News Headlines - 03 August 2020

▽Bill Clinton Went to Jeffrey Epstein's Island With 2 'Young Girls,'; Virginia Giuffre Says

In recently unsealed court documents involving dead child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and his alleged accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, a woman named Virginia Giuffre, who publicly accused Epstein of sex trafficking, said that she once saw former Democratic President Bill Clinton on Epstein's island with "two young girls" from New York.

▽Alstom gains EU okay to acquire Bombardier's rail business - Reuters

France’s Alstom SA (ALSO.PA) clinched EU antitrust approval on Friday to acquire Canadian rival Bombardier Inc’s (BBDb.TO) rail business in a deal that will elevate it to the world’s second-largest rail maker after China’s CRRC Corp (601766.SS).
Alstom’s success in gaining EU clearance for the deal valued up to 6.2 billion euros ($7.4 billion) contrasted with its failed attempt last year to combine its rail assets with Siemens AG (SIEGn.DE), which was vetoed by regulators because the companies refused to offer more concessions.

▽KLM to cut workforce by up to 5,000 as passenger numbers plunge 95% - DutchNews.nl

KLM is to cut its workforce by between 4,500 and 5,000 full time jobs in the coming years as income plummets due to the coronavirus crisis, the Dutch flag carrier said on Friday.
Some 1,500 temporary contracts will not be renewed and some 2,000 jobs will go through a voluntary redundancy scheme. But some 1,500 people will lose their jobs, including ground, cabin, cockpit crew and administrative workers.
The airline has been hit by a 95% drop in passenger numbers and booked an operating loss of €493m in the second quarter of the year. This takes the first half loss to around €800m, and, according to chief executive Pieter Elbers, the worst result in the company’s history.

▽Iraq prime minister calls early elections for June 2021 | Al Jazeera

Iraq will hold its next parliamentary elections nearly a year early, in June 2021, Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi has announced.
"June 6, 2021, has been fixed as the date for the next legislative elections," he said on Friday in a televised speech... Al-Kadhimi came to power in May after months of protests forced his predecessor to resign.
The next parliamentary elections had originally been due to take place in May 2022. Iraq's parliament must still ratify the election date.

▽Buenos Aires Times | A decade on, hero Chilean miners are bitter and divided

A decade ago, 33 Chilean miners became a symbol of hope and solidarity after surviving for more than two months trapped deep underground in the Atacama desert. Today, the men are at odds, mired in trauma, illness, jealousy and bitterness.