August, 2019

• 3 August

  Over 2000 miles of Pacific coastline experience drought

  

  Bloomberg It’s dry in the Pacific Northwest, British Columbia and Alaska. Very dry. A contiguous stretch of over 2,000 miles of Pacific coastline is experiencing drought conditions ranging from “abnormally dry” to “extreme drought,” according to US and Canadian Drought Monitors. While drought has receded across much of the Canadian provinces from June, and overall conditions in the lower 48 ...

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• 3 August

  Google to auction slots on Android default search

  

  Bloomberg Alphabet Inc’s Google will require rivals to bid in order to become listed as alternative search providers on Android smartphones, a move to try to keep additional antitrust scrutiny at bay. Starting next year, Google will prompt users to make a choice between Google and three other rival options as their default search provider. Google invited search providers to ...

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• 3 August

  North Korea’s missile tests may violate UN rules: Trump

  

  Bloomberg President Donald Trump said that North Korea’s recent tests of short-range rockets and missiles may run afoul of United Nations resolutions but haven’t violated agreements with his administration. North Korea conducted its third test in a week of a new short-range ballistic missile that weapons experts say was designed to strike US allies in East Asia. Its leader Kim ...

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• 3 August

  US sanctions Russia again over ‘nerve agent’

  

  Bloomberg The US imposed a second round of sanctions on Russia for using a nerve agent in an assassination attempt last year. The additional sanctions will prohibit US banks from participating in the issuance of Russian sovereign debt, the State Department said in an emailed statement. The sanctions will take effect following the publication of a federal register notice on ...

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• 3 August

  Thai premier condemns Bangkok bomb blasts

  Bloomberg Authorities in Thailand tightened security in Bangkok as they probed a series of small blasts that hit the city, injuring at least four people. Some of the explosions were caused by homemade bombs and the incidents could be linked, the police said. Blasts occurred at a government complex, a suburban road, below a downtown metro station and near an ...

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• 3 August

  Trump calls HK protests ‘riots’, adopting China rhetoric

  

  Bloomberg President Donald Trump labeled recent protests in Hong Kong as “riots,” adopting the language used by Chinese authorities and suggesting the US would stay out of an issue that was “between Hong Kong and China.” “Something is probably happening with Hong Kong, because when you look at, you know, what’s going on, they’ve had riots for a long period ...

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• 3 August

  Johnson’s UK majority cut to one seat

  

  Bloomberg The anti-Brexit Liberal Democrats won a by-election in Brecon and Radnorshire, reducing Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s House of Commons majority to a single seat and making his balancing act more difficult as he seeks to deliver Brexit by October 31. Jane Dodds of the Liberal Democrats won 13,826 votes, beating Conservative Chris Davies on 12,401. Dodds overturned Davies’s majority ...

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• 3 August

  ‘US headed towards blockade of Venezuela’

  

  Bloomberg Donald Trump is serious about a possible US blockade of Venezuela, a senior administration official said, saying that the country’s president Nicolas Maduro has a short window to voluntarily leave power. Trump told reporters that he was considering a blockade or quarantine of the Latin American country, where the US has been trying for months to unseat Maduro. He ...

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• 3 August

  Donald Trump’s intelligence shakeup could be dangerous

  

  Among intelligence professionals, President Trump’s nomination of an inexperienced, partisan politician to oversee America’s spy agencies prompted deep dismay — but also a stolid reaffirmation of the spymaster’s credo: Let’s get on with it. This combination of incredulity and stoicism was voiced by a half-dozen current and former officers I spoke with about Trump’s choice of Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, ...

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• 3 August

  Credit Suisse, BNP bounce may be brief

  

  Wall Street’s worst first half in more than a decade for trading is turning out to be surprisingly less painful for some European firms: Credit Suisse Group AG and BNP Paribas SA managed to claw back some of the market share they had previously lost. But counting on a continued rebound could be a mistake. Switzerland’s second-biggest bank reported a ...

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