January, 2022

• 19 January

  Target CEO sees fewer store trips as shoppers confront inflation

  

    Bloomberg Target Corp’s top executive said US consumers will drive less and consolidate their shopping into fewer trips as they adjust to pricier gasoline and the highest inflation rate in almost four decades. Shoppers are also likely to eat more at home and seek cheaper generic-brand goods in an effort to ease the blow from rising prices, Chief Executive ...

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• 19 January

  Hong Kong arrests ex-Cathay crew at center of Covid outbreak

  

    Bloomberg Two former Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd flight attendants were arrested for violating pandemic rules, Hong Kong police said, after they were identified as the source of the city’s Omicron outbreak. The pair were charged under Hong Kong’s Prevention and Control of Disease Regulation and are due to appear in court February 9. Until then, they’ve been released on ...

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• 19 January

  Indonesia set to get another unicorn

    Bloomberg PT Social Bella Indonesia, a beauty-products startup backed by Temasek Holdings Pte, is in talks with investors to raise $150 million to $200 million for a growth push, according to people familiar with the matter. The Jakarta-based company is negotiating for a funding round that would propel its valuation past $1 billion, said the people who asked not ...

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• 19 January

  West must avoid Russian ‘trap’ in talks, says Estonian premier

  

    Bloomberg Estonia’s prime minister issued a warning that the European Union and the US must avoid falling into a Russian “trap” in negotiations with the Kremlin, whose aim is to weaken security in the EU. Russia’s negotiating tactics amount to “blackmail,” said Kaja Kallas, the Estonian premier, using some of the most hawkish language of an EU member state ...

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• 19 January

  Putin aide: Tensions with Ukraine, Nato disturbing

  

    Bloomberg This week’s inconclusive diplomacy by the US and Europe to head off a possible Russian military move against Ukraine was a “disturbing” outcome, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told CNN. While saying “we’re not speaking about military action” in the sense of setting an ultimatum, Peskov reiterated Russia’s call for Nato to guarantee it will never admit Ukraine — ...

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• 18 January

  N Korea says it tested tactical guided missiles

  

    Bloomberg North Korea said it tested two tactical guided missiles, as it ratchets up pressure on the Biden administration with its biggest string of missile launches since August 2019. “The test-fire was aimed to selectively evaluate tactical guided missiles being produced and deployed and to verify the accuracy of the weapon system,” the state’s official Korean Central News Agency ...

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• 18 January

  Support for Australia PM’s coalition falls ahead of polls

    Bloomberg Australia’s Liberal National Coalition government has seen its approvals fall to the lowest point since April last year in a new opinion poll, in the latest sign of eroding support for Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s handling of the Omicron surge during an election year. The primary vote for the center-right Liberal and National parties dropped to 34% in ...

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• 18 January

  Boris Johnson’s ex-aide accuses him of lying to parliament

  

    Bloomberg Boris Johnson’s former top aide Dominic Cummings accused the prime minister of lying to Parliament, saying he would “swear under oath” that the premier was aware of and allowed a drinks party at Downing Street at the height of lockdown in the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. By saying Johnson misled lawmakers, Cummings is again upping the ...

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• 18 January

  North Macedonia, Bulgaria seek way to resolve dispute

    Bloomberg Bulgaria’s new premier and his freshly sworn-in counterpart in North Macedonia made a joint push to resolve a regional dispute that would open a path for the former Yugoslav republic to begin accession talks with the European Union. Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov traveled to North Macedonia’s capital, Skopje, on Tuesday for talks with that country’s newly elected ...

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• 18 January

  Brexit gives $228bn boost to balance sheets of Irish banks

  

    Bloomberg The balance sheets of Ireland’s biggest banks have risen by two thirds since the Brexit vote, the latest data to demonstrate how Europe’s financial landscape is shifting following the UK’s departure from the European Union. Banks in Ireland regulated by the ECB’s Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM) saw their balance sheets increase from 300 billion euros ($342 billion) in ...

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