Bloomberg Hiro Mizuno, former chief investment officer of Japan’s GPIF, the world’s largest pension fund, has recounted how Kofi Annan once said to him that Asian nations were a “desert” of responsible financing. Mizuno told the story in 2019, two years after he began to champion investing based on environmental, social and governance metrics. Things have changed since then. ...

Bloomberg Finland announced it will apply to join Nato, and Sweden is likely to follow. Turkey doesn’t plan to block the Nordic countries’ membership bids, Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg said after meetings in Berlin. The military alliance in June is expected to highlight Russian behavior as a direct threat in an updated strategic document. The UK defense ministry estimated that ...

Bloomberg North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the growing outbreak of a fever “the big upheaval since the nation’s founding” as state media reported more new cases. There were about 296,000 cases of fever with 15 deaths, the Korean Central News Agency said, adding to the more than 170,000 cases reported the previous day. The total death toll stands at ...

Bloomberg German Chancellor Olaf Scholz faces another tricky electoral test, with polls suggesting his Social Democratic Party (SPD) could suffer a second setback in a week in a regional ballot. Some 13.2 million people are eligible to vote in Germany’s most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia, a heavily industrialised western region that was once an SPD stronghold but has been ...

Bloomberg Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said after a visit to Kyiv that he expects the chamber to pass a $40 billion aid package for Ukraine with broad bipartisan backing on Wednesday. McConnell, speaking to reporters on a call from Sweden, made the pledge after leading a group of Republican senators to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who called for ...

  Bloomberg Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison made an impassioned pitch for his center-right government to be re-elected for a fourth term less than one week from a national election, with polls pointing to an opposition victory. The Liberal National Coalition government held its official campaign launch in Brisbane, Queensland, a state that is crucial for Morrison’s party for any ...

Bloomberg California Governor Gavin Newsom said that his state has a record $97.5 billion operating surplus, as high tax rates on its wealthiest residents mean he has more cash to fund liberal priorities such as education and health care. The surplus is bigger than the entire 2020 spending of any other state except New York and Texas. Of that windfall, ...

Bloomberg The European Union (EU) cut its prediction for 2022 euro-area growth and almost doubled its estimate for inflation, according to new draft projections. In the first forecast since the outbreak of war in Ukraine, the European Commission says gross domestic product will expand 2.7% in 2022 and 2.3% in 2023, according to a draft seen by Bloomberg. That’s down ...

  Bloomberg Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, is considering a visit to Indonesia to explore investment opportunities in the resource-rich Southeast Asia country. The chief executive officer of Tesla Inc. and SpaceX met with Indonesian President Joko Widodo at the rocket manufacturer’s site in Boca Chica, Texas, on Saturday, during which Widodo extended an invite. “Hopefully in November, thank ...

  Bloomberg Technology companies including ASML Holding NV and Adyen NV called on the Dutch government to maintain a tax break that seeks to attract expatriates to the Netherlands. Ingrid Thijssen, head of the Confederation of Netherlands Industry and Employers, said the government for budget reasons is considering shrinking or scrapping a rule that exempts 30% of an expat’s salary ...