Bloomberg Georgia’s first woman president took office on Sunday after a rancorous vote that triggered allegations of election fraud from the losing candidate. French-born Salome Zurabishvili, an ex-Georgian foreign minister, was sworn in as the Caucasus republic’s fifth president at a ceremony at a former royal residence in the eastern city of Telavi, about 95 kilometres (59 miles) from the ...

Bloomberg Italy’s squabbling populist coalition partners were expected to meet on Sunday to seek agreement on key parts of the country’s contentious 2019 budget in a bid to gain European Union approval and avoid sanctions. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte will meet with Deputy Premiers Luigi Di Maio, Matteo Salvini and Finance Minister Giovanni Tria to discuss the budget plan and ...

Bloomberg Theresa May’s team pushed back against reports they are warming to a second referendum on Brexit as the UK prime minister prepares to face Parliament today. David Lidington, May’s effective deputy, and Chief-of-Staff Gavin Barwell said they don’t favour another plebiscite after newspapers reported they’d held talks on the issue. May herself launched a broadside at former Prime Minister ...

Bloomberg Street protests against Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban were held for a fourth day in a week, with opposition parties inspired by France’s Yellow Vest movement uniting in their hostility to laws allowing for more overtime and greater government control of the judiciary. Thousands rallied in Budapest on Sunday for a demonstration called “Merry Christmas, Mr. Prime Minister,” a ...

The arrest in Canada of Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer (CFO) of Huawei Technologies Co., China’s iconic company, is a watershed event. The arrest, made at the behest of the US Justice Department, has roiled markets around the world. It threatens to derail trade talks between the US and China, and to expose American businesses and executives in China ...

According to its most recent financial report, the US Federal Reserve is insolvent. That is, its net worth is negative: As of last quarter, the Fed had losses of $66.5 billion in its securities holdings, while its capital stands at $39.1 billion. That may be ironic for an institution tasked with ensuring that major banks have sufficient capital to maintain ...

Along Santa Barbara’s cherished Pacific beachfront, old campers, modified pick-up trucks and shabby cars are parallel parked on the adjacent road. It’s growing dark, and the denizens of these cramped, four-wheeled apartments are settling in for the night. California remains a land of great beauty and soaring promise, with dynamic industries and spectacular vistas. But if the state does not ...

Hurricanes, severe winter storms, wildfires, droughts and several recently issued reports have raised fresh concerns about climate change and the threat it may pose to the planet. The first thing investors should do in reaction to the global warming issue is not panic. Steven Koonin, a theoretical physicist who served as undersecretary of energy and science in the Obama administration, ...

The sorry truth is that both progressives and neoliberals still don’t get it and that seems to be true in France most of all. Since the election of President Emmanuel Macron in 2017, I have read or heard that he is the leader of the free world, the hope for Europe and a model for the US. Instead, he increasingly ...

President Donald Trump is mad at General Motors Co. He’s been mad at the automotive giant since late last month, when GM announced a major overhaul that would likely involve closing four US factories (and three foreign ones) and shedding thousands of jobs. This week, he reiterated his displeasure in an interview with Fox Business, calling GM’s action “nasty.” This ...