October, 2020

• 14 October

  Thai protesters face off with police as rally stokes tension

  

  Bloomberg Tens of thousands of Thai protesters defied police barricades and pro-establishment groups in Bangkok on Wednesday for the most tense demonstration yet in a student-led push for greater democracy and less power for the monarchy. The protesters pushed through several blockades made of transit buses, fences and barbed wires during their 2-kilometre march to Government House, the office of ...

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• 14 October

  EU set to blacklist six people in Russia over Navalny poisoning

  

  Bloomberg The European Union is poised to blacklist six people and one entity in Russia over the attempted murder of opposition leader Alexey Navalny. EU member-state envoys in Brussels cleared the way on Wednesday for bloc-wide asset freezes on the Russian officials and the organisation as well as travel bans on the individuals, according to a person familiar with the ...

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• 14 October

  Malaysia party warns to leave ruling bloc

  

  Bloomberg The largest party in Malaysia’s ruling coalition threatened to pull out unless it gets better terms, adding pressure on PM Muhyiddin Yassin to shore up his unstable government or call a snap election. The United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), which holds about a third of the seats in Muhyiddin’s 12-party government, said in a statement that it would enter ...

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• 14 October

  Kyrgyzstan confirms Sadyr Japarov as PM

  

  Bloomberg Kyrgyzstan’s parliament confirmed Sadyr Japarov as prime minister for the second time in five days after President Sooronbay Jeenbekov gave in to pressure to appoint the politician freed from prison by protesters last week. Jeenbekov’s move came a day after he’d rejected parliament’s unanimous appointment of Japarov as premier. In an address to the nation published on the presidential ...

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• 14 October

  Biden tiptoes on ‘court packing’ to avoid lead in polls

  

  Bloomberg Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden spent weeks refusing to answer whether he would give in to liberals and agree to expand the number of seats on the Supreme Court, but when he finally responded, he left himself plenty of wiggle room. The answer — “I’m not a fan of court packing” — was open enough to give comfort to ...

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• 14 October

  Wave of demonstrations shutter schools in Nigeria

  Bloomberg A wave of demonstrations in Nigeria against police brutality showed no signs of letting up on Wednesday, with a 10th straight day of marches being staged in Abuja, the capital, and Lagos, the commercial hub. Several main streets and bridges in Lagos will be sealed off until police officers who shot dead a participant in an October 12 march ...

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• 14 October

  US states see $31b tax revenue drop due to Covid-19 recession

  

  Bloomberg US states saw their tax revenue drop by about $31 billion, or 6%, from March through August, compared to the same period a year earlier, as the pandemic triggered economic shutdowns across the country, according to a data from 44 states compiled by the Urban Institute. The scale of the drop appears smaller than expected, relative to the depth ...

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• 14 October

  German recovery loses steam as virus fears rise

  

  Bloomberg Germany’s economy is losing steam but will do slightly better than government forecasts as fears grow over rising coronavirus infections, according to the country’ s five leading research institutes. Gross domestic product will contract by 5.4% in 2020 and grow 4.7% next year, the experts predicted in their latest bi-annual outlook published on Wednesday. In their spring report, they ...

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• 14 October

  London’s mega-mansion buyers find bargains hard to come by

  

  Bloomberg Wealthy buyers of mansions and penthouse apartments in London are finding that the pandemic isn’t throwing bargains their way. Luxury homes that changed hands for more than $13 million in the second quarter sold at an average 95% of their asking prices, according to latest data from broker Knight Frank. That was the smallest discount since the end of ...

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• 14 October

  Over 162,000 Californians face power cuts

  Bloomberg PG&E Corp. is preparing to cut the lights to 162,000 Californians in 24 counties in its latest effort to keep strong winds from knocking down live wires and igniting wildfires. PG&E will make a final decision on the power cuts, with the first customers expected to go dark later that day, Mark Quinlan, an incident commander for the San ...

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