AVIATION
Toronto strike cancels flights
More than 200 flights were canceled and hundreds of others delayed to and from Toronto Pearson International Airport on Friday after staff responsible for refueling planes went on strike. Some workers with Consolidated Aviation Fueling of Toronto unexpectedly took the day off in protest against a decision by an airline consortium led by Air Canada and West Jet to cut ties with it. Howard Eng, president and chief executive of the Greater Toronto Airports Authority, urged the sides to find a compromise.
CANADA
No recession: minister
Canadian Minister of Finance Joe Oliver on Friday dismissed claims that the country is heading for recession, a day after Nomura Holding Inc and Bank of America Merrill Lynch Corp predicted economic doomsday. “We are not in a recession... We do not believe we will be in a recession,” Oliver said. “We expect solid growth for the year, following a weak first quarter.” The economy shrank by 0.6 percent at an annualized rate in the first quarter.
ECONOMY
British growth stumbles
Growth in Britain’s private sector eased to its lowest level since the end of last year during the three months to June, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) reported. The CBI yesterday said its monthly growth indicator — based on separate surveys of manufacturers, retailers and services — fell to +14 last month, its lowest since December last year, from +33 in May. While manufacturing growth ticked up, the pace of expansion in service firms retreated from more than a nine-year high in the three months to May.
TRANSPORTATION
Mexico City eyes Uber deal
Mexico City is proposing regulations that would allow Uber Technologies Inc and other smartphone-based ride-sharing firms to operate, while requiring drivers and cars to be registered, its Office of Legal and Legislative Studies said on Friday. The proposed rule also requires such firms to pay into a fund for transportation infrastructure. The city would create an app for licensed taxis and help pay for GPS technology.
BRAZIL
Power project auction fails
A government auction to provide thermoelectric power project developers with long-term supply contracts failed to attract bids amid an economic downturn. No developers bid on the contracts offered at the auction on Friday, the Sao Paulo-based electricity trading board said yesterday on its Web site. Under the offered deals, companies would compete to supply energy for 20 years starting in January of next year.
UNITED KINGDOM
Inheritance tax set to change
British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne is to announce plans to raise the threshold for the inheritance tax, a key election pledge, in Wednesday’s budget. The change would honor a promise made before May’s election to bring homes worth as much as £1 million (US$1.6 million) out of the inheritance tax bracket and is to take effect in April 2017. It would also apply to people who sell their home or buy a smaller home before that date, so more can benefit from the change, a Conservative Party official said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last