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Bloomberg The Trump administration outlined plans for selling drilling rights on every acre of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s coastal plain, despite acknowledging potential oil spills and impacts to polar bear and caribou that roam through the region. The Interior Department’s draft environmental impact statement, published online, is a major milestone in the administration’s push to sell drilling rights in ...

Bloomberg Crude drilling increased in American fields even as explorers face the biggest quarterly drop in oil prices since 2014. Working US oil rigs rose by 10 this week to 883, according to data released by oilfield services provider Baker Hughes. More than 100 additional rigs have been deployed across American fields this year. It’s likely one of the last ...

Bloomberg An hour’s drive north of Paris along the River Seine lies Flins, home to Renault SA’s biggest and oldest factory, where 2,700 workers and 900 robots toil in tandem to churn out a steady stream of compact cars. More than half of the vehicles rolling off the line, however, don’t carry the Renault diamond badge. Instead, the factory’s most ...

Bloomberg Huawei Technologies Ltd. has signed contracts with all four UK mobile networks to test its fifth-generation wireless equipment, deepening the Chinese vendor’s involvement in UK’s telecom industry as officials weigh whether to ban the company over security concerns. Huawei’s 5G gear was already being tested by BT Group Plc’s EE, CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd.’s Three UK and Vodafone Group ...

Bloomberg Joshua Hoffman has done plenty of experimentation at Zymergen Inc., the robot-powered microbe factory he founded and leads. By building an army of AI-powered robots to genetically engineer more efficient microbes — the biological building blocks used to create all material — Zymergen revamped existing agricultural and industrial products sold by Fortune 500 companies and helped them increase profits. ...

Bloomberg China’s financial regulators appeared to confirm that tax cuts for 2019 are currently being finalised at a meeting of policy officials in Beijing, in a statement aimed at quelling online speculation that the opposite was the case. Online rumours saying Central Economic Work Conference decided not to cut taxes or fees are “contrary to the facts”, according to a ...

Bloomberg The country that brought robots to car factories looks set to stay resolutely old school in agriculture as it seeks to attract more foreign workers to replenish an aging workforce. This month’s vote by Japan’s parliament to open the door more widely to overseas labourers confirms that despite government support and millions of dollars of investment in high-tech agriculture ...

Bloomberg The UK published its long-awaited immigration plan for life outside the European Union, to end freedom of movement from the bloc and prioritise skilled workers regardless of nationality. Home Secretary Sajid Javid said the aim was to bring net migration down to “sustainable levels.” Reducing immigration has been a major issue for British voters and was a key motivation ...

Bloomberg The BBC is in talks with Irish and Dutch authorities to obtain licenses allowing it to continue broadcasting across the European Union in the event of a no-deal Brexit, according to two people familiar with the matter. The UK licenses that the taxpayer-funded British Broadcasting Corp uses to beam hit shows including nature documentary “Blue Planet 2,’’ “Top Gear’’ ...

Bloomberg Global trade developments may dictate how lively Canadian corporate bond sales are next year. Trade tensions, which increased volatility and caused sales in the Canadian corporate securities market to collapse in the fourth quarter, are poised to continue. Issuers pulled back from the market in the fourth quarter and in 2019 volatility may put investors in the driver’s seat ...