International News

Bloomberg UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will look to begin closing a series of pay deals with trade unions, as the government enters 10 days of crunch talks ahead of coordinated strike action planned for early February. Members of the Cabinet have told Sunak he must act fast to avoid a week of strikes that threaten to bring the country ...

  Bloomberg Auto supplier ZF Friedrichhafen AG and Wolfspeed Inc. plan to build a $3 billion wafer factory in Germany’s Saarland to make chips for electric vehicles and other applications, a boon for a region dependent on combustion-engine components, said people familiar with the matter. The go-ahead for the project is subject to commitments on subsidies amounting to a quarter ...

Bloomberg The Netherlands and Japan, home to key suppliers of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, are close to joining a Biden administration-led effort to restrict exports of the technology to China and hobble its push into the chips industry. The Dutch and Japanese export controls may be agreed to and finalized as soon as the end of January, according to people familiar ...

  Bloomberg The number of people searching for lodgers to stay in their spare rooms has spiked, as living costs in Britain remain stubbornly high. Homeowners advertising empty bedrooms for rent on the website SpareRoom spiked in January, hitting the highest levels since the summer of 2020 when pent-up demand was unleashed by loosening Covid restrictions. The company said that ...

  Bloomberg Holcim Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Jan Jenisch said he’s looking to continue an acquisition drive at the Swiss building material maker as he pivots away from traditional cement. Jenisch said in an interview this week that Holcim has “the strongest balance sheet ever, which opens up many opportunities for continued acquisitions and investments.” The CEO said the company ...

  Bloomberg UK employers unleashed a hiring spree at the start of 2023 even as consumer confidence about the economy stalled, two separate surveys showed. There were more than 184,000 new job advertisements in the first week of January, up by a quarter on the same period a year ago, according to the Recruitment & Employment Confederation. The market research ...

  Bloomberg BE Group, an investment firm fronted by former bankers, has made a fresh attempt at a takeover of Belgium’s biggest insurer Ageas, people familiar with the matter said. The consortium recently approached Ageas and has been trying to secure financing for a potential deal, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information. Shares in Ageas ...

  Bloomberg Google parent Alphabet Inc. said it will cut about 12,000 jobs, more than 6% of its global workforce, becoming the latest tech giant to retrench after years of abundant growth and hiring. The cuts will affect jobs globally and across the entire company, Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai told employees in an email on Friday, writing that he ...

Bloomberg Close to half a million workers are ready to strike on a single day as Britain faces an escalation of industrial action across a number of sectors. Unions representing civil servants, teachers, university staff and train drivers have said their members will walk out on Feb. 1 as part of demands for higher pay to cope with the worst ...

  Bloomberg President Joe Biden’s plan to subsidize clean energy is “dangerous” and risks pushing the world toward protectionism, Britain’s Business Secretary Grant Shapps said, in the UK’s bluntest criticism to date of the US Inflation Reduction Act. European Union leaders say the US legislation will unfairly benefit American firms and violate World Trade Organization rules. To date, Prime Minister ...