Bloomberg China’s industrial firms are doing much better this year than in 2020, but the improvement in profits is patchy, with miners and raw material providers benefiting from higher commodity prices at the expense of manufacturers. In the first 11 months of the year, industrial profits climbed 38% from a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday. ...
Read More »Russia plans security talks with US before Nato meeting
Bloomberg Russia will start talks first with the US on its demands for guarantees of an end to Nato’s eastward expansion before a proposed January 12 meeting between the military alliance and Moscow, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. “We will hold the main round of negotiations with the US which will take place immediately after the end of the ...
Read More »Israel approves plan to double Jewish settlement in Golan
Bloomberg Israel’s cabinet approved a plan to double the Jewish population in the southern Golan Heights, part of a 1 billion-shekel ($317 million) program meant to cement Israeli control over the territory, captured from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war. About half of the funds will be allocated to planning and housing, and the balance to developing transportation, ...
Read More »Taliban aims to boost exports to ease crisis as foreign aid ends
Bloomberg The Taliban administration is working to boost exports to save the Afghan economy from collapse, with a government official saying international humanitarian aid alone won’t prevent the country from slipping deeper into poverty. “Humanitarian aid cannot solve Afghanistan’s economic problems. The only way to achieve economic self-sufficiency is to boost domestic products and export them abroad,†the Taliban ...
Read More »Desmond Tutu, apartheid opponent who won nobel prize, dies aged 90
Bloomberg Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his opposition to racial discrimination in South Africa, has died. He was 90. Tutu died on Sunday in Cape Town, President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office said in a statement. He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1997 and underwent surgery. Tutu was subsequently hospitalized several times to undergo treatment ...
Read More »Polish president vetoes media bill, bending to US pressure
Bloomberg Poland’s President Andrzej Duda vetoed a bill that would force Discovery Inc. to sell most of the country’s most popular private television network, defusing a row that strained relations with the US. The bill, adopted in a surprise parliamentary vote on December 17, blindsided Washington and sent thousands of Poles to the streets in protest over what they ...
Read More »PBOC to make monetary policy more forward-looking, targeted
Bloomberg China’s central bank pledged greater support for the real economy, and said that it will make monetary policy more forward-looking and targeted. There will be more “proactive†use of monetary policy tools, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said in a statement. It added that there will be “good use†of the monetary policy tools’ quantitative and structural ...
Read More »Morgan Stanley tells staff to wear masks, limit big meetings
Bloomberg Morgan Stanley told employees who have to be in the office through the first two weeks of January to wear face coverings when not at their desks and limit large in-person meetings. “This guidance applies to all locations (even those where everyone is fully vaccinated),†the New York-based bank said in a memo to staffers this week. “Masking ...
Read More »HSBC to buy L&T Investment Management for $425 million
Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc has said it will buy the investment management unit of India’s L&T Finance Holdings Ltd, the latest push to build up the Asian wealth and investment business that is at the forefront of the bank’s turnaround plans. The London-headquartered lender said it had agreed terms to acquire L&T Investment Management, which had looked destined to ...
Read More »UBS appeals $2 billion tax penalty at French court
Bloomberg UBS Group AG appealed a court verdict that it helped wealthy French clients stash undeclared funds in Swiss accounts, prolonging a period of legal uncertainty in seven-year old case. The Zurich-based bank filed an appeal with the French Supreme Court regarding the ruling, according to a statement. It had five days from the judgement last week to make ...
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