International News

Bloomberg Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s government plans to end a ban on firing workers in manufacturing and construction sectors, removing protections that have been in place since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in a sign of Italy’s recovery. The move threatens to open a rift with some left-leaning parties in Draghi’s coalition. Unions called on the government to extend ...

Bloomberg Americans are enjoying outsized pay boosts this year from desperate employers, but the raises are failing to keep pace with surging prices for everyday goods. US wages likely posted a third strong monthly gain to fuel a 3.6% increase in June from a year earlier, according to economists’ forecasts ahead of the Labour Department’s jobs report. Companies including FedEx ...

Bloomberg From abattoirs to restaurant kitchens, the UK food sector is facing a massive challenge this summer: there just aren’t enough workers. The food industry, already facing labour shortages because of Brexit and the pandemic, is now being stretched to capacity as the country reopens. Meat processors are cutting production and a “catastrophic” dearth of drivers is disrupting food deliveries ...

Bloomberg US homeowners spooked by the burgeoning pandemic last spring rushed to tap equity in their properties for a hit of ready cash — and equally wary banks tightened credit or halted lending in response. In the past year, monstrous demand for homes amid a scarcity of listings pushed up prices to the point of giving owners more collective equity ...

Bloomberg Portugal and Spain imposed new restrictions on UK visitors amid concern about the coronavirus delta variant as Germany pushed for a more coordinated European Union response to try to limit the strain taking hold in the bloc. The changes are a setback for Europe’s holiday destinations just as the summer tourism season should be kicking up a gear. The ...

Bloomberg Intel Corp Chief Executive Officer Pat Gelsinger predicted the shortage of semiconductors that’s hurting industries from automotive to consumer electronics will bottom out in the second half of this year before starting to improve. “I don’t expect chip industry is back to a healthy supply-demand situation until ’23,” he said in an interview. “For a variety of industries, I ...

Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc. and Google are facing formal probes into possible violations of UK consumer protection rules over a failure to shield their users from an onslaught of fake reviews. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it has opened investigations to gather more information and decide whether the tech giants may have broken the law by not doing enough ...

Bloomberg New York-traded electric vehicle maker Xpeng Inc has received the green light from the Hong Kong stock exchange to list in the city, the latest homecoming share sale by a Chinese company. The company submitted an updated listing document on Wednesday, indicating it has won the bourse’s approval. The filing, which confirmed an earlier Bloomberg News report, didn’t specify ...

Bloomberg The recovery in gasoline demand across Asia from virus-driven slumps remains patchy, offering a complex picture as improvements in nations such as India are partially offset by deteriorations elsewhere. While consumption has shown signs of picking up in the region’s third-largest economy, as well as in Thailand, it’s offset by slowing demand in Taiwan, Vietnam and Malaysia, Apple Mobility ...

Bloomberg Singapore’s count of millionaires could increase by more than 60% over the five years from 2020 to 2025, according to Credit Suisse Group AG, part of a surge in millionaires expected in Asia as financial capitals emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic. The city-state may have 437,000 millionaires by 2025 compared with 270,000 in 2020, according to the bank’s 2021 ...