News Headlines - 29 May 2020

▽Merkel rebuffs Trump invitation to G7 summit - POLITICO

Angela Merkel has rebuffed Donald Trump’s invitation to attend a G7 summit, which the U.S. president is keen to portray as a symbol of a return to normality from the upheaval of the coronavirus crisis.
"The federal chancellor thanks President Trump for his invitation to the G7 summit at the end of June in Washington. As of today, considering the overall pandemic situation, she cannot agree to her personal participation, to a journey to Washington," German government spokesman Steffen Seibert told POLITICO Friday.

▽UK, US, Australia and Canada scold China over Hong Kong law - Reuters

The United Kingdom, the United States, Australia and Canada criticised China on Thursday for imposing a new security law on Hong Kong that they said would breach the 1984 Sino-British agreement on the former colony and threaten its freedoms... The security law would “curtail the Hong Kong people’s liberties, and in doing so, dramatically erode Hong Kong’s autonomy and the system that made it so prosperous,” they said.

▽LATAM, Latin America's largest airline, files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy - CNN

LATAM Airlines Group, the largest carrier in Latin America, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Tuesday, according to a statement released on its website.
Reservations, employee pay, flight vouchers as well as passenger and cargo operations will not be affected, according to the statement.

▽Japan's April jobless rate rises to 2-yr high of 2.6% amid pandemic - The Mainichi

Japan's unemployment rate rose to 2.6 percent in April, the highest level in over two years, while job availability dropped to its worst level in about four years due to the coronavirus pandemic's impact on business activity, government data showed Friday.
The jobless rate edged up from 2.5 percent in March for the second consecutive monthly increase to hit the worst level since the 2.7 percent logged in December 2017... Separate data from the labor ministry showed that the job availability ratio in April deteriorated from 1.39 in March to 1.32 in April, down for the fourth straight month to the lowest level since March 2016.

▽Japanese billionaire's firm failed to report 500 mil. yen in income - The Mainichi

An asset management company belonging to Yusaku Maezawa, a Japanese billionaire and founder of the major online clothing store Zozotown, failed to declare about 500 million yen ($4.6 million) in taxable income, sources close to the matter said Wednesday.
Following the underreporting of income over three years through March 2019, Maezawa's company corrected its tax report as pointed out by the Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau, but paid no additional levies as the undeclared income had been offset by losses, they said.