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Bloomberg French labor unions are leading a second day of mass strikes and protests on Tuesday against raising the retirement age in a test of the momentum driving defiance to Emmanuel Macron’s signature economic reform. The country’s rail operator, SNCF, expects only one-third of high-speed TGVs to run and urged people to work from home. Subway and commuter trains serving ...

Bloomberg The US and South Korea are planning to step up the scale of their joint military exercises, a move that has in the past prompted threats and weapons tests by North Korea. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and South Korean counterpart Lee Jong-sup agreed in talks Tuesday in Seoul to “further expand and bolster the level and scale of ...

Abu Dhabi / Agencies Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (Adib) announced a net profit of AED3.62 billion in 2022, a 55% increase from the previous year. The bank also reported a 60% growth in Q4 2022 with a net profit of AED1.2 billion, compared to AED728 million in Q4 2021. Adib’s revenue increased by 23% to AED6,835 million in 2022, driven ...

  Dubai / WAM The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MoHRE) has announced the extension of the deadline for private sector employers to rectify unlimited-term employment contracts of their employees to fixed-term contracts. The new deadline now is December 31, instead of February 2. “The decision stems from our belief in enhancing flexibility, competitiveness and ease of business for ...

  Abu Dhabi / WAM Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) and Microsoft UAE on Monday announced their collaboration on Industry 4.0 and broader digital transformation, aiming to set global best practice for the aluminium industry while improving the sustainability of EGA’s computing operations. Both Microsoft and EGA are members of the UAE Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology’s Industry 4.0 Champions ...

  Dubai / WAM National Bonds has signed an agreement with the Arab Women Authority, the leading NGO aimed at empowering Arab women across the Mena region, to equip women with valuable financial management skills and savings tools. The partnership will see the two organisations join forces to empower women and support their role in societal and economic development and ...

  Bloomberg Oil fell again on Monday along with broader commodities markets, as China’s return from Lunar New Year holidays failed to deliver hoped-for gains. West Texas Intermediate slid near to $78 a barrel after topping $81 last week. Risk-off sentiment appeared to permeate markets as European equities and US equity futures dropped at the start of a week marked ...

Bloomberg Parts of Johannesburg, South Africa’s economic hub, are being subjected to renewed water-supply cuts as ongoing electricity shortages disrupt pumping operations. A power failure at Rand Water’s Eikenhof pump station, which supplies reservoirs in several high-lying areas of Johannesburg, resulted in critically low levels of supply, the municipality said on Twitter on Monday. While repairs have been completed, it ...

Bloomberg Chancellor Olaf Scholz is using a trip to Latin America to help Germany secure additional supplies of the lithium that car giants like Mercedes-Benz Group AG and Volkswagen AG need for their electric-vehicle batteries. Chile is the world’s second-largest supplier of lithium after Australia and much of its output is currently gobbled up by China. Scholz, who met with ...

  Bloomberg Spanish inflation unexpectedly quickened in January after a five-month run of slowing price growth, prompting traders to boost their bets on how high the European Central Bank will raise interest rates. Consumer prices advanced by 5.8% from a year ago, up from the previous month’s 5.5% increase, the statistics institute in Madrid said Monday. That’s well above the ...