NEW YORK / WAM The UAE and the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security (GIWPS) have launched a new Research Report and a UN Action Plan to advance women’s participation in post-conflict reconstruction, following a year-long series of high-level panel discussions on the subject. Key areas of the discussions were focussed on included post-conflict governance, economic recovery and environmental ...

Bloomberg State Grid Corp of China will pay 2.57 billion euros ($3 billion) for an electricity network company in Chile, its first overseas deal in almost a year and a move that resumes its expansion abroad. The Spanish natural gas and power company Naturgy Energy Group SA said it agreed to sell its 96% stake in Chilean electricity networks unit ...

Bloomberg Private equity firms that piled into oil-production assets in the past few years now find themselves stuck, and forced to contemplate novel ways to make an exit. Even with the recent vaccine-induced surge in oil prices, industry executives say initial public offerings — the traditional method for realising gains from private-equity consolidation and dealmaking — are unlikely. So one ...

Bloomberg Enbridge Inc’s battle with Michigan escalated as the governor took new legal action to shut down a key pipeline that supplies Central Canadian refineries. Governor Gretchen Whitmer filed a complaint in Ingham County Circuit Court seeking to “revoke and terminate” a 1953 easement that allows Enbridge to operate under the Straits of Mackinac, which connect Michigan’s upper and lower ...

India’s currency is strong, the stock market is surging, and long-term interest rates are under control. The technical recession that blighted the June and September quarters is probably already over. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has rolled out the red carpet for industries ranging from automobiles and solar panels to specialty steel. The iPhone supply chain is keen to set up ...

When Nobel Prize-winning economists Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee urged France’s Emmanuel Macron in September to impose a tough three-week circuit-breaker lockdown to halt the spread of Covid-19 in time for Christmas, they were politely ignored. Macron’s health minister, Olivier Veran, dismissed such planning as “pie in the sky” and said lockdowns were to be avoided. Six weeks later, the ...

Zambia has been careening towards a debt debacle for months, even years. Now it has become the first African nation to default on sovereign payments since the pandemic began. That’s bad news for everyone involved, from the bondholders who refused to agree to a standstill, to Chinese lenders, multilateral institutions and the government. A protracted restructuring lies ahead. More transparency ...

The administration of the 2020 election wasn’t the calamity some had feared. Warnings of armed violence and voter intimidation came to nothing. Polling sites were sufficiently staffed, the system coped with the Covid-related surge in mail-in ballots, and Election Day lines remained manageable even in historically underserved areas. With few exceptions, voting equipment functioned properly. In the most encouraging sign ...

Bloomberg Ian Babcock used to take the bus from his home in northern Michigan to get groceries, a trip that was inconvenient before the pandemic made it dangerous. For the last several months, he’s been using his food-stamp benefits to get groceries delivered by Amazon. “It potentially is a lifesaver for me,” he said. Babcock is among one million-plus US ...

Bloomberg Burberry Group Plc is betting there are still enough consumers who would be willing to pay more for its trenchcoats and purses, even amid the pandemic. The company said it will reduce markdowns, a measure that may hurt second-half sales though should improve long-term profitability. The stock rose as much as 5.8% after first-half sales declined less than expected ...