Bloomberg LaSalle Hotel Properties picked Blackstone Group LP as its preferred suitor, thwarting months of efforts by Pebblebrook Hotel Trust to buy the luxury-hotel owner, most recently for more than $4 billion. The Blackstone transaction values the company at $4.8 billion, LaSalle said on Monday in a statement. LaSalle’s board deemed a June 11 offer from Pebblebrook “substantially similar” to ...

Bloomberg The first punches have been thrown in a potential trade war and now Xi Jinping is poised to match Donald Trump with a tit for tat response. The next flurry of jabs may be imminent. In his announcement of tariffs on Chinese goods on June 16, Trump vowed additional duties if China retaliated — which Beijing immediately did. Details ...

Bloomberg Ivan Duque, a 41-year-old lawyer and former senator who wants to modify parts of a peace process and cut corporate taxes, will be Colombia’s next president following a decisive election victory on June 17. Duque, who spent half his adult life in Washington, is the protege of former President Alvaro Uribe, a polarising security hard-liner. Whether he’ll be able ...