Bloomberg A large crowd blocked a major avenue in eastern Caracas to protest President Nicolas Maduro’s swearing-in, a ceremony that perpetuated what the opposition and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have labeled a “usurpation.” About a 1,000 people gathered to listen to Juan Guaido, the 35-year-old head of the National Assembly. The body is the country’s only remaining opposition-controlled ...

American officials traveled to China this week in an effort to end the bitter trade war between the two countries. The main obstacle to a settlement is natural rivalry: The United States is trying to protect its position as the most important superpower; and China is serving notice that it covets that status for itself. What further complicates matters is ...

The Gilets Jaunes movement is splintering after Emmanuel Macron shelled out billions of euros to appease French citizens fed up with the high cost of living. But plenty are still taking to the streets, with turnout of about 50,000 across France last weekend. The violence is proving hard to contain. Rioters used a forklift truck to break into the offices ...

Britain’s retail sector isn’t saving the best for last. Next Plc has kicked off the post-Christmas reporting season with what looks like a pretty decent performance. True, sales in stores were slightly worse than expected, while its forecast for full-year profit has been trimmed slightly. But that’s due to higher sales of lower margin items, such as beauty, and better-than-expected ...

A pleasing synchronicity is edging back into the world economy, at least in terms of monetary policy. Let’s hope it’s not too late. Wasn’t the “synchronised global upswing” narrative – all the rage in 2017 – retired last year? That doesn’t mean courses can’t be recalibrated. The signal late last week of a pause in interest-rate hikes from the Federal ...

Britain’s parliament hasn’t yet voted on Theresa May’s Brexit deal or on whether it still has confidence in her government. The first will happen on January 15 and if, as expected, she loses, the Labour Party is threatening to hold a vote on the latter soon after. But two votes that members of parliament have held so far this week ...

China is planning to give the world’s largest auto market a shot in the arm. Don’t be so sure it’ll work. As the nation prepared to post its first annual decline in car sales in at least two decades, a senior official said the government would announce measures to encourage consumers to buy cars and other goods. The statement finally ...

Despite President Donald Trump criticisms that the Federal Reserve has raised interest rates too far, too fast, thereby penalizing the economy, the flatness of the bond market’s yield curve suggests policy rates are just about at a level that neither stimulates nor restrains growth. But in order for the Fed to engineer a soft landing from last year’s heady growth ...

Bloomberg Britain’s plan for a nuclear revival was thrown into disarray after the second Japanese company in as many months seemed to pull the plug on a new plant. The UK government has put atomic energy at the heart of its effort to attract 100 billion pounds ($130 billion) of investment to upgrade its aging reactors it needs to keep ...

Bloomberg India’s oil demand growth in 2018 rebounded from the slowest pace in four years as the country recovered from the shock of a cash ban and the roll out of a national sales tax. The nation’s consumption of petroleum products rose 4.1 percent to about 210 million tonnes, the Oil Ministry’s Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell said. Growth improved ...