Business

DAMASCUS, June 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) —Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad has sacked Prime Minister Imad Khamis, as he struggles with a worsening economic crisis that has triggered protests.

State media did not give a reason for the decision to replace Khamis, who had been prime minister since 2016.

But it came after days of rare anti-government demonstrations in the mainly Druze city of Suweida, at which people called for the overthrow of Assad.

BERLIN, June 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) — German airline Lufthansa has said it will cut 22,000 jobs as it struggles to deal with the slump in air travel caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The carrier predicted a slow recovery in demand and expected to have about 100 fewer aircraft after the crisis.

Lufthansa said half the job cuts would be in Germany. It hopes to agree the measures with unions by June 22.

It added that it hoped to minimise redundancies through short-time working and crisis agreements.

WASHINGTON, Jun 12 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United States may see 200,000 deaths because of the coronavirus at some point in September, a leading expert said, while total US coronavirus cases surpassed 2 million on Wednesday as governments relax restrictions.

Ashish Jha, the head of Harvard’s Global Health Institute, said in an interview that without drastic action, the number of US deaths would march on.

11 June 2020; MEMO: Kuwait’s Minister of Oil and acting Minister of Electricity and Water, Dr. Khaled Al Fadil announced yesterday that the Gulf state will no longer hire expatriate workers in state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) and its subsidiaries for the year 2020-21.

The minister also announced, during a parliamentary session held to discuss the repercussions of the coronavirus pandemic, that the number of special contracts awarded to expats will be reduced.

SEOUL, June 11 (NNN-YONHAP) – South Korea’s automotive export, more than halved last month, as the COVID-19 outbreak weakened global demand, a government report showed today.

The number of vehicles exported was 95,400 in May, down 57.6 percent from the same month last year, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

It was the first time in almost 17 years since July, 2003, that the number of car export fell below 100,000.

BRUSSELS, June 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The European Parliament will on Friday urge Britain “to urgently revise its negotiating position” to avoid a breakdown in post-Brexit trade talks.

A draft resolution says London must agree that future UK-EU ties be governed by “a single, comprehensive and horizontal governance mechanism” to oversee compliance with a “level playing field” of economic regulations.

PARIS, June 11 (NNN-Xinhua) — The French government has decided to end the state of health emergency on July 10, two weeks ahead of the previously scheduled date, and expected to retain certain power to restrict freedom in the next months to contain the spread of coronavirus, French daily Le Monde reported.

“Given the positive development of the health situation at this stage, the government wishes to end the state of health emergency, which must remain an exceptional case,” le Monde quoted the prime minister’s office as saying.

10 June 2020; MEMO: Two state-of-the-art warships are to be locally constructed for the Pakistani Navy as part of a transfer of technology agreement signed between Pakistan and Turkey.

10 June 2020; MEMO: A fixer in some of the most lucrative deals involving Gulf monarchies is in a legal battle against Barclays Bank over a multi-billion-dollar fundraising in 2008 which included the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar.

10 June 2020; MEMO: Russia and China have started making the case at the United Nations against Washington’s claim that it can trigger a return of all sanctions on Iran at the Security Council, with Moscow invoking a 50-year-old international legal opinion to argue against the move.