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☆ Barclays Profit Lifted by U.S. Credit-Card Business
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Josh Mitchell | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Barclays combines a major investment bank with substantial consumer, credit-card and business-banking operations. Photo: PHOTO: Justin Tallis/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesBarclays PLC ’s profit rose robustly in the first quarter despite banking turmoil that roiled both sides of the Atlantic. Profit grew 27% in the first three months of the year from a year earlier, to £1.78 billion, or about $2.22 billion, the British bank said Thursday. Analysts had expected a profit of £1.45 billion, according to a Barclays poll.

☆ Bain’s Staff in Shanghai Questioned as China Targets Foreign Businesses
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Dan Strumpf | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Bain & Co.’s presence in China includes offices in Shanghai, as well as Beijing and Hong Kong. Photo: hector retamal/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesHONG KONG—Chinese authorities questioned Shanghai workers at consulting firm Bain & Co., underlining the mounting uncertainties facing foreign executives and businesses operating in China after a series of detentions and investigations. The Boston-based company said Wednesday U.S. time that it was cooperating with authorities and declined to comment further. Shanghai police didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the reason for the visit, earlier reported by the Financial Times, which also said police took away computers and phones.

The fifth of young Chinese without jobs among a highly-educated generation is a record. The number of master's and Ph.D graduates in Beijing exceeds undergraduates for the first time, education authorities said. "However, young people who really pin their hopes on the gods and Buddhas when under pressure are also clearly going astray." "I don't believe I will ever find my ideal job," said the urban planning graduate, who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect her job prospects. "Why, instead of helping private enterprises develop, do you blame 11.58 million graduates for not taking off their scholar gowns?"

☆ Frank’s International Pays $8 Million to Settle Angola Bribery Violations
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Dylan Tokar | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The business Frank’s International was targeting were contracts to provide Angola’s state-owned oil-and-gas company with tubular services and technology used for drilling offshore deep water wells. Photo: fred tanneau/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesFrank’s International NV, a Dutch oil services firm, has agreed to pay $8 million to resolve an investigation into alleged bribery violations by the company’s operations in Angola, U.S. regulators said Wednesday. The company, now part of Houston-based Expro Group Holdings NV, paid commissions to a sales agent who employees in the region knew was likely to use the funds to bribe Angolan government officials, according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

☆ Microsoft Has Game With or Without Activision
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Dan Gallagher | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Microsoft’s $75 billion deal to buy Activision was rejected by the U.K.’s antitrust watchdog. Photo: pau barrena/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesMicrosoft will be just fine without Activision Blizzard , though its cloud gaming ambitions might not be. The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority rejected Microsoft’s $75 billion deal to buy Activision on Wednesday morning. The agency, which is the country’s main antitrust watchdog, ruled that the deal would ultimately harm the nascent market for cloud-based videogame services by giving the owner of the Xbox platform control over Activision’s popular game franchises such as “Call of Duty.” In its statement, the CMA said Microsoft “would find it commercially beneficial to make Activision’s games exclusive to its own cloud gaming service,” thus stifling future competition.

☆ Google Is All About Cost Control Now
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Dan Gallagher | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Google parent Alphabet expects capital expenditures to be modestly higher than last year. Photo: Patrick T. Fallon/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesGoogle is working hard to do more with less. How it does with a lot less remains to be seen. But the company’s total advertising revenue was still flat year over year. And while Google doesn’t give formal projections, it said on its conference call to discuss its quarterly results that “the outlook remains uncertain.”

☆ Alaska Air Readies for Busy Travel Season—and Volatile Fuel Costs and Weather Disruptions
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Jennifer Williams-Alvarez | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

An Alaska Airlines plane at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Photo: DANIEL SLIM/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesAlaska Air Group Inc. is preparing for a busy travel season this summer, as airlines generally continue to benefit from a healthy appetite for travel after the Covid-19 pandemic rocked the industry. But with uncertainties remaining, including the potential for travel pullback due to fears of a recession, slowed business travel as companies look to cut costs and weather that disrupts flights, Alaska Air Finance Chief Shane Tackett is readying for what may come.

☆ India’s Population Boom Is an Opportunity—and an Economic Threat
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Megha Mandavia | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

People waited for a train in Mumbai on April 19. Photo: punit paranjpe/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesIndia is set to reach a notable milestone this year—becoming the world’s most populous country. That squarely positions it as an alternative to China: Both as a manufacturer and, perhaps someday, as the world’s largest market. The onus is now on the South Asian giant to fulfill that promise or bear the consequences.

☆ Australia to Reshape Military Amid Growing U.S.-China Rivalry
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( Mike Cherney | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Australia’s defense minister said the country’s navy needed enhanced lethality. Photo: roslan rahman/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesSYDNEY—A wide-ranging review of Australia’s military found that the key U.S ally needs to quickly overhaul its armed forces and focus more on capabilities such as long-range missiles, amid concerns that rising tensions between the U.S. and China could increase the chance of a conflict in the region. Australian officials said they agreed with the review’s conclusion that the country’s military isn’t fully fit for purpose in the current strategic environment. The defense industry minister, Pat Conroy, said the revamped army will eventually be able to fire weapons that can hit targets some 300 miles away, versus 25 miles now.

☆ Dr. Fauci Looks Back: ‘Something Clearly Went Wrong’
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-24 | by ( David Wallace-Wells | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +55 min

Dr. Fauci Looks Back: ‘Something Clearly Went Wrong’ In his most extensive interview yet, Anthony Fauci wrestles with the hard lessons of the pandemic — and the decisions that will define his legacy. But when people say, “Fauci shut down the economy” — it wasn’t Fauci. But somehow or other, the general public didn’t get that feeling that the vulnerable are really, really heavily weighted toward the elderly. We also had a public-health system that we thought was really, really good. But it was really, really antiquated.

☆ U.S. Extradites Former Peruvian President on Corruption Charges
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Ryan Dube | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Peruvian prosecutors have for years sought to extradite former President Alejandro Toledo over charges that he took a $20 million bribe from a construction company. Photo: handout/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesLIMA, Peru – Former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo arrived in his home country on Sunday morning after being extradited from the U.S. to face graft charges stemming from one of Latin America’s largest-ever corruption scandals. Peruvian authorities said Mr. Toledo, who ruled Peru from 2001 to 2006, arrived on a commercial flight from Los Angeles that touched down in Lima.

☆ Libya Seeks U.S. Help in Fresh Effort to Recover Gadhafi Billions
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Benoit Faucon | Chao Deng | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A study estimates that as much as $120 billion in Libyan state assets was looted. Artifacts at a museum in Shahat, Libya. Photo: Abdullah Doma/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesLibya’s United Nations-backed government is asking Washington to help it recover tens of billions of dollars in state assets that it alleges were stolen by the country’s former dictator Moammar Gadhafi and his cronies and stashed around the world. Gadhafi ruled the oil-rich country for 42 years before he was ousted and killed and Libyan officials say family members and others close to him looted government coffers of cash, gold and rare antiquities. A 2016 study by Berlin-based Transparency International estimates as much as $120 billion was taken.

PinnedThe United States military airlifted embassy officials out of Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, amid continuing violence as rival military leaders battled for control of Africa’s third-largest country, President Biden said late on Saturday. (Mr. Godfrey — the first U.S. ambassador to Sudan in a quarter-century — arrived in the country about eight months ago.) They had lived in the same apartment buildings as some American diplomatic staff and arrived together at the embassy, he said. “I am proud of the extraordinary commitment of our embassy staff, who performed their duties with courage and professionalism and embodied America’s friendship and connection with the people of Sudan,” Mr. Biden said. Credit... Ebrahim Hamid/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesU.S. officials have said that about 16,000 American citizens were living in Sudan, many of them dual nationals.

☆ Elon Musk Sows Confusion on Twitter After Removing Legacy Check Marks
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Alyssa Lukpat | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Twitter has made other changes to its check mark and labeling systems in recent months. Photo: Samantha laurey/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesTwitter Inc.’s move to remove legacy verifications is once again sowing confusion over who’s real and who isn’t on the social-media platform. The check mark removals are one of the most drastic changes Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, has made since he bought the platform in October. He has said for months that he wanted to make users pay a monthly fee to be verified.

☆ Europe’s Glaciers Melted at Record Rate After Double Whammy
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Eric Niiler | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Scientists at the Gries glacier last fall in Switzerland, where glaciers have shrunk by a third since 2001. Photo: fabrice coffrini/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesEuropean glaciers lost a record amount of mass over the past two years from a one-two punch of below-normal snowfall and warmer temperatures, international climate scientists said. The retreating snowpack threatens supplies of freshwater to cities and farms throughout the Alps watershed, but it is also lengthening the region’s summer tourism season.

☆ Nobody Told Mercedes-Benz About Elon Musk’s Price War
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Stephen Wilmot | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Mercedes-Benz’s big margins in recent quarters are a transitory phenomenon, according to investors. Photo: thomas kienzle/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesThere was no sign of Tesla ’s price war in first-quarter results from Mercedes-Benz , but investors are still betting a tougher market will catch up with the luxury brand. Mercedes-Benz reported an operating margin of 14.8% in its flagship car division, among other quarterly highlights, after the market closed on Thursday. The surprise numbers came ahead of its scheduled quarterly results day on April 28, in line with German law that requires it to release results early if they are substantially different from the analyst consensus. For the first time in a few quarters, the operating margin compares favorably with the 11.4% level reported by Tesla on Wednesday, which would have been 9.4% excluding regulatory credits.

[1/4] Sudanese cartoonist Khalid Albaih works at his home as a TV news broadcast shows images from Sudan, in Oslo, Norway April 20, 2023. "Art is needed in times like this because it is important to show people art is about hope, art is about showing there is a different way to talk about things," Albaih told Reuters. "Art is continuous resistance. Art is our way to continue fighting." Reporting by Gwladys Fouche in Oslo Editing by Peter GraffOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Drop in Transportation Stocks Foreshadows Weakening Economy
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Vicky Ge Huang | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Delta posted a quarterly loss and said consumers’ behavior is shifting in ways that can be hard to predict. Photo: ed jones/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesEconomically sensitive stocks, like those of transportation and small-cap companies, are trailing the broader market, reflecting growing investor concern about a potential recession. The Dow Jones Transportation Average, which tracks 20 large U.S. companies ranging from airlines to railroads to truckers, has underperformed the Dow Jones Industrial Average by about 8.3 percentage points since early February. Shares of Norfolk Southern Corp., American Airlines Group Inc. and J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. have dropped at least 10% over the same period.

☆ Janet Yellen to Say Security Comes Before Economy in U.S.-China Relationship
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Andrew Duehren | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in prepared excerpts that the U.S. will remain the world’s dominant economic power. Photo: Stefani Reynolds/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesWASHINGTON—Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen plans to say Thursday that the U.S.’s policies toward China will give priority to addressing national-security concerns over preserving economic growth. In prepared excerpts of a speech she will give, Ms. Yellen listed three goals for the U.S. relationship with China: protecting human rights and national security, establishing healthy economic ties and cooperating on major global issues. She criticized subsidies the Chinese government offers to its industries and said the U.S. will remain the world’s dominant economic power.

☆ Pentagon Plans for Possible Evacuation of U.S. Embassy in Sudan
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Gordon Lubold | Vivian Salama | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Fighting in Khartoum has threatened the security of U.S. diplomats and others. Photo: abdelmoneim sayed/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesWASHINGTON—The Pentagon is preparing forces in east Africa to conduct a possible evacuation of American personnel from Sudan, where fighting in its capital of Khartoum has threatened the security of U.S. diplomats and others. The Pentagon is “conducting prudent planning” for a variety of contingency operations, a Pentagon spokesman said. It is also deploying additional forces and other capabilities to the region to help with the possible evacuation of personnel from the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum, said Lt. Col. Phil Ventura , the spokesman.

☆ Companies Turn to AI to Avoid ‘Cloud Sprawl’
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Angus Loten | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

One advantage of third-party cloud systems, such as Amazon.com Inc.’s Amazon Web Services, is that they enable companies to quickly scale up or down computing power as needed. Photo: pau barrena/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesCompanies are turning to artificial intelligence to root out savings in runaway cloud-computing bills, tapping software designed to pinpoint overlapping cloud applications, excess data storage and other inefficiencies across information-technology systems, corporate technology chiefs and industry analysts say. The efforts come as cloud-based tools take over an ever-wider range of operations. That, and the murky economic outlook, is prompting many chief information officers and other enterprise technology leaders to take a closer look at cloud costs—even as they increase overall spending.

The protests, unprecedented in President Xi Jinping's decade in power, began in late November in cities across China. They were suppressed by police within days but helped hasten the end of three years of tough COVID restrictions, sources have previously told Reuters. The Ministry of Public Security and the Beijing Public Security Bureau did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Human Rights Watch had reported the pair were among four protesters detained in December and charged with "picking quarrels and provoking trouble", which carries a sentence of up to five years. Reuters could not independently verify the total number of protesters who were detained by police or have been charged and remain in custody.

☆ Live Updates: SpaceX Prepares Again to Launch Starship Rocket
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( The New York Times | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +5 min

PinnedSpaceX’s first attempt on Monday to launch Starship, the most powerful rocket ever built, was called off. During a livestream for a different SpaceX launch on Wednesday, the company noted that another Starship postponement was possible. Credit... Patrick T. Fallon/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesWhy didn’t Starship launch on Monday? Splashdown Near Hawaii Launch SpaceX Starbase Boca Chica, TexasStarship is designed to be entirely reusable. About eight minutes after the launch on Thursday, the Super Heavy booster will splash into the Gulf of Mexico.

☆ More Kids Get Weight-Loss Surgery to Treat Obesity
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Sarah Toy | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A bariatric surgery can benefit children as young as 13, according to guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics. Photo: Luis Robayo/Agence France-Presse/Getty ImagesMore children are getting stomach surgery to help them lose weight, the most drastic of measures doctors are recommending to confront relentlessly rising obesity rates. Many of the young people who undergo bariatric surgery didn’t lose weight through diet, exercise or weight-loss drugs. Bariatric surgery can be a faster, more lasting fix for patients with severe obesity, researchers and pediatricians said.

"The EU requested to the Chinese authorities their immediate and unconditional release," the spokesperson said. "China's ongoing crackdown on human rights activists and lawyers is a well-known EU concern, which we raise at all levels." Yu Wensheng, 55, is a human rights lawyer who last year completed a four-year prison sentence for "subversion of state power". He was among more than 300 rights lawyers and activists arrested in a 2015 crackdown. The EU delegation in Beijing said on Friday three other human rights lawyers, Wang Quanzhang, Wang Yu and Bao Longjun, had been placed under house arrest.

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