Bloomberg Election Day 2020 was underway and for American voters the choices couldn’t be more stark. Donald Trump was a novelty four years ago, a reality television star and real estate developer with a penchant for bombast and Twitter insults. The 74-year-old president has erased any notion that the Oval Office would tame him, thrilling Republicans by cutting regulations and ...

Bloomberg Temporary extra fencing has been erected around the White House, plywood affixed to storefronts in Manhattan and the National Guard put on notice in Portland, Oregon, as US cities braced for possible unrest on election day. “We don’t see specific reports or threats at this point,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters. “We are ready for all ...

Bloomberg The European Union (EU) held off launching legal action immediately against the UK over Boris Johnson’s plan to rewrite parts of the Brexit divorce deal, saying it is still considering its next move. The bloc had given the UK until October 31 to respond to its demand to withdraw parts of the Internal Market Bill that breach the Brexit ...

Bloomberg Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara secured a third term as leader of the world’s biggest cocoa producer in an election boycotted by key opposition leaders. Ouattara, 78, garnered 94.3% of ballots, while his nearest rival —independent candidate Kouadio Konan Bertin — obtained 1.99%, the electoral commission announced on Tuesday. Voter turnout was 53.9%, commission head Ibrahime Kuibiert-Coulibaly said. The ...

Bloomberg Thailand may rope in a former prime minister to lead a reconciliation committee proposed by the parliament to resolve key issues raised by pro-democracy protesters. House Speaker Chuan Leekpai has approached at least four former premiers and representatives of several political parties to be part of the panel, which may also include protest groups. A special parliament session proposed ...

Bloomberg Hurricane Eta has strengthened into one of the Atlantic’s most powerful storms of the year, packing winds of 233 kilometres an hour as it roars towards Central America. The storm, a Category 4 major hurricane, is expected to dump rain by the foot on Central America after it slams into the coast of Nicaragua on Tuesday, delivering life-threatening storm ...

Bloomberg China’s biggest state-owned banks are still plagued by a surge in bad loans even as an early containment of the pandemic and a recovery in the world’s second-largest economy helped them trim profit declines. Net income slid less than 5% at Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. (ICBC) and its three largest rivals in the three months through ...

Bloomberg Australia’s central bank is expected to cut interest rates to a fresh record low, reduce its three-year yield target and unleash further bond buying as it tries to turbo-charge a recovery now that the country is released from lockdown. The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will cut the cash rate to 0.10% from 0.25% and set its yield curve ...

Bloomberg JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised the stake in its Chinese securities joint venture to 71%, taking a step closer to becoming the first foreign bank to attain full ownership of a firm as the country opens its $50 trillion financial market. The bank bought a 20% stake put up for sale by Shanghai Waigaoqiao FTZ for 177.7 million yuan ...

Bloomberg The largest US banks are less healthy than they appear, boosted by temporary accounting and capital-relief measures as well as massive market support from the Federal Reserve, an advocacy group said. Although the six biggest banks’ leverage ratios reported at the end of June averaged almost 2 percentage points above the regulatory minimums, the actual average would have been ...