January, 2019

• 9 January

  Trump’s prime-time bid to end border wall impasse falls flat

  

  Bloomberg Donald Trump summoned the nation’s attention to the Oval Office for a prime time pronouncement on the border wall standoff at the centre of the government shutdown. Then, he offered nothing new. Instead, Trump used the president’s most symbolic and powerful perch — traditionally reserved for times of war or calls for national unity — to rattle off familiar ...

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• 9 January

  Kim leaves China after Trump sanctions talks

  

  Bloomberg North Korean leader Kim Jong-un left Beijing after talking and dining with Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to South Korean media, in a show of unity as they engage in delicate negotiations with President Donald Trump’s administration. Kim spent a little more than a day in the Chinese capital and was en route to Pyongyang on Wednesday, Yonhap News ...

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• 9 January

  Macedonia votes in bid to join NATO, EU

  

  Bloomberg The Republic of Macedonia will try to clear the biggest hurdle to joining NATO and the European Union this month with a decisive vote to change its name that will either open the path to membership or slam the door shut. The former Yugoslav state is at the centre of a tussle for influence over Europe’s most volatile region. ...

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• 9 January

  Japan, South Korea seek talks over ‘forced labour’

  Bloomberg Japan’s Foreign Ministry summoned the South Korean ambassador to seek talks in an escalating standoff over forced labour claims that it has said risks undermining the legal basis for relations between the neighbours. The ministry summoned Ambassador Lee Su-hoon after a South Korean court this week approved the confiscation of assets in South Korea in a case involving Nippon ...

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• 9 January

  Kenya party rift risks ethnic tensions

  

  Bloomberg An alliance that helped deliver Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta two terms in office is fracturing, reviving tensions in the country’s Rift Valley region that was wracked by widespread violence a decade ago. The deputy chairman of the ruling Jubilee Party stepped down after saying Deputy President William Ruto shouldn’t be allowed to succeed Kenyatta. That undermines an arrangement in ...

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• 9 January

  Germany and France bolster cooperation to counter fraying Europe

  

  Bloomberg Germany and France will deepen their 55-year-old alliance as the main defenders of European Union cooperation seek to counter forces tearing at the bloc’s bonds. Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron will sign a treaty in the German border town of Aachen on January 22. The pact, which was signed off by Merkel’s cabinet, calls for joint ...

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• 9 January

  Stocks climb amid optimism over US-China ‘agreement’

  

  Bloomberg Stocks rose globally after the US and China concluded three days of trade talks and appeared to be closer to agreement on a number of areas. The dollar dipped and Treasuries were steady as investors awaited the release of minutes from the Federal Reserve’s December meeting, which may offer insight into the decision to raise rates and the pace ...

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• 9 January

  Indian stocks head for tough year ahead

  

  Bloomberg The party’s over for Indian equities, with stocks headed for another tough year as a shrinking global cash pool dims prospects of an improving economy and expected recovery in company earnings boosting stocks, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch. “Imagine you are at a New Year party and happy to find out that there’s more room to dance ...

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• 9 January

  China car sales fall for first time in 20 years

  

  Bloomberg The growth engine for the world’s car industry has been thrown into reverse, with China recording the first annual slump in auto sales in at more than two decades and more pain predicted in 2019. Sales in the world’s biggest market fell 6 percent to 22.7 million units last year, the first annual decline in at least two decades, ...

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• 9 January

  China Road wins $134mn bridge tender

  Bloomberg China Road & Bridge Corp won a tender for 77 billion CFA francs ($134 million) to build a bridge in the West African nation’s commercial capital, Abidjan. The contract is part of the $700 million Cocody Bay precinct project, the presidency said in a statement published in the state-owned Fraternite Matin newspaper. Funded by the Islamic Development Bank, it ...

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