Bloomberg Hong Kong introduced the city’s toughest public-gathering restrictions in months and decided to send civil servants back to work-from-home arrangements as the government steps up efforts to contain the latest wave of coronavirus infections in the Asian financial hub. Public gatherings will be limited to two people, including at restaurant tables and at sports venues, Chief Executive Carrie Lam ...
Read More »Australia demands China apology for ‘Afghan tweet’
Bloomberg Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he was seeking an apology from China after a diplomat in Beijing tweeted an image purporting to show an Australian soldier holding a knife to the throat of an Afghan child. The tweet, posted by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, was “repugnant,†Morrison told reporters in Canberra on Monday. The Australian premier ...
Read More »Biden, Harris all set to receive their first intelligence briefings
Bloomberg President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris were expected to receive on Monday the same daily intelligence briefing that President Donald Trump gets, belatedly beginning the transition between leaders of some of the nation’s most sensitive secrets. The President’s Daily Briefing has been offered to every president-elect since Richard Nixon in 1968, often the morning after Election Day. ...
Read More »Rebel Ethiopian leader vows to fight on
Bloomberg The leader of Ethiopia’s dissident Tigray state vowed to fight on after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said federal forces regained full control of the region. Ethiopia’s army captured the Tigray capital of Mekelle, after almost a month of fighting that’s left hundreds of people dead and forced tens of thousands more to flee their homes. The authorities are now ...
Read More »Centrists win biggest Brazilian cities in polls
Bloomberg Brazil’s two biggest cities will be governed by centrist mayors who defeated President Jair Bolsonaro’s candidates in nationwide municipal elections, consolidating the return of more moderate political actors following a conservative wave that swept the country two years ago. Brazilians went to the polls to choose mayors for Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and 55 of the country’s 5,500 ...
Read More »Poland upset with EU over budget
Bloomberg The Polish government is getting increasingly upset with European Union efforts to add conditions to budget funding, but the issue isn’t enough for them to consider quitting the bloc, a deputy minister said. While Hungary and Poland have long flouted democratic values that other European countries hold dear, officials in Brussels have struggled to discipline them as each can ...
Read More »Johnson battles to win over UK Conservatives
Bloomberg Boris Johnson is battling to convince his own Conservative Party colleagues to back plans to keep most of England under strict pandemic controls when the national lockdown ends this week. Ministers on Monday were expected to publish analysis of the health, economic and social impacts of the pandemic and the measures taken to suppress the disease, before a scheduled ...
Read More »Apple suppliers’ China exodus not to slow down under Biden
Bloomberg The splintering of the global tech supply chain that began during President Donald Trump’s watch looks set to persist under his successor. Apple Inc, the largest of the many tech giants that rely on Chinese factories to make their gadgets, will move some production of its iPads and MacBooks to Vietnam. Key assembly partner Hon Hai Precision Industry Co, ...
Read More »HSBC contemplates complete exit from US retail banking
Bloomberg HSBC Holdings Plc is considering offloading its struggling retail network in the US, a market the British bank has called one of its biggest strategic challenges. The bank’s management is looking at a complete withdrawal from its retail operations in the country, although a full exit from other businesses in the US is unlikely, according to a person familiar ...
Read More »UK bans installation of Huawei 5G equipment from September
Bloomberg The UK will ban the installation of 5G equipment from China’s Huawei Technologies Co by the end of next September. The restriction is part of an “initial†250 million-pound ($333 million) package of measures brought in to diversify Britain’s wireless supply chain announced by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. The stricter rules may also help fend ...
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