Bloomberg The Trump administration shows scant sign of watering down its plan to impose stiff tariffs on steel and aluminum imports with carve-outs for specific countries, despite opposition from US allies and Republican lawmakers. The president’s trade advisers fanned out across television news shows to defend the move, saying it was necessary to ensure the survival of the domestic steel ...

Bloomberg Prime Minister Theresa May will urge developers to “do their duty” and build more UK houses, threatening that those who delay construction after winning planning permission will find it harder to get permits in the future. Conscious that the all-consuming Brexit project is defining her government, May is trying to address concerns about rising housing costs that led many ...

Bloomberg The Geneva International Motor Show is known as a staging ground for the glitzy luxury models that swaddle the wealthy and deliver them in style. This year’s no exception, with a new version of the Bentley Bentayga SUV, Bugatti’s $2.6 million Chiron and the Ferrari special-edition 488 Pista among the cars that will jostle for photographers’ attention. But a ...

Bloomberg UK services activity grew more than expected in February, supporting economic growth and keeping alive the prospect of an interest-rate increase within months. IHS Markit’s Purchasing Managers Index for the biggest part of the economy jumped to 54.5— a four-month high—from 53 in January. That’s well above the 53.3 reading forecast by economists in a Bloomberg survey. The report ...

Bloomberg North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held talks with top aides to South Korea’s Moon Jae-in in Pyongyang on Monday, the president’s office said, in the first meeting between the leader of the isolated nation and officials from Seoul since he took power in 2011. National Security Office head Chung Eui-yong and National Intelligence Service chief Suh Hoon were ...

TEHRAN / Reuters France’s foreign minister visited Iran on Monday on a delicate mission to affirm Europe’s support for a nuclear deal that opened Iran’s economy while echoing US concern about Tehran’s missile programme and role in regional conflicts. Jean-Yves Le Drian aims to save the 2015 nuclear deal, which US President Donald Trump has threatened to quit unless European ...

Bloomberg Slovakia’s political turmoil worsened as the premier rebuffed a call from the country’s president to hold early elections as a way out a crisis that erupted when the murder of journalist sparked public protests. The conflict increases pressure on Prime Minister Robert Fico, one of Europe’s longest serving leaders who has taken Slovakia into the euro zone but has ...

WASHINGTON / Reuters Guatemala will move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv in May, two days after the US embassy makes the same move, Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales said at a conference in Washington. “I would like to thank President Trump for leading the way. His courageous decision has encouraged us to do what is right,” Morales ...

Bloomberg Foreign travel is the first thing that comes to mind when Malian lettuce farmer Moussa Samake thinks about President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. Nicknamed “the carrier pigeon” for his frequent trips abroad, Keita, 73, is expected to seek re-election in July after a five-year term marred by growing insecurity in the landlocked West African nation. His failure to halt a ...

Steel tariffs work! That is, when President George W. Bush levied tariffs of 8 percent to 30 percent on steel imports in March 2002, it did seem to have a detectable positive impact on steel industry employment. For about a year after the tariff was imposed, steel industry employment stopped falling. Yay! Then the decline resumed amid a brewing global ...