International News

Bloomberg Facebook Inc. plans to attach its name to Instagram and WhatsApp, branding them “Instagram from Facebook” and “WhatsApp from Facebook.” The move is controversial because both of the apps were born outside of Facebook, have very different corporate cultures and have thrived, in part, by having their own identities with consumers. Founders of the photo-sharing app and the messaging ...

Bloomberg Russia is acting on a pledge by President Vladimir Putin to shrink the role of dollar in international trade as tensions sour between Washington and Moscow. The shift is part of a strategy to “de-dollarize” the Russian economy and lower its vulnerability to the ongoing threat of US sanctions. But while the central bank was able to quickly dump ...

Bloomberg Economic activity in the euro area’s private sector weakened further as still-solid services couldn’t make up for rapidly deteriorating manufacturing. A composite Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) dropped to 51.5 in July, with goods output falling for a sixth months and at the greatest extent since 2013. “The service sector continued to sustain the expansion of the overall euro-zone economy ...

Bloomberg As China turns its back on American ethanol in a lingering trade spat, Brazil is considering opening its doors to US biofuel. Brazilian authorities are debating whether to yield to Washington’s request to lift ethanol-import duties as a way of facilitating talks for a bilateral trade deal with the US. A broad trade accord would benefit many Brazilian products ...

Bloomberg High ranking officials in the Trump administration are still pushing to bail out money-losing coal plants, more than a year after an earlier proposal to revive the industry failed. Any new effort to save coal plants may find a friend in Kentucky Republican Neil Chatterjee, now chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the very agency that rejected the ...

Bloomberg East Capital Group, a Swedish asset manager that specialises in emerging markets, is looking for more takeover targets after buying a $3.4 billion manager in its local market. The Monyx Asset Management AB purchase, which was closed this month, reflects a consolidation trend in the industry as smaller managers struggle, according to East Capital Chairman Peter Elam Hakansson, who ...

Bloomberg The government needs to spend about 25 billion pesos ($486 million) to provide electricity to the 13 million Filipinos who live without it, the Philippine Star on Sunday cited a lawmaker as saying. Mikee Romero, the head of the Party-list Coalition in the House of Representatives, said that the government should boost the country’s electrification program to reach the ...

Bloomberg Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. reported the biggest decline in sales in almost seven years as a slowdown in consumer spending, the largest driver of growth in the $2.7 trillion economy, became more pervasive. Total sales dropped about 34% from a year earlier to 109,264 units in July, according to a statement. Deliveries of its hatchback models fell 23%, even ...

Bloomberg Indonesia’s state power producer PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara reported a failure in one of its transmission grids, causing massive blackouts in areas on main island of Java. The breakdown has caused disruptions in Greater Jakarta, as well as parts of West and Central Java, the company said in a statement on Sunday. Subway and commuter line operators in Jakarta, ...

Bloomberg South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon on Sunday urged Japan to correct its “reckless and risky” decision to curb exports to the country, saying that the international community is concerned about security in Northeast Asia after the latest developments. Japan is carrying out an “economic attack” against South Korea after deliberately dismissing diplomatic discussions with the country as well ...