Russia urges calm as Madagascar army takes control
Moscow — Russia said on Wednesday that it was closely watching events in Madagascar and hoped that bloodshed would be avoided after the military took power following weeks of youth-led protests.
Demonstrations first erupted in Madagascar on September 25 over water and power shortages and quickly escalated into an uprising over broader grievances, including corruption, bad governance and a lack of basic services.
Colonel Michael Randrianirina declared on Tuesday that he had taken power and that a military committee would rule the country for a period of up to two years alongside a transitional government before organising new elections. Reuters
Credit Suisse’s $440m SoftBank case thrown out
London — Credit Suisse on Wednesday lost its $440m London lawsuit against Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp over losses linked to collapsed finance firm Greensill Capital.
Greensill’s collapse made Credit Suisse close $10bn of funds linked to the financial firm and, along with other scandals, led to the 2023 state-backed rescue of the 167-year-old Swiss bank by rival UBS Group.
UBS pursued the case against SoftBank, with a trial heard at London’s high court in June. Judge Robert Miles said in a written ruling that he had dismissed the lawsuit.
The case, which centred on funds Greensill lent to Katerra, a SoftBank-backed US construction group, was the latest concerning Greensill’s demise, which caused heavy losses for investors and prompted lawsuits and regulatory probes. Reuters
Bank of America sued over alleged Epstein ties
New York — A woman who says she was abused by the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein sued Bank of America on Wednesday, alleging the bank knowingly provided financial services that enabled his sex trafficking operation for years.
Bank of America declined to comment. The woman, referred to in court papers as Jane Doe, is seeking an unspecified amount of damages. She is represented by law firms Boies Schiller and Edwards Henderson, who previously secured settlements of $75m and $290m with Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan, respectively, over their alleged financial ties to Epstein.
Epstein died by suicide in 2019 in jail while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Reuters
Tesla prices to rise as Norway cuts subsidies
Oslo — Norway plans to eliminate its main subsidy for electric vehicles over the next two years, the government said on Wednesday, adding thousands of dollars to the cost of new cars like Tesla’s Model Y, the country’s top-selling automobile.
Fully electric vehicles accounted for a record 98.3% of all new cars sold in the Nordic nation last month, registration data shows, in line with a long-held aspiration in Norway of ending the sale of petrol and diesel combustion engines by 2025.
“We have had a goal that all new passenger cars should be electric by 2025, and... we can say that the goal has been achieved,” finance minister Jens Stoltenberg said in a statement.
“Therefore, the time is ripe to phase out the benefits.” Reuters
Musk fights to reinstate scrapped $56bn Tesla payout
Dover, Delaware — Elon Musk’s lawyers urged the Delaware Supreme Court on Wednesday to restore his $56bn pay package from Tesla, as one of the biggest corporate legal battles enters its final stage nearly two years after a lower court judge rescinded the Tesla CEO’s record compensation.
The outcome could have substantial consequences for the state of Delaware, its widely used corporate law, and its Court of Chancery, a once-favoured venue for business disputes that has recently been accused of hostility towards powerful entrepreneurs.
The January 2024 Court of Chancery ruling striking down Musk’s pay has become a rallying cry for Delaware critics. Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick ruled that the Tesla board lacked independence from Musk when it approved the pay package in 2018 and that shareholders lacked key information when they voted overwhelmingly in favour of it. As a result, she applied a demanding legal standard and found the pay unfair to investors.
The defendants, current and former Tesla directors, denied wrongdoing and said McCormick misinterpreted the facts and the law. Musk is not expected to attend. Reuters
Namibia cuts key interest rate to 6.5%
Windhoek — Namibia’s central bank cut its main interest rate by 25 basis points to 6.50% on Wednesday, saying that the domestic economy had weakened and that inflation was well-contained.
The Bank of Namibia had previously kept its lending rate unchanged for three monetary policy meetings in a row.
It said the cut was intended to support domestic economic activity while safeguarding the peg between the local currency and the SA rand.
“The MPC was wary that a lowering of the repo rate would widen the gap between the domestic policy rate and that of the anchor country but was of the view that its magnitude falls within the boundaries where capital movements remain well-contained,” governor Johannes !Gawaxab told a press conference. Reuters
Cook reassures Beijing of Apple’s long-term plans
Beijing — Apple will increase investment in China, the company’s chief executive, Tim Cook, said during a meeting with the country’s industry minister in Beijing on Wednesday, according to an official summary of their exchange.
Many US companies have become cautious about relations with China as the world’s two biggest economies have clashed over trade tariffs and as US President Donald Trump seeks to promote manufacture in the US rather than elsewhere.
But Cook told China’s industry minister Li Lecheng the iPhone maker will keep investing in China, the Chinese ministry said, although the summary gave no details of the size of the projected investment. Apple did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.
The tech giant, which has also made investment pledges to Washington, has so far managed to be relatively unscathed by the trade war between the US and China. Other companies, such as Nvidia and Qualcomm, have found themselves the target of Chinese investigations.
Washington has long placed sanctions on Chinese companies such as Huawei. Reuters
New Syrian leader reassures Putin on Russian bases
Moscow — Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday he would honour all past deals struck between his country and Moscow, a pledge suggesting Moscow’s two main military bases in Syria are safe.
Sharaa, who once headed the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda and who toppled predecessor Bashar al-Assad, a close Russian ally, late last year, was speaking at the start of Kremlin talks with Putin on his first visit to Russia since coming to power.
“There are bilateral relations and shared interests that bind us with Russia, and we respect all agreements made with it. We are working on redefining the nature of relations with Russia,” Sharaa, who was speaking in Arabic, told Putin.
Putin told him that Moscow was ready to do all it could to act on what he called “many interesting and useful beginnings” that had already been discussed between the two sides when it came to renewing relations. Reuters
Pakistan and Afghanistan agree on 48-hour ceasefire
Islamabad/Kabul — Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed to a temporary ceasefire on Wednesday after air strikes and ground fighting ramped up tensions between the South Asian neighbours, leaving more than a dozen civilians dead and 100 wounded.
Wednesday’s fighting along the volatile, contested frontier shattered a fragile peace after dozens were killed in weekend clashes, the worst between the two Islamic countries since the Taliban seized power in Kabul in 2021. Reuters
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