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☆ Mass fish die-off in Vietnam as heatwave roasts Southeast Asia
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-02 | by ( Amarachi Orie | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —A mass fish die-off in a reservoir in southern Vietnam’s Dong Nai province has shone a new light on soaring temperatures in Southeast Asia. Fishermen have been working to wade through and collect the hundreds of thousands of dead fish that have blanketed the 300-hectare Song May reservoir amid a ferocious heatwave. Local media has suggested that as many as 200 tons’ worth perished after a failed attempt to renovate the reservoir, according to AFP. A fisherman deep in the reservoir collecting the dead fish surrounding him. Authorities are investigating the mass die-off as efforts continue to remove the dead fish, AFP said.

Persons: “, Nghia, Tuoi Tre Organizations: CNN, Getty, AFP, Nghia, Authorities Locations: Dong Nai, Southeast Asia, Vietnam’s, AFP, Bom, Vinh Cuu

☆ India election 2024: Voters battle extreme temperatures as intense heat wave hits region
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-25 | by ( Helen Regan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

New Delhi CNN —Indian voters are battling sweltering conditions to take part in the world’s biggest election as a severe heat wave hits parts of the country and authorities forecast a hotter-than-normal summer for the South Asian nation. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said a heat wave will affect parts of south and east India until the end of the week, including four states that are voting on Friday. Climate politicsIndia, the world’s most populous nation with 1.4 billion people, often experiences heat waves during the summer months of May and June. But in recent years, they have arrived earlier and become more prolonged, with scientists linking some of these longer and more intense heat waves to the climate crisis. Last year successive heat waves hit India again, closing schools, damaging crops and putting pressure on energy supplies.

Persons: Gandhi Ray, ”, “, Noemi Cassanelli, Narendra Modi, ” Ray, Commision, Aditya Valiathan Pillai, climatologist Maximiliano Herrera Organizations: New, New Delhi CNN —, South, India Meteorological Department, IMD, CNN, National Disaster Management Authority, Bharatiya Janata Party, BJP, Indian National Congress, World Meteorological Organization Locations: New Delhi, India, West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Baripada, Khammam, Banka district, Maharashtra, Pakistan, Mumbai, Bangladesh, Asia, Thailand, Philippines, Mekong, Vietnam

☆ What stalled this year’s seemingly infallible stock market rally
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-19 | by ( Krystal Hur | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Investors had hoped that corporate earnings would help revive the stalled rally, but a strong start to the season hasn’t been enough to excite investors. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 7.10% in the week ending April 18, up from 6.88% the previous week, according to Freddie Mac data released Thursday. Mortgage rates are climbing based on expectations that the Federal Reserve won’t cut interest rates anytime soon. The Fed doesn’t directly set mortgage rates, but its actions do influence them, and persistently hot inflation readings are keeping the Fed on hold. If inflation stalls any further, or even worsens, mortgage rates could climb higher this year.

Persons: —, hasn’t, Jerome Powell, “, ”, Michael Landsberg, Pierre, Olivier Gourinchas, Israel, Brent, Bryan Mena, Freddie Mac, Sam Khater, Freddie Mac’s, Read, Anna Cooban, Tim Cook, Pham Minh Chinh, Cook, Apple “ Organizations: CNN Business, Bell, New York CNN, Dow Jones, Nasdaq, Federal Reserve, Data, Employers, Fed, Landsberg Bennett, Wealth Management, Monetary Fund, Treasury, Investors, CNN, Federal, China Apple, Vietnamese, Apple Locations: New York, East, Iran, Israel, Syria, Vietnam, China, Hanoi, Beijing

☆ Apple plans to spend more in Vietnam as it looks beyond China
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-18 | by ( Anna Cooban | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Apple (AAPL) has already spent almost $16 billion through its supply chain in the country since 2019, the government quoted Cook as saying. According to the statement, Cook said Apple “stands ready … to enhance cooperation and investment activities” in the Southeast Asian country. Nguyen, whose firm manages $6 billion in assets, told CNN that labor costs in Vietnam’s manufacturing sector are about half those in neighboring China. That’s a big draw for foreign tech companies looking to hire workers for their factories, and find consumers for their products. Still, Vietnam represents a far smaller market than India, which has also been wooing large foreign companies, including Tesla (TSLA), to set up factories in the country.

Persons: Tim Cook, Pham Minh Chinh, Cook, Apple “, Thuy Anh, Nguyen, Dan Ives, “ We’re, ”, “, Tuan Hung, Ho, That’s, Ives, Juliana Liu Organizations: London CNN, Apple, Vietnamese, Dragon, CNN, country’s Ministry of Planning, Investment, Wedbush Securities, Intel, Consumer, Monetary Fund Locations: Vietnam, China, Hanoi, Beijing, India, United States, Ho Chi Minh City, Washington, That’s, Europe

☆ Tycoon’s death penalty in $12.5 billion fraud case highlights Vietnam’s corruption crisis
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-12 | by ( Heather Chen | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +12 min

The scale of the fraud was said to be equivalent to roughly 3% of Vietnam’s economy. Though widely considered ceremonial, the presidency is one of the top three positions in Vietnam’s political hierarchy after the CPV’s Secretary General, currently Nguyen Phu Trong. In fact, the International Monetary Fund expects Vietnam’s economy to grow by 5.8% this year, compared to 4.6% for China. Their fate remains unclear, given the highly secretive nature of Vietnam’s political system. But Vietnamese political experts said a permanent appointment would not end the instability.

Persons: Truong My Lan, Van Thinh, siphoned, “, Eric Chu, Vietnam’s, Vo Van, Trong, Thuong, Vo Van Thuong, Richard A, Brooks, Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Pham Binh, Le Hong Hiep, Yusof, ” Hiep, ”, Thu, General Trong, Xi Jinping, ” Zachary Abuza, Salt Bae, Lam, ” Abuza, Nguyen Phu Trong, Evelyn Hockstein, Abuza, Bui Thanh Soh, ” Soh, Vo, Xuan, Thuong’s, Le Hong Organizations: CNN, Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group, Stock Commercial Bank, Reuters, SCB, Express, Communist Party, Institute, Crisis Group, National War College, Vietnamese Communist Party, Public Security, Vietnam, International Monetary Fund, Companies, Apple, Intel, Vietnam's Communist Party General, Yusof, Brookings Institution, “, Crisis Locations: Vietnam, Saigon, People’s, Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Duc, Singapore, Asia, China, Washington, “, London, Turkish, Hanoi, Bangkok

Truong My Lan, a Vietnamese real estate tycoon, was sentenced to death on Thursday for her role in a financial fraud case, in a major display of the ruling Communist Party’s resolve to crack down on corruption. The trial for Ms. Lan, who was the chairwoman of the real estate developer Van Thinh Phat Group, was part of the government’s campaign against corruption. The leader of Vietnam’s Communist Party, Nguyen Phu Trong, has sought for years to stamp out corruption as the nation emerges as a major manufacturing hub and as one of Asia’s fastest-growing economies. Mr. Trong launched the anti-corruption drive in 2016, saying that graft could threaten the survival of the Communist Party, which has governed the country for nearly half a century. The campaign has led to the downfall of many business leaders and top officials, including former President Vo Van Tong, who resigned in March amid corruption allegations.

Persons: Truong, Lan, Van Thinh, Nguyen Phu Trong, Trong, Vo Van Tong Organizations: Vietnam’s Communist Party, Communist Party Locations: Vietnamese, Ho Chi Minh City

☆ Truong My Lan: Vietnam tycoon sentenced to death in $12 billion fraud case
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-11 | by ( Story Reuters | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

Hanoi CNN —A court in Vietnam sentenced real estate tycoon Truong My Lan Thursday to death over her role in a 304 trillion dong ($12.46 billion) financial fraud case, the country’s biggest on record, state media reported. The crackdown, dubbed “blazing furnace,” has seen hundreds of senior state officials and high-profile business executives prosecuted or forced to step down. Lan and her accomplices were accused of siphoning off more than 304 trillion dong from Saigon Joint Stock Commercial Bank, or SCB, which she effectively controlled through dozens of proxies, according to investigators. From early 2018 through October 2022, when the state bailed out SCB after a run on its deposits, Lan appropriated large sums by arranging unlawful loans to shell companies, investigators said. Lan will appeal the verdict, a family member told Reuters before it was issued.

Persons: Hanoi CNN —, Truong, Van Thinh, Vietnam’s, Nguyen Phu Trong, ”, Lan Organizations: Hanoi CNN, Van Thinh Phat Holdings Group, Communist Party, Stock Commercial Bank, Reuters Locations: Hanoi, Vietnam, Chi Minh City, Saigon

☆ Vietnam is planning high-speed rail connections with China
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-10 | by ( ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Vietnam aims to start building two high-speed railway lines linking its capital Hanoi with China before 2030, the Ministry of Planning and Investment said, another sign of a recent warming of ties between the two Communist-ruled neighbors. The two countries are already connected via a system of highways and two railway lines that are old and need upgrading on the Vietnam side. Earlier this month, Vietnam said it was seeking to learn from China to develop its first high-speed railway network and had sent its officials to work with Chinese railway companies. A massive high-speed railway line linking capital Hanoi with business hub Ho Chi Minh City is also being planned in the country. Trade between Vietnam and China in the first quarter of this year rose 22% from a year earlier to $43.6 billion, according to Vietnamese government data.

Persons: Lao Cai, Vuong Dinh Hue, Xi Jinping Organizations: Ministry of Planning, Investment, National Locations: Vietnam, Hanoi, China, Vietnam’s, Haiphong, Quang Ninh, Lao, China’s Yunnan, Lang Son, China’s Guangxi, Chi Minh City, Beijing, South China

BANGKOK (AP) — Vietnamese automaker VinFast announced Tuesday that it plans to sell its electric vehicles in Thailand and said it had tied up with auto dealers to open showrooms in the country. VinFast, which only began exporting its EVs last year, faces stiff competition in Thailand from Chinese automakers like BYD. The Thai EV market is small but growing fast, buoyed by incentives and subsidies from the government. VinFast hopes to start selling both its electric scooters and electric SUVs in the country in the next two months, Vu Dang Yen Hang, chief executive officer of VinFast Thailand, told The Associated Press. But the EV market remains small, accounting for only 0.5% of EV sales worldwide in 2022.

Persons: VinFast, Tesla, Vu Dang, Hang, Pham Nhat Vuong, EVs, Vuong Organizations: Thai EV, Associated Press, Research, EV, Green SM, Nasdaq, General Motors Corp, Ford Motor Co, AP Locations: BANGKOK, Thailand, Bangkok, Thai, EVs, Southeast Asia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Ukraine, United States, North Carolina, India, Laos, U.S

☆ Photographer steps inside Vietnam’s shadowy ‘click farms’
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-08 | by ( Bibek Bhandari | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

“With social media, our attention is a product for advertisers and marketers.”Jack Latham’s project took him to five click farms in Vietnam. Though it is unclear when click farms began proliferating, tech experts warned about “virtual gang masters” operating them from low-income countries as early as 2007. In the following decades, click farms exploded in number — particularly in Asia, where they can be found across India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines and beyond. The photographer added that TikTok is now the most popular platform at the click farms he visited. He included them in the book to represent the kind of content he saw being boosted by click farms.

Persons: Jack Latham, Vietnam —, ” Latham, Jack Latham’s, Latham, ”, Cambodia’s, Hun Sen, Donald Trump, — Organizations: CNN, Facebook, Twitter, China Advertising Association, “, BBC, Here Locations: Vietnam, Hanoi, Asia, India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Philippines, China, Silicon, Hong Kong, —, North Macedonia, Vevey, Switzerland

☆ The ‘war photographer’ surveying the liminal spaces of conflict—and peace
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-29 | by ( Dan Q. Dao | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

CNN —An-My Lê doesn’t identify as a war photographer. Courtesy the artist/Marian Goodman GalleryAn-My Lê. Courtesy the artist/Marian Goodman Gallery“It doesn’t have the same explosive, devastating quality of real combat,” Lê said of the series. Courtesy the artist/Marian Goodman GalleryA portrait of an arresting gear mechanic on board the USS Ronald Reagan, also from "Events Ashore." Courtesy the artist/Marian Goodman GalleryLê’s work doesn’t impose any particular morality on the viewer; instead, she intentionally utilizes distance and scale to convey a complexity often overlooked.

Persons: it’s, Marian Goodman, ” Lê, Lê, ”, “, Preble, Ronald Reagan, we’re, “ I’m, Gustave Le Gray, Manning, ineffable, John, Jonathan Dorado, — Organizations: CNN, US, Stabilization, Museum of Modern Art, “, Marines, Conservatives, Rail, Navy, MoMA Locations: United States, Vietnam, New York, Iraq, Afghanistan, California, Rivers, ”, Hudson, Mekong and Mississippi, Asia, Africa, USS New Hampshire, Da Nang, Ghanaian, Tortuga, “ Manning, Bayou St, New Orleans

☆ Finding Great Coffee in Ho Chi Minh City
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-23 | by ( Seth Sherwood | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Other than Brazil, no nation produces more coffee than Vietnam. Introduced by French colonists in the 19th century, the country’s coffee crop is now a $3 billion business and accounts for nearly 15 percent of the global market, making Vietnam the java giant of Southeast Asia. Quality, however, has only recently begun to catch up with quantity, mainly because farmers have begun augmenting Vietnam’s longtime cultivation of cheaper, easy-to-grow robusta beans with a connoisseur’s favorite, arabica. A major beneficiary has been the cafe scene in the country’s largest metropolis, Ho Chi Minh City (a.k.a. Thanks to direct crop-to-shop supplies, the retail business of coffee is booming as increasing numbers of indie roasteries and specialty coffeehouses sprout up around the city’s French colonial opera house, amid the megamalls and boutiques of fashionable Dong Khoi Boulevard, and in the shadows of the high-rise towers in District 2.

Locations: Brazil, Vietnam, Southeast Asia, Ho Chi Minh City, Saigon, Dong, District

☆ Confiscated Motorbikes Pile Up as Vietnam Goes After Drunken Driving
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-14 | by ( Mike Ives | Chau Doan | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Motorbikes — the preferred mode of transport in Vietnam — are piling up in impound lots in Ho Chi Minh City as it becomes more cost effective for some owners to abandon them than to pay the fines to get them back. The city, Vietnam’s financial center, has gotten more aggressive in targeting drunken driving in recent years by raising fines and confiscating vehicles. Those fines are now often higher than the value of the vehicles, which many drivers are not reclaiming, officials say. Now the police are wondering what to do with them.

Locations: Vietnam, Chi Minh

On a trip to the sprawling factory in the port city of Haiphong in northern Vietnam, Widodo also sat behind the wheel of a VinFast electric car before wrapping up his three-day visit to Vietnam. The Vietnamese EV maker has said it will invest $1.2 billion in Indonesia and build a factory with the potential to make up to 50,000 vehicles every year. Green SM, an EV taxi operator that is mostly owned by VinFast’s founder, also announced an investment plan of $900 million in Indonesia. VinFast's plans to expand in Indonesia are part of their global goal of selling EVs in 50 markets worldwide. It is exporting EVs to the U.S. and also building a $4 billion EV factory in North Carolina, where production is slated to begin this year.

Persons: Joko Widodo, Widodo, GoTo, Tokopedia Tbk, Pham Nhat Vuong Organizations: Green SM, EV, VinFast’s, Group, AP Locations: HANOI, Vietnam, Indonesia, Haiphong, Vietnamese, Indonesian, North Carolina, India, Vingroup, Ukraine

☆ Kissinger’s Legacy Still Ripples Through Vietnam and Cambodia
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-30 | by ( Mike Ives | More About Mike Ives | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +6 min

Mr. Kissinger, who died on Wednesday, shared the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating the peace accords that ended American involvement in the Vietnam War. The fighting between North Vietnam and U.S.-backed South Vietnam did not end until the North’s victory in 1975. Mr. Kissinger defended his wartime decisions for years afterward. Within Vietnam, Mr. Kissinger’s role in the war was contentious well before the fighting ended. When President Barack Obama visited in Hanoi in 2016, he said the United States would rescind a decades-old ban on sales of lethal military equipment to Vietnam.

Persons: Henry A, Kissinger, Mr, Lyndon, Richard M, Le Duc Tho, Duong Quoc, Hun Sen, ”, “, Pen, Sok, Hun Sen’s, Barack Obama, Biden’s, Chau Doan, Sun Narin, Lee Wee Organizations: Communist, Johnson Library, Museum, Thunderbird School of Global Management, Arizona State University, Vietnamese Foreign Ministry, U.S, Cambodian People’s Party, Vietnam’s Communist Party Locations: Cambodia, Vietnam, U.S, China, Southeast Asia, North Vietnam, Saigon, United States, America, Austin , Texas, Vietnamese, Hanoi, “, Khmer, Khmer Rouge, ” Vietnam, Washington, United, Russia

Until the embittered end, Henry Kissinger was one of the trusted few of a distrusting Richard Nixon. Political Cartoons View All 1273 Images“No doubt my vanity was piqued,” Kissinger later wrote of his expanding influence during Watergate. Two years later, Saigon fell to the communists, leaving a bitter taste among former U.S. allies who blamed Nixon, Kissinger and Congress for abandoning them. “The emigration of Jews from the Soviet Union is not an objective of American foreign policy,” Kissinger tells Nixon. And so they did — the Quaker-born Nixon, the Jewish-born Kissinger, on the floor, Nixon in tears about the unfairness of his fate.

Persons: Henry Kissinger, Richard Nixon, Kissinger, Nixon, Gerald Ford, ” Kissinger, ” Ford, “, ”, Donald Trump’s, Trump, ” —, —, — Kissinger, Robert Dallek, Walter Isaacson, David Frost, Isaacson, scrawled, Susan Mary Alsop, Stanley Kutler, “ Henry Kissinger, Jeffrey Kimball, starlets, Kissinger squired, Jill St, John, Shirley MacLaine, Marlo Thomas, Candice Bergen, Liv Ullmann, ” Nixon, H.R, Haldeman, Henry, It’s, Nancy Maginnes, Nelson Rockefeller, Gallup, Le Duc Tho, Tho, Walter, ” Walter, “ Kissinger, Ford, you’ve, ” “, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, Kissinger demurred, Chile’s, Eisenhower, Augusto Pinochet, Pinochet, ” Peter Kornbluh, ” Heinz Alfred Kissinger, Heinz, Joe DiMaggio ”, Kennedy, Johnson, he’d “, William Rogers, Melvin Laird, Townsend Hoopes, deflating, ” Isaacson, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan’s, diplomat’s Kissinger, George W, Bush, Long, didn’t, Bush “, Anneliese Fleischer, Elizabeth, David, extol Nixon, ” ___, Barry Schweid Organizations: WASHINGTON, Republican, Democratic, “ PBS, ”, National Security Council, State Department, Vietnam, Nixon, Hollywood, Playboy, Newsweek, America, Columbia University, Senate Armed Services Committee, White, Washington Post, New York Times, Yankee, Army, Harvard, Weapons, Rogers, Defense, Manhattan, New York Giants, Lincoln, diplomat’s Kissinger Associates, GOP Locations: U.S, Vietnam, China, Nazi Germany, Southeast Asia, Latin America, United States, Saigon, Soviet Union, White, Cambodia, South Vietnam, Khmer Rouge, Soviet, America, Chile, London, Pinochet, Bavarian, Fuerth, Manhattan, Germany, Pakistan, Beijing, Iraq, Afghanistan, American

☆ Globalisation woes create new winners and losers
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-17 | by ( Francesco Guerrera | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

Over the past seven decades, the world economy has grown 14-fold, powered by a 45-fold expansion in global trade, according to the World Trade Organization. World trade as a percentage of GDP peaked at 61% in 2008. The first is rising geopolitical tensions between the United States and China. The retrenchment is probably going to be gradual: global trade was still worth 57% of world GDP last year. For 2024, the WTO said growth in goods trade would pick up to 3.3%, virtually unchanged from its April estimate of 3.2%.

Persons: Chris Helgren, Joe Biden, Xi Jinping “, ”, Caroline Freund, Aaditya Mattoo, Alen Mulabdic, Michele Ruta, Ursula von der Leyen, it’s, Laura Alfaro, Davin Chor, Dario Perkins, GlobalData’s Perkins, Peter Thal Larsen, Streisand Neto, Thomas Shum Organizations: Warehouse Union, REUTERS, Reuters, World Trade Organization, Economic, Reuters Graphics Reuters, HK, Amperex Technology, European Central Bank, GlobalData, Lombard, Companies, Bureau of Labor Statistics, ECB, Thomson Locations: Vancouver , British Columbia, Canada, Netherlands, United States, China, Beijing, Washington, U.S, Taiwan, Mexico, Vietnam, People’s Republic, Latin America, Chile, Brazil, Ukraine, Geneva

☆ Breakingviews: Globalization woes create new winners and losers
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-17 | by ( Francesco Guerrera | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

☆ LVMH may have to settle for a more humdrum future
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The disappointing results knocked 6% off LVMH stock on Wednesday and dragged down rivals Richemont (CFR.S) and Kering (PRTP.PA) which also fell about 3%. That may compound investor worries about an overall slowdown of the company that’s behind Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior (DIOR.PA). And China’s economic slowdown and a possible U.S. recession make their future even more uncertain. LVMH is trading at 20 times its expected 2023 earnings after Wednesday's fall. If the less exuberant times keep rolling, LVMH may find itself settling for an even less luxurious valuation.

Persons: Richemont, Bernard Arnault’s, Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Karen Kwok, Aimee Donnellan, Streisand Neto Organizations: Reuters, UBS, Hermès, Reuters Graphics Reuters, Qantas, Thomson Locations: Asia, Japan, Brussels

☆ Qantas overhaul gets stuck on tarmac
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Qantas Airways QF100 flight, which marks the airline's 100th birthday, departs from Sydney Airport to fly over Sydney Harbour in Australia, November 16, 2020. Gregg Porteous/Destination NSW/Handout via REUTERS Acquire Licensing RightsMELBOURNE, Oct 11 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Qantas Airways (QAN.AX) customers are already used to interminable waits due to postponed or cancelled flights and lost luggage. Now the $5.4 billion airline has shunted its much-needed governance overhaul into an unnecessary holding pattern. On Wednesday Qantas said Richard Goyder is stepping down after five years as chair along with two other directors who have been on the board for a decade. And Goyder intends to remain in the cockpit until just before the company’s annual meeting in over a year’s time.

Persons: Gregg Porteous, –, Richard Goyder, Alan Joyce, Jaqueline Hey, Maxine Brenner, Goyder, Antony Currie, Una Galani, Thomas Shum Organizations: Qantas Airways QF100, Sydney Airport, Sydney Harbour, Handout, REUTERS Acquire, Rights, Reuters, Qantas Airways, Wednesday Qantas, Qantas, X, Alstom, Thomson Locations: Australia, Brussels

☆ German voters send ominous message to Brussels
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Oct 9 (Reuters Breakingviews) - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s resounding defeat in key local elections on Sunday will be as traumatic in Brussels as in Berlin. Voters dealt a sharp blow to all three parties in Scholz’s centre-left executive. The victory of conservative opposition party CDU came together with a strong showing of far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), who won 15% of the votes in the populous state of Bavaria and 18% in Hesse. In Berlin, divisions on the pace and cost of the green transition between the Green Party and the liberal FDP, whose leader Christian Lindner is the coalition’s finance minister, have already led to a watering down of a planned boiler ban from 2024. In Brussels, a German government preoccupied with its domestic travails may be unable to rally other member states around the sort of compromise proposals the EU needs to clinch some key deals.

Persons: Olaf Scholz’s, Christian Lindner, Scholz, Pierre Briancon, Sandoz, Lisa Jucca, Oliver Taslic Organizations: Reuters, Voters, Social Democrats, Greens, European Union, Green Party, X, Alstom, Brookfield, Thomson Locations: Brussels, Berlin, Scholz’s, Bavaria, Hesse, Germany, France, EU

☆ Schaeffler auto deal has multiple value drivers
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The German share price index DAX graph is pictured at the stock exchange during the vitesco IPO in Frankfurt, Germany, September 16, 2021. REUTERS/Staff Acquire Licensing RightsLONDON, Oct 9 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Gearing up to take over an auto company on the eve of a recession might look risky. The merger will be done through a tender for the 50% of Vitesco’s stock not held by the family, then a merger with what's left. Cost synergies on top could be worth 3.5 billion euros in present value terms. As part of the merger, Schaeffler will adopt a more shareholder-friendly structure with equal voting rights.

Persons: what's, Schaeffler, Neil Unmack, Sandoz, George Hay, Streisand Neto Organizations: REUTERS, Staff, Reuters, Vitesco Technologies, X, Alstom, Thomson Locations: Frankfurt, Germany, China, Brussels

☆ Vietnam’s Tesla justifies stock price reversal
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

A VinFast VF 8 model is seen during a car delivery ceremony at the VinFast car factory in Haiphong province, Vietnam, September 10, 2022. REUTERS/Thinh Nguyen Acquire Licensing RightsSINGAPORE, Oct 6 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Vietnam’s richest man may have to get used to spending some time in the slow lane. In August, Pham Nhat Vuong closed an unconvincing merger with a blank-cheque company that bestowed a $23 billion market value on his Tesla (TSLA.O) wannabe VinFast . There are no details of sales in the United States, a key target market where it has been burdened by poor reviews. Without some impressive progress outside of Vietnam, though, the EV company’s stock is going nowhere fast.

Persons: Thinh Nguyen, Pham Nhat Vuong, Sandoz, Antony Currie, Thomas Shum Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, Reuters, EV, X, Alstom, Brookfield, Temasek, Thomson Locations: Haiphong province, Vietnam, Rights SINGAPORE, United States

☆ Finnair is one daunting rights issue that can fly
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

A Finnair Airbus A320-200 aircraft prepares to take off from Manchester Airport in Manchester, Britain September 4, 2018. REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsLONDON, Oct 6 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Rights issues worth almost the value of a company’s equity rarely get off the ground. Tell that to 700 million euro Finnair (FIA1S.HE), which on Friday unveiled a 600 million euro rights issue. For one thing, the Finnish state owns over half of the Nordic airline and is supporting the rights issue. The government is offsetting the cost of the cash call by being partly refunded a 400 million euro capital loan it granted to the airline in the wake of the pandemic.

Persons: Phil Noble, Aimee Donnellan, Tesla, Sandoz, George Hay, Oliver Taslic Organizations: Airbus, Manchester Airport, REUTERS, Reuters, Nordic, SAS, X, Alstom, Brookfield, Thomson Locations: Manchester, Britain

Vietnam’s opaque legal system has come under increased criticism from Western observers this year, even as the Southeast Asian country draws closer to the United States. In April during a visit to Hanoi, a delegation of the European Parliament’s Subcommittee of Human Rights expressed “great concern at the worsening human rights situation in the country” calling for the release of “political prisoners” including NGO leaders, journalists and environmental activists, according to Reuters. “Vietnam and the United States are critical partners at what I would argue is a very critical time,” Biden said at the time, referencing climate change. The importance of her cause has been underlined by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which lists Vietnam as one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to climate change. Ben Swanton, co director of The 88 Project, which advocates for human rights in Vietnam, called her trial “a total sham.”“This is yet another example of the law being weaponized for the purpose of political persecution,” he said.

Persons: Hoang, Hong, Nguyen Van Tu, Matthew Miller, “, ”, ” Miller, Joe Biden’s, ” Biden, “ I’m, Hong “, Ben Swanton Organizations: CNN, US State Department, State, European, Human, Reuters, Human Rights Watch, Obama, Columbia University, HRW, United States Agency for International Development, USAID, Amnesty Locations: Ho Chi Minh City, United States, Vietnam, Hanoi, “ Vietnam

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