International News

Bloomberg The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has set up an office in Hong Kong to consult with companies considering a move to the Japanese capital, part of its push to make the city a global financial center. The Hong Kong office opened for online consultations, Governor Yuriko Koike said at a news briefing. “I want to make Tokyo the No. 1 ...

Bloomberg South Korean conglomerate SK Group is accelerating efforts to help China develop ESG standards after a years-long push by Beijing to improve social governance disclosures at its companies stalled. SK said it will team up with China’s State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) to jointly establish a lab in Beijing to study and develop rating methods for environmental, ...

Bloomberg The US budget deficit more than tripled to a record $3.1 trillion in the latest fiscal year on the government’s massive spending aimed at softening the blow from the coronavirus pandemic. The increase brought the deficit as a share of gross domestic product to 16% in the year ending in September, the largest since 1945, a Treasury Department report ...

Bloomberg The UK, beset by growing coronavirus concerns and struggling to bridge the gap with the European Union over a post-Brexit trade deal, has had its credit rating cut by Moody’s Investors Service. The credit assessor cited softer economic growth, an erosion of fiscal strength and a weakening in institutions and governance as it lowered the nation’s grade by one ...

Bloomberg Justin Trudeau’s government is set to launch a diversity challenge as part of an effort to increase the share of women and minority groups in corporate leadership positions. The goal of the program — called the 50/30 challenge — is to encourage companies to reach gender parity on their boards and in senior management positions, and 30% representation of ...

Bloomberg Twitter Inc. is changing its Hacked Materials Policy, walking back a set of rules at the heart of its enforcement action against a controversial article that included potentially damaging allegations against US presidential candidate Joe Biden. In a series of tweets, policy chief Vijaya Gadde said the firm will no longer remove hacked content “unless it is directly shared ...

Bloomberg The UK should learn from other European nations where more people have returned to their offices during the pandemic, a senior figure in the City of London financial district said. Catherine McGuinness, policy chair for the City‘s Corporation, urged the government to scrutinise the evidence so more workers can get back. She pointed to Paris, where she said there ...

Bloomberg US states saw their tax revenue drop by about $31 billion, or 6%, from March through August, compared to the same period a year earlier, as the pandemic triggered economic shutdowns across the country, according to a data from 44 states compiled by the Urban Institute. The scale of the drop appears smaller than expected, relative to the depth ...

Bloomberg Germany’s economy is losing steam but will do slightly better than government forecasts as fears grow over rising coronavirus infections, according to the country’ s five leading research institutes. Gross domestic product will contract by 5.4% in 2020 and grow 4.7% next year, the experts predicted in their latest bi-annual outlook published on Wednesday. In their spring report, they ...

Bloomberg PG&E Corp. is preparing to cut the lights to 162,000 Californians in 24 counties in its latest effort to keep strong winds from knocking down live wires and igniting wildfires. PG&E will make a final decision on the power cuts, with the first customers expected to go dark later that day, Mark Quinlan, an incident commander for the San ...