International News

  Bloomberg Filings for U.S. unemployment benefits declined for a third consecutive week, signaling sustained firming in the labour market. Jobless claims fell by 1,000 to 267,000 in the week ended May 28, a Labor Department report showed on Thursday. The median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg called for applications to edge up to 270,000. Dismissals have been unusually ...

  Bloomberg Monsanto Co. agreed to allow Argentina to help collect soybean royalty payments, according to two people with knowledge of the situation, a deal that may hasten the end of a lengthy dispute between the U.S. seed company and farmers in one of the world’s biggest agricultural exporters. St. Louis-based Monsanto also agreed to give the government full control ...

  Elkhart / AFP President Barack Obama shifted into full election campaign mode, accusing Republicans of trying to dupe middle class American voters about the economy and prey on their fears. Democrat Obama ditched his suit jacket and rolled-up his shirt sleeves for an hour-long partisan political speech in a predominantly Republican district of Indiana, a battleground state in the heart ...

  Bloomberg Chile’s solar industry has expanded so quickly that it’s giving electricity away for free. Spot prices reached zero in parts of the country on 113 days through April, a number that’s on track to beat last year’s total of 192 days, according to Chile’s central grid operator. While that may be good for consumers, it’s bad news for ...

  Bloomberg U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron and opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn returned to the front line to make the case for staying in the European Union as the anti-Brexit campaign attempted to maintain momentum three weeks out from Britain’s referendum. The pound dropped earlier this week as successive polls showed a swing in favor of “Leave,” suggesting ...

  Bloomberg Rallies in the pound are proving tough to sustain as recent opinion polls puncture investor confidence that the U.K. will choose to remain in the European Union in the June 23 referendum. Sterling rose versus the dollar on Thursday after dropping the previous two days as surveys released this week signaled the ‘Leave’ camp pulling ahead of the ...

  Netherlands / AFP US delivery giant FedEx now owns over 98 percent of Dutch rival TNT, the two companies announced on Thursday as they move to complete a key $4.4 billion tie-up after winning EU approval. The deal unveiled in April 2015 came two years after the European Commission, the European Union’s powerful executive arm, had torpedoed a bid ...

  Bloomberg Swedbank AB, which is doing more corporate bond issues in the Nordic region this year than any other bank, says the share of Swedish companies’ debt market funding will more than double as higher capital requirements make bank loans more expensive. About 15 percent of corporate funding in the Nordic region now comes from the capital markets, Elisabeth ...

  Switzerland / AFP Carole, a scientist from Zurich, recently received a dream message on her phone: she will receive 2,500 Swiss francs ($2,500, €2,300) a month for the next year, no strings attached. The 30-year-old ethnologist, whose last name has not been revealed, could be the first of many in Switzerland to receive such monthly cheques in the mail. ...

  Seoul / AFP Tens of thousands of North Koreans, brandishing red flags and chanting slogans, paraded in Pyongyang to celebrate the start of the Stalinist regime’s latest five-year economic plan, state media reported on Thursday. The “mass mobilization” took place on Wednesday in the sprawling Kim Il Sung square in the North Korean capital. It marked the beginning of a ...