August, 2019

• 27 August

  UK mortgage approvals reach highest in 2 years

  Bloomberg Demand for mortgages jumped last month to the highest since early 2017, according to data. Loans for house purchases rose almost 11% from a year earlier to a seasonally adjusted 43,342, lobby group UK Finance said. The report covers seven high street banks representing around 60% of total mortgage lending, data on which are due to be published by ...

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• 27 August

  Export slump pushes German economy to brink of recession

  

  Bloomberg A collapse in exports pushed Europe’s largest economy to the brink of recession in the second quarter. In a sign that an increasingly hostile trade war between the US and China is at least partially to blame for Germany’s deepening manufacturing malaise, shipments abroad declined 1.3%, the most in more than six years. That led to a contraction in ...

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• 27 August

  Tropical storm Dorian could clip Puerto Rico

  Bloomberg Tropical Storm Dorian is gaining strength as it approaches the Lesser Antilles and is forecast to skirt Puerto Rico as a weak hurricane. The storm was about 30 miles (50 kilometers) east-southeast of Barbados as of 8 pm New York time. With maximum sustained winds of 60 miles per hour, Dorian is expected to drop 3 to 8 inches ...

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• 27 August

  With $56b loan in danger, IMF officials fly to Argentina

  

  Bloomberg The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) record loan to Argentina last year was supposed to turn the page on a troubled history. It’s looking more like a case of déjà vu. Less than two decades ago, Argentina crashed out of an IMF program, defaulted on debt and plunged into depression. As Fund officials arrived in Buenos Aires to assess the ...

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• 27 August

  We don’t need help of Chinese forces to quell HK unrest: Lam

  

  Bloomberg Hong Kong’s leader said her government can handle unrest without assistance from Chinese forces, and still wants to hold talks with protesters despite a flare up in violence. “To this day, the SAR [Special Administrative Region] government is still confident it’s able to solve the disturbance that’s gone on for two months,” Chief Executive Carrie Lam told a regular ...

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• 27 August

  China arrests Australian writer on spying charges

  

  Bloomberg An Australian writer detained in China seven months ago has been formally arrested on suspicion of espionage, triggering swift demands from the government in Canberra that he be allowed to return home. Foreign Minister Marise Payne said she was “concerned and disappointed” that Yang Hengjun, a Chinese native who’s now an Australian citizen, would “continue to be criminally detained.” ...

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• 27 August

  Human rights court rebukes Russia over Magnitsky death

  Bloomberg Russia was guilty of human rights violations that contributed to the death in a Moscow prison of Sergei Magnitsky, an ally of Kremlin critic Bill Browder, a European court ruled in a rebuke to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Russian officials deprived Magnitsky of “important” medical care, effectively putting his life in danger, the Strasbourg, France-based European Court of Human ...

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• 27 August

  US to deliver armoured vehicles to Thailand

  

  Bloomberg Thailand will receive a batch of US-made armoured vehicles next month, as ties between the two countries warm following the end of military rule in the Southeast Asian nation. The Strykers — eight-wheeled vehicles designed to move infantry — will be deployed at a base near Bangkok, Army Chief Apirat Kongsompong told reporters. Apirat said Thailand will receive 70 ...

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• 27 August

  Iran not keen to be Trump’s new N Korea

  

  Bloomberg If President Donald Trump’s bid to negotiate with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un is a work in progress — three meetings to date and no breakthrough — his suggestion of face time with Iran’s leader appears dead on arrival. Iranian officials ruled out Trump talks with President Hassan Rouhani, who rejected a photo-op and said the US must lift sanctions ...

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• 27 August

  South Africa’s youth deserting Nelson Mandela’s party

  

  Bloomberg In the South African township where Nelson Mandela joined the struggle against apartheid, Lordwick Nxumalo is reduced to hustling for a living. Each day, he and other young jobless men of Soweto hang around on Walter Sisulu Square, waiting to take passport pictures for documents like driving licenses. The licensing office boss, who owns the camera, pays 10 rand ...

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