February, 2019

• 12 February

  T-Mobile’s Legere to defend Sprint deal

  

  Bloomberg T-Mobile US Inc. Chief Executive Officer John Legere heads to Capitol Hill this week to defend his proposed takeover of Sprint Corp., as doubts about the deal grow on Wall Street and opponents say it will raise monthly bills. Legere is set to appear Wednesday and Thursday before two House panels about the $26.5 billion tie-up, which would unite ...

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• 12 February

  Britain should tackle power of Facebook over news, report says

  Bloomberg The UK should tackle the power of Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Facebook Inc. over Britain’s news publishers and push the tech platforms to promote quality journalism, according to a report commissioned by the government to find remedies for the struggling local press. The Cairncross Review called for codes of conduct to govern commercial relationships between the Silicon Valley giants ...

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• 12 February

  ‘Amazon’s HQ2 jobs are mission critical’

  

  Bloomberg Defending the incentive package to attract Amazon.com Inc.’s HQ2 to New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio said the prospect of the tech giant bringing tens of thousands of jobs to the area was “mission critical.” “We had a real live choice to make —25,000 to 40,000 jobs, many of them good paying, that New Yorkers really want and ...

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• 12 February

  TUI down as losses plague Europe’s top holiday firms

  Bloomberg TUI AG fell as much as 8 percent after Europe’s biggest holiday company detailed how a glut of flights and hotel rooms is hurting earnings, giving investors more reasons for concern following a profit warning last week. The loss for the quarter through December more than doubled, with no prospect of a turnaround because prices are depressed by unfilled ...

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• 12 February

  Trump gives diplomacy a chance to oust Maduro

  

  Bloomberg President Donald Trump likes to boast about his disruptive foreign policy style—calling North Korea’s leader “Little Rocket Man” or announcing plans to pull troops from Syria without notifying his top generals. But with Venezuela, Trump is playing it uncharacteristically straight, using textbook diplomacy that he usually shuns in seeking the ouster of President Nicolas Maduro. Instead of going it ...

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• 12 February

  Refugee bill: Australia suffers historic defeat

  Bloomberg The government of Prime Minister Scott Morrison has lost a crucial vote on a bill that allowed doctors greater say on the medical evacuation of sick asylum seekers from detention centers on Manus Island and Nauru. During a heated debate in the parliament, Morrison warned the changes would weaken Australia’s borders and raise national security concerns. Despite the defeat, ...

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• 12 February

  Catalan crisis shapes Spain as separatist trial begins

  Bloomberg The Catalonia drama unfolded on a new stage with the start of a historic trial of separatist leaders in Madrid — and it threatens to claim the scalp of a second Spanish prime minister in less than a year. Twelve separatists leaders — led by former Catalan vice-president Oriol Junqueras who is facing up to 25 years in jail ...

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• 12 February

  US vows to fight Russia, China for influence in NATO’s east

  

  Bloomberg The US will fight to regain influence in NATO’s eastern flank, particularly in countries such as Hungary where the government’s spotty record on democracy led to a freeze in relations that allowed Russia and China to extend their sway, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said. Pompeo, in the first visit to Hungary by a US secretary of state since ...

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• 12 February

  Abe seeks Seoul’s apology over king remark

  

  Bloomberg Prime Minister Shinzo Abe denounced a top South Korean lawmaker’s comments about the Japanese emperor as “extremely inappropriate,” ratcheting up already-high tensions between the two neighbours. Abe told parliament that Japan asked South Korea to apologize for National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang’s remarks last week describing Emperor Akihito as “the son of the main culprit of war crimes.” Moon ...

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• 12 February

  Duterte wants to rename the Philippines

  Bloomberg Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte is advocating to change the nation’s name one day to “Maharlika” to move away from the country’s colonial links. Duterte’s call echoes a push by the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos to call the nation “Maharlika,” which in the local language means nobility. The country, which was under Spanish rule for more than 300 years, derived ...

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