July, 2019

• 31 July

  China imposes Taiwan travel ban in warning shot to Tsai

  

  Bloomberg In its latest effort to increase pressure on Taiwan, Beijing said it will suspend a programme that allowed individual tourists from 47 Chinese cities to travel to Taiwan, citing the current state of relations between the two sides. The ban is effective from August 1, according to a statement from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and means that ...

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• 31 July

  HK rioting charges suggest tough response to protesters

  

  Bloomberg Hong Kong’s decision to charge dozens of protesters with a colonial-era rioting charge that carries a 10-year prison term suggested that the government was heeding calls for a tougher response to the unrest. The arrests of 49 people — including 44 on the rioting charge — drew outrage from pro-democracy groups and spurred hundreds of demonstrators to surround a ...

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• 31 July

  Germany, UK appear to diverge over Iran

  Bloomberg The unified European approach to resolving tensions in the Persian Gulf showed signs of strain, with senior German officials warning that the UK may be drifting closer to an American-led operation that had previously been rebuffed by governments in Paris and London. While Germany stands by its resistance to use military forces to protect shipping in the region, Boris ...

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• 31 July

  Trade talks to continue in September in US

  

  Bloomberg China and the US plan to meet again in September to extend trade talks, as the latest round of negotiations in Shanghai ended with signs the sides discussed Chinese purchases of American farm products — a key demand of President Donald Trump. US delegates including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer wrapped up talks with their ...

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• 31 July

  India offers idle electric vehicles to taxi fleets

  

  Bloomberg India’s Energy Efficiency Services Ltd, responsible for replacing the state’s vehicles with new-energy cars, is seeking to lease electric vehicles to cab companies amid delays integrating them into government fleets. EESL has made offers to lease EVs to Ola Cabs, a Softbank Group Corp-backed ride-hailing service, and Indian taxi firm Meru Cabs, and plans to reach out as well ...

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• 31 July

  Tokyo plans to remove Seoul from ‘export list’

  Bloomberg Japan plans to press ahead with its plan to remove South Korea from a list of trusted export destinations, rebuffing a public effort by the US to calm rising tensions between its two key East Asian allies. “This is a change in the management of exports that’s necessary for national security,” government spokesman Yoshihide Suga told reporters in Tokyo. ...

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• 31 July

  Hong Kong GDP contracts amid unrest

  

  Bloomberg Hong Kong suffered a day of tempestuous weather, grim economic news and signs that the city’s political crisis is deepening. Gross domestic product contracted 0.3 percent from the previous quarter, while growth on a year-ago basis remained at 0.6 percent, according to data. Both results were well below the estimates of economists surveyed by Bloomberg. Hong Kong’s trade-dependent economy ...

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• 31 July

  Indian coffee king, VG Siddhartha, found dead

  

  Bloomberg VG Siddhartha, the founder of India’s biggest coffee chain, has been confirmed dead days after he purportedly wrote a letter indicating he was anxious about pressure from banks, investors and the tax authorities. Siddhartha told his driver he was going for a walk, near a bridge close to the southern Indian city of Mangaluru. He was reported missing after ...

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• 31 July

  Johnson’s biggest Brexit battle is plunging pound

  

  For much of the past two and a half years, the UK has had the luxury of negotiating the terms of its departure from the European Union under little pressure from the financial markets. The new prime minister Boris Johnson could soon come to pine for those calmer days. Sterling fell by more than 1.3 percent to $1.22, hitting its ...

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• 31 July

  Germany’s nitpicks won’t change big tech

  

  German courts, regulators and legislators are deeply suspicious of Big Tech’s business practices. Yet it’s hard to shake the feeling that, when they intervene to fix them, they only skim the surface of what’s wrong with the internet majors. That’s not necessarily wrong, either. Take, for example, Facebook’s practice of collecting data from third-party websites that have embedded the social ...

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