After decades of sustaining a relatively modest nuclear arsenal, China is moving swiftly to build more and better doomsday weapons. The trend would be dangerous at any time. But given the precipitous decline in relations with the US, a catastrophe is becoming all too likely. Both sides need to restore stability to this relationship before the world faces a devastating ...

Ten years of extend and pretend over the Monte Paschi crisis are coming home to roost. Talks for a sale of the troubled 500-year-old lender — nationalised in 2017 — collapsed on October 24. That’s when the Italian state apparently balked at the some 7 billion-euro ($8.1 billion) capital injection that Milan-based UniCredit SpA demanded to take on the troubled ...

Bloomberg President Emmanuel Macron backed away from his imminent threat to punish the UK for restricting the access of French fishing boats to British waters, saying he would give negotiations more time. “The British are going to come back to us tomorrow with further proposals. We’ll see where we are at the end of the day,” Macron told reporters in ...

Bloomberg Ceasefire violations are steadily intensifying in war-ravaged eastern Ukraine as reports increase that Russia is building up its military forces across the border of the former Soviet satellite nation. There were almost 1,000 violations of the agreement to cease hostilities in Ukraine’s Donetsk region between the evenings of October 29 and October 31, according to the Organisation for Security ...

Bloomberg Ethiopia’s government urged residents of its capital to arm themselves and protect their neighbourhoods, after rebel fighters in the north of the country captured two key towns on a main route into the city. The call came as the US expressed alarm at the situation in Ethiopia, which on Wednesday marks a year since conflict erupted in the Horn ...

Bloomberg Unknown gunmen stormed Afghanistan’s main military hospital in Kabul on Tuesday and battled with Taliban fighters after setting off explosives at the entrance gate in the latest eruption of violence since the US withdrew from the country more than two months ago. A second blast struck near the hospital located in an upscale area of Kabul and appeared to ...

Bloomberg The leader of Japan’s main opposition party will step down from his post after his group suffered a stinging setback in a national election on Sunday. Yukio Edano said in a statement on Tuesday he will resign as leader of the Constitutional Democratic Party, the left-leaning party he’s run since its formation in 2017. He added he would stay ...

Bloomberg The Biden administration launched an assault on methane on Tuesday, advancing initiatives across government — and the globe — to keep the potent heat-trapping gas from escaping landfills, oil wells and farms. The new measures seek to deploy at least five cabinet-level agencies. For instance, the Environmental Protection Agency released a long-awaited proposal stiffening requirements to plug leaks in ...

Bloomberg Almost half of UK companies expect to increase prices, a record high, adding to inflation concerns that will weigh on Bank of England policy makers ahead of their meeting this week. A survey by Lloyds Banking Group Plc showed 45% of businesses expect to raise prices, which will buttress market expectations that the UK central bank will deliver its ...

Bloomberg Mexico’s economy shrank in the third quarter after new legislation banning labour outsourcing hit the services industry and coronavirus cases surged. Gross domestic product declined 0.2% from the previous three-month period, compared to the median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of no growth. It’s the first contraction since the second quarter of 2020, when Mexico imposed its harshest set ...