Evening Briefing: Asia
  | Bloomberg Evening Briefing Asia | | | | The deadly riots in Indonesia last month have spurred President Prabowo Subianto into bold moves to consolidate his power. While the former general ultimately decided to avoid using the military to quell the unrest, the episode convinced him to rein in Indonesia’s tycoons, sideline political rivals and address persistent inequality, according to people familiar with the president’s thinking, who asked not to be identified discussing private conversations. The first step came last week with the abrupt removal of Sri Mulyani Indrawati, a finance minister adored by international investors for adhering to fiscal prudence. Her replacement, Purbaya Yudhi Sadewa, shares Prabowo’s view that Indonesia has room to take on more debt to boost growth and the central bank should be subordinate to the government, the people said. Next in line are Indonesia’s billionaires. Prabowo believes they have grown excessively wealthy, with too much power to influence politics and policies, the people said. He’s looking into ways to seize what he considers ill-gotten gains, they added, including ramping up seizures of palm oil plantations and mines — moves that have already spooked Indonesia’s business elites, who are increasingly holding back on new investments out of fear he will make further demands. —Balázs Penz | | What You Need to Know Today | | | Huawei is stepping up its challenge of Nvidia with new AI chip technology it unveiled to show off greater computing power. The Shenzhen-based firm’s new SuperPod technology can support linking as many as 15,488 graphic cards containing Huawei’s Ascend-branded artificial intelligence chips. The aggressive approach helps China’s AI chip leader pack more performance into its semiconductors, which are used to train and operate artificial intelligence services. | |
| | US President Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK is turning to tougher diplomatic talks on trade and foreign policy with Prime Minister Keir Starmer after a white-tie banquet hosted by the royal family. A celebratory announcement on a British-American tech partnership is expected, but the private discussions are likely to delve into thornier matters including trade and Russia’s war on Ukraine. | |
| | Disney’s ABC network is taking Jimmy Kimmel Live! off the air indefinitely amid a backlash to remarks the late-night host made about the killing of Republican activist Charlie Kirk. The suspension starts with Wednesday’s broadcast, Disney said in a statement. The company announced the decision minutes after Nexstar, which owns dozens of ABC TV affiliates, said it would pull the show indefinitely from its stations over remarks that were “offensive and insensitive.”  Jimmy Kimmel Photographer: Randy Holmes/Disney/Getty Images | |
| | Zijin Gold’s IPO in Hong Kong is attracting a crowd of marquee investors, with GIC, Millennium and Hillhouse among the heavyweights to join the fray, according to people familiar with the matter. The world’s biggest offering since May, which may fetch more than $3 billion, also counts BlackRock, Fidelity and Baillie Gifford among cornerstone investors that are poised to get around half of the IPO shares, the people said. | |
| | Too many of Europe’s leaders just can’t get stuff done anymore. UK leader Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron might be struggling most, but peers from the Hague to Warsaw and Berlin to Madrid are all in the same boat, managing countries that are increasingly ungovernable. Much of the continent is now plagued by a pernicious combination of strained budgets, glacial administration, parliamentary fragmentation, energized opposition from political extremes, and discord often spilling onto the streets.  France's National Assembly ahead of a confidence vote that the government lost this month. Photographer: Nathan Laine/Bloomberg | |
| | A tower on Market Street in Singapore is an example of how rich property investors are holding back and causing a dilemma for sellers. From its textured stone walls to a column clad in mirrors, the building at No. 55 looks like any other building in downtown Singapore. But step inside and something is amiss: the 16-story tower has been mostly empty for months. The vacant building is an anomaly in an otherwise bustling financial district. It’s an extreme example of how office transactions have plummeted, even as the market largely withstands the slump that afflicted cities around the world since the pandemic. | |
| | Meta unveiled the first version of its smart glasses with a built-in screen, the latest step in its drive to turn the gadgets into must-haves. The latest model, the $799 Meta Ray-Ban Display, features a screen in the right lens. It can show text messages, video calls, turn-by-turn directions in maps and visual results from queries to Meta’s AI service. The subtly integrated display can also serve as a viewfinder for the camera on a user’s phone or surface music playback.  The Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg | | What You’ll Need to Know Tomorrow | | | | | | | Charity meal auctions with Warren Buffett and other famed US investors are well known. Singapore is now joining the trend with a recent auction for a dinner with one of its most prominent bankers, highlighting the city-state’s growing appetite for luxury experiences. The winning bidder paid S$18,900 ($14,790) for the chance to dine with Tan Su Shan, chief executive officer of DBS, in an auction conducted by Sotheby’s last week. The event, part of National Gallery Singapore’s 2025 auction, is a rare instance of a fundraising in Asia featuring a leading corporate executive. The winning bid — more than double the pre-sale estimate of S$6,000 to S$8,000 — underscores how experiences are increasingly prized alongside traditional art and collectibles in Singapore’s luxury market.  The National Gallery Singapore Gala on Sept. 13. National Gallery Singapore | | | Enjoying Evening Briefing? Check out these newsletters: | | |
