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Bloomberg Southeast Asia’s internet economy, spanning online travel to ride-hailing, will reach $50 billion this year, putting it on a solid trajectory to grow fourfold by 2025, according to a joint research report by Google and Temasek Holdings Pte. As more consumers buy airline tickets and book hotels through smartphones, the region’s online travel market expanded from $19.1 billion in ...

Bloomberg Toshiba Corp. and Western Digital Corp. have agreed in principle to settle their legal dispute over the $18 billion sale of Toshiba’s flash-memory business with a nannouncement expected within the next 24 hours, according to people familiar with the matter. The US company will drop arbitration claims in the US that were aimed at stopping Toshiba from selling the ...

Bloomberg India’s adoption of its first nationwide identification system is helping empower the country’s women and driving increased use of banking services, according to the first study of the nationwide Aadhaar programme. Virtually all homes in the western state of Rajasthan have at least one bank account, and most have several, since the introduction of the Aadhaar programme, the Center ...

Bloomberg International Trade Secretary Liam Fox said the UK would like a trading relationship with the European Union after it leaves the bloc that’s “virtually identical” to the one it has now. A trade deal similar to the current arrangements would ensure a smooth transition period, Fox said in in Buenos Aires while attending a World Trade Organization ministerial meeting. ...

Bloomberg Does the US run a trade deficit or surplus with Canada? It depends where you look. President Donald Trump asserted—again—the US runs “a pretty good trade deficit” with Canada. The claim was quickly rebuffed by Canada’s ambassador to the US, David MacNaughton, who cited American data saying the opposite was true. Canadian officials tend to use US data to ...

Bloomberg Walt Disney Co. may announce a deal as soon as this week to acquire a large piece of 21st Century Fox Inc., according to a person familiar with the matter, transferring legendary Hollywood properties to new owners. Comcast Corp., the other major contender for the Fox assets, said it’s no longer in the running. A trust belonging to Fox ...

Bloomberg UK inflation unexpectedly accelerated to the fastest in more than 5 1/2 years in November, which will force Bank of England Governor Mark Carney to explain why price growth is so far above his policy target. The 3.1 percent rate was stronger than economists had forecast and the highest since March 2012. The Office for National Statistics said that ...

Bloomberg Cyrus Massoumi spent the last few years building exactly what he thought would thrive on Facebook: A series of inflammatory conservative websites, finely tuned to produce the most viral and outrageous version of the news. The social network rewarded him with an audience. Facebook Inc. now wants something different. Reacting to concerns about how fake news spread on its ...

Bloomberg Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should be allowed to run for re-election, Russia’s top envoy for Syria said, dismissing Western efforts to condition reconstruction aid on the departure of the leader. “I don’t see why he shouldn’t or wouldn’t run for another presidential term,” Alexander Lav- rentiev, appointed by the Krem- lin to steer the Syria peace process, told Bloomberg ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump said that Monday’s New York City bombing shows the urgency of tightening immigration laws as his spokeswoman argued the administration’s policies would have kept the suspect out of the country. “America must fix its lax immigration system, which allows far too many dangerous, inadequately vetted people to access our country,” Trump said in a written statement. ...