Business

Business & Economy

German FM complains about U.S. threat of Nord Stream 2 sanctions

BERLIN, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Monday that he had complained to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo about the threat of sanctions against a German port company due to the Nord Stream 2 project.

Maas said he spoke with Pompeo over phone on Sunday to complain about the decision by three U.S. senators who threatened the German port operator Faehrhafen Sassnitz with sanctions over its support of the Russia-Germany gas pipeline project.

Kuwait readies to expel 370,000 foreign workers

11 Aug 2020; MEMO: Kuwait’s government is working to address the labour market imbalance and its impact on the country’s demographics, a local paper has said, adding that a plan to tackle this will be presented on Saturday.

The Minister of Social Affairs and Labour and Minister of State for Economic Affairs, Maryam Al-Aqeel, will present the action plan during the human resources development meeting.

UK employment falls by biggest quarterly amount since 2009

London, Aug 11 (AP/PTI) The number of people in employment in the UK fell by 220,000 in the three months after the country was put into lockdown as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, official figures showed Tuesday.

That quarterly decline, which took the total number of people in employment to 32.92 million, is the biggest since the deep recession in 2009 in the wake of the global financial crisis.

China sanctions 11 US politicians, heads of organizations

BEIJING (AP) — China on Monday announced unspecified sanctions against 11 U.S. politicians and heads of organizations promoting democratic causes, including Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, who have already been singled out by Beijing.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian on Monday said the 11 had “performed badly” on issues concerning Hong Kong, where China has cracked down on opposition voices following its imposition of a national security law in the semi-autonomous southern Chinese city last month.

Saudi Aramco’s profits drop by 73.4% in Q2

10 Aug 2020; MEMO: Saudi Arabia’s oil giant, Aramco, yesterday said its net profits for the second quarter of this year had dropped by 73.4 per cent, resulting from a global decline in crude oil prices.

The state-owned company said in a statement that its profits had declined by 50 per cent in the first quarter of the year, to $23.2 billion compared to $46.9 billion during the previous year.

India: Second attempt to cap OIL gas well fails

Guwahati, Aug 10 (PTI) The second attempt to shut Oil India's damaged well at Baghjan in Assam, which has been spewing gas uncontrollably for 76 days, failed on Monday when the iron cable to lift the lid snapped, the PSU said.

This was the second attempt in ten days.

The company said in a statement that when the blow out preventer (BOP) stack alignment was underway to insert the studs one of the two bull lines connected with the Athey Wagon, the equipment for fighting oil field fire which was lifting it, came out from the socket due to excessive heat.

Subscribe to Business