International News

Bloomberg A bungled transition from coal to clean energy has left resource-rich Australia with an unwanted crown: the highest power prices in the world. New Yorkers pay half as much as Sydneysiders to keep the lights on, despite Australia boasting among the world’s largest coal and natural gas reserves, as well as ideal conditions for clean power generation. A decade ...

Bloomberg Sydneysiders are cashing out of their million-dollar homes in favour of cheaper houses in the tropical north, says Macquarie Bank Ltd. The emerging exodus is part of Australia’s latest wave of interstate migration to Queensland, where house prices are half Sydney’s and job creation is on the rise. When similar factors were at play in the mid-1980s and mid-2000s, ...

Bloomberg Chocolate lovers in Asia are taking a big bite out of the global cocoa glut. From India to China, where demand is growing faster than in major markets like Europe or the US, consumers are eating more chocolate. At the same time, big growers in West Africa are harvesting smaller crops. Top processors Cargill Inc. and Barry Callebaut AG ...

Bloomberg Pay for Japanese workers showed the strongest gains this year in August, according to data from the labour ministry. It’s welcome news for economic policy makers in Tokyo who are struggling to spur sustained inflation in the world’s third-largest economy. Monthly cash earnings increased 0.9 percent from a year earlier, the largest amount in more than a year, and ...

Bloomberg India has the potential to boost consumption of everything from copper to iron ore as its economy expands over the next two decades and more people flock to its cities, according to projections from the Australian government that try to fathom whether the country will emulate China. “Like China since the start of this century, India is in the ...

Bloomberg Sprint Corp. and T-Mobile US Inc. are putting the finishing touches on a merger that’s likely to be announced when the wireless carriers report quarterly earnings at the end of October, according to people familiar with the matter. Both sides are conducting final due diligence to decide on the exchange ratio that will determine Sprint’s valuation, said the people, ...

Bloomberg Tropical Storm Nate was heading inland over the southern US states of Mississippi and Alabama after the National Hurricane Center downgraded it from a Category 1 hurricane, the latest in an unusually ferocious storm season that’s racked up billions in damages. With top winds of 70 miles per hour, Nate was moving north-northeast at 23 mph, the hurricane centre ...

Bloomberg A Brexit-driven decline in the availability of staff and surging demand for workers are pushing up starting salaries, according to Markit and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation. The availability of permanent candidates declined at the fastest pace in four months in September, according to a report published. Net migration to the UK has fallen to a three-year low after ...

Bloomberg Switch Inc. raised $531 million in its initial public offering, making it the third-biggest technology IPO this year in the US. The data center company sold 31.25 million shares for $17 each after marketing them for $14 to $16 apiece, Switch said in a statement. Only Snap Inc.’s $3.9 billion IPO and Altice USA Inc.’s $2.2 billion offering topped ...

Bloomberg Facebook Inc.’s chief security officer warned that the fake news problem is more complicated and dangerous to solve than the public thinks. Alex Stamos, who’s handling the company’s investigation into Russia’s use of the social media platform ahead of the 2016 US presidential election, cautioned about hoping for technical solutions that he says could have unintended consequences of ideological ...