Bloomberg Kosovo lawmakers approved US educated jurist Vjosa Osmani as president, filling the post previously held by an ex-guerrilla who stepped down last year to face charges on war crimes. Osmani, 38, was elected with the backing of Premier Albin Kurti, whose anti-establishment Self-Determination Movement won February 14 elections. Both represent a new generation of leaders in the landlocked Balkan ...

Bloomberg Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov’s party won Sunday’s general elections, but thorny ties with his political rivals complicated his path to a fourth term as leader of the European Union’s poorest and most corrupt member. Already one of the EU’s longest-serving leaders, the former bodyguard of the Balkan state’s last communist dictator capitalised on support from conservative voters drawn ...

Bloomberg The US is pressing ahead with plans to hit six nations that tax internet-based companies with retaliatory tariffs that could total almost $1 billion annually. Goods entering the US — ranging from Austrian grand pianos and British merry-go-rounds to Italian anchovies — could face tariffs of as much as 25% annually, documents published by the US Trade Representative (USTR) ...

Bloomberg France’s economy will rebound less than previously expected this year due to the latest four-week nationwide lockdown aimed at halting a surge in coronavirus cases. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire cut the country’s 2021 GDP growth forecast to 5% from 6%, following an 8.1% contraction last year. A Bloomberg survey in March showed economists were expecting the economy ...

Bloomberg Argentine Finance Minister Martin Guzman said finalising a plan with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to repay $45 billion in debt likely won’t happen by May or June. Changing the terms of a previous repayment program would require the support of nations like the US, China, Germany, Japan and France, the finance minister said in an interview with CNN ...

Bloomberg Everyone in England will be urged to take a coronavirus test twice a week as a new system of Covid passports is assessed for wide-scale use, under Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s plan to reopen the economy after lockdown. Free test kits will be made available through local pharmacies, community centers and home delivery services, when the new regime goes ...

Bloomberg Germany increased planned bond sales in the second quarter by 2.5 billion euros ($2.9 billion), as the government ramps up borrowing to help offset the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The federal government will issue 59.5 billion euros of bonds and bills in the April-June period, up from 57 billion euros planned at the end of last year, the ...

Bloomberg The personal data of more than half a billion Facebook Inc users reemerged online for free, a reminder of the company’s ability to collect mountains of information and its struggles to protect these sensitive assets. The leak includes personal information on 533 million Facebook users, such as phone numbers, Facebook IDs, full names, locations, birth dates, bios and in ...

Bloomberg US futures edged higher while most Asian stocks climbed as investors digested the unexpectedly strong jobs report. Bonds steadied from earlier losses. S&P 500 futures rise 0.1%, adding to last week’s gains when payrolls data showed US employers added the most jobs in seven months. Treasuries pulled back from a selloff last week, with the benchmark 10-year yield steadying ...

Bloomberg The prospect of tax hikes may not have derailed gains in US stocks yet, but 100 years of data say the market is far from impervious to them. Stocks can take a hit when rates rise on corporations and individuals, according to Julian Emanuel, chief equity and derivatives strategist at BTIG LLC. He sees 13 such instances, most recently ...