BusinessLIVE - For Your Ear

Mandarin forced on Mongolian children as China changes language policy

Beijing — Chinese government efforts to replace the language of instruction in schools in Inner Mongolia appear to have backfired, prompting parents and students to boycott classes and take to the streets in protest, videos from human rights activists show. One video posted to YouTube by the New York-based Southern…

1 Sep 2020 8AM 3 min

Going back to school in the UK is vital — for kids and the economy

Sara Vickery-Bragg has a company in London preparing mail-order gift boxes and her husband runs his own technology firm. They have also been nannies, teachers and entertainers for two small children since March. As for so many parents, that combination of roles is finally about to end in the UK…

1 Sep 2020 8AM 6 min

Emmerson ‘Crocodile’ Mnangagwa is worse for Zimbabwe than Mugabe

A year ago this week, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa strained credulity when he declared in a Bloomberg TV interview, “We have rejoined the family of nations.” The international community was already losing patience with his inability to deliver economic reforms and Zimbabweans were complaining of a steady erosion of the…

1 Sep 2020 8AM 5 min

Norway relaunching Atlantic cod farms after earlier failures

Oslo — Norway is relaunching cod farms in Europe’s ice-cold northern waters after mass escapes and failure to thrive condemned its earlier attempt to become the first country to try large-scale breeding of a species declining in the wild. The handful of companies raising Atlantic cod in pens in Norwegian…

1 Sep 2020 7AM 4 min

Oil prices rise as dollar continues to slide

London — Oil prices rose on Tuesday, reversing overnight losses against the backdrop of an equities bull run and a sliding US dollar. Brent crude futures climbed 40 US cents to $45.68 a barrel by 9.30am GMT. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures also rose 40c, hitting $43.01 a…

1 Sep 2020 6AM 1 min

Hi-tech Covid-19 tracing tools threaten personal digital rights

Santa Cruz — A range of technologies designed to combat the spread of Covid-19 is being deployed across Europe, from tracking apps to infrared cameras, posing a threat to individual digital rights and privacy, a report warned on Tuesday. Using such tools, despite the urgency surrounding the pandemic, calls for…

1 Sep 2020 6AM 2 min

New life for Europe’s suburban banks due to Covid-19

London/Frankfurt — The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the shift to online banking in Europe, but it has also given some suburban branches an unexpected new purpose — as alternative office spaces for staff reluctant to commute to big headquarters in city centres. Banks have been slowly cutting the number of…

1 Sep 2020 5AM 4 min

Global markets have spring in their step at start of new month

London — Stocks started September on a positive note, with global indices close to record highs and Europe edging higher, pushed up by Chinese factory data that showed a rebound in demand. Factory activity in China expanded at the fastest rate in nearly a decade in August, a private PMI…

1 Sep 2020 5AM 3 min

IAN FUHR: How ‘cultureneering’ can help companies survive Covid-19

SA companies are battling the Covid-19 storm, using cost-cutting tactics that include retrenchments, short weeks and reduced salaries. Here’s the biggest problem with these survival tactics: the traditional focus on the bottom line and cost-cutting wasn’t working before this pandemic, and Covid-19 has only shone a harsher spotlight on the…

1 Sep 2020 4AM 4 min

Gold rises to almost two-week high

Bengaluru — Gold prices rose on Tuesday to their highest level in almost two weeks, as the dollar slipped to multiyear lows on bets that US interest rates would stay lower for a longer period after the Federal Reserve’s new policy framework. Spot gold was up 0.7% at $1,983.77/oz by…

1 Sep 2020 2AM 2 min

Oil recovers as traders’ risk appetite returns

Melbourne/Singapore — Oil prices recovered on Tuesday, erasing overnight losses, as investors moved into risk assets and away from the safe-haven dollar, which tumbled to multiyear lows. Brent crude futures climbed 49c, or 1.1%, to $45.77 a barrel at 4.06am GMT. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures rose 37c,…

1 Sep 2020 2AM 2 min

BRUCE WHITFIELD: R187bn on bailouts — this is what that actually looks like ...

So how did you feel about Finance Minister Tito Mboweni’s revelation that government had spent just over R187bn on bailouts to state-owned enterprises over the past twenty years? Did you shrug your shoulders and think: “Billion-schmillion what’s the big deal? We’ve become complacent about big numbers. There are so many…

1 Sep 2020 2AM 2 min

Asian shares inch higher after upbeat Chinese data

Sydney/New York — Asian stocks edged higher on Tuesday after strong readings on China’s vast manufacturing sector offset the weak lead from a softer Wall Street session. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.2%, to regain some ground it had lost on Monday. The Hang Seng index…

1 Sep 2020 2AM 4 min

Lockdown day 158: Latest Covid-19 numbers

Number of Covid-19 infections in SA rises to 627,041, there have been 540,923 recoveries and 14,149 deaths to date

1 Sep 2020 1AM 1 min

RAZINA MUNSHI: The police seem to like their lockdown power a little too much

The lockdown is as good as over. But does this mean South Africans can relax in the embrace of a return to civil liberties? Last week’s tragic killing of 16 year-old Nathaniel Julies in the Gauteng suburb of Eldorado Park doesn’t inspire confidence. Of course, excessive policing did not just…

1 Sep 2020 1AM 5 min

Stage 2 load-shedding to resume at noon on Tuesday

Stage 2 load-shedding will resume from midday on Tuesday following the breakdown of additional units overnight, and constraints on the system are expected to persist for the rest of the week. Ten generation units at seven power stations suffered breakdowns in the past 48 hours, the power utility said. Generators…

1 Sep 2020 1AM 1 min

Biden accuses Trump of stoking violence in US cities

Pittsburgh — Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Monday called for rioters and looters to be prosecuted, and slammed President Donald Trump for stoking violence in American cities gripped by protests over police brutality and racial inequality. Biden's speech in battleground state Pennsylvania was his most forceful counter yet to…

31 Aug 2020 5PM 3 min

Lockdown day 158: Pictures of the day

A round-up of the best pictures from day 158 of the national lockdown

31 Aug 2020 4PM 1 min

Small-scale farmers reject R1.2bn government relief package as too small

While the agricultural sector escaped some of the strictest Covid-19 lockdown regulations as it is regarded as an essential service, small-scale farmers have spurned the government's R1.2bn relief package that was set aside to assist them as too little. The small-scale farmers are the second business grouping to express dissatisfaction…

31 Aug 2020 4PM 5 min

EDITORIAL: JSE can’t please everyone, but new rules do not go far enough

With more than R3-trillion invested in the JSE’s debt capital market, there’s no question that investors such as Futuregrowth would demand stiffer protection rules. While the JSE has built a solid reputation for its regulatory safeguards for equity investors, it has come short in protecting investors in companies’ listed debt…

31 Aug 2020 2PM 3 min