Bloomberg China said certain US companies were “political tools” after YouTube shut the campaign channel of John Lee, a former policeman in line to become Hong Kong’s next leader. The move showed the US was making “a vicious attempt to intervene in Hong Kong affairs and sabotage the chief executive election,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a ...

Bloomberg German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is getting left behind by the international effort to help Ukraine stand up to Russia and has no obvious way back into the fold. The 63-year-old Social Democrat has resisted directly supplying tanks and other heavy weapons to Ukraine and opposed an embargo of Russian oil and gas. His policies have him in a tight ...

  Bloomberg Boris Johnson abandoned a bid to delay a vote on whether Parliament should investigate his past comments on “partygate,” as opposition lawmakers accused him of lying over rule-breaking during the pandemic. The UK prime minister, who is in India pushing for a trade deal, is missing the debate which started on Thursday in the House of Commons. Opening ...

  Bloomberg Traders are betting the European Central Bank (ECB) will raise rates above zero this year for the first time since 2012, after a string of hawkish comments from policy makers spurred speculation the bank is priming the market for faster-than-expected monetary tightening. Money markets are pricing 75 basis points of interest-rate hikes by the ECB’s December decision, according ...

  Bloomberg A senior BNP Paribas SA banker who denies terrorizing subordinates on the trading floor is claiming $4 million compensation for the unfair dismissal. Omar Alami, the then head of BNP’s equity derivatives sales for Switzerland, Belgium and Luxembourg, was fired in 2019 after an internal report revealed that a rant at a trader he allegedly called “useless” and ...

Bloomberg The Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) bandwagon is coming to Australia as regulators finalise approvals for products offering direct exposure to digital assets. Cosmos Asset Management said it’s preparing to launch the Cosmos Purpose Bitcoin Access ETF in coming days. It will invest in the Purpose Bitcoin ETF, a Toronto-listed fund with assets of about C$1.6 billion ($1.3 billion). “We ...

  Bloomberg Bank of Korea (BOK) Governor Rhee Chang-yong highlighted rapidly rising private and public debt and an aging population as threats to South Korea’s economic outlook. Rhee took office on Thursday after being nominated by President Moon Jae-in almost a month ago. He has so far expressed support for higher interest rates to rein in inflationary pressures while pointing ...

  Bloomberg Chinese stocks extended this week’s rout as traders fretted over the economic fallout from the nation’s Covid-Zero strategy, with lower-than-expected policy stimulus adding to their disappointment. The CSI 300 Index slumped 1.8% on Thursday — capping a fifth day of losses — as President Xi Jinping defended China’s lockdown-dependent approach to fighting the Covid-19 pandemic in a speech ...

  Bloomberg US stock-index futures rise amid growing optimism for another strong earnings-reporting season, while a selloff in Treasuries resumed with a debate raging around whether inflation is peaking. June contracts on the Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500 indexes climbed at least 0.6% each after Tesla Inc posted record profits that blew past estimates. Treasury yields advanced, with the 10-year ...

  Dubai / WAM The Government of Dubai Media Office (GDMO), in partnership with Discovery, on Wednesday announced the launch of a two-part documentary Covid-19: Dubai, chronicling Dubai’s journey in combating the Covid-19 pandemic. The documentary, featuring two 45-minute episodes, highlights the emirate’s robust response to the pandemic and its effective health measures, which ultimately enabled the city to contain ...