Bloomberg France isn’t the only country upset about a new security pact between the US, UK and Australia: Some Southeast Asian nations are also worried the partnership could provoke China and spur a regional arms race. The so-called Aukus partnership, which will help Australia acquire nuclear-powered submarines, prompted China last week to warn of an arms race in a region ...

Bloomberg North Korea warned of a “nuclear arms race” after the US and UK agreed to give Australia technology to build nuclear-powered submarines, and vowed to take counteraction for any adverse impact on its own security. “These are extremely undesirable and dangerous acts which will upset the strategic balance in the Asia-Pacific region and trigger off a chain of nuclear ...

Bloomberg President Vladimir Putin’s ruling party claimed a decisive victory in legislative polls, although discontent eroded support in some areas and opponents alleged widespread fraud. United Russia was on track to maintain its majority of more than two-thirds of the seats in the State Duma with 99% of ballots counted, according to the Central Election Commission. While the ruling party ...

Bloomberg Developed countries’ pledges to provide $100 billion of annual financing, made over a decade ago and seen as key to unlocking upcoming climate talks, are unlikely to be met even five years after the target, according to a new report. That not only threatens the success at the United Nations climate talks in Glasgow starting in weeks, but also ...

Bloomberg Prime Minister Boris Johnson said post-Brexit trade disruption in Northern Ireland must be sorted quickly and urged the European Union to show “common sense” in negotiations with his government. He also said that Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte had offered to mediate between the EU and the UK in the dispute during his visit to London last week, in ...

Bloomberg UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said unprecedented surge in natural gas prices is a “temporary” problem caused by the global economy bouncing back after the pandemic, arguing a “phenomenal demand for gas” in Asia has affected UK supplies. “I want to give a general reassurance that the problems we’re seeing are temporary,” Johnson told reporters travelling with him to ...

Bloomberg Merck KGaA plans to invest more than 3 billion euros ($3.5 billion) through 2025 in its electronics business to capitalise on rising demand for semiconductor and display panel materials. The German company will expand production capacity, bolster research and development spending and is also considering bolt-on acquisitions, it said on Monday in a statement. Merck makes materials and technologies ...

Bloomberg Employment declined in 19 states and the District of Columbia in August, while the majority of other states posted modest increases, elucidating the abrupt stepdown in US hiring seen last month. North Carolina, Iowa and Hawaii posted largest declines in employment over the month, according to Labour Department figures on state employment. Meantime, California, Texas and New York — ...

Bloomberg The amount of corporate bonds investors can trade in Europe is shrinking for the first time since 2005. Despite a rush in deals by high-grade non-financial firms, there’s effectively a 21 billion-euro ($25 billion) drop in the investable pool of euro bonds because of calls, buybacks, upcoming redemptions and European Central Bank (ECB) debt purchases, according to Bloomberg calculations. ...

Bloomberg OVH Groupe SAS kicked off an initial public offering in Paris, looking to raise as much as $469 million that will give the cloud-storage provider funding to finance its competition with Amazon.com Inc. and accelerate its international expansion. Existing holders will also sell shares in the IPO, the company said in a statement on Monday. OVHcloud was valued at ...