Bloomberg US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was ousted on Tuesday after a turbulent tenure with President Donald Trump, blindsiding the former Exxon Mobil Corp CEO just hours after he returned from a nearly week-long trip to Africa. “I am proud to nominate the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Mike Pompeo, to be our new Secretary of State,” Trump ...

UNITED NATIONS / Reuters US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley warned that Washington “remains prepared to act if we must,” if the UN Security Council fails to act on Syria, as the Syrian army’s onslaught in eastern Ghouta continued unabated. The United States asked the Security Council to demand an immediate 30-day ceasefire in Damascus and rebel-held eastern ...

Bloomberg Prime Minister Theresa May’s Cabinet met to discuss how to strike back at Russia over the poisoning of a former spy on British soil, ahead of a midnight deadline for the Kremlin to explain the attack. In a dramatic statement to Parliament, May announced that Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia had been poisoned more than ...

Bloomberg Opposition parties in the Democratic Republic of Congo formed a coalition that will back Moise Katumbi’s candidacy for president in elections scheduled for December. The announcement marks the start of what’s expected to be a series of declarations by candidates seeking to replace President Joseph Kabila, who has ruled the central African nation for 17 years and is barred ...

Bloomberg About 8,500 members of Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group fled to neighboring Kenya after the military said it “mistakenly” killed nine civilians and injured 12 others in a market town that straddles their border. The ethnic Oromo refugees, mostly women and children, began arriving in northern Kenya on March 10, Halkano Halake, spokesman for the governor of Marsabit county, said ...

“Trade wars,” President Donald Trump recently declared on Twitter, “are good, and easy to win.” But it’s questionable whether the president’s proposed tariffs — a tax of 25 percent on imported steel and 10 percent on imported aluminum — will be a war or an act of friendly fire. As I recently wrote, tariffs are generally not a good way ...

The deepening Moritomo Gakuen school land-sale scandal could put an end to Abenomics. Japan’s Finance Minister Taro Aso refused to step down on Monday after it was revealed staff at his ministry had ordered the alteration of documents linked to the sale of government-owned property to the nationalist school operator. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he wants Aso to take ...

Strange what qualifies as good news from the White House these days. President Donald Trump’s order on tariffs was more limited than first threatened and reassuringly vague. So yes, it could have been worse. Trump has given ground in the face of frantic representations from many Republicans and leaders of American business. “We’re going to be very flexible,” he says. ...

The potential for a trade war between the US and China may be intensifying, but don’t forget the innovation war. Although the US has stopped short of labeling China a “Strategic Competitor,” the Trump administration has effectively perpetuated the myth that China only excels by stealing intellectual property from others. Investors shouldn’t believe the rhetoric. With the world’s largest cashless ...

The expectations could not have been higher. After the election of Emmanuel Macron in France, there was hope that the euro zone could finally press ahead with an overhaul of its economic governance, which would make it more resilient in a crisis. The contours of the planned deal were very clear: Fiscally conservative countries, such as Germany, would agree to ...