International News

Bloomberg Germany’s economy shrank in the second quarter, ramping up pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel to unleash fiscal stimulus as manufacturers reel from a US-China trade war. The latest report, paired with a protracted slump in business expectations, raises the risk that Europe’s largest economy is on the verge of falling into a recession. It would be the first in ...

Bloomberg A plan to build the world’s longest undersea rail tunnel has hit its first snag. Financing of 15 billion euros ($16.8 billion) was agreed this year for the tunnel to link Finland and Estonia. But the Baltic nation of 1.3 million people wants more details on that funding, the business plan behind the idea and Finland’s role before giving ...

Bloomberg UK wages rose at their fastest pace in 11 years in three months through June and employment climbed to a record high. The stronger-than-forecast figures from the Office for National Statistics suggest the labour market remains tight, meaning the Bank of England is unlikely to join the global rate-cutting trend, at least for now. However, unemployment rate rose as ...

Bloomberg American farmers already stung by President Donald Trump’s trade wars now face billions of dollars in potential losses as controversial data from the US government snuffs out a rally in corn. The Agriculture Department said farmers planted a bigger corn area than analysts estimated and pegged crop yields that also exceeded expectations, sparking the biggest rout in futures since ...

Bloomberg Facebook Inc. (FB) has been paying hundreds of outside contractors to transcribe clips of audio from users of its services, according to people with knowledge of the work. The work has rattled the contract employees, who are not told where the audio was recorded or how it was obtained — only to transcribe it, said the people, who requested anonymity ...

Bloomberg If you want to know what a large set of data points feels like, try carrying 500 tulips through the streets of the Netherlands. This was the life of 34-year-old British artist Anna Ridler, when she set out to build with her own two hands the most extensive dataset of tulips possible. While it sounds scientific, the project was ...

Bloomberg Close to 10,000 people gathered near a Cistercian abbey north of Paris in June, not for a religious festival, but to celebrate a Romanian automaker named Dacia. Eric Lanneau, a 57-year-old former plumber, attended the Renault SA brand’s annual picnic, which featured a performance by French pop star Jenifer. He bought a Dacia Duster in May, won over by ...

Bloomberg China’s two largest companies have lost a combined $140 billion in market value since the escalation of the trade war in May. As Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. report earnings this week back-to-back, they’ll try to show the punishment is overdone. The brutal market selloff began three months ago as Donald Trump’s administration slapped restrictions on ...

Bloomberg PT MNC Land, an Indonesian builder, began a sale of luxury condos and mansions in two projects being developed in Indonesia in partnership with the Trump Organisation, marking the US developer’s foray into Southeast Asia’s largest economy. Donald Trump Jr., who attended a pre-launch event in Jakarta for condos and villas that will be built in West Java and ...

Bloomberg Huawei Technologies Co. hired the law firm Sidley Austin LLP to lobby on trade as the US pressures allies to join it in blacklisting the Chinese telecom giant and the company finds itself increasingly mired in President Donald Trump’s trade war with Beijing. The lobbying, which began in July, will focus on export controls, trade sanctions “and other national ...