London house prices fall less than usual, says Rightmove

Bloomberg London house prices fell less than usual this month as sellers held back in a sign that the market may be stabilising, according to Rightmove. Home values in greater London slipped 0.2 percent, compared with an average 0.6 percent drop for July over the past five years, the property website said. From a year ago, prices slid 1.7 percent ...

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UK lawmakers call on government to issue review on Huawei

Bloomberg A UK parliamentary committee called on the government to publish a delayed review into the role of Huawei Technologies Ltd by the end of August, saying there could be reasons to ban the Chinese company from Britain’s phone networks. The Science and Technology Committee decided there was no technical reason to ban Huawei entirely from the UK’s infrastructure, but ...

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Trump ‘go back’ tweet condemned as racist

Bloomberg President Donald Trump was accused of being racist and divisive by many Democrats after suggesting that four female Democratic lawmakers, led by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, should return to the “broken and crime infested places from which they came.” Three of the four women Trump was apparently referencing were born in the US; none is white. The comments ...

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Zuma says he’s victim as he faces probe

Bloomberg Former South African President Jacob Zuma rejected a slew of allegations that he aided and abetted graft during his almost nine years in office and claimed he was the victim of a conspiracy by foreign and domestic intelligence agencies intent on ousting and discrediting him. “I have been the subject of talk in this country for more than a ...

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Merkel’s ally pushes for votes to take top EU job

Bloomberg Ursula von der Leyen’s two-week dash to secure the most powerful policy-making job in the European Union may end with a photo finish. Unexpectedly tapped to head the European Commission after weeks of grueling negotiations by national leaders, the German defense minister and ally of Chancellor Angela Merkel is chasing support among left-leaning factions to put her over the ...

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Italy can’t stop talking about Salvini’s Russia tape scandal

Bloomberg Matteo Salvini, the euroskeptic strongman of Italian politics, can’t seem to shut down a scandal over alleged illegal financing from Russia. The deputy prime minister has been trying to distance himself from a close ally, Gianluca Savoini, who was recorded apparently soliciting illegal party funding from three Russians, according to a report by Buzzfeed News. The story has dominated ...

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Why China can’t get its economy moving

China’s new GDP numbers show that the world’s second-biggest economy is growing more slowly than at any time since the early 1990s. Chinese leaders know what they need to do to arrest the slide: pump more credit into private companies, which generate the majority of jobs and growth. The fact that growth isn’t picking up regardless of their efforts would ...

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Weaker currency won’t help Australia

Not everybody is observing the supposed ceasefire in the currency wars. The Reserve Bank of Australia lowered rates by 25 basis points each in June and July. The moves were ostensibly intended to ease monetary conditions and boost flagging growth. Their unstated purpose was to bring down the value of the Australian dollar. Since the currency rate was floated in ...

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Regulators asking wrong questions about ETFs

The European Systemic Risk Board, which was created to prevent a repeat of the financial crisis, is out with a new report examining exchange-traded funds. It’s worthy endeavour, given that the market for ETF’s has grown to $5.6 trillion, raising questions about whether these vehicles have the potential spark another crisis despite being created at the urging of the US ...

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Apple pays the price to stay at bleeding edge

Apple Inc. looks like it may put down close to $1 billion just to keep its devices at the leading edge. Japan Display Inc., one of its key providers of screens, said it would get up to $400 million from bailout partner Harvest Tech Investment Management Co. Nestled into its two-page stock exchange statement was the revelation that the funding ...

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