July, 2020

• 25 July

  Mattel’s Barbie dolls prove to be lockdown favourite in US

  

  Bloomberg First released in 1959, the iconic Barbie doll has seen Mattel Inc through the civil rights movement, the Cold War and the rise of the internet. And now it’s helping the company weather a global pandemic. While Mattel’s overall sales fell 15% in the second quarter from a year earlier — the result of closed retail stores, supply-chain troubles ...

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• 25 July

  SAA creditors give more time to raise funds

  

  Bloomberg Creditors of South African Airways (SAA) gave the government more time to find the money to fund a rescue of the bankrupt state-owned airline. At a meeting convened by the airline’s administrators, creditors voted to extend the deadline to July 27 from an initial deadline of July 22. If the money is not guaranteed by then, another creditors meeting ...

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• 25 July

  Neiman Marcus to close store at New York’s Hudson Yards

  

  Bloomberg Neiman Marcus Group Inc, the luxury retailer that’s making its way through bankruptcy proceedings, said it will permanently close its store in New York City’s Hudson Yards along with three other US locations. Its planned exit from Hudson Yards comes just over a year after the mall at the mega-project opened to much fanfare in March 2019. The three-story ...

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• 25 July

  China, Russia seek to disrupt elections, warns US official

  

  Bloomberg China, Russia and Iran are looking to disrupt the US electoral process before November’s vote, including attempts at compromising the private communications of political campaigns and candidates, a top US intelligence official warned. William Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, said that federal officials continue to monitor hackers trying to gain access to state and federal ...

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• 25 July

  Australia rejects China sea claims after the US

  

  Bloomberg Australia joined the US in rejecting China’s expansive maritime claims in the South China Sea, calling them “inconsistent” with the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. “There is no legal basis for China to draw straight baselines connecting the outermost points of maritime features or ‘island groups’ in the South China Sea,” Australia’s mission to ...

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• 25 July

  US detains Chinese researcher who sheltered in consulate

  

  Bloomberg US officials said they now have custody of a Chinese researcher who had taken shelter at the country’s consulate in San Francisco after she was charged with trying to hide her military background. Officials briefing reporters declined to discuss the circumstances of the arrest of Juan Tang, a researcher at the University of California at Davis who was accused ...

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• 25 July

  Hong Kong’s pro-democracy candidates get questionnaires to prove poll eligibility

  

  Bloomberg At least seven potential pro-democracy candidates for Hong Kong’s Legislative Council elections in September have received questionnaires from the government asking them to show they haven’t violated the city’s mini constitution or recently imposed security law. Alvin Yeung and Cheng Tat-hung of the Civic Party, Kenneth Leung who plans to represent the accountancy sector, and four other opposition figures ...

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• 25 July

  Somalia lawmakers vote to remove PM

  

  Bloomberg Somalia lawmakers removed Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire and his cabinet in a no-confidence vote that’s likely to delay elections due this year and risk further instability in the Horn of Africa nation. The vote was backed by 170 lawmakers, with only eight others rejecting the motion, according to Parliament speaker Mohamed Mursal Abdirahman. President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, also ...

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• 25 July

  Singaporean pleads guilty to acting as ‘China agent’

  Bloomberg A Singaporean man pleaded guilty to acting as an illegal agent for Chinese intelligence in the US, according to a statement posted on the US Department of Justice website. Jun Wei Yeo, also known as Dickson Yeo, admitted that he provided valuable information to Chinese intelligence and knowingly recruited others in the US to do the same, a FBI ...

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• 25 July

  Germany pulls out of slump with first growth in months

  

  Bloomberg Germany took a step forward in its recovery from the coronavirus slump, with a key measure of activity showing growth for the first time in five months. IHS Markit’s composite Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) jumped to 55.5 in July from 47 in June. The figure was better than economists had predicted, and puts the gauge above the key 50 ...

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