May, 2020

• 25 May

  Do the US and Russia want to contain China?

  

  The Trump administration sent a characteristic mixed message on arms control: It announced a plan to quit the “Open Skies” agreement with Russia, even as it proclaimed its eagerness for a wider arms-control process that would include both Russia and China. Many analysts focussed on the treaty withdrawal as a sign of worsening relations with Russia, but I think there’s ...

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• 25 May

  China’s crypto is all about tracing

  

  The coronavirus has disrupted the world in very large ways. While that battle has been waged, however, another event has almost been missed: the birth of a new kind of fiat currency, which could forever reshape the relationship between money, economic power and geopolitical clout. An official Chinese digital yuan, more than five years in the making, is now in ...

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• 25 May

  China’s tech spending won’t buy dominance

  Big spending numbers are being thrown around in China, once again. This time, it’s trillions of yuan of fiscal stimulus on all things tech. The plans are bold and vague: China wants to bring technology into its mainstream infrastructure buildout and, in the process, heave the economy out of a gloom due only partly to the coronavirus. But will this ...

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• 25 May

  Pandemic is exposing the limits of science

  The 2008 financial crisis led the public to discover the limits of economics. The Covid-19 pandemic risks having the same effect on scientists and medical doctors. Since the start of the outbreak, citizens have struggled to get clear answers to some basic questions. Consider masks, for example: The World Health Organization said early on that there was no point in ...

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• 25 May

  Ryanair warns workers on 600 surplus Spanish jobs

  

  Bloomberg Ryanair Holdings Plc executives preparing for thousands of job cuts warned employees in Spain that the collapse of air travel had left the discount airline with more than 600 surplus pilots and cabin crew in the country. The Irish carrier estimates it has an excess of 266 pilots and 351 cabin crew, people director Darrell Hughes said on a ...

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• 25 May

  Germany, Lufthansa agree on bailout plan

  

  Bloomberg The German government and Deutsche Lufthansa AG have agreed on a bailout package, German news agency DPA reported without citing the source of the information. After delays in recent days, the committee that manages Germany’s WSF Economic Stabilisation Fund was set to meet on Monday, according to a person familiar with the matter. The meeting is an indication that ...

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• 25 May

  Indian state starts domestic flights with fewer planes

  

  Bloomberg India’s Maharashtra, home to the nation’s financial hub Mumbai, resumed commercial flights on Monday with reduced domestic services as the state struggles to contain coronavirus infection cases. The state will allow 50 flights per day, from the earlier 200 flight movements, Mumbai airport said in a statement, joining airports in cities including Chennai and Hyderabad in pruning air-travel services. ...

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• 25 May

  Pakistan jet hit runway, took off again before crashing

  

  Bloomberg It was supposed to be another regular flight on one of Pakistan’s busiest domestic routes between its two biggest cities. State-run Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) Corp’s PK 8303 flight had a normal departure from the eastern city of Lahore. Close to landing before 2:45 pm local time, the pilots told passengers to fasten their seat-belts as it approached Karachi’s ...

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• 25 May

  China’s Meituan sales beat estimates

  Bloomberg Meituan Dianping reported a smaller slide in revenue than analysts projected after the Chinese internet services giant proved resilient to virus-induced lockdowns. Sales fell 12.6% to 16.8 billion yuan ($2.4 billion) in the three months ended March, compared with the 15.6 billion yuan average of analysts’ estimates. It reported net loss of 1.58 billion yuan, while analysts projected a ...

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• 25 May

  China: US politicians pushing nations into ‘new Cold War’

  

  Bloomberg The US should give up its “wishful thinking” of changing China, foreign minister Wang Yi said, warning that some in America were pushing relations to a “new Cold War.” “China has no intention to change the US, nor to replace the US It is also wishful thinking for the US to change China,” Wang said during his annual news ...

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