August, 2019

• 14 August

  HK airport beatings highlight protesters’ fears running wild

  

  Bloomberg The beatings of two men during a tense rally at Hong Kong’s airport highlights protesters’ growing fear of mainland intervention, as well as the risk that demonstrators’ violent tactics could undermine support for their movement. An otherwise peaceful sit-in at Hong Kong International Airport turned ugly when protesters attacked and detained a man they suspected of being a security ...

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• 14 August

  Pakistan urges UN Security Council to meet on Kashmir

  

  Bloomberg Pakistan called on the United Nations Security Council to convene an urgent meeting on India’s decision to revoke autonomy for the disputed Muslim-majority state of Kashmir, a move it says could spark a new conflict between the two South Asian nuclear powers. India’s recent actions “pose a threat to international peace and security, willfully undermine the internationally recognised disputed ...

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• 14 August

  UK gears up for Brexit-driven election

  

  Bloomberg Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s staff talk about an imminent general election as though it were a fact, and a Conservative politician accidentally published a draft email about his “GE2019 team.” But amid growing expectations that the next chapter in the UK’s political crisis will see the country go to the polls, it’s still not clear how it will happen. ...

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• 14 August

  Tunisian authorities approve 26 presidential candidates

  

  Bloomberg Tunisian authorities said 26 people, including the prime minister, two women and a moderate radical, have preliminary approval to run in next month’s presidential election. The varied line-up, which features former Defense Minister Abdelkarim Zbidi, the deputy head of the radical Ennahda Party, Abdelfattah Mourou, and premier Youssef Chahed, was announced Wednesday by Nabil Baffoun, head of the Independent ...

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• 14 August

  Modi’s options for Jammu & Kashmir’s economy are limited

  

  Bloomberg Prime Minister Narendra Modi says his move to revoke Kashmir’s autonomy is about boosting its economy. But observers say it will take more than rhetoric to bring in investments and ensure jobs in the territory that’s lost more than 42,000 lives to conflict over the last three decades. The state’s economy, dependent mostly on farming, handicrafts and tourism, may ...

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• 14 August

  Is the economy turning against Donald Trump?

  

  To have a recession or not — that is the question. It also encompassed last week’s most important political news, notwithstanding all the public attention understandably focussed on the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton. There is growing evidence of a possible recession. If one materialises, President Trump could lose his most powerful argument for reelection: a strong economy. ...

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• 14 August

  S’pore adds dour note to global outlook

  

  Singapore just gave a verdict on who’s winning the trade war. The answer is few countries, if any, in Asia. The deep cut in the trade-reliant economy’s growth forecast was disappointing, albeit not startling. There may be no expansion at all. Growth is likely to be between zero and 1 percent this year, compared with a previous projection of 1.5 ...

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• 14 August

  This UK fund giant has a $6.3bn target on its back

  Asset managers face “tough industry conditions with flows difficult to come by and fees under pressure,” says Standard Life Aberdeen Plc Chief Executive Officer Keith Skeoch. He’s not wrong; but competitors are weathering the ongoing storm far, far better than his firm is this year. SLA’s performance this year is dismal, with its shares languishing at their lowest level since ...

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• 14 August

  US tariffs delay is a cold comfort for retailers

  It looks as if the Trump administration didn’t want to be accused of ruining Christmas. The US Trade Representative’s office said that it would delay until December 15 the imposition of tariffs on certain goods coming to the US from China. The government said products such as cellphones, laptops, as well as some toys, clothes and shoes would be spared ...

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• 14 August

  German economic reversal piles pressure on Merkel for stimulus

  

  Bloomberg Germany’s economy shrank in the second quarter, ramping up pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel to unleash fiscal stimulus as manufacturers reel from a US-China trade war. The latest report, paired with a protracted slump in business expectations, raises the risk that Europe’s largest economy is on the verge of falling into a recession. It would be the first in ...

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