Bloomberg Twelve people are dead, including the shooter, in shooting at a municipal centre in Virginia Beach, the police said. In another such incident on October 1, 2017, about 58 were dead and 869 injured in a mass shooting in Las Vegas. Stephen Paddock opened fire on country music festival from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel; assailant ...

Bloomberg The US is looking to gather more intelligence in the South Pacific to counter China, which has expanded its influence among small island nations in recent years. Concerns are rising that Beijing’s leaders are seeking to win through coercion the allegiance of islands typically aligned with the US, Admiral Philip Davidson, commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, told a ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump’s meetings in the UK with Prime Minister Theresa May next week likely will end the leaders’ relationship the same way it began: with awkward attempts to overcome a lack of personal chemistry. May was the first foreign leader to visit Trump after he was sworn in as president. He’ll become the last foreign leader to visit ...

Bloomberg His party took third place in Thailand’s disputed national elections, now Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, a staunch critic of the junta, sees protesters returning to the streets if the military establishment escalates its campaign against the country’s opposition. A tycoon-turned-politician, Thanathorn invigorated millions with his pledge to restore democracy to Thailand after launching the Future Forward party just a year ago. ...

Bloomberg Argentine opposition candidate Alberto Fernandez said he won’t lead the country into default if he wins the presidential election in October, seeking to reassure investors who fear a new government might renege on its borrowings. “What we can guarantee is that we aren’t going to fall into a new default. I received an Argentina in default. I don’t want ...

At last count, China held slightly more than $1 trillion in US Treasury securities. One fear has been that, should China and the United States engage in an economic war — as they clearly are now — those dollars could become a weapon against us. The Chinese would sell dollars in foreign exchange markets, raising US interest rates and perhaps ...

China’s tech giants have upended the country’s payments system and promise to shake up its consumer-banking sector. The rest of the region won’t be so easy. Asia is quickly becoming next battlefront for Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s Ant Financial and Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s WeChat Pay, after both secured licenses to set up online-only banks in Hong Kong this month. Singapore’s ...

Florida this month became the latest state to allow teachers to carry guns at school — even though there is no evidence to suggest this can reduce school violence, and ample reason to fear the unintended consequences. The new law coincides with the release of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s most recent report on active shooters — the armed and ...

It’s hazardous to see elections to the European Parliament as a barometer of European Union politics. Turnout was higher than in previous EU elections, but still only about 50%; voters in many countries aren’t sure what the parliament does; national anxieties predominate. In many ways, ballots have just been cast in 28 separate national elections, rather than in a single ...

Last weekend, Russia launched the last of a new crew of atomic icebreakers meant to consolidate the country’s dominance of commercial traffic in the Arctic. As much of the rest of the world recognises climate change as an emergency, Russia is working hard to capitalize on it — and the US appears to be far behind. The icebreaker Ural, launched ...