World briefs

China Tech giant Tencent is in talks with French media company Vivendi to buy 10% of Universal Music Group, whose artists include Ariana Grande, Lady Gaga, U2 and the Rolling Stones.

China allowed its currency to fall further yesterday and accused Washington of destroying the global economic order, fueling fears about increasing damage from their trade war. 

South China Sea A U.S. aircraft carrier has sailed through the disputed South China Sea in the latest show of America’s military might amid new territorial flare-ups involving China and three rival claimant states.

Philippines The Department of Health yesterday declared the country’s outbreak of dengue to be a national epidemic. It recorded 146,062 cases of dengue from January through July 20 this year, 98% more than the same period in 2018. It said the outbreak caused 622 deaths.

Japan The wife of former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn is protesting restrictions on contacting her husband as he awaits trial in Japan on financial misconduct allegations, calling them a human rights violation.

India The lower house of Parliament was set to ratify a bill yesterday downgrading the governance of the Indian-administered portion of Muslim-majority Kashmir, as an indefinite security lockdown continued in the disputed Himalayan region.

New Zealand NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said he’s absolutely convinced the U.S. will remain in the military alliance and it has made no preparations for an unlikely U.S. withdrawal because doing so would send a signal that it could happen.

Greece Authorities have launched a major search operation on the Aegean island of Ikaria for a British woman reported missing after she went for a morning run and failed to return.

Belgium Prosecutors said yesterday they have reached a settlement worth nearly 300 million euros with a Swiss private banking branch of HSBC over a longstanding fraud and tax dodging case.

Russia Powerful explosions at a military depot in Siberia have injured 12 people and left one missing, and forced over 16,500 people to leave their homes, officials said yesterday.

UK A British youth court yesterday ordered a teenager be held on a charge of attempted murder for allegedly throwing a 6-year-old boy from a 10th-floor viewing gallery at London’s Tate Modern museum.

EU The European Union says its door remains open should British Prime Minister Boris Johnson want to discuss his country’s departure from the bloc but it insists that the Brexit divorce agreement cannot be renegotiated.