BUSINESS : WORLD ALL *WEEK

1.- Disney decided to lay off 28,000 workers at its theme parks. Last year the parks accounted for more than a third of Disney's profit. Income that vanished when they were ordered to close down during the pandemic.

Those that have reopened have seen visitors numbers plummet because of social distancing. Disney's parks in California remain shut, which one executive said had ''exacerbated'' the situation. Most of the jobs being shed are part-time.

2.- A judge granted TikTok a reprieve from a ban by the American government, hours before it was due to be imposed.

Donald Trump had ordered a halt-to-downloads of the Chinese owned video-sharing app. But the judge found that the act from the 1970s on which the president based his order does not cover ''informational materials'' , including film, photographs or art work.

TikTok argued that 100 millions Americans use its platforms to share these very materials.

3.- Palantir Technologies, a secretive software provider founded in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks of 2001, floated its shares in New York.

A highly complex shareholder structure means its three founders - Peter Thiel, Alex Karp and Stephen Cohen - will retain control.

4.- NTT, Japan's legacy telecoms company, announced a deal to buy the remaining shares it does not own in NTT DoCoMo, the country's biggest biggest mobile operator, for Yen 4,3 trillion [$41 billion].

The company dismissed reports that the takeover is linked to pressure from new prime minister, Suga Yoshhihide, to lower phone charges, but said there ''will be room to cut the fees.''

5.- The Tokyo Stock Exchange suspended trading for at least a day because of a glitch in its system for communicating market information.

It was the worst disruption the Japanese bourse had experienced since going fully electronic in 1999. 

6.- Ramping up its ambition to overtake Tesla as the world's premier maker of electric cars, Volkswagen said it was investing Euro15 billion [$17 billion] on ''e-mobility'' in China with its three Chinese joint-ventures.

The World Students Society thanks The Economist.