China’s second Belt and Road Forum, convened by President Xi Jinping in Beijing last week, looked less like an imperial celebration than a summit meeting. Xi’s tone had also become less triumphant. Instead, he spoke about a commitment to zero corruption. He promised to make the environment a central concern for any infrastructure projects included in his globe-spanning Belt and ...

If this was Mike Coupe’s manifesto for J Sainsbury Plc’s life without Walmart Inc.’s Asda, it was pretty disappointing. The Sainsbury chief executive officer promised improvements to stores and price cuts. But details were vague and it is not immediately clear that they will be enough to revive the group’s underlying sales growth, which continues to decline. Among the plans ...

Silicon Valley has been a perennial champion of globalisation and free trade because of the belief that expanded access to markets would mean higher profits for American tech companies and more jobs for American workers. That love of globalisation might sour if a Chinese company becomes the next big winner. The growing popularity with American teens of the Chinese-created video ...

Bloomberg As FedEx Corp and United Parcel Service Inc beef up automation to keep pace with surging e-commerce and a potential threat from Amazon.com Inc, they’ve been stumped at a crucial stage: loading and unloading trucks. Robot makers are getting close to solving part of that puzzle. Siemens AG and Honeywell International Inc have built machines that pull packages from ...

Bloomberg Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp launched its 17th commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station for longtime customer NASA. The Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon space capsule rumbled aloft from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Dragon will deliver almost 5,500 pounds of science, supplies and hardware, according to NASA, and is slated to attach to ...

Bloomberg A drone developed with the backing of UK defense giant BAE Systems Plc has become the first plane since the dawn of aviation to be maneuvered without the aid of wing flaps. The Magma model is flown by blowing air from its engine at supersonic speeds through slots in the wings. The technology is lighter, more reliable and cheaper ...

Bloomberg Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV’s CEO Mike Manley said he sees “very significant opportunities” to partner with other automakers on autonomy and electrification projects in the next two to three years. Fiat is seeking to fix a business that is losing money in Asia and Europe while sales in North America, which generates the lion’s share of the company’s profits, ...

Bloomberg Two Federal Reserve officials laid out the case for a possible interest-rate cut just days after Chairman Jerome Powell said there was no reason to move in either direction. Two other US central bankers sounded more comfortable with the current policy stance. St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard and Chicago Fed President Charles Evans, both policy voters ...

Bloomberg Pakistan’s government removed the governor of the central bank and the head of the tax authority amid the nation’s bailout negotiations with the International Monetary Fund. Tariq Bajwa, chief of the State Bank of Pakistan, and Federal Board of Revenue Chairman Mohammad Jehanzeb Khan were fired because of their “performance,” Firdous Ashiq Awan, a special assistant to Prime Minister ...

Bloomberg The Bank of England (BOE) signalled that it’s in no rush to raise interest rates despite stronger economic growth, as policy makers stayed united on the need to keep borrowing costs on hold for now. In an upbeat set of forecasts, Governor Mark Carney and his colleagues upgraded their expectations for growth, saying unemployment will fall further and the ...