September, 2019

• 3 September

  Lawmakers stripped off ‘immunity’ in Ukraine

  

  Bloomberg Ukraine revoked the immunity from prosecution long enjoyed by lawmakers, part of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s efforts to stamp out corruption. Parliament voted for a constitutional amendment placing its members on the same legal footing as other citizens, starting from January 1. The bill was originally submitted in 2015 by ex-President Petro Poroshenko, but was sidelined until Zelenskiy’s ruling party ...

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• 3 September

  Pence under fire over staying at Trump hotel

  Bloomberg US Vice President Mike Pence came under fire on Tuesday for staying at President Donald Trump’s golf resort during his official visit to Ireland, despite most of his meetings with Irish leaders taking place more than 200 kilometres (125 miles) away in Dublin. The vice president’s staff defended the decision, noting that Pence — who is travelling with his ...

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• 3 September

  Xenophobic attacks shame South Africa as leaders meet

  

  Bloomberg South Africa has been hit by an outbreak of attacks on migrants from other African countries as the nation prepared to host a meeting of political and business leaders from across the continent. A spate of violence that broke out in suburbs south of Johannesburg’s city centre and spread to the central business district saw the destruction of more ...

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• 3 September

  Johnson called parliament a ‘rigmarole’

  

  Bloomberg A key legal test of Boris Johnson’s plan to suspend parliament got underway in Edinburgh, with an attorney for a group of lawmakers saying that the prime minister’s move shows a “breathtaking” contempt for the UK’s constitution. “This prime minister says in his own words, in his own handwriting, that the further sitting of Parliament is only a ‘rigmarole’ ...

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• 3 September

  ‘Controversial minister’ nominated as Georgia PM

  

  Bloomberg Georgia’s ruling party nominated the top law enforcement official, who was blamed for a harsh crackdown on demonstrations in June, as the new prime minister, prompting protesters to gather outside parliament to denounce the decision. Giorgi Gakharia, 44, the interior minister and formerly the economic development minister, was put forward by the ruling Georgian Dream’s billionaire leader Bidzina Ivanishvili ...

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• 3 September

  US East Coast braces for Dorian chaos after Bahamas battered

  

  Bloomberg Hurricane Dorian is starting to move again, inching towards the northwest and potentially up the US East Coast after bashing the Bahamas for almost two days with high winds and driving rains that have inflicted huge damage, killing five on one island alone. The storm is now crawling at 1 mile per hour with sustained winds of around 120 ...

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• 3 September

  J2’s Franklin agrees to buy APi for $2.9b

  

  Bloomberg J2 Acquisition Ltd, the investment vehicle backed by serial dealmaker Martin E Franklin, made its debut acquisition after an almost two-year search with an agreement to acquire U.S. engineer and oil pipeline contractor APi Group Inc. for about $2.9 billion. London-based J2, which is run by Franklin and long-time partners James Lillie and Ian Ashken, is looking to build ...

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• 3 September

  US manufacturing contracts for first time in three years

  

  Bloomberg US factory activity unexpectedly contracted in August for the first time in three years as shrinking orders, production and hiring pushed a widely followed measure of manufacturing to its lowest level since January 2016. The Institute for Supply Management’s purchasing managers index fell to 49.1 in August, weaker than all forecasts in a Bloomberg survey of economists, data released ...

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• 3 September

  Prince Harry is trying to teach tourists to be more eco-friendly

  

  Bloomberg Prince Harry wants you to think a bit harder about whether your next vacation abroad risks harming the planet. He’s setting up a sustainable tourism initiative called Travalyst, which aims to support local people, protect wildlife, tackle climate change and environmental damage, and alleviate over-tourism. It’s a tall order but Visa, TripAdvisor, Booking.com, Skyscanner and Ctrip are buying into ...

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• 3 September

  UK construction sector shrinks amid Brexit row

  

  Bloomberg The contraction in the UK construction industry gathered pace in August as increased political uncertainty saw new orders fall at fastest pace in more than ten years. The sector shrank for a fourth-straight month as business optimism slipped to the lowest since the depths of the financial crisis in 2008, according to IHS Markit. The figures follow similarly disappointing ...

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