food, water, masks or gloves’: migrant farm workers in Spain at crisis point

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Workers in lockdown trapped in dire conditions on fruit and salad farms that supply UK supermarkets, UN warns

Migrant workers on Spanish farms that provide fruit and vegetables for UK supermarkets are trapped in dire conditions under lockdown, living in cardboard and plastic shelters without food or running water.

Thousands of workers, many of them undocumented, live in settlements between huge greenhouses on farms in the southern Spanish provinces of Huelva and Almeria, key regions for European supply chains.

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Coronavirus Australia live updates: Scott Morrison labels Twiggy Forrest’s comments on Covid-19 origin ‘nonsense’ – latest news

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Sydney aged care home reports 13th coronavirus-related death as three more residents test positive, while Tasmania to lift north-west lockdown. Follow live

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WA premier Mark McGowan is due to give an update at 2pm Perth time today, which is 4pm on the east coast.

So, working backwards, we can expect an update from the prime minister on today’s national cabinet meeting some time between now and 4pm.

I’m going to leave you for the day. Thanks for reading. Calla Wahlquist will take over from here.

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Apple sales beat expectations but Tim Cook sees uncertainty ahead

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Company reports $58.3bn in sales as CEO says China sales ‘headed in the right direction’ despite coronavirus

Apple reported sales and profits that beat Wall Street expectations on Thursday despite fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, with Tim Cook saying China sales were “headed in the right direction” as that country reopens.

But the CEO said it was impossible to forecast overall results for the current quarter because of uncertainty created by the virus.

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Nasa picks Bezos’s Blue Origin and Musk’s SpaceX to build new lunar landers

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Alabama company Dynetics also chosen for moon landing project, as three firms prepare to compete

Nasa has selected three private space companies to lead the development of lunar landers for its forthcoming moon landings.

The three companies are Blue Origin, owned by Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos; Elon Musk’s SpaceX; and Dynetics, based in Huntsville, Alabama, Nasa announced on Thursday.

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Eurozone downturn and US jobless surge hit markets – business live

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The euro area is suffering its worst contraction ever, as the French economy suffers its biggest plunge since the second world war

Britain’s FTSE 100 has just posted its worst day in a month, at the end of its best month in two years.

The blue-chip index has closed down 214 points at 5901, a drop of 3.5%. That wipes out yesterday’s rally, and half of Wednesday’s gains too!

Related: Shell cuts dividend for first time since 1945 amid oil price collapse

Shares in Zoom have dropped over 6% today, after the video-conferencing services admitted it wasn’t quite as popular as thought...

Zoom had initially said it had 300 million daily users, following the surge in remote working. But, it actually has 300 million daily meeting participants.

Zoom shares dropped more than 7% after the company walked back on claims it has 300 million daily active users. $ZM actually reached 300m daily participants, the difference being that meeting participants can be counted more than once.https://t.co/UIVYBP9sqt

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Fears Brexit talks could collapse in June but UK still optimistic

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‘Limited progress’ in bridging gaps on fisheries, health, environment and workers’ rights

The UK is still optimistic about striking a trade deal with the EU but warned that talks could collapse in June unless Brussels abandons its demands for a common fisheries policy and a level playing field, a source close to the UK’s negotiating team said.

The source said only “limited progress in bridging the gaps between us” had been made at last week’s talks, but there was “confidence that progress can be made quite quickly”.

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S&P hits back in court after Fortescue Metals takes legal action to prevent publication of ore price

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Ratings agency says mining giant owned by Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest’ wants to keep prices secret so it can charge more for its ore

Mining giant Fortescue Metals Group, controlled by billionaire Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest, has launched legal action to stop global ratings agency S&P publishing information about the price it charges for iron ore.

A UK court has ordered S&P to stop publishing the information, which Fortescue claims is confidential, but the ratings agency has hit back in a US court, accusing the miner of trying to keep prices secret so it can charge more for its ore.

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