5 h. ago Workers in shackles, companies in shock: Georgia raid spooks foreign investors in US

Overseas companies pause travel and seek legal advice after detentions at Georgia factory

Economics

21 h. ago Trump tells foreign companies to ‘hire and train Americans’ after Hyundai immigration raid

President Trump demands foreign companies ‘respect our nation’s immigration laws’ but encouraged them to ‘LEGALLY bring your very smart people’ to the U.S.

Politics

5 d. ago ‘The Dubai of South America’: how the promise of riches from lithium mining turned to dust in Bolivia

Politicians have long promised the critical metal will rescue the economy but Indigenous locals say the push to exploit vast reserves threatens the ecosystem and their livelihoods• Photographs by Sara Aliaga TiconaGrowing up near Bolivia’s Uyuni salt flats, Franz Alí Ramos remembers playing in the high-altitude wetlands near his home during the rainy season. “It was a beautiful recreation area for us and for animals,” he says.Now, the wetlands have given way to cracked, sunbaked earth – a change that Alí Ramos blames on nearby operations by Bolivia’s state lithium corporation, Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos (YLB). The government has recently signed lithium mining contracts with two foreign companies – one Russian and the other Chinese – and residents fear more serious damage is yet to come. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Crackpots Putin and Kim Jong Un head to China for gross parade

China’s military parade, being held in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on September 3, marks 80 years since the Japanese surrender that ended the Second World War

Politics

3 w. ago China cracks down on foreign companies stockpiling rare earths

Beijing determined to retain leverage over supply by preventing buyers from building large inventories

Politics

3 w. ago China’s crackdown on lavish civil servant perks will ‘harm’ the economy, experts warn

Updated regulations ban the country’s 40 million civil servants from lavish banquets, and restrict them from overseas travel for ‘personal leisure’Adjacent to a municipal government building in Beijing, a normally bustling restaurant is now eerily quiet, at lunchtime most of its seats are empty.The recent crackdown on civil servants frequenting restaurants – part of a government austerity drive intended to crack down on corruption – has likely affected business and caused liquor sales to plummet, admits one waitress who works in the opulent establishment. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago Amazon and eBay must report electronics sold in UK under new recycling rules

Foreign companies selling electronics to British shoppers via online platforms like Amazon and eBay will have to start contributing to e-waste costs.

Politics