August, 2018

• 29 August

  Japan’s PM Abe pushes fast constitution change in election pamphlet

  

  Bloomberg Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is pledging to move quickly towards changing Japan’s constitution, according to an internal campaign pamphlet seen by Bloomberg News, ensuring the divisive proposal is a key part of his bid for a historic third straight term as ruling party leader. Abe intends to have the Liberal Democratic Party submit the amendment in the next parliament ...

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• 29 August

  UK and EU drop October deadline for Brexit deal

  

  Bloomberg The UK and the European Union still say in public they want a Brexit deal wrapped up in the next seven weeks. Behind the scenes, though, senior officials on both sides admit this is unlikely. They now aim to finalise divorce terms by the middle of November at the latest, according to people familiar with the British and European ...

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• 29 August

  Macron hits Orban, Salvini over populist future

  

  Bloomberg French President Emmanuel Macron joined a challenge issued by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, saying that Europe’s populist forces were right to see him as their “main opponent.” Macron was speaking after Orban and Italy’s Matteo Salvini met in Milan to discuss creating a united front of Europe’s anti-immigrant political forces ahead of elections to the European Parliament next ...

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• 29 August

  Mattis says US won’t suspend more S Korea military drills

  Bloomberg The US doesn’t plan to suspend more joint military drills with South Korean forces, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said, amid reports that North Korea was rejecting American demands for Kim Jong-un to give up his nuclear warheads. “We have no plans at this time to suspend any more exercises,” Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon, adding that the Defense ...

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• 29 August

  Toyota to target tripling China production over next decade

  

  Bloomberg Toyota Motor Corp. is aiming to triple car production in China by as soon as 2030 in a renewed push to make up lost ground in the world’s biggest market, according to people familiar with the plan. Asia’s largest automaker is targeting to manufacture 3.5 million vehicles annually in China around that year while boosting imports to the country ...

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• 29 August

  Tencent-backed EV maker seeks valuation above $8 billion in IPO

  

  Bloomberg NIO Inc., the Chinese electric-car maker backed by Tencent Holdings Ltd., is planning a US initial public offering that would give it a valuation topping $8 billion as it gears up to take on the likes of Tesla Inc. The company is aiming to raise as much as $1.3 billion, offering 160 million American depositary shares at $6.25 to ...

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• 29 August

  Bali to await elite as volcano rumbles

  

  Bloomberg Jerome Powell’s upcoming Asia visit will test the Federal Reserve chief’s appetite for risk on a far different scale to the US economy. As Indonesia prepares to host the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group annual meeting on the island of Bali in October, authorities are planning for all sorts of potential natural disasters from earthquakes to tsunamis, ...

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• 29 August

  China’s Didi vows changes after passenger killings

  

  Bloomberg China’s ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing issued a public letter of apology and said it would prioritise safety over growth after a second passenger in three months was allegedly murdered by a driver while using its services. “Today, Didi will stop using scale and growth as our measurement of success,” the company said in a statement from Chairman Cheng Wei ...

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• 29 August

  Fingerprints, eye scans coming for 106 million Filipinos

  

  Bloomberg Mayalyn Magracia is one of millions of undocumented Filipinos. “Like an alien,” is how the housekeeper in Manila describes what she felt when she discovered she had no birth record. That was over a decade ago, when Magracia hoped to find work in a factory or restaurant. Having no birth certificate made it impossible to apply for a government-issued ...

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• 29 August

  US-Mexico pact could turn tables on China

  

  When President Donald Trump announced a trade pact with Mexico to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement, attention immediately turned to Canada. But it’s in China — which wasn’t mentioned — that the greatest impact could be felt. In abandoning Nafta, the US appears to be moving towards a single trade bloc that might also embrace Canada. The Mexico ...

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