International News

  Bloomberg One of Britain’s biggest suppliers of carbon dioxide halted output at a plant in England, further reducing local supplies of the gas vital for production of food including fizzy drinks. CF Industries Holdings Inc stopped ammonia production at its Billingham factory in northeast England earlier this week, the company said. It warned in August of the temporary outage, ...

  Bloomberg China’s heated rivalry with the US over tech supremacy is adding fresh pain points to the world’s second-largest stock market, as the Biden administration steps up efforts to reduce economic reliance on the Asian nation. From biotech to electric vehicles, shares of China’s key manufacturers have seen heavy selling recently as US initiatives to secure domestic supply chains ...

  Bloomberg Tesla Inc wants to double vehicle sales in Germany to 80,000 this year, German weekly Automobilwoche reported, citing a local manager. The electric car manufacturer sold 39,714 units in Europe’s biggest economy in 2021 and will continue to target an annual doubling of shipments, the publication said. The company has sold 24,734 vehicles in Germany in the year ...

  Bloomberg The key issue that almost triggered the first US railroad strike in 30 years and threatened to hobble the economy wasn’t wages, but sick leave, highlighting broadening worker demands in a tight labour market. Union leaders and railway companies agreed on a deal that includes language allowing workers to take time off for doctor appointments, hospitalisation or surgeries, ...

  Bloomberg US railroads and unions reached a tentative deal on Thursday, a breakthrough that looks to avert a labour disruption that risked adding supply-chain strains to the world’s largest economy. After 20 straight hours in the latest round of talks — which included President Joe Biden and other administration officials — the companies and union negotiators reached a preliminary ...

  Bloomberg Microsoft Corp’s planned $69 billion purchase of computer games developer Activision Blizzard Inc faces an in-depth probe in the UK after regulators said the deal could hamper competition. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it decided to kickstart a longer review after Microsoft turned down the chance to offer remedies to address its concerns. “Microsoft informed the ...

Bloomberg McDonald’s Corp is moving its innovation centre and about 100 jobs into central Chicago — a big bet on the city that comes as other high-profile companies flee the area’s high taxes and crime. The world’s biggest restaurant company by sales said it’s relocating the workers from Romeoville, a Chicago suburb, to the company’s headquarters in the city. The ...

Bloomberg To defend itself against the federal government, Meta Platforms Inc says it needs its rivals to divulge some of their most closely held secrets. Facebook’s parent company has so far subpoenaed 132 companies for documents, including Snap Inc., ByteDance Ltd’s TikTok and the audio startup Clubhouse, and has warned that it may seek information from 100 more. The subpoenas ...

  Bloomberg Oracle Corp’s quarterly sales jumped 18%, buoyed by the software maker’s transition to cloud computing and the acquisition of health records provider Cerner. Sales were $11.4 billion in the fiscal first quarter, meeting analysts’ average estimate, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Profit, excluding some items, was $1.03 a share. Oracle said currency fluctuations reduced the earnings by ...

Bloomberg The leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee sent a detailed list of questions to Twitter Inc, before the committee will hear testimony from whistle-blower Peiter Zatko, who has accused the company of failing to adequately protect data on its users. In a letter addressed to Twitter Chief Executive Officer Parag Agrawal, the senators wrote that Zatko’s allegations, if true, ...