August, 2018

• 13 August

  UK house prices are on the longest losing streak since crisis

  

  Bloomberg UK house prices fell for a fifth month in a row in July, the longest stretch of declines since the financial crisis. Values fell 0.2 percent from June, bringing the average price for a home to $386,000, Acadata said in a report. London remains a “mixed picture,” with the number of sales in the second quarter falling by 7 ...

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• 13 August

  Audi’s Stadler likely turned blind eye to rigging, says court

  

  Bloomberg Suspended Audi Chief Executive Officer Rupert Stadler lost a bid to end his detention in jail, with a German court saying that there is strong evidence that he turned a blind eye to the corporate shenanigans at the heart of the car company’s global diesel scandal. Stadler’s bid to be released from jail after more than seven weeks was ...

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• 13 August

  S Korea’s Moon to meet Kim in Pyongyang amid US tensions

  

  Bloomberg North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and South Korea’s Moon Jae-in agreed to hold their third meeting this year, as they seek to preserve a detente tested by disputes between Pyongyang and Washington. The two Koreas announced plans on Monday for Moon to visit the North Korean capital next month, the first such trip since 2007. A joint statement issued ...

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• 13 August

  Mali officials start vote count in presidential poll seen as peaceful

  Bloomberg Election officials in Mali are due to start counting ballot papers after a presidential runoff that observers say was mostly peaceful, even as sporadic incidents of violence broke out in regions where the nation is battling militancy. Voters decided whether President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita should win a second five-year mandate after securing 41 percent of the votes in the ...

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• 13 August

  With one eye on Syria, Israel reluctantly seeks Gaza truce

  

  Bloomberg As public pressure mounts on Israeli leaders to crush rocket barrages from the Gaza Strip, they’re opting to try the diplomatic route while a greater threat looms: Iran’s presence in postwar Syria. To keep his military focussed on the northern front, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pursuing a long-term truce with Hamas, the militant group that rules the Gaza ...

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• 13 August

  Di Maio: Italy is not exposed to speculators’ attacks

  

  Bloomberg Italian Deputy PM Luigi Di Maio says the country won’t be subject to an attack by speculators, after a leading figure from his coalition partner said the Italian and European establishment want to “abort” Italy’s populist government. “I don’t see a real risk that this government will be attacked, it’s more a wish of the opposition,” Di Maio said ...

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• 13 August

  Tunisia backs equal inheritance for women in break with region

  Bloomberg Tunisia’s president backed a call for women to be granted equal inheritance rights, breaking with a legal code followed in many Muslim nations that strongly favours male heirs. The proposal, laid out by Beji Caid Essebsi in a televised address marking national women’s day, was first suggested by a committee which had deliberated on the issue for about a ...

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• 13 August

  European nations get serious about buying LNG from US

  

  Bloomberg European nations are far behind Mexico and China when it comes to receiving liquefied natural gas from the US, but the region is making its biggest effort to date to change that. European Commission trade officials will travel to Washington on August 20 to follow up on an energy agreement last month between the Commission’s President Jean-Claude Juncker and ...

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• 13 August

  Saudi fund PIF in talks to invest in Tesla buyout deal

  

  Bloomberg Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund is in talks that could see it becoming a significant investor in Tesla as part of Elon Musk’s plan to take the electric car maker private, according to a person with direct knowledge of the fund’s plans. The Public Investment Fund (PIF), which has built up a stake just shy of 5 percent in ...

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• 13 August

  The battery boom could end up burning some investors

  

  Bloomberg Some of the latest battery technologies may become obsolete before reaching the market because of the breakneck pace of advances in the industry. Teams of scientists from San Francisco to Shenzhen are experimenting with new chemical processes to improve the traditional lithium-ion cell and find new ways to bottle up electricity for use at another time. Investors in those ...

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