Bloomberg Australian raids on Chinese journalists living in that country were “imperious†and “utterly appalling,†and are damaging relations between the two nations, China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency said. Australian authorities confiscated computers and phones in raids on four Chinese journalists’ homes, including that of a Xinhua employee, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said. The operation was conducted by ...
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Duterte tells Chinese official to follow law in sea dispute
Bloomberg Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte told Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe that South China Sea disputes must be resolved using international law, including a treaty used as the basis for a 2016 ruling that refuted China’s claims in the area. Duterte met with the Chinese official and emphasized that disputes “must be resolved peacefully in full accord with the United ...
Read More »America’s $20tn debt pile gets cheaper as it grows
Bloomberg The US government is paying less as it borrows more, one reason investors appear more comfortable than Congress about funding another leg of stimulus. Interest payments in the federal budget declined about 10% in the first 11 months of this fiscal year, when America was running up its biggest deficit since World War II. Over the next few years, ...
Read More »Sunak urged to extend UK’s furlough scheme
Bloomberg Rishi Sunak should extend wage support for UK workers in the hardest-hit sectors, lawmakers said amid warnings from economists, labour unions and opposition parties about a looming wave of job cuts. The chancellor of the exchequer must also devise a plan to help companies that plunged into debt as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, or risk prolonging the ...
Read More »Spain is seeking to tax Facebook, Google services as phone carriers
Bloomberg Spain will seek to tax all companies that operate telecommunications services, such as calls and instant messaging, according to Telecommunications Secretary Roberto Sanchez. Under a new law proposed by the government, “all operators who provide telecommunication services without having to provide phone numbers, such as WhatsApp†and Telegram would have to register as telecommunications operators and would be taxed ...
Read More »Canada’s household debt ratio falls in H1
Bloomberg Canadian household indebtedness improved in the first half of 2020 as government support kept incomes afloat amid the pandemic. Household credit market debt dropped to 158.2% of disposable income in the second quarter, from 175.4% previously, Statistics Canada said in Ottawa. That’s due to an 11% increase in household disposable income, while stock of credit market debt remained relatively ...
Read More »World’s insurers await UK Covid ruling with billions at stake
Bloomberg Insurers battered by coronavirus are about to find out how much worse the damage could get. A London court is set to rule on Tuesday in a case involving about 370,000 policyholders, companies including Zurich Insurance Group AG and Hiscox Ltd. and potentially billions of pounds of claims. The UK markets watchdog brought the case after small businesses struggled ...
Read More »Once a handset superpower, Nokia still commands a potent weapon
Bloomberg A good decade after Nokia Oyj’s mobile-phone business suffered a fatal blow at the hands of the iPhone, the Finnish company is still feeding off a lucrative asset that it salvaged from the wreckage. Nokia retained a catalogue of thousands of wireless communications patents that is steadily growing thanks to a thriving research operation. Now an attempt to change ...
Read More »Tesla to ship China-built cars to Asia and Europe
Bloomberg Tesla Inc. plans to ship cars made at its Shanghai factory to other countries in Asia and Europe, according to people familiar with the matter, shifting its strategy for the plant to largely focus on supplying the local market. China-built Model 3s for delivery outside the country likely will start mass production in the fourth quarter, the people said, ...
Read More »TikTok pushing forward with deal to meet looming deadline
Bloomberg TikTok is pressing forward with plans for a sale of its US operations ahead of a mid-September deadline, according to a person familiar with the matter, even as signs emerge that the video-sharing app is facing pressure to shut down rather than make a deal. The app, owned by China’s ByteDance Ltd., is still considering bids from two possible ...
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