Bloomberg The storm over a cyber attack on US government agencies only helps Russian President Vladimir Putin’s image at home as a strong leader unafraid to confront the former Cold War enemy, even as the Kremlin denies involvement amid fears of a backlash when Joe Biden enters the White House. “Inside the country it bolsters the authorities’ prestige,” said Andrey ...

Bloomberg Unprecedented virus control measures including curfews and shutdowns of non-essential businesses may be considered in Hong Kong, according to a government health adviser, as the city continues to see a high number of locally-transmitted cases and the holiday season looms. Limiting the number of people per household allowed to shop for groceries, shuttering all businesses deemed non-essential and shortening ...

Bloomberg The Philippine government said it would prosecute a police officer over deaths of a mother and son, after a video of point blank shooting went viral in social media, prompting renewed calls against police violence and extrajudicial killings. Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, who is recovering from a near-fatal poisoning that he blames on President Vladimir Putin, said he ...

Bloomberg Britain’s biggest port stopped all traffic heading to Europe, triggering delays to food supplies after the discovery of a new variant of the virus prompted a wave of countries to ban travel from the UK. The escalating crisis prompted Boris Johnson to convene a meeting of the government’s emergency committee in a bid to keep goods flowing. The concern ...

Bloomberg Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said German Chancellor Angela Merkel was “brilliant” for the way she resolved a dispute over the European Union’s $2.2 trillion budget and stimulus package, in an interview in Welt am Sonntag. Germany brokered the compromise that led Hungary and Poland to drop a threat to veto the plan, which would make payments to EU ...

Bloomberg Rent-A-Center Inc. is acquiring online lease-to-own provider Acima Holdings LLC in a cash-and-stock deal valued at more than $1.6 billion. The transaction will include $1.27 billion in cash and about 10.8 million shares of Rent-A-Center common stock currently valued at $377 million, the Plano, Texas-based company said. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2021. ...

Bloomberg Nokia Oyj said it expects margins for its networking business to be zero next year as it focuses on “regaining 5G leadership.” The company will develop its products for so-called Open RAN, a type of architecture that allows operators to use equipment from multiple vendors, and virtual RAN, which can be run as software on generic hardware, Nokia said ...

Bloomberg UK home prices could slump as much as 5% next year as unemployment rises and government incentives end, according to mortgage lender Halifax. House prices surged the most since 2016 this year as demand for more space, state support for wages and a temporary reduction in a property transaction tax offset the economic damage from the Covid-19 pandemic. That ...

Bloomberg Elon Musk inquired about converting “large transactions” of Tesla Inc.’s balance sheet into Bitcoin in a Twitter exchange with Michael Saylor, a prominent booster of digital currency. In a series of tweets, Saylor, chief executive officer of Microstrategy Inc., encouraged the billionaire to shift US dollars from the electric-car maker to Bitcoin and “do your shareholders a $100 billion ...

Bloomberg European stocks tumbled as a new strain of the coronavirus in the UK caused chaos ahead of the Christmas holiday, with regional neighbours suspending travel with the nation following another missed deadline in Brexit talks. Travel and energy shares dragged the Stoxx Europe 600 Index down around 2% at the open as Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and France closed ...