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Russia’s dumb denials on downing of MH-17

Three Russians and one Ukrainian have been charged in the Netherlands for their alleged roles in downing Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine five years ago. Only one of them may have been in active service in the Russian military at the time, but the international investigation has plenty of evidence of official Russian involvement. I’ve said before and ...

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Where financial carnage comes as part of contract

Serco Group Plc CEO Rupert Soames frequently boasts that the UK contracting firm was an early adopter of financial carnage – to stress that the business is now the better for it. Pulling through a crisis five years ago has given Soames the credibility to embark on M&A, and he has had his eye on defense contractor Babcock International Group ...

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Monty Python and the unholy fail of Jet Airways

Two months after India’s oldest private-sector airline grounded its last plane, and with even a water-bottling firm threatening to drag the carrier into bankruptcy, a consortium of lenders led by State Bank of India can finally stop pretending that a white knight is coming. With the insolvency tribunal taking Jet Airways India Ltd. under its wing, there may be one ...

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Eleven stocks, $14b erased amid debt crisis in India

Bloomberg A year after a rare default in India’s credit market led to its mini-Lehman moment, several shadow banks in the country, its oldest surviving private airline and the parent company of its biggest television broadcaster are still reeling. The fear which erased more than 1 trillion rupees ($14.4 billion) in market capitalisation of the 11 worst-hit firms is refusing ...

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Gulf stocks decline over US-Iran row

Bloomberg Stock markets in the Gulf declined as tension between the US and Iran kept investors on high-alert. President Donald Trump said the US will impose major new sanctions on Iran on Monday, days after he abruptly called off a plan for airstrikes against the Islamic Republic, but gave no additional detail. The United Arab Emirates civil aviation authority ordered ...

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Crypto platform Luno starts African hiring spree

Bloomberg Naspers Ltd-backed cryptocurrency platform Luno is planning to increase its workforce by almost 60 percent to expand its South African headquarters as Bitcoin once again breaches $10,000. The Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange will hire 150 new employees by the end of the year to boost its software-development team, taking its headcount to more than 400 across seven offices in ...

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Fed’s rate cut chatter grows as Kashkari backs half-point drop

Bloomberg The drumbeat for a Federal Reserve interest rate cut is getting louder, with one policy maker calling for a 50 basis point reduction. Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said that he’d advocated for such a move at the central bank’s June 18-19 meeting, where officials ended leaving rates unchanged. Other policy makers speaking didn’t go as far as Kashkari, ...

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Facebook’s crypto team holds talks with major banks

Bloomberg The biggest US banks have a chance to get in on the new cryptocurrency spearheaded by Facebook Inc. The association behind the Libra coin is in talks with the banks to participate in its governing body, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing private negotiations. The person didn’t specify which banks ...

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Norway increases rates for third time in a year

Bloomberg Norway’s central bank is on a lonely march towards higher interest rates, torn between an oil industry running at full speed on its home turf and slowing growth abroad. Governor Oystein Olsen’s commitment to tightening has surprised markets with a more hawkish outlook three meetings in a row. He raised the key rate for a third time in less ...

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