Business

ARLINGTON, United States — When his father lost his job last year, Togi, then 16, wasted little time before looking for work to support his family, even though he knew it could put him at risk of contracting COVID-19.

He ended up working at a fast food restaurant in a suburb of Washington, juggling the job with attending school held online as the world's largest COVID-19 outbreak tore through the United States.

"It's exhausting," Togi said, describing long days spent between school and work, leaving little time for the teenager, who was born in Mongolia, to socialise.

The twin health and economic crises caused by the pandemic in the United States have forced some teenagers to take on odd jobs, mostly in the fast food industry, while trying to keep up with the demands of virtual schooling.

Educators say many students have fallen off schools' radar, and may not return to classrooms when in-person learning resumes as the pandemic ebbs.

Most students are Black or hispanic — "communities that were disproportionately affected by the pandemic, both in the numbers of infections and deaths", said Elmer G. Roldan, executive director of Communities In Schools of Los Angeles, which works to stop young people from dropping out.

Students from families whose parents are undocumented and not able to access government relief measures enacted during the pandemic are also facing pressure to work, he said.

No choice 

There are no official statistics for how many students may end up leaving school to work.

Hailly Korman, a senior associate partner at Bellwether Education Partners, which is focused on improving schooling, said some students have simply been unable to avoid working, after parents or caregivers lost work due to the virus.

"These kids are not working because that's fun, or they're making lots of money. They're working because they have financial needs that need to be met. And if the choice is go to work, or your family is out on the street, that's not a choice at all," she said.

Teachers and professionals in the CIS Network have said the number of high school students working has increased dramatically during the pandemic, and the hours of those already working has increased to as much as 35 hours per-week.

"Legally, students are supposed to work no more than 20 hours if they are working part time," but in practice, "it's hard to monitor," Roldan said.

Johanna, a 17-year-old high school student in Los Angeles, works in a fast food restaurant, balancing the job that pays around $450 per-week with attending class online.

She sometimes stays up till midnight to finish work, with only Wednesdays and Saturdays off, but says she's intent on finishing her studies.

"I know if I drop out of school... I'm just gonna keep working at a restaurant," said Johanna, who hopes to be a music therapist.

Yet, Korman says many working students will not be able to hold on.

"What we've done is created an environment where the decision to leave school to work feels even easier," she said.

Hardest hit are students who were already struggling academically, and who have dropped out during the time when schools were closed.

One high school teacher in Washington who instructs students learning English, said one of her students has already dropped out, and refuses to say why.

"Like a lot of the kids who did drop out, they're deeply, deeply ashamed about it. It's like super disappointing for them," she said, speaking on condition of anonymity because she's not permitted to speak to the press.

Staying enrolled 

Togi and Johanna are both good students and committed to finishing their studies despite their challenges.

"Working at this job actually really taught me how school is important," said Togi, who has organised his days meticulously to allow him to make basketball practice, the sport he loves.

"To see some of my coworkers, who are probably 30 or 40 years old, doing this everyday with no breaks, nothing, that's not what I want to do," he said.

But there's no getting around the importance of the $300 to $350 he brings home from the job each week, which pays for food for himself and his 13-year-old brother his family otherwise couldn't afford, even though they receive food assistance from the government.

Korman said the upheavals of the pandemic should give educators pause to think about how they can restructure learning to retain students who come from poor families and are tempted to work.

"How do we maintain some of the good strategies, so that someone could be doing one class at a time every night for an hour... and working towards high school completion?" she asked.

PARIS — France's competition regulator on Monday fined Google 220 million euros ($267 million) after finding it had abused its dominant market position for placing online ads, as US tech giants face growing pressure in Europe.

The penalty is part of a settlement reached after three media groups — News Corp, French daily Le Figaro and Belgium's Groupe Rossel — accused Google of effectively having a monopoly over ad sales for their websites and apps.

The competition authority determined that Google gave preferential treatment to its own ad inventory auction service AdX and to Doubleclick Ad Exchange, its real-time platform for letting clients choose and buy ads.

"It is the first ruling in the world to scrutinise the complex algorithmic processes for the auctions that determine online 'display' advertising," the authority's president Isabelle de Silva said.

Media groups looking to sell ad space on their Internet sites or mobile apps using rival platforms often found that Google's services were unfairly competing against rivals, using a variety of methods.

For example, regulators found that Doubleclick would vary the commission it took when making a sale based on prices offered by other so-called ad servers.

At the same time, Google arranged for AdX, its own supply-side platform (SSP), to give preferential treatment to offers emanating from Doubleclick — effectively squeezing out competitors such as Xandr or Index Exchange.

"The practices are particularly serious because they are penalising Google's competitors in the SSP market as well as the editors of websites and mobile apps," the regulator said in a statement.

'First in the world' 

Media groups saw their online ad revenues crimped "even as their business model has been strongly undermined by the decline in paper subscriptions and the associated drop in advertising revenue", it said.

Le Figaro eventually dropped its complaint.

Google did not contest the findings, and the regulator said the company has committed to operational changes including improved interoperability with third-party ad placement providers.

"We are going to test and develop these changes in the coming months before deploying them more broadly, including some on a global scale," Maria Gomri, legal director at Google France, said in a statement.

The fine represents just a tiny fraction of the $55.3 billion in revenue booked by Google in the first quarter of this year alone, mainly from online ad sales.

The ruling comes as American technology firms are drawing closer scrutiny from European authorities, which are giving themselves new resources to better understand the complex workings of fast-evolving markets.

Last week, Germany's competition regulator said it was expanding an antitrust investigation into Google and its parent company Alphabet to include Google News Showcase, a service aimed at increasing revenue for media publishers.

Facebook also found itself targeted last week by parallel competition inquiries from the European Union and Britain, into whether the social media giant uses data from advertisers to unfairly dominate the online classifieds market.

Google had already been fined 150 million euros by the French regulator in December 2019 over "opaque" operating rules for its advertising platform, which were deemed to be applied in "an unfair and random manner".

In December last year, Google as well as Amazon were fined a total of 135 million euros by France's privacy watchdog for placing advertising cookies on users' computers without consent.

LONDON — Stock markets largely rose and the dollar fell on Monday after US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen downplayed fears over the prospect of higher interest rates triggered by a spike in inflation.

Investors weighed also moves over the weekend by the G-7 group of wealthy nations towards an eventual global minimum corporate tax rate aimed firmly at tech giants seen as not paying enough.

Elsewhere on Monday, US oil prices briefly topped $70 per barrel for the first time in 2.5 years as the pandemic-hit global economy pushes on with its recovery.

"Inflation remains squarely in focus and the largest potential source of investors' angst and market volatility this week," noted Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com.

Yellen told Bloomberg News that US President Joe Biden should push ahead with his $4 trillion recovery plan for the world's top economy even if it triggers high inflation that leads to interest rate rises.

While optimism about the global economic recovery and vaccine roll-outs have spurred markets, trading floors remain worried that the rebound will cause strong price rises and in turn force central banks to hike borrowing costs.

Yellen said any inflation spike in reaction to Biden's massive plan to revitalise the US economy would be transitory and that higher interest rates would actually be positive.

"If we ended up with a slightly higher interest rate environment, it would actually be a plus for society's point of view and the Fed's point of view," the former Federal Reserve (Fed) chair said in an interview on Sunday with Bloomberg.

"We've been fighting inflation that's too low and interest rates that are too low now for a decade," she said, adding she wanted them back to a normal level.

While higher rates raise the cost of borrowing for governments, businesses and individuals, they boost the profits of banks and other lenders and increase the value of people's deposited savings.

Yellen was speaking after returning from a meeting of G-7 finance ministers in London which endorsed a global minimum corporate tax rate of at least 15 per cent, rallying behind a US-backed plan targeting tech giants and other multinationals.

Wall Street meanwhile reopens on Monday after last week's tepid US jobs report eased concerns that the expanding economy would force the Fed to pull back on stimulus.

Traders have shrugged off lower-than-expected Chinese trade growth figures for May, as imports still expanded at the fastest pace in more than a decade, up 51 per cent year-on-year.

Exports expanded by 28 per cent.

"To be honest, that is a cracking number by anybody's standard and show that global demand remains robust," said OANDA's Jeffrey Halley.

Imports and exports to China's major trade partners including Southeast Asia's ASEAN bloc, the European Union and the United States have risen in the first five months this year, Chinese customs authorities said.

MIAMI — Thousands of people have descended on Miami for a massive two-day Bitcoin conference that opened on Friday — a sign that the US city, in the midst of a tech boom, is hoping to become the next cryptocurrency hub.

"I don't think there's anything more important in my lifetime to work on" than Bitcoin, given the flexibility it offers, billionaire entrepreneur Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter and payments firm Square, told a crowded auditorium.

"We don't need the financial institutions that we have today. We have one that is thriving, that is sound, that is owned by the community, that is driven by the community," said Dorsey, one of the keynote speakers at Bitcoin 2021. 

Dorsey tweeted on Friday that Square was considering making a hardware wallet for safely storing Bitcoin.

With 12,000 participants and all speaker sessions sold out, the Bitcoin 2021 trade show features exhibits from crypto mining companies, crypto traders and Bitcoin exchange networks. 

The conference was originally scheduled to take place in Los Angeles, but was moved due to tougher coronavirus restrictions in California.

The line to get into the Mana Convention Centre in Miami's trendy Wynwood neighbourhood wrapped around the building. Everyone was in high spirits and there were no face masks to be seen. 

Beyond Dorsey, two of the other speakers were Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, twin Harvard classmates of Mark Zuckerberg who sued him over claims he stole the idea for Facebook from them, and now run cryptocurrency exchange Gemini.

"We think Bitcoin is gold 2.0," Tyler said at a panel discussion. "When we get to Mars, what is the currency going to be in Mars? Dollars? No. Bitcoin."

'A movement' 

So where does Miami fit into the picture?

For David Abner, Gemini's global head of business development, Miami is "centrally located, especially in the Americas, and there's a lot of political support here". 

"I think they've spent time to understand it and think about the ramifications of Bitcoin. And so they're very supportive of the economy," Abner told AFP, adding that cryptocurrency could revolutionise remittances sent back to Latin America.

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who opened Bitcoin 2021, has become a bit of a celebrity in tech circles, for his intense efforts to turn the Magic City into a beachfront Silicon Valley.

In February, the Republican mayor announced that the city would explore ways to do some of its financial transactions using cryptocurrency, including paying salaries to employees.

Earlier this week, venture capital firm Borderless Capital announced it was moving its headquarters from Atlanta to Miami and launching a new $25 million fund for local startups using blockchain technology.

And the mayor announced the launch of MiamiCoin, a Miami-specific cryptocurrency that will allow investors to boost the city's coffers while making money themselves.

"This is not a moment. This is a movement," Suarez said on Friday. 

'A bit wary' 

Since late last year, Miami has been attracting techies away from Silicon Valley and New York for a variety of reasons — thanks to Florida's lack of state taxes and relatively lax coronavirus precautions, along with the city's multicultural work force and proximity to Latin America.

It is not exactly clear how many have moved, but there are signs of growth — home prices are soaring, up nearly 35 per cent in just a year, according to the Miami Association of Realtors. 

But not everyone is happy. The Miami Herald warned in an editorial of the possible pitfalls of the city's embrace of all things crypto.

"Don't get us wrong. We hope cryptocurrency — and the flashing neon welcome mat we've set out for the tech industry — elevate this city to new prosperity," the paper said. 

"Just don't blame us for being a bit wary," it said. "Because Miami has history, folks. We've been a smugglers' paradise…, a mecca for money laundering, ground zero for mortgage fraud."

"We worry about going through another boom-and-bust cycle or a wave that crashes and takes us all down with it. If we're staking the city's future on this, please, let's not repeat the past."

NEW YORK — United Airlines announced plans on Thursday to buy 15 aircraft from airline startup Boom Supersonic in a move that could revive the high-speed form of air travel after the Concorde was wound down in 2003.

Under the deal, United would purchase Boom's "Overture" aircraft once the planes meet "United's demanding safety, operating and sustainability requirements" with an aim to start passenger travel in 2029, the companies said in a joint press statement.

The announcement represents a potential comeback to a once heavily-touted method of travel, although some analysts expressed skepticism, particularly over the relatively speedy timeframe.

The agreement covers 15 planes and includes an option for United to obtain another 35 aircraft. The companies did not disclose financial terms.

"It's an interesting idea, but there are a lot of questions," said Michel Merluzeau, an expert at consultancy AIR, who estimates that developing a new commercial jet that passes muster with regulators could cost $10 to $15 billion.

"We need to be realistic about this," added Merluzeau, who sees 2035 or 2040 as a more likely target date for commercial service.

Merluzeau said it also was not clear whether United had agreed to any payments or if the announcement represented an intention to purchase. 

Boom's plane is capable of flying at twice the speed of leading aircraft now on the market, with the potential to fly from Newark to London in three and a half hours and San Francisco to Tokyo in six hours, the companies said.

The jets will also be "net-zero" in carbon use because they will use renewable fuel.

Comeback? 

Commercial supersonic jet travel was introduced in the 1970s with the Concorde, but the jets were retired in 2003 due in part to the high cost of meeting environmental restrictions on sonic booms.

The Concorde's demise also followed a 2000 Air France accident that killed 113 people.

The aircraft could fly at over twice the speed of sound, creating its famous "sonic boom" when it burst through the sound barrier. 

Only the wealthiest passengers were able to afford the exorbitant ticket prices for the 100-144 seats on the aircraft, which was only ever used by Air France and British Airways.

Still, the technology is getting another look today as companies in the United States and abroad develop planes with lighter and more efficient composite materials and new engine designs, according to a fact sheet from the Federal Aviation Administration.

"Our mission has always been about connecting people and now working with Boom, we'll be able to do that on an even greater scale," said United Chief Executive Scott Kirby.

Peter McNally, an analyst at Third Bridge, said faster flights could be appealing to business customers, adding "the key for United, American and Delta is business and long-distance travel."

Founded in 2014, Denver-based Boom Supersonic said it is also working with the United States air force on a military version of the Overture. 

The company has thus far raised $270 million from investors, a spokeswoman for Boom said. Boom Supersonic's supporters include venture capital investors such as Bessemer Venture Partners and American Express Ventures, a unit of the credit card company.

Boom's chief executive and co-founder, Blake Scholl, a former Amazon staffer, has touted the venture as a way to meet consumer interest in an increasingly interconnected world.

"The story of Concorde is the story of a journey started but not completed — and we want to pick up on it," Scholl said in July 2018 at an event held in parallel to the Farnborough Airshow.

Jon Ostrower, editor of the aviation publication the Air Current, said on Twitter that United's order marked a shift in a long-term industry trend.

"The last time United ordered supersonic aircraft, humans had yet to walk on the Moon," Ostrower said. "More than a half century later, United is again focusing on speed, bucking the most consistent airline trend over the past 50 years: A desire to fly cheaper, not faster."

A competing startup for supersonic travel, Aerion, shut down in May after Boeing pulled the plug on its investment.

"We couldn't get there with respect to the market and with respect to the needed investment," Boeing Chief Executive Dave Calhoun said at a conference Thursday, adding that the company reached a point "where we didn't believe in it quite as much as we thought we could".

Major new investments must have meaningful upside to work at Boeing, and "we don't have to be big on every form of air travel", Calhoun added.

SAINT PETERSBURG — A flagship economic forum has returned to Saint Petersburg, with Russia aiming to signal it has moved beyond the coronavirus pandemic and is open for business.

The Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), often dubbed the Russian Davos, officially started on Thursday and is the country's main showcase for investors, attracting political and business leaders from around the world.

It has been hosted every year since 1997 -- cancelled only in 2020 due to the pandemic -- in the hometown of President Vladimir Putin, who is expected to speak at the forum in person on Friday.

"The forum is very important for the image of the city, the restoration of the economy's growth and the revival of tourism," Saint Petersburg governor Alexander Beglov told the RIA Novosti news agency.

The scale of the forum is smaller than previous years, with the number of participants capped at 5,000. In comparison, the 2019 SPIEF was attended by over 19,000 people from 145 countries, according to organisers.

Leaders of China, France and India have previously attended the forum.

This time Putin will be joined via videolink by Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, the emir of Qatar, which has sent one of the biggest delegations this year.

The reduced attendance also comes after a turbulent year for Russian diplomacy, as relations with the West -- which have been deteriorating since the annexation of Crimea in 2014 -- reached a new low following the poisoning and imprisonment of Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.

It is also a challenging time for independent media and opposition groups in Russia that have faced increasing pressure in recent years. 

Independent business new outlet VTimes announced on Thursday it would shut down after being branded a "foreign agent", a designation that requires it to disclose its funding and label its publications with a tag.

Handshakes, no masks 

Russian officials say that "bad politics should not be allowed to interfere with good business", said Chris Weafer, analyst and founder of Macro-Advisory consultancy firm.

According to Weafer, one of the messages at this year's SPIEF is that "Russia has turned a corner and has learned from the last seven years" characterised by low oil prices and sanctions.

But in 2020, the inflow of foreign direct investment to Russia slumped to the level of the mid 1990s, the Central Bank said in January, after years of steadily decreasing against the backdrop of sanctions.

The forum comes almost a year after Russia lifted its strict lockdown that was imposed last spring when the coronavirus swept across the country.

Since late summer most virus restrictions have been lifted with authorities opting to protect the economy and pin hopes on Russia's Sputnik V jab that was registered in August.

The country still continues to record an average of 9,000 new infections every day.

To ensure virus safety at the forum, all participants this year are required to test negative for the coronavirus before they enter the site. Inside, masks are required at all times.

Julius Bakazarov, a 19-year-old forum volunteer, said participants "never ignore requests" to wear masks or observe other measures.

But the reality is different, with few people wearing face coverings, handshakes among participants and large crowds gathering at the forum venues, an AFP journalist reported.

'Observe the rules' 

Saint Petersburg, Russia's second largest city, has struggled to contain the spread of the virus, especially after a boom in domestic tourism made the former capital a popular travel destination. 

Just days after the forum, the city will also host several matches of the postponed Euro 2020 football tournament that will bring together thousands of fans, both from Russia and abroad.

SPIEF volunteer Yekaterina Bolkhovskaya, who lives in Saint Petersburg, said holding an event such as the economic forum can only have a "positive effect".

"This will remind people that if they want to participate in big events then they need to... observe the rules of personal hygiene and safety," the 19-year-old said.

WASHINGTON — US private hiring surged in May, adding 978,000 positions, according to payroll services firm ADP, far more than expected.

Most of the new jobs were in the services sector, which increased by 850,000 positions, more than half of which were in leisure and hospitality, the sector hardest hit by the Covid-19 shutdowns.

Goods-producing firms added 128,000 jobs, the report said.

While the overall gain, the biggest since June of last year, bodes well for the government jobs report due out Friday, economists warn that ADP figures often are widely different than official data.

Despite the Labour Department reporting a tepid increase of 218,000 private nonfarm jobs in April, ADP's revised data shows a gain of 654,000.

Still, ADP chief economist Nela Richardson said the results underscore the "marked improvement" in private payrolls.

"Companies of all sizes experienced an uptick in job growth, reflecting the improving nature" of the pandemic and economy, she said in a statement.

Ian Shepherdson of Pantheon Macroeconomics notes the ADP model includes other economic data that have strengthened as the economy has reopened.

"But firms appear not to be able to find all the workers implied by the strong macro data," he said in an analysis, "so we think ADP likely will overstate the official numbers for the second straight month."

Firms nationwide have reported struggles to fill open positions, and a Federal Reserve report released Wednesday noted that the issues have hindered production in some cases and prompted companies to boost wages and incentives.

The consensus forecast among economists is for a private jobs gain of 650,000 in the Labour Department report.