Bloomberg India’s business titans are facing a worrying new development: in recent weeks, shadow lenders have been cutting them off from a key financing channel. Company founders have long fueled dreams to expand their business empires with loans they get by pledging stakes in their firms. But recent scares have prompted at least two major shadow banks to turn off ...
Read More »Murk around no-deal Brexit tariffs confounds business
Bloomberg Confusion around which goods will be subjected to UK import tariffs in a no-deal Brexit is exasperating companies as they seek to finalise preparations for the split. The government will reveal details of the plan only if Prime Minister Theresa May’s deal to quit the European Union is rejected by Parliament next week, an official said, without providing a ...
Read More »Canadian job market is off to best start to a year since 1981
Bloomberg Canada’s economy posted its second-straight surprise job surge, making the labour market a lone bright spot for an economy in the middle of a sharp slowdown. Employment increased by 55,900 in February, all full-time jobs, Statistics Canada said in Ottawa, building on a 66,800 gain in January. The two-month gain is the best start to a year since 1981. ...
Read More »Spotify, Google appeal ruling that boosted songwriter payments
Bloomberg Spotify Technology SA and other technology giants appealed a ruling that increased the royalties they must pay to songwriters, a move that threatens to further damage the companies’ already-tenuous relationship with the music industry. Songwriters celebrated last year when the Copyright Royalty Board ruled that they will get at least a 15.1 percent share of streaming revenues over the ...
Read More »Global risks threaten to choke off Europe’s growth engine
Bloomberg The command center at the Otto Junker GmbH metals plant stands in sharp contrast to the noisy and smelly factory floor, where until just a few weeks ago workers operated various machines individually. The new digs are quiet, there’s no oil stench, and there’s even room for a coffee maker. The downside? The control room boss may end up ...
Read More »Venezuelans protest Maduro again as impatience swells
Bloomberg The fight for the future of Venezuela re-opened on the streets of its capital, with electricity flickering in-and-out around the country for most of the last three days. Juan Guaido, the challenger to President Nicolas Maduro, brought thousands of supporters to the streets of Caracas, though fewer showed up than in late January after the National Assembly he heads ...
Read More »Pakistan violated truce deal in Kashmir: India
Bloomberg India said Pakistani forces violated a cease-fire agreement along the Line of Control in Kashmir, and accused its neighbour of failing to take credible action against terror groups. There was shelling with mortars and the firing of small arms by Pakistan in the early hours of Sunday, and India “retaliated befittingly,” according to an Indian defense official. The Indian ...
Read More »Algeria army, people share unified vision: Military chief
Bloomberg Algeria’s people and the army share the same vision for the country’s future, the military chief of staff said on Sunday, in an apparent overture to thousands protesting the re-election bid of the country’s aging president.The military and the people “are partners in one destiny,†General Ahmed Gaid Salah said in his first comments since the biggest protests yet ...
Read More »India announces poll dates as Modi fights to retain power
Bloomberg India will hold elections from April to May to decide whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi wins a second term as leader of the world’s largest democracy. Around 900 million voters — 84 million more than in 2014 — will elect 543 lawmakers to the lower house of parliament, the chief election commissioner Sunil Arora said. Voting will run in ...
Read More »N Koreans vote in rubber-stamp election
Bloomberg North Koreans cast their votes on Sunday in a parliamentary election that comes as leader Kim Jong-un faces mounting pressure to demonstrate his ability to cope with the international sanctions squeezing his country. The regime holds elections every five years to pick representatives to the Supreme People’s Assembly — North Korea’s rubber stamp parliament — with the last one ...
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