Bloomberg China’s passed a controversial law that gives the coast guard more freedom to fire on foreign vessels, a move that could fuel risk of military miscalculation in the Western Pacific. The law is aimed at “safeguarding national sovereignty, security and maritime rights,” the official Xinhua News Agency said in a report on Saturday. The law will take effect from ...

Bloomberg Arguments in the second impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump will begin the week of February 8, giving the Senate time to continue confirming President Joe Biden’s cabinet, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said. The House will transmit the single article of impeachment to the Senate on Monday and, as in previous impeachments, senators will be sworn-in as ...

Bloomberg The UK is still in the grip of the coronavirus crisis, but political speculation is already rife on how the country will manage the ballooning debt it has run up to fight the pandemic. With the nation still fresh from almost a decade of austerity, there’s little appetite for spending cuts to shrink a deficit on course to reach ...

Bloomberg New-home sales in London are plummeting as lockdowns hurt demand and investors hold back from building apartments. Sales of newly built homes totaled 4,190 in the fourth quarter, down 27% from a year earlier, according to preliminary data compiled by researcher Molior London. The figures are based on transactions at developments with at least 20 units, which are predominantly ...

Bloomberg The European Union (EU), set to become one of the largest issuers of green and sustainable bonds, will sell debt for the first time in 2021 off the back of record-breaking demand last year. The bloc will likely issue 14 billion euros ($17 billion) of seven-year and 30-year social bonds for a job support program in the coming week. ...

Bloomberg Instacart is cutting about 1,900 employees’ jobs, including 10 workers who formed a union, as the company seeks to boost its ranks of contract workers. The grocery delivery company already classifies most of its workers as independent contractors, whose numbers have ballooned to more than 500,000 during the coronavirus pandemic. But starting in 2015, the company hired a small ...

Bloomberg Volkswagen AG said a robust sales recovery toward the end of the year helped cushion annual results from the effects of the pandemic. Operating profit before one-time items related to VW’s diesel-emissions scandal falls to about 10 billion euros ($12.2 billion) last year, VW said in a statement, from 19.3 billion euros in 2019. Automotive net cash flow shrunk ...

Bloomberg WeChat creator Allen Zhang is counting on a breakthrough in video to thwart TikTok owner ByteDance Ltd., building on the success of his last big overhaul of the all-in-one messaging app. Zhang, celebrated in China for inventing Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s signature creation, has toyed for years with ways to keep and expand WeChat’s industry lead, particularly as upstarts like ...

Bloomberg AT&T Inc. is holding exclusive talks to sell a significant stake in DirecTV to private equity firm TPG, the latest stage of a months-long push to unload at least part of the struggling pay-TV business. A potential deal is weeks away, and the talks could still fall apart, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the ...

Bloomberg Microsoft Corp. is raising the price for subscriptions to Xbox Live Gold, its paid online gaming platform, doubling the cost for an annual pass and prompting swift outrage from users. The price bump brings the cost of a six-month subscription to $60. Last year, Microsoft removed the option for a full-year subscription at that price from the online store. ...