In The News

Boeing Suspends 737 Max, Hits Supply Chain: FT

Sarah Provan and Archie Hall December 18, 2019
Boeing announced a temporary suspension in production of its 737 Max airline. Regulators and airlines grounded the plane after two crashes within five months. The world's largest aerospace manufacturer depends on a deep global supply chain for the plane’s many parts, and the suspension in production hits suppliers. Safran, based in France and the world’s third largest aerospace supplier, had...

UK to Leave EU Before Jan 31: MacMillan

David Cameron December 17, 2019
The Brexit ball is in the hands of conservatives after an overwhelming win in the UK parliamentary election. The new government plans to meet Brexit deadlines, rejecting further extensions, including for the transition period that ends with the year 2020. So the United Kingdom takes on the challenge of negotiating a complex relationship with its major trade partner in 11 months. A revised...

World’s First Liquid Hydrogen Ship: Bloomberg

Dan Murtaugh December 15, 2019
Kawasaki Heavy Industries launched the world’s first liquefied hydrogen carrier, the Suiso Frontier, a step in “tapping the carbon-free energy potential of the lightest element,” reports Dan Murtaugh for Bloomberg. “Hydrogen can be produced using water and electricity, and then stored and shipped and re-used to generate power, allowing countries with little space for wind and solar equipment to...

OPEC Cuts Production: Wall Street Journal

Summer Said, Benoit Faucon and David Hodari December 11, 2019
Saudi-led OPEC and Russia and its allies, 24 nations in all, agreed to implement an additional collective oil production curb of 500,000 barrels a day, pushing the Brent crude price up by 1.2 percent. The original pact was to hold back about 1.2 million barrels per day. Some analysts express doubt about the new pact’s effect because based on some independent estimates, Saudi Arabia’s production...

The World Is Drowning in Rubbish: World Today

Kate O’Neill December 5, 2019
China once accepted half the world’s plastic trash, and recycled much of that. Increased waste and sloppy cleaning encouraged China and other Asian nations to reject massive shipments from wealthy nations. “Until recently, these countries had been guilty of ‘distancing’, the practice of shifting waste ‘out of sight, out of mind’, both literally and in people’s imaginations,” explains Kate O’...

China Warns US Over Uighur Bill: Reuters

Se Young Lee and David Brunnstrom December 4, 2019
China warns that a US bill calling for an end to detentions of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang could disrupt bilateral cooperation including trade talks. China is already sore about US passage of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act. The US House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the Uighur Human Rights Act that includes sanctions for one politburo member. Businesses and investors are...

China-Russia Gas Pipeline: Wall Street Journal

Georgi Kantchev December 3, 2019
A new 1800-mile pipeline called the Power of Siberia has begun delivering Russian natural gas to China, a crucial link between the two countries. Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping presided over the launch via video. The project is a tangible symbol of the Beijing-Moscow economic and trade partnership in economics as well as mutual political support for...