Bloomberg Scarce components have pushed the manufacturing costs for Sony Corp’s next PlayStation to around $450 per unit, forcing a difficult price-setting decision in its battle with Microsoft Corp, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The Japanese conglomerate is preparing to gradually replace the six-year-old PS4 console, releasing its PlayStation 5 the same holiday season its archrival debuts ...

Bloomberg Car sales in China fell to fresh lows in January as the coronavirus kept buyers away from showrooms, intensifying the gloom hanging over the industry. Retail car sales fell 22% to 1.71 million units, the biggest-ever drop for the month of January, the China Passenger Car Association said. The group predicted a worsening outlook, saying February sales may drop ...

Bloomberg Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he’s committed to ending the conflict with Russia, after the appointment of a new Kremlin envoy signalled a possible opening for peace efforts. “On the first day of my presidency, I said openly: we didn’t start this war, but we have to end it,” Zelenskiy, elected in a landslide election last year on a ...

Bloomberg Venezuela’s detention of opposition leader Juan Guaido’s uncle is based on “preposterous charges” and another sign of the “increasing desperation” of Nicolas Maduro’s regime, the US Department of State said in a statement. “The United States strongly condemns the detention of Juan Jose Marquez, uncle of interim President Juan Guaido, and demands his immediate release,” the State Department said. ...

Bloomberg Fears continue to grow as much of the world shifts its attention to cruise ships infected with the coronavirus. Japan said it found an additional 70 cases aboard the Diamond Princess, a luxury liner that’s been quarantined at the port of Yokohama, bringing the total number of infected on the ship to 355. Malaysia said it won’t allow any ...

Bloomberg The White House delivered its legal justification for the January airstrike that killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, arguing that President Donald Trump was authorised to take the action under the Constitution and 2002 legislation authorising the Iraq war. The Trump administration memo, which was released by House Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel, was the first official explanation of the ...

Bloomberg Joe Biden said threats against officials at a prominent Nevada union that criticised Bernie Sanders’ health care plan by some supporters of the Vermont senator were “outrageous.” The threats were “vicious, malicious,” and “misogynistic,” Biden said in an excerpt of an interview on Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” The former vice president called on Sanders to accept greater ...

Bloomberg A senior United Nations official called the arms embargo on Libya a “joke” as governments struggled to hold together efforts to end a civil war in the North African country. Germany hosted a meeting of top officials in Munich, who expressed concern about “the deplorable recent violations” of the Libyan weapons embargo, while reaffirming the conclusions of a summit ...

President Xi Jinping has an unwritten deal with the Chinese people: Give me total political control, and I will solve China’s problems and make it a global superpower. This implicit “social contract” had seemed to be working pretty well, until the coronavirus breakout. The epidemic that began in Wuhan in December has spread deep into China’s social fabric. It has ...

It isn’t just Unilever NV that’s struggling to sell more food. Rival Nestle SA now expects to come up short of its self-imposed sales-growth target this year, and it’s counting on acquisitions to put it back on track. While Chief Executive Officer Mark Schneider met the lower end of a goal for underlying operating margin 12 months early, it will ...