Business

The Verge reports: American Airlines is about to start offering at-home COVID-19 tests to domestic fliers in order to help them meet various state travel restriction requirements, the company announced Tuesday. The airline is partnering with direct-to-consumer home testing company LetsGetChecked, which will sell the tests for $129 on top of the cost of travel. The at-home tests help travelers …

The Street reports: Walt Disney plans to lay off a total of 32,000 employees in the first half of 2021, a further reduction in its workforce as the Covid-19 pandemic and severe drop-off in visitors to its theme parks continues to slam its business. The layoffs, revealed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Wednesday, are 4,000 more than …

Reuters reports: Rome’s Fiumicino airport will run COVID-tested flights to and from the United States operated by Delta Air Lines and Alitalia, it said on Thursday, adding it will be the first airport in Europe to offer the service on transatlantic flights. From December, passengers flying between Rome and some U.S. destinations can be tested for the coronavirus 48 hours …

The Hill reports: The United Parcel Service (UPS) has established its own dry ice production in its U.S. facilities and will distribute ultra-cold temperature freezers to help in the distribution efforts for COVID-19 vaccines over the coming months. In preparation for the distribution, UPS on Tuesday said it can produce as much as 1,200 pounds of dry ice an hour …

CNBC reports: Amazon’s cloud-computing service on Wednesday was hit with an outage that took down some websites and services. A notice on Amazon Web Services’ status page said it was experiencing problems with Kinesis, its service that processes large streams of data, causing “increased error rates” for a number of websites. The outage also impacted its ability to post updates …

CNN Business reports: Investors have a lot to be thankful for this holiday-shortened week — including the Dow passing the 30,000 milestone for the first time as stocks posted solid gains Tuesday to extend Monday’s rally. The Dow was up more than 400 points, or 1.4%, in late morning trading. The blue chip index hit a new all-time high in …

CNBC reports: Tesla co-founder Elon Musk is now the world’s second richest person after he leapfrogged Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index, which tracks the wealth of the world’s 500 richest people. The 49-year-old entrepreneur, who is also the co-founder of space exploration firm SpaceX, saw his net worth rise by $7.2 billion to $128 billion …

The BBC reports: International air travelers will in future need to prove they have been vaccinated against Covid-19 in order to board Qantas flights, the airline says. The Australian flag carrier’s boss, Alan Joyce, said the move would be “a necessity” when vaccines are available. “I think that’s going to be a common thing talking to my colleagues in other …

The New York Daily News reports: A Queens sex club, ignoring the steady rise in citywide COVID-19 cases and guidelines to slow the spread, was busted early Sunday for an illegal party decked out with the trappings of a modern-day Roman orgy. Deputies from the city’s Sheriff’s Office found over 80 people without masks at the illicit underground club on …

The New York Times reports: More travelers were screened at airport security checkpoints on Sunday than on any day since the pandemic took hold in March, a worrying sign that people flying to visit their families for Thanksgiving could increase the spread of the coronavirus. A little more than one million people were screened by the Transportation Security Administration on …

Des Moines’ CBS News affiliate reports: A lawsuit filed this week by a deceased Tyson employee’s son, claims managers at the business had bet money on how many employees would test positive for COVID-19. Isidro Fernandez was an employee at Tyson Foods’ Waterloo facility. He died from COVID-19 complications on April 26. Court records show that Sheriff Thompson advised the …

The Washington Post reports: State and federal investigators are preparing to bring antitrust charges against Facebook that will challenge the tech giant’s acquisition of two rivals, Instagram and WhatsApp, alleging that the deals helped create an anti-competitive social networking juggernaut that has left users with few quality alternatives. The charges form a critical part of what could be a wide-ranging …

The New York Post reports: The president of cruise giant Royal Caribbean has announced that 100,000 people have already volunteered to sail free-of-charge on their government-mandated test voyages. Just three days earlier, the company set up a “Volunteers of the Seas” Facebook page to attract those eager enough for a free ride aboard a cruise ship during the COVID-19 pandemic. …

The Christian Post reports: A nonprofit ministry is set to launch the first-ever Christian airline next year, providing a source of travel for missionaries seeking to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ across the globe. Judah 1, currently based out of Shreveport, Louisiana, has already carried small groups of missionaries to disaster areas and mission fields in its capacity as …

Yahoo News reports: Boeing’s 737 Max is one large step closer to returning to American skies after being grounded for over a year and a half. The FAA has issued an order effectively clearing the 737 Max’s return to service once airlines follow key procedures. They’ll have to install Boeing’s updated software, use updated manuals and procedures, rework horizontal stabilizer …

CNBC reports: Amazon is entering the pharmacy business with a new offering called Amazon Pharmacy, allowing customers in the United States to order prescription medications for home delivery, including free delivery for Amazon Prime members. Amazon has been quietly building out its pharmacy offering for several years after ramping up internal discussions in 2017 and acquiring PillPack in 2018. The …

The New York Daily News reports: New York City’s ailing taxicab industry may get a boost if a proposed bill gets a green light from the City Council. The legislation would require the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission to establish a “universal e-hail app” to let riders order from a single app any for-hire vehicle — including taxis and cars …

CNBC reports: Jay Clayton, who has led the Securities and Exchange Commission for the past three and a half years that included a number of major changes in financial markets, said Monday he will step down at the end of the year. “Working alongside the incredibly talented and driven women and men of the SEC has been the highlight of …

Business Insider reports: Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Saturday that he “most likely” has a moderate case of COVID-19, while questioning the reliability of the tests he has had. Asked by a Twitter user about his symptoms, he wrote that they feel “just like a regular cold, but more body achy & cloudy head than coughing/sneezing.” On …

Agence France-Presse reports: The vaccine developed by US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech, on track to be the first authorized for use in the United States, must be stored at -94 degrees Fahrenheit (-70 degrees Celsius), whereas the flu vaccine can be kept in a normal refrigerator. Pfizer vaccines distributed in the US will come from its largest manufacturing …