Bloomberg North Koreans cast their votes on Sunday in a parliamentary election that comes as leader Kim Jong-un faces mounting pressure to demonstrate his ability to cope with the international sanctions squeezing his country. The regime holds elections every five years to pick representatives to the Supreme People’s Assembly — North Korea’s rubber stamp parliament — with the last one ...

Bloomberg The 17th Saturday of protests by France’s Yellow Vests passed without major incidents as the movement’s momentum appeared to wane. There were 28,600 protesters throughout France, according to the Interior Ministry, down from 39,300 a week ago and the lowest turnout since the movement began. There were 3,000 protesters in Paris, compared with 4,000. That’s way down from the ...

The latest pitched battle between Corporate America and its critics involves stock buybacks: Large companies’ purchases of their own shares on the stock market. The aim is to raise share prices and satisfy investors. But the practice has triggered outrage from critics, who argue that the buybacks discourage productive investment, higher wages and worker retraining. Big business is accused of ...