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S Africa’s Eskom ends ‘controlled blackouts’

Bloomberg South Africa’s debt-laden power utility ended controlled blackouts as power supplies improve, though it says shortages gripping Africa’s most industrialised economy may not be over yet. Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd., which provides about 95% of South Africa’s electricity, said it wouldn’t be implementing load shedding, a local term for rolling power blackouts, on Sunday. That comes after almost a ...

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Barrick Gold agrees to pay over $300m to end Tanzania dispute

Bloomberg Barrick Gold Corp. agreed to pay over $300 million to the Tanzanian government to end a long-running dispute that it says destroyed the value of its subsidiary Acacia Mining Plc’s assets. As part of the deal, which still must be approved by Tanzania’s attorney general, the government will be given a 16% stake in a renamed company known as ...

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Why global economy remains so weak

We’ve seen this movie before. The top economists at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) — the global agency created after World War II to promote stability and growth in the world economy — unveil their latest forecast, which is almost always weaker than its previous forecast. The economists hold out the possibility that world growth will improve if the most ...

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Your next vacation may be virtual

Japan’s biggest airline is betting that the future of travel isn’t traveling at all. For the last month, a married couple in Oita Prefecture has been interacting with a robot — called an Avatar — that’s controlled by their daughter hundreds of miles away in Tokyo. Made by ANA Holdings Inc., it looks like a vacuum cleaner with an iPad ...

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Making money is easy for J&J and UnitedHealth

Being an enormously profitable industry leader doesn’t mean what it used to. Johnson & Johnson and UnitedHealthGroup Inc., the world’s biggest health-care company and health insurer, respectively, reported third-quarter earnings results that should thrill investors. Both managed to beat Wall Street earnings estimates and boosted full-year profit guidance above expectations as they generated a combined $80 billion in sales. You’d ...

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Europe doesn’t need another currency crisis

After eight difficult years doing whatever it took to support Europe’s economies, Mario Draghi is about to step down as the president of the European Central Bank (ECB). In taking up this challenge, his successor, Christine Lagarde, faces the same underlying problem: The currency union at the center of the European project is unfinished work. From the beginning, the euro ...

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What if poor nations were paid to take in refugees?

Much of the commentary about Michael Kremer, named as one of three winners of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, has justifiably celebrated his pioneering work in studying poverty — even now, many of us believe, the planet’s greatest moral challenge. But an important 2011 Kremer paper, overlooked in the celebration, helps to shed light on another great challenge ...

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Southeast Asia has a weight problem

Starting next year, Singapore will treat packaged sugary drinks such as Coca-Cola the way that other countries treat cigarettes. Advertisements will be banned, and a label attesting to a beverage’s unhealthiness will be mandatory. The goal is to reduce the high rate of sugar consumption and associated health problems — such as diabetes and heart disease — that are now ...

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Brexit: Singapore-on-Thames isn’t going to happen

British Conservatives, from the time of Margaret Thatcher, have long admired Singapore’s economic success. Low tax rates, minimal regulation and hyper-modern infrastructure are a magnet for foreign direct investment and keep government coffers overflowing. Could that be Britain after Brexit? The idea titillates Tories and terrifies European Union leaders. But such fears say more about the EU’s own vulnerabilities than ...

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Boeing lawsuits over Lion Air crash may move to Indonesia

Bloomberg A federal judge in Chicago signalled he may let dozens of lawsuits against Boeing Co over the crash of a Lion Air plane be resolved in Indonesia. US District Judge Thomas Durkin said during a status hearing that US Supreme Court and appellate court rulings appear to support the idea of a venue change. “The law is pretty favourable ...

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