December, 2018

• 15 December

  Japan gender bias report deals new blow to Abe agenda

  

  Bloomberg Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s pledge to empower women hit a fresh obstacle as more evidence was released of ‘admissions policies’ at the nation’s medical schools. Three of Japan’s 81 medical schools manipulated their admissions systems to exclude women, while another is suspected of doing so, according to an Education Ministry report. Another six were cited for unfair practices ...

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• 15 December

  US resists IMF funding boost

  

  Bloomberg The US is opposing an increase to the IMF’s permanent capital levels, President Donald Trump’s latest snub of multilateral organisations as he pursues his “America First” foreign policy. The International Monetary Fund is examining its capital levels under a regularly scheduled review. The Washington-based fund is mostly financed by shares, known as quotas, paid by its 189 member nations. ...

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• 15 December

  American farm sector pushes for agriculture to be part of EU talks

  

  Bloomberg US farmers and ranchers want the Trump administration to include agriculture in trade talks with the European Union, an approach officials in Brussels are reluctant to take. President Donald Trump notified Congress in October that his administration plans to negotiate trade pacts with the EU starting as early as mid-January, as well as hold talks for separate deals with ...

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• 15 December

  GAM to post $931mn loss, cut jobs

  

  Bloomberg GAM Holding AG forecast a large loss, scrapped its dividend and plans to eliminate 10 percent of jobs as the firm struggles to contain a scandal prompted by the suspension of a star fund manager. Shares of the Swiss asset manager fell as much as 17 percent after the company outlined a 925 million-franc ($931 million) loss for the ...

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• 15 December

  Brexit drives UK housing to weakest in six years

  

  Bloomberg The Brexit battering of the UK housing market has no end in sight. An index of prices by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors slipped in November to the weakest level since 2012, while the outlook for pricing and sales for the next three month slumped. The persistent uncertainty around Britain’s impending exit from the European Union was the ...

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• 15 December

  Blackstone, KKR vie for $1bn Cosco terminal

  

  Bloomberg Cosco Shipping Holdings Co’s sale of a container terminal in Long Beach, California has drawn interest from potential buyers including Blackstone Group LP and KKR & Co, people familiar with the matter said. EQT Partners and an arm of Macquarie Group Ltd have also been studying a deal for the asset, the people said, asking not to be identified ...

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• 15 December

  J&J ready to pay more than $400 million in hip cases

  

  Bloomberg Johnson & Johnson is willing to pay more than $400 million to settle some of the thousands of consumers’ allegations that the company sold defective artificial hips and hid the health risks of the devices, people familiar with the negotiations said. The world’s largest health-care products maker has settled, or is in the process of settling, about 3,300 of ...

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• 15 December

  Second Brexit vote gaining traction to end gridlock

  

  Bloomberg In the corridors of the UK Parliament, an idea that four months ago seemed laughable is now being seriously discussed. Is another referendum a way out of the Brexit deadlock? Speaking privately, some ministers raise it unprompted. At a press conference, leaders of the smaller opposition parties urged the government to consider it as a contingency worth preparing for. ...

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• 15 December

  New army in Kosovo raises Balkan stakes

  

  Bloomberg Kosovo lawmakers adopted a set of laws to upgrade its lightly armed troops into a formidable force, which neighbouring Serbia sees as security threat and an obstacle to normalising ties between the two Balkan nations. Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic demanded an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council after the Kosovo’s parliament ignored objections from ethnic Serb ...

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• 15 December

  Yellow Vests protest started in relative calm

  

  Bloomberg A fifth weekend of protests by France’s Yellow Vests movement started in relative calm in Paris, with police arresting several dozen people in the capital compared with hundreds a week earlier. As protesters gathered in front of the opera house and on the Champs-Elysees avenue in central Paris, police used tear gas to prevent a small breakaway group from ...

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