Reuters Financial News

pharmaceutical exports this fiscal year are set to grow nearly twice as fast as last year to hit sales of $27 billion, driven by strong U.S. buying, a government-backed trade body told Reuters, despite deaths linked to Indian-made cough syrups. The robust forecast comes against the backdrop of earlier concerns from the government that last year's deaths of dozens of children in Gambia, which the World Health Organization (WHO) linked to drugs made in India, had «adversely impacted the image of India's pharmaceutical products across the globe». Two other cough syrups made in India killed 19 children in Uzbekistan around December, according to the Uzbekistan government. India is the world's third largest maker of drugs by volume after the United States and China, and senior pharma trade official Udaya Bhaskar said the country was too big a player for buyers to move away because of «these aberrations» in Gambia and Uzbekistan. «As far as the Gambia and Uzbekistan incidents are concerned, if you see in terms of the image of the country, there is a dent,» Bhaskar, director general of the Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil), told Reuters on Tuesday.

By Fergal Smith

TikTok is planning to launch in early August an e-commerce platform to sell China-made goods in the United States, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the plan. The short-video app is seeking to replicate the American success of Chinese shopping platforms Shein and Temu and will be responsible for the storage and shipping of items on behalf of manufacturers and merchants in China, the report said.

By Rachel More

Binance, and its chief executive officer and founder Changpeng Zhao are planning to seek dismissal of a Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) complaint accusing the exchange of violating the Commodity Exchange Act and certain related federal regulations. Binance is due to submit its response to the CFTC complaint on July 27 and plans to seek dismissal, according to a court filing on Monday.

The UK’s data regulator Information Commissioner's Office is planning to conduct “further enquiries” on the OpenAI’s crypto project – Worldcoin.

Worldcoin, a project by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman where users provide their iris scans in exchange for a digital identification and free cryptocurrency. «We note the launch of WorldCoin in the UK and will be making further enquiries,» a spokesperson for the Information Commissioner's Office told Reuters.

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By Rae Wee

COVID pandemic, but the virus continues to infect people in different parts of the world. A new case of MERS-CoV has been reported by the WHO in Abu Dhabi on Monday. According to the World Health Organisation, an adult in his twenties was diagnosed with potentially fatal Middle East Respidatory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) after he was admitted in hospital last month.

₹8,233 crore) class action lawsuit initiated by over 1,500 app developers in the UK regarding its App Store fees. Apple's services division, which encompasses the App Store, has experienced substantial revenue growth in recent years, reaching approximately $20 billion ( ₹1.63 lakh crore) per quarter. However, the fees charged by Apple, ranging from 15% to 30%, to certain app makers for using their in-app payment system, have drawn criticism from app developers and become a focal point for antitrust regulators in various nations.

US Federal Reserve meeting, due on Wednesday. S&P Global said its flash US Composite PMI index, which tracks manufacturing and service sectors, fell to a reading of 52 in July from 53.2 in June. The data reinforced expectations that the near-certain rate hike by the US central bank this week would be the last of the current cycle, Reuters reported.

Elon Musk has always managed to show her liking for the alphabet ‘X’. However, this time, Musk's obsession for ‘X’ can bring him at the centre of several lawsuits.  According to experts, companies including Meta and Microsoft already have intellectual property rights to the same letter. Moreover, the alphabet ‘X’ is so widely used and cited in trademarks that it would be rare for Twitter if it managed to transform into ‘X’ without any legal complications.  "There's a 100% chance that Twitter is going to get sued over this by somebody," trademark attorney Josh Gerben told Reuter's Blake Brittain.

Elon Musk's decision to rename Twitter as "X" could potentially face legal complications due to existing intellectual property rights held by other companies, including Meta and Microsoft, which also have trademarks associated with the letter "X." The widespread use and citation of the letter "X" in various trademarks make it susceptible to potential legal challenges. In the future, Twitter, now known as "X," might encounter issues defending its rebranded identity.

(Reuters) -Binance and its CEO and founder Changpeng Zhao are planning to seek dismissal of a Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) complaint accusing the crypto exchange of violating the Commodity Exchange Act and certain related federal regulations.

By Khanh Vu

Russia launched its sixth air attack this month on Kyiv early on Tuesday, the military administration of the Ukrainian capital said, with air raid alerts blaring for more than three hours over the city and east half of the country. Russia attacked Kyiv with Iranian-made Shahed drones, and based on preliminary information all the drones were downed by Ukraine's air defence systems, Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv's military administration, said on the Telegram messaging app.

euro hit a two-week low on Tuesday as a worsening downturn in euro zone business muddied the bloc's rate outlook against a still-hawkish European Central Bank (ECB), while the dollar rose ahead of this week's trio of major central bank meetings. The offshore yuan strengthened in early Asia trade, following comments from China's top leaders on Monday pledging to step up policy support for its flailing economy. The euro was shaky at $1.1063, up just 0.02% having slumped to a two-week low of $1.1059 earlier in the session, after a survey on Monday showed euro zone business activity shrank much more than expected in July, reigniting recession fears.

By Pablo Mayo Cerqueiro, Echo Wang and David French

Dar lead an incoming caretaker government, party sources said, to help push on with economic reforms agreed under an IMF deal. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has announced the coalition will dissolve parliament next month and hand over the reins to the caretaker administration to pave the way for national elections. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has put forward Dar's name to its coalition partners, according to the sources who were not authorised to speak to media and declined to be identified.

By Aditi Shah and Aditya Kalra