February, 2020

• 25 February

  Egypt’s former president Hosni Mubarak dies at 91

  

  Bloomberg Hosni Mubarak, who became Egypt’s longest-serving ruler in more than 150 years before being forced from office by a popular uprising, has died. He was 91. His death was announced on Tuesday by state TV. No cause was mentioned, although his family recently said he’d been hospitalised. Dubbed the “pharaoh” by his detractors, Mubarak had ruled for 30 years ...

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• 25 February

  Mahathir in driver’s seat to pick new Malaysia leader

  

  Bloomberg After a wild day that saw the collapse of Malaysia’s ruling coalition, one thing is clear: Mahathir Mohamad holds the key to forming the next government. Mahathir, 94, abruptly resigned as prime minister on February 24 after a longstanding rift within his alliance over who would succeed him boiled over. By the end of the day, he was the ...

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• 25 February

  Julian Assange focus on Trump’s motives ensnares ex-FBI head, US representative

  

  Bloomberg Assange was swept up in President Donald Trump’s campaign against embarrassing leaks, his lawyer told a London court, as the WikiLeaks founder kicked off his fight against his extradition to the US. The decision to pursue Assange, which only occurred after Trump was elected, was driven by the president’s desire to stifle damaging White House leaks, said Edward Fitzgerald, ...

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• 25 February

  Floods hit Jakarta as cyclones trigger rain

  

  Bloomberg Parts of Indonesian capital and its suburbs were flooded after two tropical cyclones off the nation’s coast triggered extremely heavy rainfall, inundating houses in low-lying areas and forcing evacuation of hundreds of residents. More than 200 spots of flooding were reported in Jakarta and the satellite cities of Bekasi and Tangerang with the water level in Ciliwung river that ...

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• 25 February

  US-South Korea talks on sharing costs stalled

  Bloomberg The US and South Korea remain stalled after six rounds of talks on an updated cost-sharing agreement but the allies’ top defense officials said that they hope to break that deadlock next month. “We are engaged in negotiations,” and the “minister and I are hopeful they will reach agreement soon, preferably before the end of March,” Defense Secretary Mark ...

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• 25 February

  The world will move on sans the US leadership if it has to

  

  Many commentators have argued that the big winner in last week’s poisonous Democratic Party debate was Donald Trump. But as the world assesses the United States in this 2020 election season, the long-term political beneficiary may be foreign rivals such as China’s President Xi Jinping. The circular firing squad in Las Vegas probably raised expectations abroad that the Democrats won’t ...

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• 25 February

  Markets are waking up to virus reality

  

  Sharp falls in Asian markets and US stock futures on February 24 suggest investors are starting to catch up to the disconnect between the coronavirus’s widening impact and hopes of a V-shaped recovery. It’s a gap that has been particularly visible in metals. China, where much of the economy remains in lockdown, accounts for about half the world’s appetite for ...

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• 25 February

  Morgan Stanley is targetting young money with E-Trade

  Morgan Stanley is trading in its white shoes for Converse Chuck Taylors. That’s the initial impression on Wall Street at least after the bank announced that it had agreed to buy discount brokerage E-Trade Financial Corp. for $13 billion in an all-stock takeover, the biggest acquisition by a large US bank since the financial crisis. It would add E-Trade’s $360 ...

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• 25 February

  SoftBank’s biggest name is one Son dare not mention

  SoftBank Group Corp.’s chairman took to the stage to gloat about the company’s return to profit in a horrible year and to name drop some of the wonderful companies in his orbit. But the most important name of all was missing: Paul Elliott Singer. Getting top billing in Masayoshi Son’s earnings presentation was Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., which netted the ...

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• 25 February

  RIP HNA group, and the $143b empire you built

  

  The house of HNA Group Co. may be no more, bringing an end to the dramatic rise and fall of one of the biggest buyers of global assets in recent years. It was about time. The Chinese government is planning to take over the airline-to-insurance-to-property conglomerate that splashed out over $40 billion in recent years to buy assets including stakes ...

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