August, 2019

• 18 August

  Shopify success puts spotlight on next tech stars

  

  Bloomberg Shopify Inc.’s scorching rally and Lightspeed POS Inc.’s successful trading debut this year are throwing the spotlight on who might be the next Canadian tech star to go public. A total of C$1 billion ($751 million) was invested in 142 venture capital deals in the first quarter, up 48% from a year earlier, according to the Canadian Venture & ...

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• 18 August

  IS claims responsibility for Kabul bombing that killed 63

  

  Bloomberg An IS affiliate said it was responsible for a suicide bombing attack at a wedding hall in Afghanistan’s capital that killed 63. More than 180 others were injured in the attack, which took place at 10:40 pm in the western part of Kabul, Nasrat Rahimi, a spokesman at the Interior Ministry, said by phone on Sunday. There were about ...

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• 18 August

  Houthis appoint first ambassador to Iran

  

  Bloomberg Yemen’s Houthi rebel government appointed its first ambassador to Iran, days after a delegation met Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei in Tehran, the rebel-held Saba news agency. The appointment of Ibrahim Mohammed Al-Dailami is meant to boost ties between Yemen and Iran, the rebel ­­­said on TV. Al-Houthi said the relationship with Tehran will be better than it was ...

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• 18 August

  Gibraltar says can’t seek court order detaining tanker for US

  Bloomberg The Government of Gibraltar says European Union regulations don’t allow it to seek a court order to seize a tanker which the US accuses of breaching its sanctions by exporting Iranian oil. The US issued a warrant to seize the supertanker, which has been detained by the UK and Gibraltar since July, on suspicion of hauling Iranian oil to ...

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• 18 August

  Johnson to raise Brexit stakes in Berlin, Paris

  

  Bloomberg Boris Johnson will travel to Germany and France this week to make clear that Britain is leaving the European Union on October 31 with or without a deal. The prime minister will tell German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron that the EU must offer a new deal or face Britain leaving the bloc without one. The ...

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• 18 August

  Spain offers to receive ‘Open Arms’ migrants

  

  Bloomberg Spain’s government will make available the southern port of Algeciras to receive the migrant rescue ship Open Arms given the refusal by Italy to allow it to dock. Acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is taking the step given the “emergency situation” facing the Spanish vessel with more than 100 migrants off the Italian island of Lampedusa, his government said ...

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• 18 August

  Macron meets Putin, but not as ‘Trump’s messenger’

  

  Bloomberg French President Emmanuel Macron hosts Russian leader Vladimir Putin at his summer residence on Monday and his office is adamant about what the get-together is not. France isn’t playing the role of go-between with Russia and other world powers, Macron’s office says, after being stung by a tweet from President Donald Trump earlier in August that suggested Paris was ...

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• 18 August

  Oxymorons in ‘national conservative’ policies

  

  Regimes, however intellectually disreputable, rarely are unable to attract intellectuals eager to rationalise the regimes’ behaviour. America’s current administration has “national conservatives.” They advocate unprecedented expansion of government in order to purge America of excessive respect for market forces, and to affirm robust confidence in government as a social engineer allocating wealth and opportunity. They call themselves conservatives, perhaps because ...

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• 18 August

  Ukraine enjoys a hopeful moment

  

  Nobody expected Ukraine’s economy to grow as fast as it did in the second quarter. Though the growth was driven, in large part, by a bumper wheat harvest, the optimistic numbers can become a self-fulfilling prophecy as newly elected President Volodymyr Zelenskiy promises a new kind of politics and investment-friendly change. Ukraine’s real gross domestic product increased by 4.6 percent ...

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• 18 August

  OCBC, do you have Jakarta’s blessing?

  “Do you have Jakarta’s blessing?” That’s the first question Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. CEO Samuel Tsien will be asked by investors about his plan to buy Indonesia’s PT Bank Permata. OCBC is weighing a bid for Standard Chartered Plc’s Indonesian bank, Bloomberg News has reported, citing people with knowledge of the matter. Deliberations are still at an early stage and may ...

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