International News

Bloomberg The UK and the European Union (EU) are increasingly at odds ahead of next week’s trade talks, with each side accusing the other of backing away from past promises. Regaining political independence and freedom from the EU’s legal system will take priority over securing a trade deal by the December 31 deadline, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman, James Slack, ...

Bloomberg The Trump administration said it has asked Congress for $2.5 billion — half new money, half repurposed from other efforts — to battle the spread of the coronavirus. The announcement came on the same day that global financial markets were shaken over reports that the illness had spread to Italy and South Korea. US stock benchmarks slid more than ...

Bloomberg China will release results at the end of April from clinical trials of a Gilead Sciences Inc drug that is emerging as a frontrunner in the race to find an effective treatment for the novel coronavirus. The outcome of trials of the experimental medication remdesivir on 761 patients in Wuhan, the city where the virus originated, will be made ...

Bloomberg Apple Inc is reopening more than half of its retail stores in China, trying to rebound from a sales hit tied to coronavirus. As of February 25, 29 of 42 Apple stores in the country are opening, according to a review of the company’s retail websites. Most of these locations are still operating on shortened hours. Some outlets will ...

Bloomberg Employment increased in about 80% of the largest US counties in the third quarter of 2019 from a year earlier and wages grew in 350 of 355, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. In the third quarter of 2019, average weekly wages for the nation rose to $1,093, a 3.6% increase from a year earlier. People working ...

Bloomberg President Xi Jinping urged China to “spare no effort” to contain the coronavirus outbreak in Beijing, as the nation’s top legislature postponed its annual legislative session in the capital to help check the disease’s spread. Xi issued his warning in a conference call attended by more than 170,000 government and ruling party officials — the biggest of its kind ...

Bloomberg China said an announcement that the quarantine of Wuhan would be eased was prematurely issued without approval from top officials. The lockdown of the Chinese city where the novel coronavirus emerged would remain fully in place, it said. The abrupt about-turn within a matter of hours added to the confusion emanating from the devastated city of 11 million which ...

Bloomberg Six months after Mukesh Ambani laid out a road map to make Reliance Industries Ltd free of net debt by early 2021, his plan has hit a few bumps thanks to the government. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration has petitioned a court to halt a proposed stake sale by Reliance Industries to Saudi Arabian Oil Co, threatening a key ...

Bloomberg South Korea warned its fragile economic recovery is under threat from the coronavirus that has spread dramatically across the country over the past week, and pledged action to minimise the fallout. The country’s currency and the main stock index plunged. The epidemic poses a “large concern that it will limit the trend of economic recovery started late last year,” ...

Bloomberg Hong Kong is being threatened by a “Tsunami-like” cataclysm, the city’s finance chief has warned, as the new coronavirus devastates businesses already hobbled by months of anti-government protests. The financial hub’s lack of a bankruptcy process will only exacerbate the pain. Unlike in the US, Australia and rival Singapore, businesses in Hong Kong don’t have recourse to any corporate ...