Climate change rulebook; Juncker tousle & company stocks for 2019

Climate change rulebook agreed

UN talks on urgent action to halt climate change failed to match up to the challenges facing the world, The Guardian reports. Talks in Poland ended on Saturday with an agreement over the 156-page rulebook on how to implement the Paris agreement of 2015, limiting global warming to below 2 °C. euronews pointed out that the agreement was not clear on how to finance a €90 billion pledge to help poorer countries. BBC news summarises the summit neatly in five key takeaways.

Juncker tousle

Luxembourg’s Jean-Claude Juncker didn’t win any new fans in the UK after footage was posted on YouTube showing him exaggeratingly tousling a female aide’s hair and kissing two others upon arriving at an EU summit. The Telegraph quoted Tory peer Baroness Jenkin as saying the European Commission president was “behaving like a medieval king”. It comes after Juncker called UK prime minister Theresa May’s Brexit demands “nebulous”, which you can read more about on Politico.

Support grows for second Brexit referendum

Britain’s departure from the EU appeared to be in deadlock last week when UK prime minister Theresa May postponed an expected vote on the EU deal to buy time to gain support. On Sunday, The Times led on the fact that two senior allies, David Lidington, and Gavin Barwell, were preparing for a new referendum, behind May’s back. The Independent, meanwhile, focused on May’s spat with former PM Tony Blair, who on Friday called for the EU to prepare for an extension of Article 50 to allow time for another referendum or further negotiations.

All I want for Xmas is democracy

Thousands of protestors took to the streets in Hungary on Sunday against right-wing nationalist Viktor Orban’s rule. Reuters reports the march had been “largely peaceful” until police fired tear gas at protestors outside a TV station. Organised by opposition parties, students and trade unions, the protestors called for a free media, withdrawal of a labour law increasing overtime, and an independent judiciary. Bloomberg examines the risk to business of toxic politics and populism in eastern Europe.

Huawei high

Confidence in Chinese telecoms supplier Huawei does not seem to be waning after a board member revealed the firm had signed 22 commercial contracts for 5G and is working with some 50 carriers on 5G trials, the Financial Times reports. Other deals include one with Altice for 5G in Portugal and another with T-Mobile in Poland. It comes as Australia, New Zealand and Japan shun the firm over security concerns. Bloomberg paints a different picture, saying on Saturday that Huawei has hemorrhaged “allies in Europe on growing security concerns”, as the US pushes governments to block their technology from telecom networks.

Facebook bug

Chiefs at social media platform Facebook have admitted a bug allowed app developers to see users’ photos. The Guardian reports that an error in the way Facebook shares photos meant users’ images, whether published or not, could be viewed by third parties through an api for two weeks in September. It is thought to have exposed 6.8 million users. Read more about this on BBC news.

Top 50

Analysts at Bloomberg Intelligence studied more than 1,900 firms to bring the top 50 company stocks to watch in 2019 in terms of revenue growth, margins, market share, debt and other factors. Among them are ABInBev, which owns the Mousel-Diekirch brewing operation, cannabis company Aurora, which is supplying medical cannabis to Luxembourg, and Vodafone Group, whose procurement operations are based in Luxembourg.