Bloomberg Self-censorship is kicking in fast on WeChat as China’s new rules on message groups casts a chill among the 963 million users of Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s social network. Regulations released on September 7 made creators of online groups responsible for managing information within their forums and the behaviour of members. While they don’t take effect until October, authorities have …

Bloomberg A Beijing court has sentenced the owner of the firm behind China’s biggest online lending fraud to life in prison. Ding Ning, the chairman of Yucheng Group, was also fined $15 million for fundraising fraud, smuggling precious metals, and owning guns illegally, according to a judgment handed down by the Beijing First Intermediate People’s Court on Tuesday. Yucheng ultimately …

Bloomberg Its sovereign bonds don’t yield much more than US Treasuries, they cost less to insure than Spanish notes and its currency is more stable than China’s managed yuan. In a sign of how the flood of money into emerging markets is upending conventional wisdom, military-run Thailand with a credit rating just three levels above junk at Moody’s Investors Service …

­­­­­­­­­­­Bloomberg Theresa May’s plans for taking Britain out of the European Union remain on track after members of Parliament cleared the way for her Brexit law to advance — but threatened to re-write it later. In a vote after midnight, lawmakers agreed to allow the EU withdrawal bill to continue its progress through Parliament, by 326 votes to 290. The …

Bloomberg American business enthusiasm in Southeast Asia is bent but far from broken even as the region grapples with a new trade framework and less US government involvement, according to a survey by the American Chamber of Commerce in Singapore. Eighty percent of executives see their firms’ level of trade and investment in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or …

Bloomberg Volkswagen AG is putting its full force behind a shift into electric cars as the world’s largest automaker accelerates away from combustion engines and tries to draw a line under the emissions-cheating scandal that’s weighed on the company for two years. Speaking on the eve of the Frankfurt auto show, Chief Executive Officer Matthias Mueller announced sweeping plans to …

Bloomberg The venture capital firm led by LinkedIn Corp. co-founder Reid Hoffman has invested in Entrepreneur First, a London-based hub for start- ups, alongside Mosaic Ventures and Founders Fund. Greylock Partners led the $12.4 million funding, which also included Lakestar Capital, and Demis Hassabis and Mustafa Suleyman, the founders of DeepMind, according to a statem- ent from Entrepreneur First. Hoffman’s …

Bloomberg President Donald Trump plans an aggressive travel schedule, taking him to as many as 13 states over the next seven weeks, to sell the idea of a tax overhaul as the administration tries to avoid repeating the communications failures of its attempt to repeal Obamacare. With a make-or-break legislative battle looming on taxes, the White House is moving to …

Bloomberg ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­ The United Nations Security Council approved new sanctions aimed at punishing North Korea for its latest missile and nuclear tests after the US dropped demands such as an oil embargo to win support from Russia and China. The 15-member council passed the resolution unanimously following a week of talks that began when Kim Jong Un’s regime tested its …

Bloomberg President Donald Trump’s renewed push to resolve a three-month showdown between Qatar and a Saudi-led coalition was spurred by a conviction that the impasse has distracted US Gulf allies from his attempt to challenge Iran. Trump told Kuwaiti officials visiting the White House last week that Gulf Arab nations can’t effectively counter growing Iranian regional influence if they’re busy …