Bloomberg A key legal test of Boris Johnson’s plan to suspend parliament got underway in Edinburgh, with an attorney for a group of lawmakers saying that the prime minister’s move shows a “breathtaking” contempt for the UK’s constitution. “This prime minister says in his own words, in his own handwriting, that the further sitting of Parliament is only a ‘rigmarole’ ...

Bloomberg Georgia’s ruling party nominated the top law enforcement official, who was blamed for a harsh crackdown on demonstrations in June, as the new prime minister, prompting protesters to gather outside parliament to denounce the decision. Giorgi Gakharia, 44, the interior minister and formerly the economic development minister, was put forward by the ruling Georgian Dream’s billionaire leader Bidzina Ivanishvili ...

Bloomberg Hurricane Dorian is starting to move again, inching towards the northwest and potentially up the US East Coast after bashing the Bahamas for almost two days with high winds and driving rains that have inflicted huge damage, killing five on one island alone. The storm is now crawling at 1 mile per hour with sustained winds of around 120 ...

Bloomberg J2 Acquisition Ltd, the investment vehicle backed by serial dealmaker Martin E Franklin, made its debut acquisition after an almost two-year search with an agreement to acquire U.S. engineer and oil pipeline contractor APi Group Inc. for about $2.9 billion. London-based J2, which is run by Franklin and long-time partners James Lillie and Ian Ashken, is looking to build ...

Bloomberg US factory activity unexpectedly contracted in August for the first time in three years as shrinking orders, production and hiring pushed a widely followed measure of manufacturing to its lowest level since January 2016. The Institute for Supply Management’s purchasing managers index fell to 49.1 in August, weaker than all forecasts in a Bloomberg survey of economists, data released ...

Bloomberg Prince Harry wants you to think a bit harder about whether your next vacation abroad risks harming the planet. He’s setting up a sustainable tourism initiative called Travalyst, which aims to support local people, protect wildlife, tackle climate change and environmental damage, and alleviate over-tourism. It’s a tall order but Visa, TripAdvisor, Booking.com, Skyscanner and Ctrip are buying into ...

Bloomberg The contraction in the UK construction industry gathered pace in August as increased political uncertainty saw new orders fall at fastest pace in more than ten years. The sector shrank for a fourth-straight month as business optimism slipped to the lowest since the depths of the financial crisis in 2008, according to IHS Markit. The figures follow similarly disappointing ...

Bloomberg Want a glimpse into how vulnerable Ireland is to a messy Brexit? Look at its banks. Amid Brexit hardliner Boris Johnson’s rise to British prime minister, Bank of Ireland Group Plc is down 25 percent. AIB Group Plc has slumped 37 percent, making it the worst performer in the Euro Stoxx Banks Index since the end of June, as ...

Bloomberg Investors knocked down shares of India’s large state-run banks after the government unveiled its plan to merge several of the lenders, amid concerns that the integration process might delay a bad-loan cleanup and slow lending approvals. The four key large lenders at the center of the merged groups — Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank, Union Bank of India and ...

Bloomberg Lloyds Banking Group Plc is snapping up Tesco Plc’s mortgage portfolio for about 3.8 billion pounds ($4.6 billion) as the British bank bets the UK economy will hold up despite the prospects of a disorderly Brexit. The country’s biggest mortgage lender is tightening its grip, acquiring over 23,000 mortgage customers as part of the deal, according to statements from ...