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Bloomberg An association of independent mailbox-store owners is forming a national network for receiving e-commerce packages, seeking to add a layer of security for consumers while capitalising on the surge of online shopping. Retail Shipping Associates (RSA) plans to announce an effort to organise the group’s stores under a national brand called the Package Hub Business Center, which consumers would …

Abu Dhabi / Emirates Business Etisalat announced the launch of its double data offer providing existing and new postpaid customers twice as much data on their ‘Freedom’ plans. Etisalat Freedom plan customers who joined on April 1 onwards will automatically get their data doubled upto 200GB as part of the limited time promotion. New and existing Etisalat customers can take …

Bloomberg When a Chinese state-owned survey vessel sailed into waters off Vietnam’s coast in early July, it unleashed a high-seas standoff with trillions of dollars at stake that risks drawing in Russia and the US. For weeks now the Haiyang Dizhi 8 has zigzagged across a square block of water to study the seabed in an active drilling block operated …

Bloomberg French President Emmanuel Macron is calling on container lines to avoid using a new Arctic shipping route to protect the environment. Speaking at the start of the Group of Seven summit in Biarritz in southwest France on Saturday, Macron said France’s biggest shipping line, CMA CGM, has committed not to use the so-called Northern Sea Route being promoted by …

Bloomberg It’s getting tougher to bet on oil in the age of Trump trade tweets and Chinese retaliation, with hedge funds getting it wrong for a seventh time in nine weeks. This time around, short-sellers made their biggest retreat in a year in week ended August 20, slashing by 25% their wagers that West Texas Intermediate crude would decline, data …

Bloomberg A Nigerian high court ordered the government to renew Shell Petroleum Development Co.’s operating license for the Oil Mineral Lease 11 field, which was withdrawn earlier this year, Lagos-based Punch newspaper reported. The Federal High Court in Abuja, ordered the license be renewed for maximum 20 years, and not 30 years the oil major was seeking, the newspaper reported. …

Bloomberg Apple Inc is readying a clutch of new hardware for the coming weeks and months, including “Pro” iPhones, upgrades to iPads and its largest laptop in years. The Cupertino, California-based technology giant is planning to announce three new iPhones at an event next month, according to people familiar with the situation. The handsets will likely go on sale in …

Bloomberg Sequoia-backed PlusAI Inc is close to raising about $200 million in new funds at a valuation of more than $1 billion to bankroll its development in autonomous trucks, according to people familiar with the matter. The self-driving truck startup is working with advisers on the funding round with plans to set up a joint venture with one of the …

Bloomberg When athletes and organisers descend on Tokyo for the 2020 Olympic Games, they’ll be ferried around in autonomous cars, while torch relay runners will be accompanied by AI-equipped cars. Robots will ferry javelins and hammers. All told, Toyota Motor Corp will provide 3,700 vehicles, including dozens of self-driving cars, about 500 fuel-cell vehicles and 850 battery-electric cars to the …

Bloomberg Mark Carney laid out a radical proposal for an overhaul of the global financial system that would eventually replace the dollar as a reserve currency with a Libra-like virtual one. Just a few months before he steps down as Bank of England governor, Carney offered his vision for the international economy at a time of sweeping change. Trade wars …