Bloomberg France’s Republicans nominated their first woman presidential candidate in a primary that sharpened the focus of the challenge facing Emmanuel Macron in next year’s election. Valerie Pecresse won the final round of the conservative’s ballot after 61% of members backed her. Eric Ciotti, a lawmaker from southern France often compared to far-right rival Eric Zemmour, took 39%. By selecting ...

Bloomberg Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the US will stand up to an “increasingly assertive and autocratic” China in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond, calling its activity “disturbing.” One way to counter China’s military modernisation, growing nuclear capabilities and technological advances is to strengthen US alliances in the region, Austin told a security conference in California. “The activity that we ...

Bloomberg The US is reevaluating the travel ban on eight southern African countries as more information about the omicron variant and its spread becomes available, White House medical adviser Anthony Fauci said. “That ban was done at a time when we were really in the dark — we had no idea what was going on,” Fauci said. U.S. medical advisers ...

Bloomberg President Joe Biden said Americans are returning to work and the US economy continues a strong rebound from the pandemic, after a Labour Department report offered a mixed view on the job market. “Simply put, America, America is back to work,” Biden said in remarks at the White House. “Because of the extraordinary strides we’ve made, we can look ...

Bloomberg The European Union (EU) will give preliminary approval to the reforms submitted by Spain to unlock $11.3 billion of its recovery funds. The European Commission will validate first set of milestones fulfilled by the Spanish government as part of its cash-for-reforms package to counter economic fallout of Covid-19, according to EU officials. Spain is one of the largest beneficiaries ...

Bloomberg Italy’s credit rating was raised one notch to “BBB” by Fitch Ratings, which said the country’s high Covid-19 vaccination rates and an increase in public and private spending will help the economy expand more than expected. The boost in rating reflects confidence in the unity government led by Premier Mario Draghi and its ability to wisely spend over 200 ...

Bloomberg Toronto home prices rise to a record as a sharp decline in the number of properties coming up for sale stoked competition among buyers, leaving little prospect market will cool soon. The average price of a home sold in the Toronto region in November was was about $904,000, up 22% from last year. The number of new listings fall ...

Bloomberg Half of UK businesses expect to increase their prices in response to rising wage costs and supply-chain difficulties. That’s according to a survey by Lloyds Bank, which said that acute shortages of workers persisted into November. It showed that a quarter of companies expect to increase wages by 3% or more in next year in an effort to retain ...

Bloomberg Ford Motor Co expects to be the second-biggest seller of electric vehicles in the world within two years, according to Chief Operating Officer Lisa Drake. Demand for Ford’s first electric vehicles — the Mustang Mach-E crossover, the new electric F-150 Lightning pickup due out next spring, and its E-Transit commercial van — is emboldening the automaker to ramp up ...

Bloomberg A brutal 2021 selloff for Chinese stocks trading in the US has now erased more than $1 trillion in value since February and shows no signs of easing as regulators on both sides of the globe continue to put pressure on the firms. The Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index — which tracks China-exposed firms listed in the US — ...