July, 2019

• 27 July

  New clashes in Hong Kong near site of Sunday’s battles

  

  Bloomberg Hong Kong police and protesters fought pitched battles in the northern district of Yuen Long where demonstrators converged for a march after stick-wielding mobs attacked train commuters and demonstrators on Sunday. Riot police fired tear gas and pepper spray as demonstrators hurled projectiles at them and vandalised a vehicle. The protesters, mostly clad in black and some wearing protective ...

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• 27 July

  Mystery terrorist attacks rattle Chile

  

  Bloomberg Chilean police are scratching their heads over who sent two sophisticated package bombs without claiming responsibility or making any demands. The first bomb exploded at a police station in northern Santiago, leaving five policemen hospitalised. The second was intercepted at the headquarters of Quinenco SA, one of the holding companies through which Chile’s richest family controls Banco de Chile. ...

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• 27 July

  Spy chief says Australia faces espionage threat

  

  Bloomberg Australia is facing an “unprecedented” wave of espionage, including cyber-attacks and traditional spy craft, The Australian newspaper reported. The country is facing daily threats of foreign interference, the paper reported, citing outgoing spy chief Duncan Lewis, who is director general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO). The unprecedented level of attempted interference was a direct result of globalisation, ...

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• 27 July

  America flexes its military muscle in the Persian Gulf

  

  Aboard the USS Boxer in the Persian Gulf — Capt. Ronald Dowdell was on the starboard side of the bridge, looking towards Iran, as his vessel passed through the Strait of Hormuz on July 18. He’d been monitored by Iranian helicopters and speedboats, but now a drone was closing fast. Dowdell ordered his crew to disable the drone because it ...

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• 27 July

  Floods a boon for China hydropower

  

  Look at the coal yards surrounding China’s power plants and you’ll notice something strange happening. Typically at this time of year, stockpiles of the fuel that provides about two-thirds of the country’s power should be shrinking. Peak season for thermal power generation is July and August when cities switch on their air conditioning, along with the coldest months of winter. ...

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• 27 July

  Snapchat is not giving up the ghost just yet

  It’s hard to believe after Snap Inc.’s shambolic stumbles over the last two years, but the company truly looks to be on the right road. Snap said that its Snapchat app increased the number of daily users in the second quarter at a rate not reached since before the company’s 2017 initial public offering. Importantly, Snap offered evidence that its ...

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• 27 July

  Trump’s food stamp plan: Not cruel, but unnecessary

  The Department of Agriculture’s four-paragraph announcement in the Federal Register of a “revision of categorical eligibility in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program” didn’t fool anyone: The government is proposing to kick 3.1 million people off food stamps. And while the proposal is being attacked for its cruelty, the better argument is that it’s unnecessary. One of America’s oldest social-welfare programs ...

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• 27 July

  The EU should give Boris Johnson a new Brexit deal

  

  Britain’s new prime minister, Boris Johnson, won the job promising to do something Europe’s leaders have long refused to allow: renegotiate the Brexit withdrawal agreement. The EU should think again — not to help Johnson, but for strictly selfish reasons. The constant sticking point in the Brexit saga has been the so-called backstop — the plan to avoid new border ...

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• 27 July

  Retail property sector in Singapore battles an online shopping exodus

  

  Singapore’s malls are showing some resilience to the global hollowing out of physical retail by online shopping. The demographics of the smartphone generation are still against them, though. Suburban middle-class shopping centers put up a strong show in CapitaLand Mall Trust’s quarterly earnings. Their relative outperformance was an overarching theme in the results of Singapore’s biggest mall landlord, which offer ...

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• 27 July

  Tech superpowers need better talking points

  

  The US technology superpowers need better talking points — and fast. The US Department of Justice said that it would start reviewing how “market-leading online platforms” became big and whether they are squashing competition, limiting innovation or hurting consumers in other ways that may violate US antitrust laws. The government didn’t name names, but rest assured you can throw Google ...

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