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Huawei fight sees EU hit by crossfire in tech war’s key battle

Bloomberg The global tech war over Huawei Technologies Co. saw the European Union come under pressure from both the US and China as they fought over whether the company’s equipment should be banned from future 5G networks. “Chinese law requires them to provide Beijing’s vast security apparatus with access to any data that touches their networks or equipment,” US Vice ...

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Yes, reality continues to leak from American life

In 1994, the Clinton administration decreed a bright shining future for education. Its Goals 2000 legislation proclaimed that by that year America’s high school graduation rate would be 90 percent and American students would lead the world in math and science achievements. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., was unimpressed: “That will not happen.” It didn’t, to the surprise of no ...

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Brexit’s ‘project fear’ just got real

When Britain voted to leave the EU in June 2016, most economists expected the country’s economy to decelerate sharply. The slowdown has finally arrived. The sudden drop in economic activity at the end of 2018 raises the stakes for the British political class, which has been dithering over the future relationship with the EU as the UK enjoyed a relatively ...

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Has UK found a way to curb Facebook, Google?

Slowing the inexorable rise of Facebook Inc. and Google, the gatekeepers for news consumption online, can be a fool’s errand. For all the noise of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook’s revenue still grew by 37 percent last year, while Google parent Alphabet Inc.’s sales climbed 23 percent. Meanwhile, publishers’ revenue has faced a relentless squeeze as Silicon Valley sucks up ...

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China’s default wave spares the biggest fish

Brace yourself: A growing number of hard-up Chinese borrowers aren’t making good on their debts. The pattern is all too familiar. After a record year of defaults in 2018, two big issuers failed to meet their obligations in recent weeks. Coal miner Wintime Energy Co., one of China’s biggest defaulters last year, missed interest payments again this month. Beijing Orient ...

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Corbyn looks like May’s unlikely Brexit saviour

Here we go again: Britain’s parliament is debating Brexit and Prime Minister Theresa May is playing for more time as various factions try to influence the endgame. Her goal is to deliver her divorce deal without dividing her party. So what’s new? For one thing, the time left on the clock. Just 45 days remain until Britain exits on March ...

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Gucci can’t escape from fashion police

Gucci’s gaudy creations are moving from cutting-edge to classic. But there are signs that some investors might be starting to look elsewhere for the next big thing. The fashion house’s French parent company, Kering SA, said that Gucci’s organic sales rose 28.1% year-on-year in the last three months of 2018. That’s an impressive performance given that it was being compared ...

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Japan’s women need more than more office jobs

Japan’s leaders seem happy to rest the country’s fate on the shoulders of its women. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe wants to get more of them out of the home to compensate for a shrinking workforce. His deputy Taro Aso, on the other hand, had to apologize recently after blaming them for not having enough kids. I can hear women secretly ...

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Bond traders set to get big update on Fed’s portfolio

Bloomberg In the wake of last month’s Federal Reserve gathering, traders have been left with as many questions as answers when it comes to the fate of the central bank’s balance sheet. Next week may finally provide some clues on where the runoff goes from here. The holiday-shortened week will be light on economic data but heavy on Fed signals. ...

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