International News

Bloomberg China is stepping up its scrutiny of online and mobile games, as the leading government-owned newspaper blasted Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s top-grossing Honour of Kings for harming children in the pursuit of profit. The People’s Daily criticized Tencent’s most profitable smartphone title in an editorial, citing it as an example of how addictive games spread “negative energy” and have even ...

Bloomberg Chinese construction contractor New Headline Holdings Ltd. shelved a HK$340 million ($44 million) initial public offering in Hong Kong after a key executive, who is also the chairman’s wife, was put under police surveillance. Executive Director Xie Birui is under “designated residence surveillance” by the Public Security Bureau of Lianyungang, the city in eastern China’s Jiangsu province where the ...

Bloomberg A landmark medical trial involving Alphabet Inc.’s DeepMind artificial intelligence division violated British data protection laws, the UK’s top privacy watchdog ruled. The Information Commissioner’s Office said that the National Health Service hospital that conducted the trial with DeepMind improperly shared 1.6 million patient records with the tech company, failing to inform patients that their data would be used ...

Bloomberg Microsoft Corp. reorganized its sales and marketing operations in a bid to woo more customers in areas like artificial intelligence and the cloud by providing sales staff with greater technical and industry-specific expertise. The changes will mean thousands of job cuts in areas such as field sales, said a person familiar with the restructuring who asked not to be ...

Bloomberg UK manufacturing slowed more than forecast in June as uncertainty hit demand, raising doubts about the outlook for the economy, according to IHS Markit. Its Purchasing Managers Index fell to a three-month low of 54.3 from a downwardly revised 56.3 in May, the company said in London. While that’s below what economists had forecast, it’s still above the 50 ...

Bloomberg Uber Technologies Inc. suffered another setback in the European Union after an adviser to the bloc’s top court backed a French law that led to sanctions for top managers in the country. EU nations “may prohibit and punish the illegal exercise of a transport activity such as UberPop without having to notify the” European Commission of the draft law, ...

Bloomberg June US sales show automakers are still selling lots of expensive trucks and sport utility vehicles, a bright spot that’s rescuing profitability in a market forecast to decline from last year’s record sales. Deliveries of Toyota Motor Corp.’s RAV4 spiked 25 percent, while Honda Motor Co.’s HR-V saw a 35 percent gain, according to Autodata Corp. Toyota, Honda and ...

Bloomberg With a landmark goods and services tax now rolling out across India, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to turn his focus to job creation and other key economic reforms. Further big structural steps, such as revamping India’s land acquisition and labor laws, are unlikely to occur before the next national election, scheduled for 2019, as Modi’s Bharatiya Janata ...

Bloomberg Honda Motor Co.’s US auto sales rose more than analysts estimated in June, giving a positive start to mid-year reports following a five-month streak of industry declines. The Japanese automaker sold 139,793 vehicles in the US last month, a 0.8 percent increase from the same month last year. Analysts had been expecting a 0.5 percent increase. Sales of the ...

Bloomberg The yuan’s rebound may be undermined by a seasonal hunt for dollars as Chinese companies prepare to pay dividends to shareholders overseas. Demand for the greenback and other currencies will peak at $7.8 billion in July, a substantial sum considering that local lenders settled an average of $11.8 billion in foreign-exchange for clients in the first five months of ...