International News

Bloomberg Ningbo Jifeng Auto Parts Co. affiliates are in talks to buy out partner Grammer AG in a possible deal that could value the German maker of vehicle seats at about 750 million euros ($872 million). Grammer stock rose the most in nine years. The German manufacturer received an indicative proposal of 60 euros a share, Amberg-based Grammer said in ...

Bloomberg The southwest monsoon, which waters more than half of India’s farmland, arrived on the mainland ahead of its normal schedule. The monsoon reached the southern state of Kerala on Tuesday, according to a statement on the India Meteorological Department’s website. The department had accurately predicted an onset date of May 29 for the June-September rainy season, which typically starts ...

Bloomberg China is considering a plan to buy more American coal as part of an effort to narrow its trade deficit with the US, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Chinese officials are currently looking at boosting purchases from West Virginia in particular, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they’re not authorised to speak ...

Bloomberg Canada will buy Kinder Morgan Canada Ltd.’s Trans Mountain oil pipeline and its controversial expansion project for C$4.5 billion ($3.5 billion) in a bid to ensure it gets built amid fierce opposition. “It must be built and it will be built,” Finance Minister Bill Morneau said in Ottawa, as he and Natural Resources Minister Jim Carr unveiled the deal, ...

Bloomberg The European Commission proposed a total ban on some single-use plastic products and measures to drastically cut the consumption of others, in the latest push by the EU to reduce carbon emissions and marine litter threatening its seas. The ban will apply to plastic cotton buds, cutlery, plates, straws, and sticks for balloons, according to the proposal unveiled and ...

Bloomberg A proposed class action lawsuit alleging Facebook’s ad placement tools facilitate discrimination against older job-seekers has been expanded to identify additional companies, further widening the latest front in claims that candidates are being filtered out by gender, geography, race and age. “When Facebook’s own algorithm disproportionately directs ads to younger workers at the exclusion of older workers, Facebook and ...

Bloomberg Investors will be watching PG&E Corp. after California investigators said the utility-owner’s equipment sparked four of the smaller wildfires that broke out in Northern California last year. In the first findings on the more than 170 fires that charred the region, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire, said blazes in Butte and Nevada ...

Bloomberg Czech workers are slowly winning the war on low wages. Faced with the European Union’s lowest unemployment rate, companies are tackling a dearth of able bodies in the country of 10.6 million with bonuses and higher salaries. According to Josef Stredula, the head of the nation’s umbrella union, that will continue for several more years as labor costs lie ...

Bloomberg Malaysia’s Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said he will cancel a proposed multibillion-dollar high-speed railway link to Singapore, as the new leader who returned to power in a surprise election upset this month seeks to rein in expenditure. The scrapping of the plan will take time as it requires negotiation with Singapore, Mahathir told reporters in Kuala Lumpur on Monday. ...

Bloomberg Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said the government is willing to accept slower economic growth as a trade-off for stability. “All of us are ready to implement any policies needed to protect Indonesia’s economy,” Indrawati told reporters on Monday in Jakarta. “So, if we have to make adjustments in the short run that will result in slightly lower ...