July, 2019

• 2 July

  Retailers eager to aid antitrust probe against Amazon, Google

  

  Bloomberg A leading US retail group, whose members include Walmart Inc, is eager to aid antitrust enforcers that are poised to investigate whether Amazon.com and Alphabet’s Google are harming competition. The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RLIA), which also represents Target Corp and Best Buy Co among others, said it’s prepared to present their concerns to the Justice Department and the ...

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• 2 July

  ‘EU to exit trade pact if Brazil drops climate goals’

  Bloomberg European Union countries won’t ratify a free-trade deal with South America if Brazil doesn’t take measures to achieve the greenhouse gas emissions targets it agreed to in the 2015 Paris climate accord, French Ecology Minister Francois de Rugy said. Top EU officials reached a breakthrough in market-opening negotiations with counterparts from the Mercosur group of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and ...

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• 2 July

  Britain house prices stuck in a Brexit rut

  

  Bloomberg UK house-price growth remained subdued last month as values in London and the southeast continued to fall, according to Nationwide Building Society. June saw a year-on-year increase of just 0.5 percent, a seventh straight month below 1 percent. That compares with increases of around 2 percent a year earlier. The uncertainty arising from Britain’s departure from the European Union ...

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• 2 July

  Swedish employers ready defense of labour deal to keep wages down

  

  Bloomberg Sweden’s main employer group is preparing to defend the key pillar of the Nordic country’s labour market against a brewing union wage rebellion. The deal setting industrial workers salaries as a benchmark for overall wages is crucial in maintaining Sweden’s welfare state and is the envy of competitors, according to Fredrik Persson, chairman of the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise. ...

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• 2 July

  Musk seeking Tesla deliveries record can be ‘double-edged sword’

  

  Bloomberg To understand why investors have soured on Tesla Inc this year, consider one of the thousands of deliveries that took place as the the electric-car maker was gunning for a record for the number of vehicles it handed over in a quarter. John Hanna, who splays his fandom for Elon Musk’s companies on his Twitter profile, ordered a Model ...

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• 2 July

  US keeping Mideast peace plan secret to protect it: Envoy

  

  Bloomberg The Trump administration hasn’t revealed the full details of its Middle East peace plan in order to prevent “spoilers” from undermining it, US special envoy Jason Greenblatt said days after a US-backed economic conference in Bahrain sought to drum up support for American peace efforts. “We understand we’re protecting something extremely delicate,” Greenblatt said at the IDC Herzliya Conference ...

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• 2 July

  Poll: Salvini’s League continues to climb

  

  Bloomberg Support for Italy’s anti-migrant League continues to rise and it’s now close to giving the party a potential Parliamentary majority if the country were to vote again. A new SWG poll aired by La7 television found that support for Matteo Salvini’s party rose to a record 38 percent, and very close to the 40 percent seen by analysts as ...

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• 2 July

  Spain to vote on PM’s bid to form new government

  Bloomberg The Spanish parliament will vote July 23 on Pedro Sanchez’s bid to lead a new government as he attempts to break the deadlock caused by the inconclusive result of April’s general election. Sanchez, Spain’s acting prime minister, telephoned Parliament Speaker Meritxell Batet and they agreed to start the investiture debate, she said in a briefing. Should Sanchez fail to ...

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• 2 July

  Iraq moves to curtail power of Iran-allied militias

  

  Bloomberg Iraq moved to curtail the power of Iran-backed militias by putting them under the formal command of the military, in an apparent attempt to limit the country’s exposure to an escalating showdown between the Islamic Republic and the US. The Popular Mobilization Forces, an umbrella group of militias founded to fight IS militants, are now “an inseparable part” of ...

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• 2 July

  Contenders to lead Britain clash over parliament, Brexit and trust

  

  Bloomberg Jeremy Hunt said he would “100% not” suspend parliament to force through a no-deal Brexit, drawing a dividing line with Boris Johnson as the two men entered the last days of campaigning before Tory activists start voting for the UK’s next prime minister. Hunt’s commitment — a direct challenge to Johnson — helped win the backing of former Foreign ...

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