Bloomberg China signalled its intent to ban cryptocurrency mining, dealing a fresh blow to an industry buffeted by tumbling virtual currency prices, stiff competition and waning investor interest. The National Development Reform Commission, the country’s powerful economic planner, listed crypto-mining among a plethora of industries it intends to eliminate because they “seriously wasted resources” or polluted the environment. The agency ...

Bloomberg SoftBank Group Corp is hiring a trio of industry veterans to oversee a $5 billion technology fund headed by Chief Operating Officer Marcelo Claure that focuses on Latin America. André Maciel, a former managing director at JPMorgan Chase & Co in Brazil, will join the SoftBank Innovation Fund as managing partner, the company said in a release. Paulo Passoni, ...

Bloomberg For decades, there was just one way for China’s car market: up. Once the trend abruptly reversed 10 months ago, the free fall in the world’s largest market has shown no signs of easing. Retail sales of sedans, sport utility vehicles, minivans and multipurpose vehicles continued their plunge in March, dropping 12 percent to 1.78 million units, the China ...

Bloomberg Developers have been trying for six years to build a 124-mile natural gas pipeline from Pennsylvania to New York. Despite winning a federal approval in 2014, the project is still no closer to reality. Enter President Donald Trump, who on Wednesday is poised to issue an executive order to promote projects like the long-stalled Constitution Pipeline, according to people ...

Bloomberg Tesla Inc. followed a disappointing deliveries report by cutting another swath of sales staff across the country, as the electric-car maker continues to pare back personnel and shift its ordering process online. The company dismissed several dozen sales team members in Chicago; Brooklyn, New York; and Tampa, Florida; according to people familiar with matter. The latest round of staff ...

Bloomberg The US is urging allies to ban networking products from countries without independent court systems, an approach intended to block China’s Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp. from competing for new 5G telecommunications networks in Europe and Asia. Rob Strayer, the State Department’s deputy assistant for cyber policy, said in an interview that some European countries are signaling support ...

Bloomberg Pollution from transport in Europe is rising, data released on Tuesday show, putting the industry in the spotlight for tighter restrictions as policymakers struggle to rein in the pollutants damaging the atmosphere. Transport is the only industry not to contribute to a 22 percent drop in carbon-dioxide emissions since 1990, the European Union said on Tuesday. By contrast, pollution ...

Bloomberg Norwegian mobile operator Telenor ASA is acquiring a majority stake of Finland’s DNA Oyj and will offer to buy the rest for a total of 2.77 billion euros ($3.1 billion), challenging Telia Co. for dominance in the Nordic region. Telenor will pay 20.90 euros a share in cash for the 54 percent of DNA held by Finda Telecoms Oy ...

Bloomberg Two years after Britain had its first coal-free day since the Industrial Revolution, the nation’s network operator is readying itself for life without any fossil fuels. The grid may start dropping its need for natural gas power for short periods in about 2025, coinciding with coal’s complete phaseout. The system wants to be “zero-carbon capable” by then, said Julian ...

Bloomberg Eastern-based warlord Khalifa Haftar struck Tripoli’s only functioning international airport, drawing a rebuke from the United Nations and escalating an advance on the capital that threatens to spark civil war and convulse oil markets. Mitiga International Airport, Libya’s largest, temporarily suspended flights after the airstrike, which the UN’s secretary-general, Antonio Gutteres, condemned. In a statement, Gutteres urged an immediate ...