Bloomberg Palestinians will “slap back” for the humiliation they’ve suffered from the Trump administration and seek to replace the US with other international players in future peace negotiations with Israel, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said. Opening a conference of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Central Committee in Ramallah, Abbas criticized US President Donald Trump for recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital ...

Bloomberg Donald Trump told reporters he’s “the least racist person” as fallout continues from a vulgar remark about immigrants from Africa and Haiti attributed to the president following a meeting with lawmakers last week. “I am not a racist,” Trump said in response to a shouted question from reporters as he entered his Palm Beach golf club. “I am the ...

Bloomberg Czechs will decide in a runoff presidential election whether pro-Russian incumbent Milos Zeman keeps his post for five more years or is ousted by a pro-European Union professor who’s won endorsements from candidates who tumbled out in the first round. Zeman, a veteran politician who supports Russian leader Vladimir Putin and was one of early backers of US President ...

Bloomberg South Africa’s ruling-party leader, Cyril Ramaphosa, said that while Jacob Zuma’s government must obey the decisions of the African National Congress, he doesn’t want to “humiliate” the president and divide the nation. Ramaphosa, speaking in a television interview broadcast by Johannesburg-based eNCA, said the ANC has to be careful about deciding on Zuma’s future as the nation’s leader before ...

Bloomberg Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg strengthened her power base as the Liberal Party agreed to join her minority coalition. The new government will be built on a “broader center-right platform,” Solberg said at a televised press conference in Moss, south of Oslo. “We are seeing more polarized landscape in many countries with parties refusing to take responsibility,” she said. ...

US President Donald Trump has been relatively subdued over the last few months when it comes to trade, a period that roughly overlaps with the time it took to pass tax reform. He was under pressure to keep quiet about it during the tax negotiations, but 2018 is likely to bring a very different Trump. This “economic nationalism” stuff is ...

The world’s three largest credit-ratings companies have a bit of catching up to do. Eight high-yield developers listed in Hong Kong should now be investment grade, according to Bloomberg’s default risk model, which uses market inputs such as debt outstanding, interest expenses and operating cash flow to calculate the probability of firms reneging on their obligations in the year ahead. ...

Houses are made of bricks and mortar, but a builder’s key raw material is land. Once, its value roughly tracked house prices. But that relationship has broken down, much to the benefit of the large homebuilders. In conversations with analysts and investors, developers like Taylor Wimpey Plc, Crest Nicholson Holdings Plc and Redrow Plc have continually alighted on the same ...

Soon, Japanese banks may no longer be the cheapest in the world. The yield-curve control undertaken by the nation’s central bank has done lasting damage. Data compiled by Bloomberg on financial institutions with a market capitalization of $10 billion or more show those from Japan are the biggest value traps, trading at just 0.69 times book, despite having an average ...

Americans have never been more addicted to devices. Thanks to the mobile revolution initiated by the iPhone, the US alone is home to 238 million mobile phones and 140 million tablets that are rarely shut down. And their numbers are growing, thanks to a perpetual upgrade cycle and demand for new features. For environmentalists, it’s a looming electronic nightmare in ...