WASHINGTON / YANGON / Reuters The United States has identified one person it might impose sanctions on over the brutal crackdown in Myanmar against minority Rohingya Muslims and is examining others, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said. Tillerson, who last month declared the violence against the Rohingya to be “ethnic cleansing,” has said Washington was considering “targeted sanctions” against ...

Bloomberg Vice President Mike Pence will seek to show on a trip to the Mideast next week that the Trump administration can still partner with Arab and Muslim leaders on security matters and broker peace despite the backlash following President Donald Trump’s declaration that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital. Pence is expected to receive an enthusiastic welcome from leaders in Israel. ...

Bloomberg Angela Merkel said Germany needs a stable government to strengthen Europe in a world fraught with risk as her Social Democratic rivals agreed to talks that could lead to a renewed alliance with the chancellor. As she seeks to end Germany’s political stalemate and clear the way for her fourth term, Merkel argued that a EU without a strong ...

Bloomberg Opposition lawmakers began an effort to force Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski out of office after he rebuffed calls to resign over his ties to companies that received payments from disgraced Brazilian builder Odebrecht SA. Congressmen from three parties presented a motion to remove the center-right president on the grounds of moral incapacity. The unicameral Congress will hold an ...

When historians examine President Trump’s tax programme, they will surely be struck by a large and momentous contradiction. Although the nation faces endless budget deficits — and although the president purports to speak about the future — his tax programme does little or nothing to curb long-term deficits and, arguably, might make them worse. It is said that the tax ...

Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man, can consistently squeeze more than $10 a barrel in refining margins out of crude. Expect no less from him when it comes to monetizing Reliance Industries Ltd.’s investment in Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd., the fourth-generation mobile network that’s taken the nation’s digital landscape by storm. What kind of an equity market valuation should Ambani put ...

After years of talks, central banks and financial regulators have finally agreed on the Basel III rules for bank capital. That’s a good thing, mostly. The deal improves the regulatory framework and will give banks greater clarity about what’s required. It’s also a timely reminder that international policy cooperation can work. There’s a catch, however: The new rules have been ...

At a European Union summit this week, the bloc’s leaders are expected to formally declare that the Brexit talks can move forward. Not a moment too soon. Britain and the EU have spent 18 months since the UK’s decision to quit avoiding the main issues — namely, their future trading relationship and a plan for getting from here to there. ...

The question of nature versus nurture is an important one, but also an incredibly delicate one. How much of the disparities we see in society are fuelled by a lack of good education, social influences and role models, and how much are due to natural ability? Given that people in advanced countries spend multiple decades of their life in school, ...

If you can’t beat them, regulate them. That sounds like a pretty good mantra for governments the world over trying to wrap their heads around this tamagotchi of finance better known as bitcoin. South Korea is the latest to propose cryptocurrency measures after a surge in trading started to ring alarm bells. The fact that its citizens were paying close ...