International News

Bloomberg The European Commission proposed ways to resolve the Trump administration’s concerns over the functioning of the World Trade Organization (WTO), in a bid to avert a looming crisis that could undermine the WTO’s ability to arbitrate trade disputes. “The dispute settlement function of the WTO is at grave danger, and swift action by members is needed to preserve it,” ...

Bloomberg Johnson & Johnson (J&J) should ready itself for a flood of new lawsuits after a jury ordered the company to pay $4.69 billion to 22 women who blamed their ovarian cancer on asbestos in its talc products, legal experts said. There are already more than 9,000 suits claiming talc-based baby powder causes ovarian and asbestos-specific cancers. That number is ...

Bloomberg The US Commerce Department has lifted the ban on American firms selling products to China’s ZTE Corp., removing the final hurdle for the company to start rebuilding its business. The ban was removed after ZTE paid the final tranche of a $1.4 billion penalty by placing $400 million in escrow at a US bank, the department said. That sum ...

Bloomberg Walt Disney Co.’s $71 billion deal with 21st Century Fox Inc. won the endorsement of influential proxy advisers Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. and Glass Lewis & Co., giving the entertainment giant another edge over rival suitor Comcast Corp. Both firms recommended that Fox shareholders vote in favor of the transaction during a July 27 investor meeting, with Glass Lewis ...

Bloomberg Microsoft Corp., which has come under fire for a US government contract that was said to involve facial recognition software, said it will more carefully consider contracts in this area and urged lawmakers to regulate the use of such artificial intelligence to prevent abuse. The company, one of the key makers of software capable of recognizing individual faces, said ...

Bloomberg Facebook Inc. has sent another signal that it’s serious about building its own semiconductors, joining Apple Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google, and Amazon.com Inc. in trying to make its own custom chips. The social-networking giant this month hired Shahriar Rabii to be a vice president and its head of silicon. Rabii previously worked at Google, where he helped lead the ...

Bloomberg France is on a charm offensive. While the UK’s financial-services industry reels from the Prime Minister’s latest Brexit proposal, politicians across the Channel are stepping up their campaign to show firms they have other options. On a two-day visit to the UK, French Deputy Finance Minister Delphine Geny-Stephann met banks, asset managers, private equity and fintech firms in an ...

Bloomberg Donald Trump is snuffing out any chance for China to tap into the growing market for powering the supercars cruising around Malibu and Manhattan. The US administration’s latest 195-page list of an additional $200 billion in Chinese goods targeted for import tariffs includes seemingly obscure products such as benzene, toluene, xylene, methyl tertiary-butyl ether and butanol. These are typically ...

Bloomberg Any sharing of technology by Tesla Inc. with a Chinese partner as part of its expansion in the world’s largest electric-car market is a matter that’s “subject to negotiation,” a Shanghai government official said. “For technology transfer, it is a matter subject to negotiation between the enterprises,” Huang Ou, deputy head of the Shanghai government’s economy and information technology ...

Bloomberg Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. was around back when the telegraph was still cool. Now the 139-year-old company is experimenting with video games as a way to raise its profile with millennials. The telecom giant announced it plans to start a competitive gaming league this year and will eventually sponsor its own team. Esports may already be big business in markets ...