Bloomberg Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who won Sri Lanka’s bitterly contested presidential poll, promised tolerance for all religions and cultures in a nation where racial tensions have divided communities for decades. “All minorities’ right to practice religion and culture will be assured,” Rajapaksa said at his swearing in ceremony at a highly venerated Buddhist site in the north central district of Anuradhapura. ...

Bloomberg Emmanuel Macron wants to make it tougher for the European Union to accept new members, adding to signs of French unease at the prospect of Balkan countries joining the bloc and raising the risk of further strains with Germany. In a document circulated to EU governments, France said the process of EU enlargement should be more “gradual,” terms of ...

While almost everyone in Washington is glued to impeachment developments, Europe has been quietly drifting towards a recession. This is bad news for Christine Lagarde, the former head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), who is now the president of the European Central Bank (ECB). It may also be bad news for the rest of us. By the usual indicators ...

Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party is behind in the polls for the UK election so it’s unsurprising that he’s chucking out more giveaways to voters. The policy to nationalise BT Group Plc’s fixed-telecoms networks business and provide free fiber broadband to every British household is a humdinger nonetheless. Of course, the chances of this becoming reality are slim given that Corbyn’s ...

Here’s a company that really wants to get bought: As you can see, that wasn’t the case with Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc. up until quite recently. Back in early 2018, when it was trading at about $17 a share, the exploration and production company rejected activist Kimmeridge Energy Management Co.’s calls to either sell the whole company or a ...

It’s still all about the central banks. If you care about allocating money between global assets, everything else remains ancillary, and all 2019’s biggest trends — from negative interest rates in Germany through the inverted US yield curve to the impressive global rebound in share prices — can be explained by the actions of central bankers. Many will find this ...

A long-held belief of analysts in India is that the economy is supply-constrained. Demand isn’t even worth a footnote, while a temporary squeeze in the onion market deserves obsession because it could be inflationary. It’s increasingly obvious that this view is outdated. In October, inflation quickened more than expected to 4.62% because of, yes, an onion shortage. Yet core inflation, ...

The floods in Venice that have killed several people and damaged hundreds of buildings including St Mark’s Basilica appear inexorable. The city is a fragile treasure built on 118 islands off Italy’s northeast coast. In a way, it’s a miracle that Venice has managed to survive and thrive for more than 1,000 years. It built a naval and commercial empire ...

If you’ve dropped the kids off at school in London or the New York suburbs recently, the idea that Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) Automotive Plc is struggling must seem far-fetched. The British carmaker’s Range Rover SUVs have become a common feature of the upper-middle class lifestyle. How else would one get to brunch and the gym? Yet a decade after ...

Bloomberg Snacks chain Best Mart 360 Holdings Ltd has seen revenue drop by double digits as its stores come under attack by radical Hong Kong protesters in the ongoing anti-Beijing movement that’s gripped the city. As protests become increasingly violent, more than 70 of its 102 stores have been vandalised in over 180 instances, chairman Lin Tsz Fung said in ...