Bloomberg Italy may be willing to compromise on its holdout against a German plan for further integration of the European Union’s banking system that includes setting limits on holdings of sovereign debt. Vincenzo Amendola, Italy’s minister for European Affairs, said in an interview in Rome that he is confident that a “good compromise” can be found in the next month. ...

Bloomberg After half a decade of negative interest rates, one of the biggest Nordic pension funds is wondering whether this is just the beginning. The head of investments at Finland’s Ilmarinen Mutual Pension Insurance Co says his industry is “just starting to see what kind of new challenges [negative rates] will cause.” That means “we are just taking the first ...

Bloomberg Landlocked Laos may be a net beneficiary of the trade tension between the US and China. Chinese foreign-direct investment has climbed since the trade war began as firms seek alternative manufacturing sites to avoid US tariffs, said Bank of the Lao PDR deputy governor Vathana Dalaloy. “We may gain more than we lose,” she said in an interview in ...

Bloomberg India’s rupee is the only emerging Asian currency to weaken this quarter and its losses may gather pace as a report this week is forecast to show economic growth slid to a six-year low. The rupee, which has slumped almost 5% from this year’s high in July, is also under selling pressure due to escalating levels of public debt ...

Bloomberg House Democrats are starting to compress weeks of depositions, documents and testimony into a report almost certain to result in articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, as the White House wages a campaign to discredit the investigation. Intelligence chairman Adam Schiff won’t rule out more witnesses or other avenues of investigation beyond a central focus: whether Trump tried ...

Bloomberg Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe urged China to preserve a free Hong Kong and backed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” principle of governing it in a meeting with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi, just as pro-democracy candidates triumphed in an election in the city. Abe also “strongly pushed” for China to deal positively with disputes over the East China ...

Bloomberg UK prime minister Boris Johnson is aiming to consolidate his lead in the polls in the final weeks of the general election campaign. He announced a safety-first policy package based on “sensible” promises, which included hiring 50,000 nurses for the country’s cherished National Health Service and cutting taxes for working people. Johnson carefully avoided the radical language and out-of-the-blue ...

Bloomberg Depriving western Balkan countries of a clear chance to join the European Union risks speeding up the already alarming pace of people emigrating away from the region, North Macedonia’s president said. Stevo Pendarovski said that France’s decision to block the opening of accession talks with his country and Albania — and president Emmanuel Macron’s insistence that there should be ...

Bloomberg In early June, chief executive Carrie Lam kicked off unprecedented chaos when she dismissed enormous crowds of Hong Kongers who marched peacefully to oppose legislation allowing extraditions to China. The masses again spoke clearly and peacefully — this time giving 85% of 452 District Council seats to pro-democracy candidates, a swing of more than 50 percentage points. Nearly 3 ...

Navy Secretary Richard Spencer was travelling in California on March 30 when he received a 4 am phone call from President Trump. The president demanded that the Navy release from the brig a SEAL named Eddie Gallagher, who was awaiting trial for allegedly murdering an IS detainee in Iraq in 2017. “Get him out!” Trump told Spencer, who was visiting ...