Bloomberg After recent typhoons ravaged Japan’s grid and disrupted power to almost 1.4 million customers, the government is encouraging homeowners to invest in storage systems, seeking to marry batteries with existing rooftop solar capacity to create backup electricity networks. The backbone would be the 2.3 million rooftop solar installations across the country.

Bloomberg Lebanese protesters flocked to the capital on Tuesday and forced parliament to postpone its session indefinitely after facing off with the army and anti-riot police, adding to a political storm in the country even as banks reopened after a weeklong closure. The legislature will meet at a later date after demonstrations prevented enough lawmakers from reaching it to form ...

Bloomberg The US is conducting more patrols in the South China Sea to send a signal to China that it intends to maintain freedom in the area that’s crucial for global trade, defense secretary Mark Esper said. Esper said at a media briefing in Manila the US “rejects attempts by any nation to use coercion or intimidation to advance international ...

Bloomberg The US walked out of military cost-sharing talks with South Korea, after the key American ally balked at President Donald Trump’s demands for a five-fold funding increase. The chief US negotiator, James DeHart, said that the American side cut short talks in Seoul because the South Koreans “were not responsive to our request for fair and equitable burden-sharing.” The ...

Bloomberg Poland’s populist government suffered another blow to its sweeping judicial reforms after the European Union’s highest court raised fresh concerns about the independence of judges. The EU Court of Justice in Luxembourg said it was up to Poland’s Supreme Court to decide if a new disciplinary body for judges was autonomous from political influence, leaving the fate of the ...

Bloomberg Hong Kong hospitals were overwhelmed with injured protesters who evacuated from a university campus after a standoff with police that’s transfixed the city, as schools were due to reopen following days of chaos in the financial hub. Leader Carrie Lam said on Tuesday that she wanted a peaceful end to the showdown between protesters and police at the Hong ...

As the House opens public impeachment hearings into the Ukraine scandal, the bottom-line question is dead simple: Did President Trump, for political reasons, manipulate military aid to an ally in a war that has cost 13,000 lives? When you think about the Ukrainian soldiers in the front lines of this nasty proxy battle against Russia, the debate becomes more visceral ...

Now that Germany has avoided a technical recession, posting an economic output growth of 0.1% in the third quarter of 2019, it’s highly unlikely that the German government will deviate from its zero-deficit policy and offer any substantial fiscal stimulus. For now, the country’s domestic market has shown an uncanny ability to compensate for external turbulence. But faster growth is ...

China loves the blockchain, and the blockchain loves it back. Despite the People’s Republic having the least free internet in the world, and a ban on cryptocurrency trading, the Communist Party’s endorsement of the technology last month sent Bitcoin prices soaring almost 30% in a few days. The irony is striking, considering Bitcoin’s anarchic origins. But there’s something broader going ...

The Indian economy continues to slow. The monthly Index of Industrial Production fell to an eight-year low in the month of September, contracting by over 4%. According to India’s central bank, growth in bank credit to industries in the same month fell to 2.7%, the lowest in a year. While the numbers for services are a little better, even they ...