International News

Bloomberg Janey Zhang, the owner of an umbrella factory in China’s east coast city of Shangyu, spends her days watching the news for coronavirus updates and fielding calls from cash-strapped employees asking when they can go back to work. “I don’t know,” says Zhang, whose Zhejiang Xingbao Umbrella Co employs about 200 workers. “We await government instructions. If it’s just ...

Bloomberg A giant of US telecommunications is muscling into Europe’s 5G race. Verizon Communications Inc is opening a 5G tech showroom and production studio in London, its first outside of the US, complicating the push already underway among European counterparts like Deutsche Telekom AG and Vodafone Group Plc to land business customers. The so-called lab showcases services enabled by the ...

Bloomberg Google’s decade-long antitrust fight with the European Union is set for more twists and turns this week as the internet giant battles the first in a trilogy of fines that cost the company nearly $9 billion. The EU’s General Court in Luxembourg will host a three-day hearing starting on February 12 as the Alphabet Inc unit seeks to topple ...

Bloomberg France’s central bank is expecting a punchy rebound by the economy at the start of the year after disruption by strikes and a surprise contraction at the end of 2019. The Bank of France business indicators for January show economic growth resuming the pace it set for most of 2019, until December when prolonged protests over pension reform disrupted ...

Bloomberg China warned France against treating Huawei Technologies Co differently from European competitors when it comes to future 5G network equipment contracts, as the US mounts a campaign to keep the Chinese tech giant at bay. In a lengthy statement issued on its website, the Chinese embassy in Paris urged France to establish “transparent criteria and treat all companies in ...

Bloomberg Bill and Melinda Gates, co-founders of the world’s biggest private foundation, said fighting climate change and promoting gender equality will be prominent issues in their philanthropy going forward. In a letter marking the 20th anniversary of the foundation’s inception, the couple said that climate has emerged as a key issue for the Microsoft Corp co-founder, while gender equality has ...

Bloomberg The double-whammy to palm oil demand from a trade spat with India and the coronavirus in China is likely to prove only temporary, according to FGV Holdings Bhd, one of the world’s largest producers. That’s because supplies are low this quarter, and food and fuel demand is set to stay robust over the long term, according to Chief Executive ...

Bloomberg China’s consumer prices rose the fastest in more than eight years last month, with the outbreak of the coronavirus and subsequent shutdowns of transport links across the country making further gains in the coming months likely. Consumer prices rose 5.4%, with food prices jumping the most since 2008 in January. Even before the coronavirus, prices were likely to have ...

Bloomberg A shortage of face masks has prompted Chinese companies from car manufacturers to energy providers to start making their own to help fight the coronavirus. Auto companies including BYD Co have reconfigured production lines to churn out masks that can help block particles and germs, with petroleum giant Sinopec and iPhone assembler Foxconn joining the fray. Some are also ...

Bloomberg Jaguar Land Rover announced that its supply chains outside China could be impacted by the coronavirus outbreak in an updated presentation to investors. The luxury carmaker wrote that it expects the virus to affect its fourth quarter but that it’s too early to quantify. Though the company issued an update to add that if disruption continues, supply chains outside ...