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Excerpt from www.law360.com
Three insurers have told a California federal court they owe no coverage to Chevron under separate marine cargo and war risks policies after the oil giant said the Iranian military seized…
World Market
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Excerpt from www.japantimes.co.jp
U.S. President Joe Biden’s bid to draw Vietnam closer as a strategic ally clashed with his desire for union workers’ votes on Wednesday as trade lawyers sparred over whether the Commerce Department should upgrade the communist-ruled country to market economy status.
The move, opposed by U.S. steelmakers, Gulf Coast shrimpers and American honey farmers, but backed by retailers and some other business groups, would reduce the punitive anti-dumping duties set on Vietnamese imports because of its current status as a non-market economy marked by heavy state influence.
Vietnam’s deepening economic ties to China loomed large in arguments on both sides of the issue at a virtual public hearing hosted by the Commerce Department as part of a review. A decision is due on July 26.
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Excerpt from www.ctvnews.ca
Prices in Argentina have surged so dramatically in recent months that the government has multiplied the size of its biggest bank note in circulation by five — to 10,000 pesos, worth about US$10.
The central bank announcement Tuesday promised to lighten the load for many Argentines who must carry around giant bags — occasionally, suitcases — stuffed with cash for simple transactions. Argentina’s annual inflation rate reached 287 per cent in March, among the highest in the world.
The new denomination note — five times the value of the previous biggest bill — is expected to hit the streets next month in a bid to “facilitate transactions between users,” the central bank said. The 10,000 peso note is worth US$11 at the country’s official exchange rate and US$9 at the black market exchange rate.
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Excerpt from www.hindustantimes.com
A top PR executive at Chinese internet giant Baidu apologised Thursday after videos she posted online sparked accusations of toxic and abusive management and sent the firm’s shares sliding.
Qu Jing, the vice president in charge of public relations, posted a series of clips this month on video-sharing platform Douyin describing her tough treatment of junior colleagues.
“Why do I have to consider the family of an employee?” she asked in one.
“I am not her mother-in-law!”
“If your boyfriend calls you to ask about breaking up, what does it have to do with me?” Qu demanded in one clip.
“It is not my duty to know whether you are crying or not.”
In a separate clip, Qu attacks an effigy bearing the name of Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post newspaper in an apparent protest against a negative article.
She gloats in another that, while she remembered to buy gifts for colleagues, she forgot her son’s birthday.
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Excerpt from www.theblaze.com
General Motors CEO Mary Barra said that the company will push forward with its operations in China despite a whopping loss in the country in the first quarter of 2024.
Barra recently visited China and promised that GM remained committed to the market, which has been a mainstay for the manufacturer since 1997. A $106 million loss in the first quarter in China was just GM’s third quarterly loss in the far east in the last 15 years, CNBC reported, but the company announced that it expects the numbers to turn around.
GM CFO Paul Jacobson reportedly told investors that the company expects similar or slightly lower than $446 million in profit, which is what it garnered in China in 2023.
However, 2023 was the lowest year for equity income for GM in China since at least 2012, but this has come at a much smaller market share. GM’s percentage of the market has shrunk from nearly 15% down to 8.6% in the last decade, lowering expectations.
Still, 2023’s numbers were more than $230 million lower than 2022, despite only losing 1.2% of the market share in that time. Comparatively, GM’s income in China stayed relatively the same between 2014 and 2018 despite its market share dropping by about 1%.
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Excerpt from amp.scmp.com
After meeting President Xi Jinping at Elysee Palace on Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed Beijing’s commitments to “refrain from selling any weapons or aid” to Russia and to “strictly control” sales of products and technologies that could be used for both civilian and military purposes.
Meanwhile, the commerce ministry’s director of Eurasian affairs, Liu Xuesong, said on Monday that China would “work along with Russia” to tap new sectors for bilateral trade, including in services, the digital economy, and green industry and low-carbonisation development.
A bilateral trade expo will be held from May 16-21 in the northeastern city of Harbin, with a focus on industrials and manufacturing, agriculture, and logistics collaborations.
Both countries “have a solid development on China-Russia crude oil pipelines, the Power of Siberia, the Blagoveshchensk-Heihe Bridge and the Tongjiang-Nizhneleninskoye railway bridge”, Liu said at a press conference.