Bloomberg China Hongqiao Group Ltd., the nation’s biggest aluminum smelter, is curtailing outdated capacity amid a broader crackdown by the government on illegal production. Shares of aluminum makers gained in China. The company, the main aluminum arm of Shandong Weiqiao Pioneering Group Co., declined to give the scale or timing of the reduction in an emailed statement. Two people with ...

Bloomberg Wang Shi, who built China Vanke Co. into the country’s biggest developer after founding it 33 years ago, stepped down as chairman after an ownership tussle that ended with a state entity becoming its biggest investor. The exit of the 66-year-old Wang comes after metro line builder Shenzhen Metro Group Co. emerged as a white knight last year and ...

Bloomberg China hit back at US President Donald Trump on Wednesday, saying its efforts on North Korea have been “indispensable.” China has “played an important and constructive role” in seeking peace on the Korean peninsula, Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters in Beijing. China strictly implements United Nations Security Council resolutions and isn’t the crux of the North Korean ...

Bloomberg Republican Karen Handel defeated a well-funded opponent in a special election for a U.S. House seat in Georgia, a setback for Democrats who hoped President Donald Trump’s low approval ratings would help them win congressional races. Handel, 55, won in a suburban Atlanta district held by the GOP since 1979 despite raising far less money than Democrat Jon Ossoff, ...

Bloomberg A one-time rival to President Emmanuel Macron was forced out of the French government on Wednesday as the president asserted his authority after a resounding victory in Sunday’s parliamentary elections. Justice Minister Francois Bayrou, 66, who threw his weight behind Macron’s campaign in February after mulling his own bid for the presidency, quit Wednesday morning. European Affairs Minister Marielle ...

Bloomberg Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman was named to replace his cousin as heir to the throne in a shake-up that consolidates the 31-year-old leader’s power in the world’s biggest oil exporter. The king’s decision to elevate his son, who already controlled the defense, oil and economy portfolios, was supported by 31 out of 34 members of ...

Bloomberg Prime Minister Theresa May will make her first attempt to engage with Britain’s new political landscape as she publishes a legislative program heavy on Brexit and likely to be light on anything controversial. Queen Elizabeth II was expected to read out the plans to lawmakers at 11:30 a.m. in London on Wednesday in an occasion stripped of most of ...

Bloomberg Wolfgang Schaeuble, Germany’s veteran finance minister, urged the US to limit Russian and Chinese influence or risk bringing about “the end of our liberal world order.” The comments by Schaeuble, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s cabinet since she took office in 2005, are one of the strongest expressions of concern among European policy makers that President Donald Trump’s ...

DUBAI­­­­ / Reuters Global index compiler MSCI said it would consider upgrading Saudi Arabia to emerging market status, a move that would attract tens of billions of dollars of fresh foreign money as the country seeks to diversify its economy beyond oil. MSCI will announce its decision in June 2018, and any move to upgrade would take effect in two ...

Bloomberg Saudi Arabia’s new Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will need higher crude prices to push ahead with his plans to reform the kingdom’s economy, making an about-face in oil policy unlikely in the short term. Yet, oil markets will be braced for an even more assertive Saudi Arabia in foreign policy. MbS, as the 31-year-old prince is known, has ...