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Bloomberg Canadian retailers got a boost in February after public-health authorities lifted lockdowns. Retail sales rise 4.0% on the month, preliminary data by Statistics Canada show. The bounce-back comes after a 1.1% drop in receipts in January and a 3.7% decline in December, when many businesses were forced to close because of a second wave of Covid-19 pandemic. But the ...

Bloomberg The US sought to further strengthen defense cooperation with India as part of President Joe Biden’s push to develop closer ties with Asian partners amid widening differences with China. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin held talks with his Indian counterpart Rajnath Singh in New Delhi on Saturday to discuss opportunities to elevate the US-India defense partnership through regional security ...

Bloomberg After the first high-level US-China talks during the Biden administration ended with no agreements, some top former officials in Beijing still saw potential areas of cooperation to move the relationship forward. Speaking during the government-sponsored China Development Forum, top figures including a former vice foreign minister, a senior military adviser and a prominent academic on US-China relations all outlined ...

Bloomberg President Joe Biden called on Congress to send him new legislation on hate crimes and for Americans to “change our hearts” to combat racially motivated attacks on Asian Americans, following the murders of eight people in shootings this week in the Atlanta area. Biden asked lawmakers to send him the Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act to sign, which would improve ...

Bloomberg Australia won’t trade away important principles and values to restart talks with China, Foreign Minister Marise Payne told the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper. A senior aide to US President Joe Biden came out in support of Australia earlier in the week, telling the Chinese government relations between the two superpowers won’t improve until Beijing stops its economic coercion against ...

Bloomberg The European Union (EU) sued the UK for failing to recover illegal tax breaks doled out to multinational firms, in the second legal move against the former member state this week. Authorities still haven’t clawed back all of the 100 million euros ($119 million) in tax breaks aimed at luring multinational firms to the UK territory of Gibraltar, more ...

Bloomberg The French economy is weathering the Covid pandemic and government restrictions better than previously forecast, putting it on a path to stronger growth this year, the Bank of France said. Activity falls less than the central bank initially expected at the end of 2020 as household and business investment held up despite the lockdown in November. The central bank ...

Bloomberg Portugal will continue implementing measures to protect jobs as it eases confinement measures and tries to recover from the deepest slump in decades, Labor Minister Ana Mendes Godinho said. “Our top priority has been the protection of employment,” Mendes Godinho said. “We plan to continue to monitor and reinforce the measures that are needed to protect the income of ...

Bloomberg Greece is set to issue its longest-maturity bonds since 2008, completing the country’s full return to debt markets. The nation is selling 30-year bonds via banks, which could be an opportunity for investors to pick up yields that are likely to be the highest in the euro area. Greece is following others in the region in seizing on low ...

Bloomberg Microsoft Corp. unveiled new technology to boost government and health care organisations’ vaccine management systems, including scheduling shot appointments and monitoring results, to fix shortcomings weeks after the company’s initial custom-built programs ran aground in a few states. The Microsoft Vaccine Management product is made up of features and new apps that the software company said will improve upon ...