Bloomberg Syrian rebels backed by Turkey are engaged in a “serious operation” in the country’s Idlib province, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, part of a joint mission with Russia and Iran to monitor a ceasefire agreement and pacify a rebel stronghold in northwest Syria. Turkey also beefed up troops on the border since the three countries agreed to establish a ...

Bloomberg German Chancellor Angela Merkel outlined her post-election agenda, saying she’ll seek a coalition with the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and Greens while keeping her options open on further integration of the euro area. Thirteen days after an election that sent support for her Christian Democratic Union-led (CDU) bloc to the lowest level since 1949, Merkel faced criticism of her ...

Bloomberg Police detained activists in several Russian cities as supporters of opposition leader Alexey Navalny heeded his call to turn out on Saturday for nationwide protests to mark President Vladimir Putin’s birthday. Navalny, who’s serving a 20-day sentence for organising an illegal demonstration, recently has drawn thousands of people to a series of campaign events across Russia in support of ...

Bloomberg Demonstrators dressed in white gathered outside city halls in Barcelona, Madrid and across Spain on Saturday to demand that sparring sides in the country’s constitutional crisis move back from the brink. “Let’s talk” said the banners and flags at Sant Jaume square in Barcelona and around Madrid’s Cibeles fountain. The words, written in Spanish and Catalonian, were the top-trending ...

Bloomberg The European Union has been meeting more frequently with the UK’s opposition Labour Party as doubts grow over whether Prime Minister Theresa May will remain in her post through the conclusion of Brexit negotiations, the Daily Telegraph reported without saying where it got the information. As May brushed off calls from some Conservative Party members this week to resign, ...

Bloomberg UK Prime Minister Theresa May is being urged to shake up her Cabinet and fire Boris Johnson to show she’s in charge, according to people familiar with the situation, as Tories demand an end to the government infighting that threatens to bring chaos to Brexit. Officials in May’s party, speaking on condition of anonymity, say she should act now ...

Bloomberg Nigeria’s oil minister sent a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari listing at least $24 billion of contracts involving the state oil company that he said were never discussed with him or the firm’s board, a copy of the document seen by Bloomberg shows. Emmanuel Kachikwu, the state minister for petroleum resources, complained in the seven-page, August 30 letter to ...

TOKYO / Reuters Tokyo Gas Co, Japan’s biggest city gas supplier, will not accept new contracts for long-term purchases of liquefied natural gas (LNG) that contain clauses that restrict where the gas can be sold, the company’s president said. “We have no intention of signing new contracts unless the destinations are free,” Tokyo Gas President Michiaki Hirose said during a ...

Bloomberg Oil took a downward turn as concerns eased about Tropical Storm Nate’s threat to offshore crude platforms and coastal refineries while prices broke through a key technical barrier. Futures slipped 3 percent in New York, bringing this week’s decline to the steepest since May. While BP Plc, Chevron Corp. and other explorers cleared workers from the Gulf of Mexico ...

MOSCOW / Reuters A plan to list Saudi Aramco in 2018 is on track, senior Saudi officials said in Moscow. The plan to float around 5 percent of Aramco in an initial public offering (IPO) is a centrepiece of Vision 2030, a wide-ranging reform plan to diversify the Saudi economy beyond oil which is being championed by Saudi Crown Prince ...