August, 2019

• 21 August

  Argentina vows to stabilise peso

  Bloomberg Argentina promised to use “all available tools” to stabilise the peso after last week’s rout, while the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said it is sending a delegation to visit the country “soon.” The government is working to keep the currency within last week’s range of 45.2 to 60.4 pesos per dollar, newly sworn-in Economy Minister Hernan Lacunza said in ...

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• 21 August

  China threatens retaliation over US arms sale to Taiwan

  

  Bloomberg China vowed retaliation against a proposed $8 billion US sale of advanced fighter jets to Taiwan, threatening to impose sanctions on American firms participating in such a deal. “China will take all necessary measures to defend its own interests, including imposing sanctions on the US companies involved in the arm sales,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said at ...

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• 21 August

  Venezuela, US have met ‘secretly’, says Maduro

  

  Bloomberg Venezuelan officials have been holding “secret meetings” with “high-ranking” US counterparts for months, president Nicolas Maduro said. “There have been contacts with high-ranking US government officials in the Trump administration and my government under my express authorisation to try resolving the conflict,” Maduro said in a speech broadcast on state television. Maduro said he was ready to speak directly ...

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• 21 August

  China confirms detention of UK consulate staffer in HK

  Bloomberg China confirmed it has detained a UK consulate worker from Hong Kong, underscoring security fears of people traveling between the Asian financial hub and the mainland as Beijing struggles to contain weeks of unrest. China’s foreign ministry said that the consulate worker, Simon Cheng, 28, was being held under in administrative detention in the adjacent city of Shenzhen on ...

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• 21 August

  Trump snubs Danish queen as visit cancelled over Greenland

  

  Bloomberg President Donald Trump cancelled a state visit to Denmark after his offer to buy Greenland was met first with bemusement, then flat refusal. Anger followed, and even Queen Margrethe II was drawn into the fray. Trump had been due to make his first visit to Denmark, a founding member of NATO and a US ally in the Iraq war, ...

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• 21 August

  Russia’s last deadly nuclear mishap shows cover-ups becoming harder

  

  Bloomberg The shroud of mystery surrounding Russia’s latest deadly nuclear accident will become increasingly difficult to maintain once the data starts to roll in. That’s the lesson of a team of scientists who showed last month — days before the explosion that killed five Russians — that “a sizeable, yet undeclared nuclear accident” had occurred two years earlier in Russia, ...

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• 21 August

  Italy oppn may strike deal with Five Star

  

  Bloomberg Italian President Sergio Mattarella begins intensive talks with political leaders to determine whether a new ruling coalition is viable, as the head of one of the country’s main parties signalled willingness to explore a new parliamentary majority. An alternative government is one of two main options emerging for the head of state after PM Giuseppe Conte resigned little more ...

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• 21 August

  The China challenge is new Sputnik moment for the US

  

  One of the weirdest aspects of this year’s Democratic presidential campaign is that foreign policy, potentially one of President Trump’s most vulnerable issues, has been nearly absent from the debate. Trump is steering the country into a foolish trade war with China that has spooked the stock market, frightened farmers and fuelled uncertainty among investors at home and abroad. Without ...

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• 21 August

  Italian politics meet European rigidity

  

  Italy’s renewed political upheaval comes at a bad time for the European Union. The latest turmoil could all too easily become a full-blown economic crisis — one that might not be confined to Italy. There’s no quick way to fix the country’s politics. But the EU can resolve, at least, to avoid making matters worse. The latest alarm follows Deputy ...

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• 21 August

  Healthcare may not be stock haven it once was

  Recession fears and volatility are rearing their heads again, which means investors may look for safe havens. One path traditionally leads them towards health care, which has often been relatively insulated when equities are shaky and the economy takes a downward turn. People don’t stop getting sick, and safety net programs smooth consumption. America’s aging population means that spending might ...

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