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"I'm not prepared to sign off on anything. I have to see the deal."
That was U.S. President Donald Trump , speaking about the deal agreed between TikTok owner ByteDance and U.S. tech firm Oracle. It was thought the breakthrough would satisfy the White House that Stateside operations would be controlled by an American firm, but it seems it's not that simple.
Meanwhile, the head of U.S. monetary policy at the Federal Reserve, ** Jay Powell** , has announced the federal interest rate will remain extremely low for the foreseeable future. You can track how the U.S. interest rate has moved over the past three years in today's graphic, at the bottom of this briefing.
Football fans in China can rejoice after the world's leading domestic competition, the English Premier League , signed a new distribution deal with Tencent – after cancelling its previous streaming agreement.
In today's interview section we heard from Tom Jenkins, the CEO of the European Tour Operators Association, on the reappearance of** Thomas Cook** on the travel agency landscape.
Finally, today's video features a Belgian artist who's been raising money to help COVID-19 victims using an art form from the other side of the globe – Japanese Origami.
Click for a beautiful installation, if nothing else
.
Happy reading,
Patrick Atack
Digital business correspondent
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U.S. central bank leader Jay Powell has confirmed the Federal Open Market Committee agreed to ** leave interest rates unchanged and predicted they will remain between 0 and 0.25 percent until at least 2023** . He said the Fed is aiming for consistent 2 percent inflation before adjusting the rate.
The English Premier League has ** signed a deal with Chinese web giant Tencent to broadcast the football league's matches in China** , after a pandemic-linked row caused the cancellation of the EPL's contract with streaming service PPTV. Reports suggest the Tencent deal is worth less than the PPTV deal, although it is understood that clubs will not lose money as PPTV had paid some of the $700 million agreed.
Deloitte has been fined a record $19.3 million (plus $6.4 million in legal fees) for "serious and serial failures" when the "Big Four" auditor signed off on Autonomy's financial statements before an $11bn acquisition of the firm by Hewlett Packard. Only months later, HP was forced to write down Autonomy's value by more than $8 billion.
Electric vehicle battery manufacture is such a success for South Korea's LG Chem, it will separate the battery arm from its main petrochemicals business and will consider listing the new company. The** EV battery business is expected to bring in $10 billion in 2020 **and LG Chem hopes that will rise to $25 billion by 2024.
U.S. presidential candidate Joe Biden has joined Democrat colleague Nancy Pelosi in warning the UK government over Brexit's impact on peace on the island of Ireland, as a controversial bill makes its way through parliament. "Any trade deal between the U.S. and UK must be contingent upon respect for the [Good Friday] Agreement and preventing the return of a hard border. Period," he
wrote on social media.
New Zealand has entered its deepest recession since 1987, with its GDP shrinking by more than 12 percent between April and June, when it was widely locked down and its borders were closed. Finance minister Grant Robertson said: "Going hard and early [in lockdown] means that we can come back faster and stronger."
UK retail stalwart John Lewis announced its staff will not receive their annual bonus ** – ** for the first time in 67 years . It follows the revelation that the firm lost $819 million in the first half of 2020, including writing down $606 million from the value of physical stores. The bonus as a percentage of salary had been dropping since 2014.
A Munich court is hearing cases brought by restaurant owners against insurance companies that have refused to pay out for losses due to coronavirus-related closures. The insurance companies argued that individual diseases and infections that are covered are listed in their policies, while owners argued that COVID-19 should be covered as an** unnamed dangerous pathogen, which is stipulated in law but not in insurance small print.**
Thailand opposition political figure Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit has made public an investigation into the spending of King Maha Vajiralongkorn . Juangroongruangkit launched the investigation as Thailand's GDP dropped to minus 8 percent due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and has highlighted the number of planes and helicopters the royal, who is a qualified pilot, has amassed.
Betting firm Flutter Entertainment, which owns Paddy Power and Sky Bet, has appointed former
UK Labour Party deputy leader Tom Watson as an adviser
. Watson has been vocal in his opposition to the gambling industry, but he said Flutter allowed him to "share my unvarnished thoughts about what they do."
In Spain, two large banks are on the precipice of a merger to create the nation's largest domestic bank. Caixabank and Bankia are poised to sign a deal to create a bank with a market value of nearly $19 billion and reserves of $708 billion.
The Board of Airline Representatives of Australia has complained that **as many as 30,000 Australian citizens are "stranded" in the UK due to travel restrictions **imposed by the Canberra government. Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack
told Australian media
the limit was to be raised to 6,000 returnees per week, which is an increase of 2,000.
WATCH: An artist in Belgium is saving lives with an ancient Japanese art form.
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Tom Jenkins, the CEO of the European Tour Operators Association spoke to CGTN Europe about the revival of UK travel firm Thomas Cook.
Thomas Cook wasn't viable last time round. So what's changed?
They've got a different company. They've got the same name, but it's effectively a start-up. A start-up, it has to be said, with some very serious expertise and serious money behind it.
Reputation is everything. Holidaymakers were left stranded by the old Thomas Cook, will they forgive and forget?
I think they will recognize this is a new company offering essentially a different range of products. They're concentrating on scheduled flights and hotels, which are booked largely online, on an independent basis.
Why launch a travel firm in the middle of a global pandemic?
Well, they bought into the troubled company last year. I suppose they had to launch at some stage. This isn't such a bad time to launch a company. The only way is up for everybody in the travel industry.
