April 21, 2021 Biz in 60

UAE becomes second biggest buyer of US Treasury securities The United Arab Emirates surpassed China to become the second-biggest buyer of US Treasury securities in February after the UK. The oil-rich Gulf nation has added nearly 17-billion dollars' worth of US debt since January, raising its holdings to 50-point-6 billion dollars. The monthly haul was the biggest ever for the UAE. Australia scraps Victoria's Belt and Road deals with China Australia has scrapped agreements that the state of Victoria struck with China to co-operate on Beijing's Belt and Road Initiative. Foreign Minister Marise Payne says the deals agreed in 2018 and 2019 were inconsistent with Australia's foreign policy. Two other agreements between Victoria and the governments of Iran and Syria have also been cancelled. UK sues video app TikTok over use of children's data TikTok is being sued for several billion dollars for violating UK and EU data protection laws. The suit filed in London accuses the popular video app and its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, of illegally collecting the personal information of millions of children in the UK and Europe. TikTok says the claims are meritless and that it would defend itself in court.