World News

British Businesses Planned 300,000 Layoffs in June and July Amid CCP Virus Crisis

While Britain continued to tackle the CCP virus pandemic that all but halted travel and closed shops..

Published

3 years ago

September 9, 2020

While Britain continued to tackle the CCP virus pandemic that all but halted travel and closed shops, pubs, and restaurants, British firms were planning to cut 300,000 jobs, according to data obtained by the BBC under a freedom of information (FOI) request.

The 300,000 figure revealed by the BBC on Tuesday is based on data submitted to the government under a legal requirement to do so from companies planning 20 or more redundancies.

The information about planned job cuts comes before the next official government quarterly statistics and may highlight, ahead of time, the likely job losses to be expected later in the year.

According to the data obtained under the BBCs FOI request, 1,888 employers planned for 156,000 job losses in June, six times more than in June 2019, while 1,784 companies planned almost 150,000 job losses in July, nearly seven times than in July 2019.

The potentially bleak outlook for jobs posed by the figures echoes Britains Chancellor Rishi Sunak foreseeing a “very difficult and uncertain time” ahead when speaking to the BBC last month.

He said that not “absolutely everybody can and will be able to go back to the job they had,” and made no indication of varying the October deadline for the end of the governments Job Retention Scheme and other measures that have protected millions of jobs and paid out billions in loans and grants to businesses during the lockdown put in place to slow the spread of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.

Contracted Economy

The UK economy contracted in the second quarter of this year by 20.4 percent, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

This contraction reflects the hundreds of thousands of British job cuts during the CCP virus pandemic.

Despite the job cuts, government unemployment figures remained stable at 3.9 percent in the second quarter—the same as in the corresponding quarter last year, according to the ONS.

This stability in unemployment figures, however, is only technical, and is mainly due to those people covered by the governments job protection measures not being counted in the unemployed figures despite not actually being in work.

Plan for Jobs

The government has said that they will continue supporting jobs going forward.

“We are continuing to support livelihoods and incomes through our Plan for Jobs to ensure that nobody is left without hope or opportunity,” a government spokesperson told the BBC on Tuesday.

“This includes a £1,000 retention bonus for businesses that can bring furloughed employees back to work,” he said.

The government plans come after many job cuts in the already fragile retail sector.

Retail firms that have recently cut large numbers of jobs include Marks & Spencer, Boots, Dixons Carphone, WH Smith, and John Lewis.

Hammer Blow

“The effect of the coronavirus lockdown came on top of retails existing problems. It has been a hammer blow against the sector,” The Centre for Retail Research said in a statement on Monday.

Some new retail jobs, however, have been announced amid the CCP virus crisis. Tesco, for example, said last month that they will be creating 16,000 permanent jobs.

<img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/themes/eet/images/white.png" alt="A store sign for Tesco, who have announced new jobs during lockdown, is pictured in central in London, England on Januar<a href=https://www.theepochtimes.com/british-businesses-planned-300000-layoffs-in-june-and-july-amid-ccp-virus-crisis_3492136.html>Read More – Source</a></p>

The Epoch Times

World News

Cultural Influences on Marketing Strategies

Published

5 months ago

December 23, 2022

Europe Disk

Culture plays a significant role in consumer behavior. It influences everything from how people consume products to the way they look. Creating marketing campaigns that take into account these differences will help your business to succeed.

To begin with, different cultures have their own unique customs and rituals. This includes everything from the number 7 being good luck in the Czech Republic to eating dinner at the end of the day in Ireland.

Another important example is the way language is used to communicate. People in countries like Italy and France tend to eat a lot more packaged pasta and chocolate bars than their American counterparts.

Similarly, different languages can also lead to different marketing messages and branding issues. For example, an American company might create a slogan promoting its latest product. However, if this slogan is translated into a different language, it can lose its original meaning.

Some other aspects that can affect a marketer’s message include business norms, color, and aesthetics. The most important thing to remember when marketing to a foreign country is to understand their culture.

Other cultural differences include religion. Different religions have different beliefs and attitudes about marketing and business. Therefore, it is important to understand how religion impacts how a marketer communicates.

Similarly, different cultures have different attitudes about clothing. Women in many Middle Eastern and Muslim nations are required to wear modest clothing. Likewise, an evening meal in the United States is called dinner, while a similar dinner in Ireland is called tea.

World News

Pakistan floods: Desperation and displacement in Sindh province

Published

9 months ago

August 27, 2022

Europe Disk

The Prime Minister of Pakistan has said the “magnitude of the calamity” is bigger than expected, after visiting flood-hit areas.

Shehbaz Sharif was speaking from Sindh province – which has had nearly eight times its average August rainfall.

The floods have killed nearly 1,000 people across Pakistan since June, while thousands have been displaced – and millions more affected.

As the BBC drove through Sindh, there were displaced people in every village.

The full scale of the devastation in the province is yet to be fully understood – but the people described it as the worst disaster they’ve survived.

Floods are not uncommon in Pakistan, but people here said these rains were different – more than anything that’s ever been seen. One local official called them “floods of biblical proportions”.

Near the city of Larkana, thousands of mud homes have sunk under water. For miles all that’s visible is treetops. Where the water level is slightly lower, thatched roofs creep out from underneath the water.

In one village, the people are desperate for food. In another, many children have developed waterborne diseases.

When a mobile truck pulled over, scores of people immediately ran towards it. Children carrying other children made their way to the long queue.

One 12-year-old girl said she and her baby sister had not eaten for a day.

“No food has come here, but my sister is sick, she has been vomiting,” the girl said. “I hope they can help.”

The desperation was evident in every community. People ran towards car windows to ask for help – anything.

On one of the main streets out of the city of Sukkur, hundreds of people have settled.

Many of them walked from remote villages, and were told that help is easier to get in the urban areas. But there’s not much difference here.

On Friday, PM Sharif said 33 million people had been hit by the floods – about 15% of the country’s population.

He said the losses caused by floods this season were comparable to those during the floods of 2010-11, said to be the worst on record. The country has appealed for more international aid.

In Sindh, it’s not that local authorities are not trying, but they admit that they are out of their depth.

The provincial government says this is a “climate change catastrophe” and that the people of Pakistan, especially in the poorer communities, have been the worst affected.

The solutions will not be quick – acres of land are waterlogged and the water is not receding fast enough for any rebuilding to take place here.

There’s not much to do for the people but to wait – wait for the rains to stop, wait for the water to go down, wait for more resources to be allocated to these kinds of communities.

In the meantime, life continues to be difficult.

Read from: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-62699886

World News

Burkina Faso military says it has seized power

Published

1 year ago

January 25, 2022

Europe Disk

The military in Burkina Faso says it has seized power and overthrown President Roch Kaboré.

The announcement was made on state television by an army officer, who cited the deteriorating security situation for the military takeover.

Mr Kaboré had faced growing discontent over his failure to stem an Islamist insurgency.

His whereabouts are unclear, but the officer said that all those detained were in a secure location.

The coup comes a day after troops seized barracks, and gunshots were heard in the capital, Ouagadougou.

Earlier, the ruling People’s Movement for Progress (PMP) party said that both Mr Kaboré and a government minister had survived an assassination attempt.

On Sunday, mutinying troops demanded the sacking of military chiefs and more resources to fight militants linked to the Islamic State (IS) group and al-Qaeda.

The army statement said Mr Kaboré had failed to unite the nation and to deal effectively with the security crisis which “threatens the very foundations of our nation”.

The statement was issued in the name of a group not heard of previously, the Patriotic Movement for Safeguard and Restoration or MPSR, its French acronym.

Although read out by another officer, the statement was signed by Lt-Col Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who is believed to be the coup leader and a senior commander with years of experience fighting the Islamist militants.

The statement said that parliament and the government had been dissolved, and the constitution suspended, but promised a “return to constitutional order” within a “reasonable time”.

The military also announced the closure of Burkina Faso’s borders.

UN chief António Guterres condemned the coup and called on the military to “ensure the protection and the physical integrity” of Mr Kaboré.

The African Union and regional bloc, Ecowas, have also condemned the forceful takeover of power, with Ecowas saying it holds the soldiers responsible for the deposed president’s well-being.

Earlier, the news of his detention was received with cheers and celebrations in Ouagadougou, reports the BBC’s senior Africa correspondent Anne Soy.

Earlier video footage from the capital appeared to show armoured vehicles – reportedly used by the presidency – peppered with bullet holes and abandoned in the street.

Mobile internet services have been disrupted, though fixed-line internet and domestic wi-fi are working.

Mr Kaboré has not been seen in public since the crisis began, but two posts appeared on his Twitter account before the officer announced he had been toppled.

The later one called on those who had taken up arms to lay them down “in the higher interest of the nation”. Earlier, Mr Kaboré congratulated the national football team on their win in an Africa Cup of Nations match.

It is unclear who posted the tweets.

Some security sources say the president and other government ministers are being held at the Sangoulé Lamizana barracks in the capital.

On Sunday, hundreds of people came out in support of the soldiers and some of them set fire to the ruling party’s headquarters.

The coup comes a week after 11 soldiers were arrested for allegedly plotting to overthrow Mr Kaboré.

But discontent has been growing in Burkina Faso over the government’s failure to defeat an Islamist insurgency in the country since 2015.

That escalated in November, when 53 people, mainly members of the security forces, were killed by suspected jihadists. And on Saturday, a banned rally to protest against the government’s perceived failure led to dozens of arrests.

Mutinying soldiers made several demands, including: the removal of the army’s chief of staff and the head of the intelligence service; more troops to be deployed to the front line; and better conditions for the wounded and soldiers’ families.

Similar troubles in neighbouring Mali led to a military coup in May 2021 – one that was broadly welcomed by the public.

Burkina Faso is now the third West African country to witness a military takeover in recent years. Guinea and Mali have had sanctions imposed on them by Ecowas to press them to return to constitutional order.

SOURCE