When India’s minister for commerce and industry recently urged his followers to “connect with me” on Koo, an “Indian micro-blogging platform,” he did so on Twitter. That should be a lesson to the US social media giant: In its battles with India’s government and others around the world, the platform needn’t surrender its principles too easily. The implied threat from ...

Along with the news that founder and long-time Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos “will transition to the role of Executive Chair in the third quarter of 2021,” Amazon.com Inc’s fourth-quarter earnings release included the remarkable if not exactly surprising disclosure that the company had spent $42.7 billion on “technology and content” in 2020, up 19% from the year before and ...

Like the proverbial buses, we waited a while for an activist to show up at Exxon Mobil Corp and then three came along. The third is Jeff Ubben, founder and former head of ValueAct Capital Management, who is now reportedly raising an $8 billion ESG fund for his new firm, Inclusive Capital Partners. He arrives in the wake of Engine ...

Bloomberg Royal Dutch Shell Plc launched arbitration proceedings against the Nigerian government over a long-running community dispute. The oil major’s Netherlands-registered holding company and a Nigerian unit filed a case at the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, according to the Washington-based organisation’s website. Shell brought its claim against Africa’s biggest crude producer under the bilateral investment ...

Bloomberg Vestas Wind Systems A/S will start selling the world’s biggest offshore wind turbine, standing taller than the highest point of the Golden Gate Bridge. The giant machine, that’ll come into use by 2024, will compete with the skyscraper-sized turbines already on sale by its competitors. The industry is racing to produce increasingly larger machines that generate wind power more ...

Bloomberg Former President Donald Trump was acquitted by the Senate on the charge of inciting the January 6 riot at the Capitol after an unprecedented second impeachment trial that exposed a Republican Party deeply divided over Trump’s conduct and uneasy with his continued role in public life. The vote was 57-43, falling short of the two-thirds majority required for a ...

Bloomberg As President Joe Biden seeks to address racial inequities across the US, he’s turned to former congressman Cedric Richmond to help keep a promise to end discriminatory practices ranging from housing to voting rights — a task complicated by the risk of alienating Republicans whose support is needed on key legislative priorities. Richmond, a Louisiana lawmaker who led the ...

Bloomberg Myanmar’s military amended an existing law on privacy and security rights, giving it more power to detain people for longer and tap on their communications. The junta, led by Min Aung Hlaing, signed a law that would allow it to make arrests or search private premises without warrants, according to the office of the commander-in-chief of defense services. It ...

Bloomberg Former European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi stressed the need for unity after being sworn in as Italy’s prime minister, ending weeks of political gridlock and avoiding an election during the pandemic. Draghi was sworn in by President Sergio Mattarella at Rome’s Quirinale palace, with limited attendance because of social distancing rules. After the ceremony Draghi held his ...

Bloomberg Hong Kong plans to expand scrutiny on capital flows and transactions by Chinese officials, according to a recent consultation paper on anti-money laundering. The Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau is proposing to implement enhanced due diligence on “politically exposed persons” from anywhere outside Hong Kong instead of outside the People’s Republic of China, according to the paper. The ...