TRANSPORTATION
Uber to tout public transport
Ride-hailing app Uber yesterday said it was joining a global public transport association to improve mobility in the cities it operates in. Uber also said it was joining the International Association of Public Transportation (UITP) to connect more people to public transport. Aligning the company with public transport authorities is a good way to make Uber a better partner for cities, Uber head of transportation policy and research Andrew Salzberg said. UITP represents public transport providers around the world, including Transport for London, which in September stripped Uber of its operating license.
INTERNET
Facebook expands UK staff
Facebook Inc is to hire 800 new staff in London, expanding its UK headquarters despite coming under increasing scrutiny from the nation’s lawmakers. The new hires — predominately in engineering roles and to be recruited over the next year — would bring the number of staff working for Facebook in the UK to 2,300. Facebook’s expansion comes at a time when Britain is so alarmed by the extent and scale of Russian interference in UK politics via social media networks that its lawmakers are getting ready to interrogate Silicon Valley giants — including Facebook and Twitter Inc — in Washington.
GAMBLING
Crown hit with class action
Australian gambling giant Crown was yesterday hit with a class action after 18 employees were arrested in China, alleging it did not give shareholders enough information about the risks being taken. The employees, who pleaded guilty, were held for 10 months on charges of luring rich Chinese to Australia, before being released in August. The case hurt the James Packer-controlled casino operator’s high-roller revenues, with anti-corruption laws in China banning organizing gambling activities overseas for wealthy Chinese. Class action specialists Maurice Blackburn Lawyers said the case on behalf of hundreds of investors centered on a sharp share price drop of almost 14 percent when news of the arrests emerged.
UNITED STATES
NAFTA rewrite impact feared
Economists expect a tax overhaul to provide a modest boost to the US economy, but are increasingly worried that a rewrite of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) would take a toll on growth. A National Association of Business Economics (NABE) survey found that forecasters expect tax law changes to add 0.2 percentage points of growth to the US economy, down slightly from what they expected in the previous NABE survey in September. The survey was taken from Nov. 6 to Nov. 15, before the Senate passed a major tax overhaul early on Saturday. Forty-six percent of 51 panelists believe the renegotiation of NAFTA would do at least some damage to the US economy, up from 27 percent in September.
CHINA
Banking stress indicator falls
A warning indicator for banking stress in China fell for a fifth straight quarter, signaling that Beijing’s drive to squeeze risk from the financial system is making progress. China’s credit-to-gross domestic product “gap” declined to 18.9 percent in the second quarter from 22.1 percent in the first three months of this year, according to data released on Sunday by the Bank for International Settlements. That is down from a high of 28.8 percent in the first quarter of last year.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
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