Bloomberg President Donald Trump toured parts of Beijing on Wednesday after arriving for a high-stakes state visit where he’ll look for wins from Xi Jinping on everything from the US’s massive trade deficit to reining in North Korea. The third leg of Trump’s five-nation Asia tour comes after stops in Tokyo and Seoul. Addressing South Korea’s parliament earlier on Wednesday …

Bloomberg Russia said North Korea is still two to three years from being able to carry out a long-range strike on the US, offering diplomacy a chance to halt the secretive Communist state’s nuclear and missile programs. “Unless we can find a political solution,” it’s “inevitable” that Kim Jong Un’s regime will have intercontinental ballistic missiles within that time, Mikhail …

Bloomberg Czech President Milos Zeman is in the lead over a wide pool of contestants vying for the country’s highest office in a January vote. Eighteen candidates have registered, the Interior Ministry, which has until Nov. 24 to review applications, said on its website. The latest CVVM poll showed that Zeman, 73, would win the Jan. 12-13 first round with …

Bloomberg Catalan separatists failed to heal their divisions in time to establish a com- mon front for December’s election, boosting Spain’s chances of restoring some normality to the rebel region. The main parties in favour of independence are set to run on separate platforms December 21 after Esquerra Republicana ruled out an alliance less than two hours before the midnight …

Bloomberg French President Emmanuel Macron is keeping his hand in Chancellor Angel Merkel’s efforts to form a new German coalition. His Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire is spending Wednesday in Berlin, meeting with key players in Merkel’s coalition talks. Le Maire is seeing both Christian Lindner, the head of the Free Democratic Party, and Cem Ozdemir, of the Greens — …

An ice-blue 14-story office tower called Ducat Place III is the building that President Trump might have constructed here. But like so many other Trump adventures in Russia, this one proved a tantalizing but futile dead end. Trump is angrily dismissive when questions are raised about his Russian contacts. He calls the investigation by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III …

In Southeast Asia, mobile banking is taking on a whole new meaning. Last week, Grab, one of the region’s top ride-hailing companies, announced that users of its app can start sending credits—used to pay for rides—to each other. By the end of the year, they’ll be able to use those credits at more than 1,000 restaurants and retailers. If all …

Few doubt that the British economy will be severely hurt if the UK leaves the European Union without a new agreement on trade and regulation. But there are risks for the EU, too. One that’s received too little attention concerns bank resolution. A cliff-edge Brexit could make it much harder for EU authorities to impose losses on investors in the …

French President Emmanuel Macron has accomplished more in six months than his predecessor managed in five years. Trouble is, that’s a low bar — and Macron will need to keep pushing if France’s economy is to achieve its full potential. Macron’s first phase of reforms addressed the country’s 3,000-plus pages of labor rules. The changes are aimed at lightening the …

“Supply” is a dirty word in economic policy discussions. That needs to change. Over the past few decades, the word “supply” has come to be associated with pro-market, anti-government policy. That has earned it the scorn of many among the growing number of intellectuals, activists and policymakers who worry about rising inequality and other economic ills that laissez-faire thinkers overlook. …