Russian supplies to India, rapprochement with Turkey and Apple and Samsung insiders: the main things for business August 7

In Russia

• In June, Russia became India’s second largest oil supplier, not yet catching up with Iraq, but already ahead of Saudi Arabia, which is now actively trading supplies to Europe (The Economic Times).

• Trade turnover between Russia and China grew 29% year over year (to $97.7 billion). Goods worth $36.3 billion were exported from the People’s Republic of China to the Russian Federation (an increase of 5.2%), from the Russian Federation to the People’s Republic of China, for $61.45 billion (an 48.8% increase.

• The Russian government will allocate another 50 billion rubles for the development of the M-12 highway in order to “ensure the advanced construction of this highway” in the direction of western China.

• Oksana Pushkina called the strategy of the Ministry of Labor in the interests of women “populism”. The document is unlikely to provide the desired equality of income and the absence of a “glass ceiling”, since it largely repeats the previous one, which was in force from 2017 to 2022 and did not give much results.

In the world

• As part of the “commodity agreement”, four more ships with 161.1 thousand tons of food left Ukraine for Turkey.
• The Financial Times writes about Europe’s concern about the rapprochement between Russia and Turkey, and one of the interlocutors even believes that Brussels can “ask Western companies to abandon relations with Turkey”.

Online

• Google has blocked Rostec’s YouTube channel due to sanctions. In response to this, the state corporation announced a “relocation” to RuTube.
• At about the same time, Roskomnadzor restricted access to the pages of the online resources Patreon (on the crowdfunding platform Doxa participants opposed the military operation) and Grammarly (a foreign grammar checking service announced its withdrawal from the Russian Federation).
• A lot of insider information has surfaced on Twitter. The OnLeaks blogger claims that the cost of Samsung’s clamshell models, which will be announced at the August presentation, will be higher than indicated. And blogger Jioriku claims that the Apple iPhone 14 will have a 30-watt supercharger.
• And analysts at the GSMArena portal believe that Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan could delay the launch of the iPhone 14 due to tensions with China. Such speculation stems from potential labeling issues (China has banned “Made in Taiwan”) and strained relations between Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC and China’s Pegatron factory where smartphones are assembled due to the politician’s visit.

in corporations

• Warren Buffett’s investment firm Berkshire Hathaway ended the second quarter with a loss due to a 16% drop in the S&P 500 index ($43.8 billion net loss), but was actively bought in the context of a general market recession (total purchases in the amount of $3.8 billion, and also bought back its own shares for $1 billion).

• The Czech manufacturer of Koh-i-Noor pencils (so appreciated in the USSR) Koh-i-Noor Hardtmuth warned of a price increase of 15-20% due to the Russian ban on exporting wood to the EU.

• Fitbit will retire the Fitbit Connect desktop app starting in October. Playlist sync will only be available through paid services.

• Microchip maker Qualcomm decided it was time to sponsor a soccer club. The company has entered into a strategic partnership with Manchester United.

• German hoteliers attracted 25% more job seekers thanks to tattoos. To recover from a pandemic you need the best staff, so any bait is good: the hotel management pays the employees for the tattoos after six months of collaboration.