December, 2020

• 1 December

  How to vaccinate a nation of skeptics

  

  A Covid-19 vaccine is getting closer, and governments are scrambling to meet the financial and logistical challenge of immunising their populations in a short space of time. Hopes for a pickup in global economic growth next year depend on it. But the bigger challenge may end up being psychological: How to convince people to actually take the shot. Achieving herd ...

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• 1 December

  If you left the market, don’t wait to get back in

  There are only a few basic rules of investing: diversify, keep your costs low and probably most important, hang on when markets tumble occasionally. The last one is the trickiest. It’s not easy watching money vanish as the market plunges, particularly when many people, some of them highly respected, are carping about the end of the world, which invariably accompanies ...

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• 1 December

  The UK only hurts itself by slashing aid budget

  The most enthusiastic campaigners for Britain’s exit from the European Union insisted that Brexit’s end result would be a “Global Britain” — a country set free to forge alliances, agreements and trading pacts across the world. More than four years on, we still have no clear idea what a Global Britain would actually look like. No enthusiastic new trading partners ...

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• 1 December

  Meituan’s sales surge with China’s appetite for takeout

  

  Bloomberg Meituan reported a 29% rise in quarterly revenue after China’s economic recovery boosted restaurants and whetted consumers’ appetite for takeout. The world’s largest meal delivery service posted sales of 35.4 billion yuan ($5.4 billion) during the July-September period, beating the average estimate of 34 billion yuan. It also logged net income of 6.3 billion yuan, versus a projected 435 ...

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• 1 December

  Ma’s Ant sees slim chance of getting IPO done in 2021

  

  Bloomberg The chances that Jack Ma’s Ant Group Co will be able to revive its massive stock listing next year are looking increasingly slim as China overhauls rules governing the fintech industry, according to regulatory officials familiar with the matter. Ant is still in the early stages of reviewing changes needed to appease regulators, who demand that its business comply ...

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• 1 December

  World’s largest vaccine maker denies volunteer’s illness claims

  

  Bloomberg The Serum Institute of India Ltd denied allegations that a Covid-19 trial volunteer in India suffered serious side effects from a vaccine developed by AstraZeneca Plc and Oxford University, and said it would take legal action over the claims. Serum, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, is conducting trials of AstraZeneca’s shot locally as part of a manufacturing agreement. It’s ...

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• 1 December

  Malaysia extends curbs on Top Glove dormitories

  Bloomberg Malaysia will extend its movement control order on Top Glove Corp’s worker dormitories in Klang by two weeks to December 14 because of rising coronavirus cases there, according to Defense Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob at a media briefing. The movement control at at the company’s dormitories started on November 17 and was supposed to end on Monday, but there ...

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• 1 December

  Hong Kong tightens gatherings, sends civil servants home

  

  Bloomberg Hong Kong introduced the city’s toughest public-gathering restrictions in months and decided to send civil servants back to work-from-home arrangements as the government steps up efforts to contain the latest wave of coronavirus infections in the Asian financial hub. Public gatherings will be limited to two people, including at restaurant tables and at sports venues, Chief Executive Carrie Lam ...

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• 1 December

  Australia demands China apology for ‘Afghan tweet’

  

  Bloomberg Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he was seeking an apology from China after a diplomat in Beijing tweeted an image purporting to show an Australian soldier holding a knife to the throat of an Afghan child. The tweet, posted by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, was “repugnant,” Morrison told reporters in Canberra on Monday. The Australian premier ...

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• 1 December

  Biden, Harris all set to receive their first intelligence briefings

  

  Bloomberg President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris were expected to receive on Monday the same daily intelligence briefing that President Donald Trump gets, belatedly beginning the transition between leaders of some of the nation’s most sensitive secrets. The President’s Daily Briefing has been offered to every president-elect since Richard Nixon in 1968, often the morning after Election Day. ...

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