International News

Bloomberg China is still open to reaching a partial trade deal with the US, an official with direct knowledge of the talks said, signalling that Beijing is focussed on limiting the damage to the world’s second-largest economy. Negotiators heading to Washington for talks starting on Thursday aren’t optimistic about securing a broad agreement that would end the trade war between ...

Bloomberg A draft amendment to China’s Statistics Law will make officials and their bosses directly accountable for data accuracy and also increase the ceiling on fines for companies that report false information. The draft amendment was published by the National Bureau of Statistics on its website, with the bureau calling for feedback until November 9, according to a statement. If ...

Bloomberg Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen unit was hit with an $8 billion punitive-damages verdict — the largest jury award in the US this year — over its alleged mishandling of an anti-psychotic drug blamed for disfiguring the physique of adolescent boys. A state court jury in Philadelphia concluded the Janssen’s wrongful marketing of its Risperdal drug to teens warranted the ...

Bloomberg Panasonic Corp has hired a former Tesla Inc battery guru to a senior role at the so-called gigafactory the two companies share in the US. Celina Mikolajczak, who left Tesla in early 2018 for short stint at Uber Technologies Inc, joined Panasonic this month as vice president of battery technology. She’ll be based in Reno, Nevada, where Tesla and ...

Bloomberg US farmers and agribusinesses face a rising threat of long-term losses in export sales as President Donald Trump’s trade war with China continues, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) warned in a report. The finding by a blue-chip management consulting firm could feed mounting fears among major US agricultural players that the damage done from a tariff war that has already ...

Bloomberg The US dropped from the top spot in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) annual competitiveness report, losing out to Singapore. Hong Kong, the Netherlands and Switzerland made up the rest of the top five, according to the WEF survey published on Wednesday. On the US, it noted growing uncertainty among business leaders. The forum focussed its report on continued ...

Bloomberg General Electric’s gaping pension deficit certainly stands out for its size. But the company is hardly the only one at risk of potentially shortchanging some of its employees come retirement. All across corporate America, underfunded pensions have become the norm. Even now, a decade after the financial crisis, the largest plans face a shortfall of $269 billion, right about ...

Bloomberg Masayoshi Son’s startups have had a rough few months, from a botched initial public offering by WeWork to a sharp decline in shares of Uber Technologies Inc. Now analysts are beginning to calculate that the damage for Son’s SoftBank Group will likely reach into the billions of dollars. Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities Co cut its profit estimate for ...

Bloomberg Samsung Electronics Co’s de facto leader, Lee jae-yong, plans to give up his board seat after his directorship expires late October as he prepares for another trial over alleged bribery, a person familiar with the matter said. The billionaire heir won’t seek to extend his three-year term on the board of the tech behemoth when it ends on October ...

Bloomberg Traditional members of Indonesia’s Baduy tribe shun footwear and live in woven bamboo houses without electricity, harvesting honey from natural beehives and weaving intricate traditional fabrics by hand. Some younger members then sell the stuff on Instagram. “My wife weaves the fabric, while the honey bottles are supplied by friends,” said Danif, 27, who goes outside the tribal area ...