JERUSALEM / Reuters Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he would meet US President Donald Trump later this month during a visit to New York, where he will address the United Nations General Assembly on September 19. Netanyahu spoke to reporters accompanying him on a trip to Latin America before his plane left Tel Aviv for Argentina on Sunday night. ...
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Putin’s opponents claim Moscow win
Bloomberg Russia’s ruling party swept gubernatorial elections, but the beleaguered opposition claimed a rare breakthrough in voting for district councils in Moscow after overcoming divisions. A pro-democracy bloc got about 13 percent of the vote and won control of councils in several districts of the Russian capital. While the bodies have limited power, they’d been targeted by Kremlin opponents who’ve ...
Read More »Cracks emerge in Nigerian ruling party as doubts grow over Buhari’s second term
Bloomberg With doubts growing that Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari will seek a second term because of lingering health issues, cracks are emerging in the ruling All Progressives Congress as key politicians jostle to succeed him. Women Affairs Minister Aisha Alhassan appeared in an online video last week declaring support for former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to become leader in 2019, ...
Read More »Norway votes as PM hopes economic record will resonate
Bloomberg Norwegians started voting in what could be the closest parliamentary election in almost 20 years with Prime Minister Erna Solberg seeking to make history after spending a record amount of the country’s oil riches. After saving the economy from a recession, with part of the cash coming from the world’s biggest sovereign wealth fund, Solberg and her coalition hope ...
Read More »Catalan separatists plot ‘show of strength’
Bloomberg Catalonia’s separatist leaders are seeking a show of force from their supporters as they advance toward an illegal referendum on independence. The movement will stage its annual demonstrations on Catalan National Day, a holiday in the region, with parades along four of the main avenues in Barcelona as well as speeches and concerts. More than 390,000 people had registered ...
Read More »Will not run for public office again, says Clinton
Bloomberg Hillary Clinton said she won’t run for public office again, but the former Democratic presidential nominee isn’t giving up on trying to make her mark on American politics. “As an active politician it’s over. I am done with being a candidate,†Clinton told CBS News in an interview before Tuesday’s release of “What Happened,†her memoir about the 2016 ...
Read More »While Trump takes the shots, Tillerson runs the offense
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has often been the silent man in the Trump foreign policy team. But out of the spotlight, he appears to be crafting a broad strategy aimed at working with China to resolve the North Korea crisis and with Russia to stabilize Syria and Ukraine. The Tillerson approach focuses on personal diplomacy, in direct contacts with ...
Read More »ECB shouldn’t worry about the euro
The European Central Bank (ECB) has spent much of this decade convincing markets that the euro is irreversible. It is therefore mildly ironic that policy makers in Frankfurt may be in trouble because of the sudden return of confidence in the single currency. Investors flocking to the euro have pushed it above $1.20, a 14 percent appreciation since the start ...
Read More »US Congress should give families more credit
Congress returns to Washington this week to a meat grinder: In short order, members must raise the debt ceiling, pass a budget (to avoid a government shutdown) and deliver emergency relief to the victims of Hurricane Harvey. So it might seem unrealistic to suggest that they strike a bipartisan deal on child-care tax credits. Yet this is precisely the kind ...
Read More »China’s capacity cuts are mostly a mirage
Since December 2015, China’s government has been talking up what it calls supply-side reform. State media says the goal is “stimulating business through tax cuts, entrepreneurship and innovation while phasing out excess capacity.” That sounds reasonable. In reality, though, supply-side reform is doing almost nothing to reduce capacity, and may well be worsening the inefficiencies that are holding back China’s ...
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