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  Ryanair Holdings Plc has a plan to thunder back from the air-travel slump, grabbing airport space while its weakened rivals are still in retreat. The Irish discount airline will use the 210 737 Max jets it’s getting from Boeing Co. Over the next four years an average of one a week to expand across Europe, Chief Executive Officer Michael O’Leary said in an interview. “Those airports in Amsterdam, in Spain, in Italy, in Germany where they’ve seen huge capacity reductions, we’re out there today in active negotiations,” the 59-year-old chief executive officer said. “Airports will be looking to us to recover their traffic.” Europe’s most valuable carrier is using its financial strength to go on attack before its competitors can recover. Air traffic cratered this year after the coronavirus crisis stifled demand, and airlines are focused on saving cash. While large plane purchases are off the table for most, Ryanair on Thursday topped up its Max order by 75 jets. Ryanair opened bases in...

  Deutsche Bank suggests slapping a 5% tax on remote workers to help the world rebuild from COVID and create a more inclusive economy. Deutsche Bank argues a 5 percent tax is justified because people who work from home 'are contributing less to the infrastructure of the economy while still receiving its benefits' The COVID-19 crisis is worsening inequality around the world as people fortunate enough to work remotely continue to earn a pay cheque while millions of others lose their livelihoods or risk their health in jobs that are deemed “essential” but pay low wages. Now, one of the world’s biggest banks has proposed a fix to level the playing field and create a more inclusive economy as nations rebuild from the pandemic: Tax remote workers. In a report called “What we must do to rebuild” (PDF), Deutsche Bank suggests slapping a 5 percent daily tax on people who work from home and using the funds raised to subsidise the lowest-paid workers who are unable to work remotely. “For ...

Hungary-born billionaire warns European unity under threat if EU members do not work together to support weaker states. Soros says the EU must come together during the pandemic to support weaker members such as Italy, in order to avoid future friction Billionaire financier George  Soros has  said the European Union could break apart in the wake of the new coronavirus pandemic unless the bloc issued perpetual bonds to help weak members such as Italy. The novel coronavirus, which emerged in China last year, has stalled swaths of the global economy while governments have ramped up borrowing to levels not seen in peacetime history. Soros , 89, said the damage to the eurozone economy from the new coronavirus would last "longer than most people think", adding that the rapid evolution of the virus meant that a reliable vaccine would be hard to develop. The hedge-fund veteran and chairman of  Soros  Fund Management LLC said...

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets Israeli leaders Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz on one-day visit to Israel. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets with Israeli Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz in Jerusalem US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has urged Israeli leaders to consider "all the factors" involved in a proposed de facto annexation of the occupied West Bank so that it squares with Washington's plan for the region. Pompeo visited Israel on Wednesday on a one-day trip that included meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition partner Benny Gantz. He did not meet with Palestinian leaders. Pompeo told the Israel Hayom newspaper that they discussed annexation "but also many other issues related to it - how to deal with all the factors involved, and how to make sure the move is done properly to bring about an outcome in accordance with the vision of peace". Netanyahu and Gan...

China's Global Times paper says some advisers are pushing for Beijing to tear up January's Phase 1 trade deal with US. Months of tough negotiations resulted in the signing of Phase One of a trade deal between China and the US United States President Donald Trump says he is opposed to renegotiating the US-China "Phase One" trade deal after a Chinese state-run newspaper reported some government advisers in Beijing were urging fresh talks and possibly invalidating the agreement. Trump, who himself has considered abandoning the pact signed in January, told a White House press briefing he wanted to see if Beijing lived up to the deal to massively increase purchases of US goods. "No, not at all. Not even a little bit," Trump said when asked if he would entertain the idea of reworking Phase One. "I'm not interested. We signed a deal. I had heard that too, they'd like to reopen the trade talk, to make it a...

Colombia-based Avianca filed for bankruptcy after failing to secure government aid to pay off its debts. Avianca, which employs about 20,000 people, is set to lay off hundreds of its employees after filing for bankruptcy Avianca Holdings, Latin America's second-largest airline, has filed for bankruptcy, after failing to meet a bond payment deadline, while its pleas for coronavirus aid from Colombia's government have so far been unsuccessful. If it fails to come out of bankruptcy, Bogota-based Avianca would be one of the first large carriers worldwide to go under as a result of the pandemic, which has crippled world travel. Avianca has not flown a regularly scheduled passenger flight since late March and most of its 20,000 employees have gone without pay through the crisis. "Avianca is facing the most challenging crisis in our 100-year history," Avianca Chief Executive Anko van der Werff said in a news release on Sund...

Seoul records biggest single-day jump in a month, with 34 cases, as Moon Jae-in outlined vision for economic recovery. People wearing face masks watch a television news broadcast showing a speech of South Korean President Moon Jae-in at a railway station in Seoul on May 10, 2020 South Korea reported 34 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, the highest daily number in a month, as President Moon Jae-in outlined an ambitious vision for the country's post-COVID-19 economic recovery. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said of the new cases 26 were domestically transmitted infections and eight involved travellers from overseas. It was the first time that South Korea's daily cases has jumped above 30 in about a month. After battling the first major epidemic outside China, South Korea had posted zero or very few domestic cases over the past 10 days, with the daily tally hovering at about 10 or less in recent weeks....

Officials say informal talks under way with members of Congress over potential new coronavirus relief legislation. Congress has passed bills allocating $3 trillion to combat the coronavirus pandemic, including money for individuals and companies to blunt the economic impact of the crisis  The White House has started informal talks with Republicans and Democrats in Congress about next steps on coronavirus relief legislation, officials said on Sunday, but they stressed any new federal money would come with conditions. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told the Fox News Sunday programme he was having discussions with legislators from both parties to understand their concerns about state budgets. But he said the White House is in no hurry to pass another fiscal relief bill. "Let's take the next few weeks," Mnuchin said. Since early March, Congress has passed bills allocating $3 trillion to combat the coronavirus pandemic, in...

Job losses from coronavirus lockdowns send US unemployment rate skyrocketing to highest level since Great Depression. People who lost their jobs as coronavirus lockdown measures swept the United States wait in line to file for unemployment benefits  We have never seen anything like this before. The depth and breadth of the damage inflicted on the United States economy by coronavirus lockdown measures came into sharp, painful focus on Friday with government figures showing a record 20.5 million Americans lost their jobs in April.  Data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) also showed the unemployment rate skyrocketed to 14.7 percent  last month - the highest since the Great Depression. Behind all of these numbers are real people whose livelihoods have been brutally and tragically disrupted by the pandemic. The data further confirms the overwhelming consensus that the US economy is in the throes of a sharp recess...