Bloomberg Jollibee Foods Corp will boost capital spending by a fifth to open 450 new stores mostly overseas, as the Philippines’ largest restaurant operator foresees a return to profit this year following its first annual loss in nearly three decades. The company will spend 12.2 billion pesos ($255 million) this year, up 22% from the 10 billion pesos in 2020. ...

Bloomberg Myanmar’s junta strengthened its grip on power over the weekend, ordering an internet blackout overnight and making it easier for authorities to make arrests as it looks to quell surging protests against its February 1 coup. Protests continued on Monday after tens of thousands of people continued to demonstrate in defiance of the military even as the regime stepped ...

Bloomberg Sudan accused Ethiopian forces of entering its territory, escalating a dispute over land that straddles their border. “Sudan strongly condemns the aggression carried out by Ethiopia, in which its forces entered into territories that legally belong to Sudan,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. It described the incident as “a direct violation” of Sudanese sovereignty. Relations between Sudan ...

Bloomberg Time is “running out” to resolve an impasse with imprisoned Ethiopian opposition leaders who’ve spent almost three weeks without food, according to a lawyer for one of the key figures behind the protest. Media mogul Jawar Mohammed’s representative said the hunger strike was endangering the inmates’ lives and urged the government to seek a quick resolution. “We are running ...

Bloomberg Ex-Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti won snap elections in a comeback that could worsen already tense relations with neighbouring Serbia. Kurti’s party, whose last government lasted just four months, got 48% in the ballot, according to preliminary results with 97% of votes counted. Four other parties are also on track to enter parliament, as well as minority lawmakers who ...

Bloomberg Catalan separatist parties won a majority in the regional parliament in the election, but Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez was one of the night’s big winners. Sanchez’s Socialist party won the most votes and saw its main national rival, the conservative People’s Party, suffer a humiliating defeat. All the same, the next regional leader is set to come from ...

Bloomberg More than 10% of the UK workforce is out of a job and struggling to tap government benefits, exposing economic scars set to remain long after the coronavirus fades. About 3.8 million people including actors and musicians in London’s famous theaters don’t qualify for the most lucrative welfare payments, according to the Standard Life Foundation, which campaigns for those ...

Bloomberg Google and Facebook Inc. are nearing agreements to pay domestic media companies for news, in a sign a regulatory standoff may be softening, Australia’s government said Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg held talks with Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg and Google counterpart Sundar Pichai over the weekend. “We’re very close to some very significant commercial deals,” Frydenberg told the ...

Bloomberg Norway’s economy grew much faster than expected at the end of last year, underpinning bets that its central bank will be the first in the rich world to raise interest rates this year. Mainland gross domestic product, which adjusts for Norway’s offshore industry, expanded 1.9% in the fourth quarter, the statistics office said. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg had expected ...

Bloomberg US consumer sentiment unexpectedly declined to a six-month low in early February as outlook for personal income deteriorated and more Americans anticipated faster inflation in the year ahead. The University of Michigan’s preliminary sentiment index falls to 76.2 from 79 last month, data showed. The median forecast in Bloomberg’s survey of economists called for a modest improvement to 80.9 ...