- Trump Will Let Congress Decide on Tax Rate for Top Earners (BBG)
- Conservative firebrand defeats Trump pick in Alabama primary for U.S. Senate (Reuters)
- U.S. Commerce Secretary says market access, protectionism top China issues (Reuters)
- U.S. slaps steep duties on Bombardier jets after Boeing complaint (Reuters)
- Dismayed Britain chides Boeing over Bombardier ruling (Reuters)
- Cryptocurrency Derivatives? You Bet. This Trader Has 295% Return (BBG)
- Manafort’s Offer to Russian Oligarch Was Tied to Disputed Deal (BBG)
- There’s One North Korea Taboo China’s Leaders Won’t Talk About (BBG)
- Mattis arrives in Afghanistan as rockets hit Kabul airport (Reuters)
- Falling prices, borrowing binge haunt Midwest ‘go-go farmers’ (Reuters)
- Canada Says It’s No Safe Haven for Immigrants Losing U.S. Protection (WSJ)
- Ford and Lyft Sign Driverless-Car Agreement (WSJ)
- Trump’s Made-in-America Car Campaign Hasn’t Spurred Investment (BBG)
- Uber defends business model at UK tribunal on worker rights (Reuters)
- Alstom, Siemens Announce Merger to Create European Train Giant (Reuters)
- PepsiCo Lawyer’s Exit Is Focus of SEC Probe (WSJ)
- Greek central bank dismisses Anonymous hacking claim (Reuters)
- Amazon says Google has pulled YouTube from Echo Show device in tech face-off (Reuters)
- Thai former PM Yingluck gets five-year jail term for negligence (Reuters)
Overnight Media Digest
WSJ
– U.S. Senators criticized the Securities and Exchange Commission’s new leader, Jay Clayton, at a hearing on Tuesday for how the agency handled a 2016 breach of its cornerstone system for storing market-moving information. on.wsj.com/2fP9zjY
– Equifax Inc moved to take concrete action over its massive hack ahead of congressional hearings next week, announcing on Tuesday that Chairman and Chief Executive Richard Smith would step aside. on.wsj.com/2xDbnWS
– An investor group including U.S. private-equity firm TPG Capital is looking to sell its controlling stake in one of Indonesia’s oldest finance companies, BFI Finance Indonesia , in a deal that could value the company at about $1 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. on.wsj.com/2xzMvgX
– Republicans are reconsidering their plans to cut individual income tax rates for the highest-earning households to 35 percent, as they gear up to release a blueprint on Wednesday, according to people familiar with the discussions. on.wsj.com/2xymDBW
– Twitter Inc on Tuesday said it would begin testing a new limit of 280 characters, double its current limit, as a concession to users who have been clamoring for changes to the short-messaging service. on.wsj.com/2wSc8w9
– Uber Technologies Inc said it may cease operations in the Canadian province of Quebec in protest of more stringent training rules for drivers there. on.wsj.com/2frqR6qa
FT
Uber Technologies Inc has hired headhunters to look for a new UK chairman who can help repair its relations with regulators in one of its top European markets, according to a person close to the company.
The head of UBS Group AG’s investment bank, Andrea Orcel, called for quick agreement on a Brexit transition deal and warned that if such a decision is not agreed by March, there will be a “significant” shift out of UK.
Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party voted to bring disciplinary measures against any members found to be anti-Semitic, but activists said more action was needed to show that the party is serious about confronting the problem.
European Council President Donald Tusk said that Britain has finally abandoned its “have cake and eat it” strategy for Brexit negotiations, although he warned that more work had to be done to produce a breakthrough in talks.
NYT
– Twitter Inc said on Tuesday that it would test extending the text limit of a post on its service to 280 characters, to eliminate what it viewed as constraints that kept people from tweeting more frequently. nyti.ms/2wjZNge
– German industrial giant Siemens AG plans to merge its rail business with the French train equipment maker Alstom SA, the companies said Tuesday. nyti.ms/2wTTFzo
– Uber Technologies Inc said it would stop service in Montreal and the Quebec province next month rather than accept new government rules, the second setback in a week for the ride-hailing service’s international operations. nyti.ms/2xvKxAz
– Janet Yellen, the Federal Reserve chairwoman, said the U.S. Fed plans to keep raising its benchmark interest rate despite the weakness of inflation. nyti.ms/2wVoVt3
Canada
THE GLOBE AND MAIL
** Canadian regulatory policies effectively subsidize the world’s largest digital companies by exempting them from taxes and spending requirements imposed on Canadian broadcasters, Quebecor Inc Chief Executive Pierre-Karl Péladeau says. tgam.ca/2hwCP2M
** WestJet Airlines Ltd said its new discount carrier, Swoop, will start taking bookings in February and begin flying near the end of June, 2018. tgam.ca/2hwKRZB
** The U.S. government has imposed duties of nearly 220 percent on imports of Bombardier Inc’s C Series planes into the United States, a move that threatens to exacerbate trade tensions between the two countries and undermine sales prospects for the Canadian company’s most important aircraft. tgam.ca/2hviaw6
NATIONAL POST
** Twitter Inc will double its strict size limit on tweets to 280 characters from 140 characters for a small percent of users in every language but Japanese, Chinese and Korean, a Twitter Canada spokesperson confirmed Tuesday. bit.ly/2hwApRA
** Middle-class families in Canada are paying higher income taxes compared to a few years ago, despite claims by Ottawa that it has eased the tax burden on this income group, according to a new report by Vancouver-based think-tank, The Fraser Institute. bit.ly/2hwo0NA
** The Ontario government plans to unveil legislation Wednesday that would force drug companies and other businesses to publicly divulge the payments they make to health professionals, answering long-standing complaints about industry influence on the medical profession. bit.ly/2hvYb0h
Britain
The Times
The finance director of Northgate Plc has been sacked after he was convicted of assault. Northgate said in a statement that Paddy Gallagher, 54, had been “summarily dismissed due to his conviction for the summary offence of common assault.” bit.ly/2wV0r3j
The ousted boss of Airbus UK has landed at British aerospace company Cobham Plc. Paul Kahn was forced out of the Franco-German planemaker in the summer after less than three years in the job in a barely disguised falling out over Brexit and the future of Airbus’s substantial interests in the United Kingdom. bit.ly/2fqVtoD
The Guardian
The former boss and chief operating officer of Afren, a London-listed oil and gas exploration business, are to be charged with criminal offences in relation to an alleged 45 million euros ($53.05 million) fraud that led to the collapse of the 2 billion euro company. bit.ly/2wka3Vw
The chief executive of embattled credit agency Equifax Inc announced his retirement on Tuesday, in the wake of a massive data breach that exposed the personal information of 143 million people. bit.ly/2huDVvX
The Telegraph
British Steel has emerged from UK’s steel crisis with its first international acquisition, less than 18 months after Tata Steel abandoned the troubled business. bit.ly/2xuXuux
Uber Technologies Inc is looking to hire a UK chairman, just a week after being stripped of its licence to operate in London and as arch-rival Lyft eyes a move into the market. bit.ly/2xKyhMs
Sky News
Thousands of jobs could be at risk in Northern Ireland after a U.S. adjudication against the aircraft manufacturer Bombardier Inc. bit.ly/2fPvlV1
Sky News has learnt that a committee established by the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association will follow up an earlier report by warning that the current system with thousands of smaller defined benefit schemes operating independently is “placing the retirement savings of millions…at risk”. bit.ly/2wj9OKE
The Independent
A London-based female Uber driver has issued sex discrimination proceedings against the ride-sharing company Uber Technologies Inc, claiming it unfairly disadvantages women who work for the group. ind.pn/2wSE5E7
Dyson has confirmed it will launch a battery-powered electric car in 2020. The vacuum cleaner company, which will spend 2 billion euros on the project, says its vehicles will be “radical and different”. ind.pn/2wjePCJ
via http://ift.tt/2ysVhwf Tyler Durden