Business

By Mohamad Ali Harissi
Agence France-Presse

KABUL — Less than a month after the Taliban rolled into the Afghan capital, Rabia Jamal made a tough decision — she would brave the hardliners and return to work at the airport.

With hardline Taliban saying women should stay at home for their own security, the risks were all too clear, but the 35-year-old mother of three felt she had little choice.

"I need money to support my family," said Rabia, wearing a navy-blue suit and make-up.

"I felt tension at home... I felt very bad," she said."Now I feel better."

Of the more than 80 women working at the airport before Kabul fell to the Taliban on August 15, just 12 have returned to their jobs.

But they are among very few women in the capital allowed to return to work. The Taliban have told most not to go back until further notice.

Six of the women airport workers were standing at the main entrance on Saturday, chatting and laughing while waiting to scan and search female passengers taking a domestic flight.

Rabia's sister, 49-year-old Qudsiya Jamal, said the Taliban takeover had "shocked" her.

"I was very afraid," said the mother of five, who is also her family's sole provider.

"My family was scared for me — they told me not to go back — but I am happy now, relaxed... no problems so far."

'Take me to Paris' 

Women's rights in Afghanistan were sharply curtailed under the Taliban's 1996-2001 rule, but since returning to power the group claims they will be less extreme.

Women will be allowed to attend university as long as classes are segregated by sex or at least divided by a curtain, the Taliban's education authority has said, but females must also wear an abaya, an all-covering robe, and face-covering niqab veil.

Still, Alison Davidian, a representative for UN Women in Afghanistan, warned on Wednesday that the Taliban were already neglecting their promise to respect Afghan women's rights.

At the airport, which is returning to action after the hurried US withdrawal left it unusable, Rabia says she will keep working unless she is forced to stop.

Under new rules, women may work "in accordance with the principles of Islam", the Taliban have decreed, but few details have yet been given as to what exactly that might mean.

"My dream is to be the richest girl in Afghanistan, and I feel I am always the luckiest," said Rabia, who has worked since 2010 at the terminal for GAAC, a UAE-based company providing ground and security handling.

"I will do what I love until I am not lucky anymore."

Rabia's colleague, who gave her name as Zala, dreams of something completely different. 

The 30-year-old was learning French in Kabul before she was forced to stop and stay at home for three weeks after the takeover.

"Good morning, take me to Paris," she said in broken French, as her five colleagues burst into laughter.

"But not now. Today I am one of the last women of the airport."

WASHINGTON — US bank Wells Fargo was hit on Thursday with a new fine — $250 million for failing to meet requirements in an agreement to pay previously harmed customers.

The penalty was set by the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), one of the main US banking sector regulators.

"Wells Fargo has not met the requirements of the OCC's 2018 action against the bank. This is unacceptable," said Acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu.

Wells Fargo admitted to opening 3.5 million fake accounts between 2002 and 2017, allowing its employees to earn bonuses related to the sale of new products, and charge unnecessary insurance premiums to more than half-a-million customers on their car loans.

In 2018, the OCC and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau fined the California bank $1 billion and ordered it to reimburse the harmed customers the amounts improperly taken, and to strengthen the bank's risk management programme.

In addition to the penalty, Wells Fargo will face "limits on the bank's future activities until existing problems in mortgage servicing are adequately addressed", Hsu said.

"The OCC will continue to use all the tools at our disposal, including business restrictions, to ensure that national banks address problems in a timely manner, treat customers fairly, and operate in a safe and sound manner," he added.

The OCC's actions "point to work we must continue to do to address significant, longstanding deficiencies", said Wells Fargo CEO Charlie Scharf.

In February 2020 the bank was hit with a $3 billion fine over the fake accounts scandal.

Wells Fargo has already paid more than $7 billion in financial penalties related to its business practices.

The OCC banned John Stumpf, the Wells Fargo CEO from 2005 to October 2016, for life from the banking industry.

PARIS — A French court on Friday ordered ride-hailing service Uber to pay damages to taxi drivers whose business suffered from unlicensed competitors.

Uber France will have to pay 180,000 euros ($213,000) to 910 taxi drivers and their federation who brought a civil case against Uber for unfair competition, the court ruled.

The case centered on the activities in 2014 and 2015 of UberPop, a platform that brought together clients and unlicensed drivers.

The business, marketed as ride-sharing, sparked the ire of traditional taxi drivers who felt the new service was threatening their livelihoods with cheap fares.

They notably argued that non-professional drivers did not have to pay for training, or acquire a taxi licence which in Paris can cost more than 100,000 euros, allowing them to undercut taxis.

In December 2015, Uber France had lost its appeal against a guilty verdict by a criminal court for misleading commercial practices, and was ordered to pay a fine of 150,000 euros.

In its civil case decision on Friday, the court found that passing off untrained drivers as professionals hurt the image and the reputation of licensed taxi drivers.

The damages payout works out at 192 euros for each of the 910 drivers, and 5,000 euros for the Paris taxi drivers' federation.

Uber on Friday said that it has not been using unlicensed drivers in France since 2015, and that drivers now had to take the same tests as licensed taxi drivers.

"This is a good decision which will stop other platforms from providing illegal transport," taxi federation President Christophe Jacopin said of the verdict.

LONDON — British airline EasyJet on Thursday announced it had rejected a takeover approach, reportedly from rival Wizz Air, and revealed a $2.0-billion lifeline as the battered aviation sector looks to recover.

No-frills carrier EasyJet said in a statement that the bid had undervalued the group, adding that the suitor was no longer considering an offer and that the airline would now sell new shares to raise around £1.2 billion ($1.6 billion, 1.4 billion euros).

Bloomberg reported that the bidder had been Hungarian budget airline Wizz Air.

EasyJet meanwhile added that it had secured a new credit facility totalling $400 million.

The coronavirus crisis and travel restrictions have rocked airlines worldwide.

Also on Thursday, Japan Airlines said it plans to raise about $2.7 billion as it weathers the continuing impact of the pandemic on its finances.

In London, EasyJet noted that its "board recently received an unsolicited preliminary takeover approach.

"This was carefully evaluated and then unanimously rejected. The potential bidder has since confirmed that it is no longer considering an offer for the company."

EasyJet said the "highly conditional all-share" proposal "fundamentally undervalued the company". 

The rights issues would "facilitate and accelerate the group's recovery from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic", it added.

Chief executive Johan Lundgren said the financing boost would also position EasyJet for growth, allowing it to take advantage of investment opportunities "as the European aviation industry emerges from the pandemic".

Shares dive  

Traders rushed to offload EasyJet shares on Thursday's announcements.

"EasyJet shares tumbled 10 per cent after announcing a £1.2-billion rights issue and disclosing that it had turned down an unsolicited takeover offer," noted Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com. 

The airline's need for fresh capital is "a sign of the ongoing trouble in the sector", he added. 

In the group's final fiscal quarter, or three months to the end of September, EasyJet expects to fly just over half of the capacity seen two years earlier before the pandemic erupted.

Mirroring rivals, the carrier last year slashed costs and flights as the deadly pandemic ravaged global aviation industry.

The coronavirus outbreak grounded planes worldwide, resulting in massive losses across the aviation sector.

The industry has since been boosted by partial lifting of international travel restrictions -- with full reopenings held back by the emergence of the fast-spreading Delta variant.

Japan's borders, for example, remain closed to tourists and domestic travel has been stifled by successive waves of infections and resulting virus states of emergency.

SAN FRANCISCO — Google on Wednesday ramped up cloud collaboration tools for businesses, expecting "hybrid" work routines to remain even after the pandemic has ended.

The internet titan competes with Microsoft, Zoom, Facebook and others with online services that employees can use to collaborate remotely.

Tech giants turned to their own tools after abandoning campuses early in the pandemic, which fuelled a fierce remote work trend.

"We've seen a radical transformation, and a lot of that transformation is here to stay," Google Product Management Director Dave Citron said during a briefing on new Workspace offerings.

"But I think it is too early to say that the 40-hour work week in a cubicle is permanently dead across all industries and regions."

Major tech companies themselves have postponed workers returning to offices and expect the new norm to become "hybrid" routines that mix being on-site with working remotely.

Google said it has created a hybrid work handbook for how to take advantage of tools, as well as software for employees to conduct efficient meetings no matter where they are working from.

"We're really excited to bring this to our customers to give them some best practices as they're working to redesign their offices," Citron said.

Google also announced enhancements to its Workspace portfolio that integrate the tech giant's apps for meetings, e-mail, calendars, documents, chat and more.

"As some people return to the office, teams need that ability to flexibly collaborate from anywhere, anytime," said Workspace Senior Director of Product Management Sanaz Ahari.

"The innovations we're bringing to customers today help bridge the gaps of virtual and in-person collaboration."

Workspace added a dedicated online venue for working on projects, and unveiled interactive Series One displays designed specifically for conferencing.

An all-in-one desktop model of Series One was priced at $2,000, while a larger model designed for conference rooms was priced at $7,000.

"Based on the price points, we think the vast amount of the customers will be companies buying it for their employees," Citron said.

HONG KONG — Hong Kong marked the completion of a third runway at its airport on Tuesday at a time when the once thriving international travel hub remains cut off from most of the world.

City leader Carrie Lam presided over a topping-off ceremony for the 3.9 kilometre runway, which took five years to construct on reclaimed land.

Thanks to its location and comparatively relaxed entry requirements, Hong Kong has long hosted one of the world's busiest international airports. 

But it faces increasing competition from regional rival Singapore as well as rapidly expanding airports in mainland China.

The city's reputation as a travel hub was also dented by months of political unrest in 2019, which at one point paralysed the airport, and China's subsequent crackdown on dissent.

The business hub currently remains inaccessible to most people during the coronavirus pandemic because it maintains some of the world's strictest quarantine measures.

Almost all arrivals must complete one to three weeks of mandatory hotel quarantine, a move that has kept the coronavirus at bay but hammered the travel industry and left the city isolated.

The construction of new runways often faces strong opposition from environmental groups in western nations but Hong Kong's airport expansion saw little protest.

Before the coronavirus, the two runways were already operating well beyond their capacity of receiving and sending 420,000 flights per year. 

The third runway is expected to start operations sometime in 2022.

It is unclear whether Hong Kong will have loosened its travel restrictions by then.

Despite ample supplies, the city has one of the worst COVID-19 vaccination rates in the industrialised world and the government has given no details on when it might move towards living with the coronavirus. 

International businesses have grown increasingly frustrated, with the European Chamber of Commerce recently warning that residents were "indefinitely trapped".

But last week Lam doubled down on her zero-COVID policies and said opening travel with the Chinese mainland was more important than doing the same for the rest of the world.

TOKYO — Tokyo stocks closed higher on Monday with investors remaining buoyant over unpopular Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's announcement that he will not stand for reelection.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index ended up 1.83 per cent, or 531.78 points, at 29,659.89, while the broader Topix index gained 1.28 per cent, or 25.77 points, to 2,041.22.

"Gains were supported by speculation about new economic stimulus" that could be announced by the Japanese government under a new prime minister, Daiwa Securities said in a commentary.

Suga said on Friday he will not run in his ruling party's upcoming leadership vote, throwing open the race for the next premier of the world's third-largest economy.

"Last week, foreign investors returned to buy Japanese stocks, judging that the Liberal Democratic Party will avoid a drubbing in the general election, after Prime Minister Suga said he will step down," said Masayuki Kubota, chief strategist of Rakuten Securities.

The news had also prompted a positive reaction from the Tokyo market on Friday, with the Nikkei index ending  more than two per cent higher.

The dollar fetched 109.81 yen in Asian trade, against 109.73 yen in New York on Friday.

Mobile phone carrier KDDI jumped 3.64 per cent to 3,669 yen and SoftBank Corp. rose 1.02 per cent to 1,535.5 yen on speculation that political pressure on them to cut phone fees would ease with the departure of Suga, who has pushed the issue.

Renewable energy company Renova climbed 15.43 per cent to 4,900 yen on prospects that green energy policy led by Suga will continue under a new leader.

Chip-testing equipment maker Advantest closed up 2.56 per cent at 10,400 yen and chip-making equipment manufacturer Tokyo Electron gained 2.43 per cent to 50,180 yen as worries over the US Federal Reserve's exit from its monetary easing eased. 

The US central bank's easing policy is favourable to high-tech firms, which often take advantage of low borrowing costs.

BAGHDAD — French energy giant TotalEnergies has signed a $27-billion contract to invest in oil, gas and solar energy production in Iraq, the country's oil minister said on Sunday.

The announcement of the deal, supposed in part to reduce Iraq's reliance on fossil fuels, came as minister Ihsan Ismail signed the contract at a Baghdad ceremony with TotalEnergies chief Patrick Pouyanne.

TotalEnergies has not directly confirmed to AFP the value of the contract.

"This is the largest investment in Iraq by a Western company," Ismail said. "Implementing these projects is the challenge we face now."

Iraq has immense reserves of oil and gas.

But despite being the number two producer in the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, it is experiencing an acute energy crisis and chronic blackouts that fuel social discontent.

Officials justify the lack of investment and the dilapidated state of its energy network by citing falling oil prices, which represent more than 90 per cent of state revenue.

The country is highly dependent on neighbouring Iran, which supplies it with a third of its gas and electricity needs.

However, Baghdad currently owes Tehran six billion dollars for energy already supplied.

The contract inked on Sunday with TotalEnergies covers four projects, an Iraqi oil ministry source said ahead of the signing ceremony.

One of these aims to pipe seawater from the Gulf to southern Iraqi oilfields. Water is used to extract oil from subterranean deposits.

Two projects focus on extracting and exploiting gas in southern Iraq, which is rich in fossil fuel deposits.

The fourth project will see the installation of a solar farm in Artawi, near the southern port of Basra.

The Iraqi source said that ultimately, the solar panels should produce "1,000 megawatts" of electricity, the equivalent of the energy produced by a nuclear reactor.

"Iraq will not pay anything," the source added.

France's former Total, which has renamed itself TotalEnergies to symbolise a diversification into cleaner sources of power, is one of the world's top five energy companies.

While still focused on oil and gas, the company has indicated that this year it will devote 20 per cent of its growth investments to electricity and renewable energies.