Bloomberg Indonesia’s moratorium on new oil palm plantation permits is set to expire this week as the industry awaits clarity on whether the government will extend the policy. President Joko Widodo ordered a stop to permit issuance for new plantations and expansion of existing ones for three years in a decree signed on September 19, 2018. That order expanded on ...

Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc stressed it has zero tolerance for graft and will investigate all allegations of corruption fully, responding to a report by an Indian news outlet that the US e-commerce giant has begun an internal investigation into claims of bribery. The US company started a probe into its legal representatives’ conduct in India, the Morning Context, a two-year-old media ...

Bloomberg Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s Lazada Group is creating a new role to lead payments in Southeast Asia for the first time, and tapped a former Alipay executive for the position. Dayong Zhang, former general manager of Southeast Asia for Ant Group Co’s Alipay, will become Lazada’s head of payments, the company said, confirming a report by Bloomberg News. The ...

Bloomberg Hong Kong could have a hard time attracting blank check companies after it proposed a high threshold to list in the city. In a consultation paper, Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Ltd proposed that special purpose acquisition companies would need to raise at least HK$1 billion ($128 million) when listing and that retail investors would be barred from participating. ...

Bloomberg France isn’t the only country upset about a new security pact between the US, UK and Australia: Some Southeast Asian nations are also worried the partnership could provoke China and spur a regional arms race. The so-called Aukus partnership, which will help Australia acquire nuclear-powered submarines, prompted China last week to warn of an arms race in a region ...

Bloomberg North Korea warned of a “nuclear arms race” after the US and UK agreed to give Australia technology to build nuclear-powered submarines, and vowed to take counteraction for any adverse impact on its own security. “These are extremely undesirable and dangerous acts which will upset the strategic balance in the Asia-Pacific region and trigger off a chain of nuclear ...

Bloomberg President Vladimir Putin’s ruling party claimed a decisive victory in legislative polls, although discontent eroded support in some areas and opponents alleged widespread fraud. United Russia was on track to maintain its majority of more than two-thirds of the seats in the State Duma with 99% of ballots counted, according to the Central Election Commission. While the ruling party ...

Bloomberg Developed countries’ pledges to provide $100 billion of annual financing, made over a decade ago and seen as key to unlocking upcoming climate talks, are unlikely to be met even five years after the target, according to a new report. That not only threatens the success at the United Nations climate talks in Glasgow starting in weeks, but also ...

Bloomberg Prime Minister Boris Johnson said post-Brexit trade disruption in Northern Ireland must be sorted quickly and urged the European Union to show “common sense” in negotiations with his government. He also said that Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte had offered to mediate between the EU and the UK in the dispute during his visit to London last week, in ...

Bloomberg UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said unprecedented surge in natural gas prices is a “temporary” problem caused by the global economy bouncing back after the pandemic, arguing a “phenomenal demand for gas” in Asia has affected UK supplies. “I want to give a general reassurance that the problems we’re seeing are temporary,” Johnson told reporters travelling with him to ...