July, 2019

• 17 July

  Kremlin opens door to changing constitution over succession

  

  Bloomberg The Kremlin raised the possibility of changing Russia’s constitution after a top lawmaker proposed bolstering parliament’s powers, in a move that could help to extend President Vladimir Putin’s rule. The idea of constitutional amendments, including allowing parliament a say in forming the government, received “a widespread response” and are “a matter for discussion,” Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters ...

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• 17 July

  Russia denies visas to teachers at Anglo-American school in Moscow

  

  Bloomberg Russia’s Foreign Ministry has denied visas for 30 new teachers at a Moscow school run by the US, British and Canadian embassies, in the latest sign of continuing diplomatic tensions with the west. The ministry informed the US Embassy that it will not process visas for the teachers at the Anglo-American School of Moscow in a move that may ...

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• 17 July

  Pakistan arrests Hafiz Saeed as Khan set to meet Trump

  

  Bloomberg Pakistan arrested Hafiz Saeed, the suspected planner of the 2008 Mumbai attacks, on terrorism related charges days before Prime Minister Imran Khan meets US President Donald Trump. Saeed, who heads the proscribed Jamaat-ud-Dawa group, was shifted to jail by the counter-terrorism police in Lahore, group’s spokesman Nadeem Awan said on phone. Saeed, who has been arrested and released many ...

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• 17 July

  Trump’s EU tariff deal comes down to a coin flip

  

  Donald Trump has called the European Union a “foe” and has threatened to “tariff the hell” out of the 28-country bloc. So where should we put the chances of the US president agreeing a trade deal with Brussels before he has to face reelection next year? In a surprising burst of cheerful optimism, Germany’s economy minister Peter Altmaier places them ...

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• 17 July

  Australian coal leaves investors cold

  

  When you’re in the business of buying and selling, timing is everything. That’s the costly lesson facing BHP Group, which is looking at options to divest its thermal coal assets according to a report by Thomas Biesheuvel of Bloomberg News that cited people familiar with the matter. Arch-rival Rio Tinto Group raised $2.7 billion selling mines in the Hunter Valley ...

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• 17 July

  A stock market surge is not lifting all IPOs

  The S&P 500 has breached 3,000 for the first time — but the market for initial public offerings is certainly not celebrating. The world’s biggest stock sale of the year looks likely to price at the lower end of its price range, and a big UK listing has just been pulled. Rising markets may be making issuers greedy. Buyers of ...

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• 17 July

  Fed must cut interest rates by half a percent

  Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell was right in making clear during his Congressional testimony that despite the strong jobs report for June, the central bank will cut interest rates for the first time since 2008 at its monetary policy meeting. He was wrong in dismissing the need to reduce rates by half a percentage point. By lowering its target for ...

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• 17 July

  Europe’s tech laws should be a matter of principle

  

  The stereotypical view that the European Union is far from the minds of most Europeans is challenged whenever a technology-related topic is on the agenda of the European Parliament. Over the 10 years that I served there, few battles for legislative outcomes were more fiercely contested. But the attendant controversies often lead to protracted processes, ambiguous laws and ineffective regulation. ...

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• 17 July

  Essar insolvency ruling risks damage to India debt market

  

  India’s insolvency tribunal has made a dangerous decision. Unless its judgment is quashed, credit costs for India Inc. will surge, shares of state-run banks will swoon and foreign investors will flee. The case concerns the country’s most high-profile bankruptcy, Essar Steel India Ltd. Insolvency judges recently ruled that creditors whose claims are backed by collateral won’t get preferential treatment in ...

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• 17 July

  Galileo outage: Why world needs civilian sat-nav system

  

  The European Union’s satellite navigation system, Galileo, has been down since July 11. The outage, the longest-ever of such a service, highlights how difficult it will be to wean the world off its dependence on the US, Russian and Chinese militaries for critical (and lucrative) navigation services. At the time of writing, Galileo’s 24 satellites were listed as “not usable” ...

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