Amazon Launches Saudi Arabia Shopping Site despite CEO's Dispute with Kingdom

REUTERS: Amazon.com Inc on Wednesday launched a website for shoppers in Saudi Arabia, showing its continued business interests there despite a public dispute between Riyadh and the company’s chief executive, Jeff Bezos.

The website is a re-branding for Saudi customers of Souq.com, a Middle East e-commerce platform that Amazon acquired in 2017. Shoppers’ account information with Souq automatically transferred to the new address, amazon.sa, Amazon said on the site. The company similarly converted Souq’s website in the United Arab Emirates to a re-branded portal, amazon.ae, last year. » | Jeffrey Dastin | Wednesday, June 17, 2020

To Save the British Economy, Don't Just Open Shops – Give People the Cash to Spend

THE GUARDIAN: Rishi Sunak needs to think radically by introducing a universal basic income until this crisis passes

My local high street has refitted itself for today’s reopening of non-essential shops, enabling customers to stay 2 metres apart. Businesses have spent thousands in a frantic attempt to stave off imminent bankruptcy. Yet within a week that money may have to be spent again, as Boris Johnson teases that he may change the distancing rule from 2 metres to 1 metre.

This is toy-town government. Nowhere else in Europe seems to be behaving in this way. The image is of toffs in secure jobs playing maths with other people’s lives.

Shopkeepers are victims not of any disease but of a panicked political response to disease, to deprive them of trade. Plenty of other countries, among them Japan, Sweden and South Korea, did not close their retail sectors. With scientists refusing to take sides on the 2-metre rule, the block seems to lie with ministers who so inflated people’s fear they now dare not return to normality. » | Simon Jenkins | Monday, June 15, 2020

Creating Money Out of Nothing – Hamza Yusuf

Wolff Responds: US Economy in Chaos

Sir Rocco Forte, Hotelier – BBC HARDtalk

No sector of the global economy has been harder hit by Covid-19 than the travel and hospitality industry. Millions of workers dependent on travel and tourism have been laid off around the world. HARDtalk’s Stephen Sackur speaks to Sir Rocco Forte, boss of a string of luxury hotels and a powerful voice in an industry chafing under strict lockdown rules. What future is there for an industry that depends on mobility and confidence?