Bloomberg The US military is speaking with the Taliban several times a day, as the group warn of “consequences” if the US delays withdrawing all troops from Afghanistan past an end of month deadline. “It’s a red line,” Qatar-based Taliban spokesman and negotiator Suhail Shaheen said in an interview with Sky News. If the US or UK were to seek ...

Bloomberg Japanese PM Yoshihide Suga suffered a fresh blow amid criticism of his pandemic management, when his favoured candidate lost an election for mayor in city where he began his political career. Hachiro Okonogi was defeated by Takeharu Yamanaka, a former university professor supported by the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, in the race for mayor of Yokohama, ...

Bloomberg Elevated commodity prices and expectations for earnings growth are igniting bullish bets on emerging-market equities after more than a decade of underperformance that left them approaching a 20-year low against developed-nation stocks. Goldman Sachs Group, Bank of America Corp (BofA) and Lazard Asset Management expect a boost for developing equities as investors capitalise on cheap valuations once vaccine rollouts ...