Bloomberg Whether or not Chinese President Xi Jinping signals a successor on Wednesday, he’s amassed enough power to effectively rule for decades. The Communist Party approved a sweeping charter revision at the end of its twice-a-decade congress on Tuesday that elevates Xi to a status alongside the nation’s most vaunted political figures. The document put Xi’s contributions on par with ...

Bloomberg With Sunday’s victory in legislative elections, President Mauricio Macri received the green light from Argentines to press ahead with his reform agenda – and the prospect of another six years to carry it out. The ruling alliance won in 13 of Argentina’s 24 provinces, including the five largest, in mid-term elections that were seen as a barometer of voter ...

Bloomberg Kenya’s top court will hear a petition on Wednesday filed by three Kenyans that seeks the cancellation of a presidential-election rerun scheduled for the following day, according to the Judiciary. The petitioners want the Supreme Court to compel the Independent Electoral & Boundaries Commission to cancel the vote, Judiciary spokeswoman Lilian Mueni said by phone on Tuesday from the ...

It’s that time of year again when Congress debates the federal budget. For most Americans, it’s a turnoff. The dollar amounts are monstrous — trillions, not billions. The vocabulary of government finances (budget-speak) is baffling. Little wonder people tune out. For the weary and confused, I offer a brief budget primer below. Here’s what I think is important and why. ...

Singapore’s malls are one click away from irrelevance, though the investment trusts that own them are carrying on as if nothing has changed. The first hint of trouble showed up in January when department store John Little shut down after a 174-year run. Then, in July, Amazon.com Inc. introduced its two-hour Prime Now delivery service, choosing the city-state of 5.6 ...

If Kenya goes ahead with its presidential vote this week, it will be making a historic mistake — one that threatens unrest and undermines a landmark court decision affirming the importance of transparent, free and fair elections. Thursday’s scheduled vote is a redo of one held on August 8, which Kenya’s Supreme Court annulled on September 1. In making its ...

From 2008 to 2014, according to the US Department of Justice, background checks prevented 556,496 gun purchases. In the last six months, about that many people have been removed from the national database and are newly eligible to buy a gun. The FBI’s national instant criminal background check system, which screens such transactions, is not quite perfect: It has an ...

Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People’s Bank of China, has guided his country’s monetary policy for most of the 21st century. He was appointed in 2002, shortly after China joined the World Trade Organization, and helped steer its economy through the global financial crisis. In the process, he gained widespread respect at home and a reputation for prudent liberalism abroad. ...

The past decade has been a testing time for the Russian tycoon’s love affair with London. The worst relations with the West since the Cold War, economic sanctions on Russia’s biggest companies and an oil-price rout that sank the rouble to record depths forced Russian companies and investors to migrate elsewhere. An index of London-listed Russian stocks has fallen 42 ...

While consumers remember the iPhone for its cool design, closed-wall operating system and hefty price tag, industry insiders in Asia turn to the US giant as an example of incredible manufacturing discipline. First under Tim Cook, and now Jeff Williams, the current chief operating officer, Apple has shone as a beacon of how to discover and develop unique materials, coerce ...