Bloomberg US arms exports surged 25 percent over the five years to 2017, according to data released on Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Extending its lead as the world’s biggest arms exporter, the US accounted for 34 percent of total arms exports. Russia, the next biggest exporter, saw its arms sales fall 7.1 percent to 22 percent ...

Bloomberg US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson cut short his trip to Africa by about a day to deal with pressing matters in the US. Tillerson is ending his trip early to deal with work that needs to be attended to in Washington, D.C., Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Steve Goldstein told reporters Monday in the ...

Bloomberg The US will make no concessions to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in discussions leading to potential talks between the reclusive leader and President Donald Trump, and during any subsequent negotiations, CIA Director Mike Pompeo said. Kim, on the other hand, must stand by the concessions he’s offered, including ceasing nuclear and missile testing, continuing to allow US-South ...

Bloomberg Slovakia’s interior minister will resign to prevent the collapse of Prime Minister Robert Fico’s government, which is trying to fend off calls for early elections following the murder of an investigative journalist. Interior Minister Robert Kalinak told reporters on Monday he hopes his resignation, sought by the opposition and the junior coalition Most party, will help to stabilise the ...

Bloomberg Japan’s government said on Monday that the names of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, his wife and his finance minister were deleted from documents at the heart of a land scandal that erupted last year, a revelation that threatens to derail his administration and its economic strategy. Finance Minister Taro Aso apologised and said an internal investigation was ongoing as ...

China’s defenders are putting an optimistic spin on the country’s tilt towards one-man rule. Now that President Xi Jinping has set himself up to remain in power indefinitely, they suggest, he will have the runway to see through painful but necessary economic reforms that have long been resisted by various actors within China’s political system. In other words, even if ...

India’s unreformed banking system needs a massive privatization drive. The sooner this dawns on authorities, the better for taxpayers, investors and borrowers. Exhibit A is an index of share prices of state-run banks. It took one $2 billion fraud at government-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) to snuff out all the excitement over a $32 billion recapitalization of these moth-eaten institutions. ...

There’s a strange thing about the fear going through the global mining industry after the Democratic Republic of Congo signed an order to lift royalties last week: Compared with most other countries, these levies are still relatively low. The existing 2 percent rate on copper extraction compares with royalties five times that level in Chile and Peru, the two biggest ...

President Donald Trump’s approach to trade mainly offends allies for no reason, counters imaginary threats, and undermines deals that benefit the US. At the same time, his administration is also addressing a legitimate trade dispute: China’s alleged theft of intellectual property and forced technology transfers. True to form, the president appears to favor a response that would make the problem ...

The government of French President Emmanuel Macron recently announced an ambitious effort to reform the SNCF, the national railway operator. It’s an endeavor that puts Macron on a straight collision course with France’s most obstreperous unions. This is exactly the sort of direct confrontation that Macron has thus far avoided in his attempts to reform France’s sluggish economy. If the ...