Bloomberg The US Supreme Court accepted a case that could roil the credit-card business, agreeing to consider reviving government allegations that American Express Co. thwarts competition by prohibiting merchants from steering customers to cards with lower fees. A federal appeals court had thrown out the lawsuit, saying the US government and 11 states failed to prove that the American Express ...

Bloomberg North Korea warned that a nuclear war “may break out any moment” as the US and South Korea began one of the largest joint naval drills off both the east and west coasts of the peninsula. Kim In Ryong, North Korea’s deputy ambassador to the United Nations, said that his nation had become a “full-fledged nuclear power which possesses ...

BAGHDAD / KIRKUK / Reuters The Baghdad government recaptured territory across the breadth of northern Iraq from Kurds on Tuesday, widening a sudden and dramatic campaign that has shifted the balance of power in the country almost overnight. In the second day of a lightning government campaign to take back towns and countryside from forces of the Kurdish autonomous region, ...

Bloomberg The Venezuelan opposition has been boxed in. The socialist regime’s sweeping victories in elections marred by fraud accusations left opponents with scant hope of a fair 2018 presidential vote. International pressure has failed to move President Nicolas Maduro. Nor have months of street protests. Now, opponents are splintering over the basic question of whether the ballot box is the ...

Bloomberg Spain’s National Court ordered the Catalan police chief to surrender his passport after finding evidence that his force spied on its rivals in Madrid. A judge in the Spanish capital told Josep Lluis Trapero to report back to the court every two weeks, citing evidence that the Catalan police force, known as the Mossos d’Esquadra, may have conducted counter-intelligence ...

Bloomberg Asia’s two biggest economies both have their most powerful leaders in decades — and neither one has much incentive to mend a relationship that has long been volatile. Polls show Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling party is heading for a landslide win in an October 22 election, putting him on track to become the longest-serving leader in the ...

Bloomberg As Buenos Aires goes to the polls for midterm elections, Maria Eugenia Vidal is everywhere — except on the ballot. Vidal is the province’s governor, a key ally of President Mauricio Macri, and the public face of a Senate campaign that’s turning into a referendum on his economic plans. It’s her picture that’s plastered across billboards in the industrial ...

In this week’s crisis over Kirkuk, Iraqi Kurds are experiencing a painful version of Newton’s Third Law: In Middle East politics, as in physics, every action creates an equal and opposite reaction. The initial action was Kurdistan President Masoud Barzani’s decision to push ahead last month with a controversial independence referendum, despite strong warnings from the United States, Turkey, Iran ...

People’s Bank of China (PBOC) Governor Zhou Xiaochuan made comments this week that suggest some imminent reform announcements are on the agenda. There are two potential policies to look for in the near term: the loosening of foreign investment restrictions and the launch of domestic oil futures. A new oil futures contract in the Shanghai free trade zone might sound trivial, ...

With the nearly century-old Jones Act put back in force, battered Puerto Rico’s future just got even darker. The Department of Homeland Security’s decision to end the commonwealth’s waiver from the law means that its seaborne commerce with the mainland must again be carried on ships owned, built and crewed by Americans. The island’s people — also Americans, if the ...