In Pakistani politics, nothing gets done by halves. A few weeks ago, one of ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan’s former cabinet ministers, Shahbaz Gill, warned lower-ranking military officers against following “illegal orders” from their superiors. The remarks were taken as an attempt to divide the country’s all-powerful army and Gill was promptly arrested. This, as well as Gill’s subsequent claims ...

  When Democrats pulled ahead of Republicans in broad averages on the generic ballot, I didn’t believe it. We’ve seen many large polling errors in Democrats’ favour in recent years, a 50-50 House vote would defy the historical trend towards the incumbent president’s party facing backlash in the midterms, and Joe Biden’s low approval ratings seem inconsistent with Democrats doing ...

  Dubai / Gulf Time HSA Group, Yemen’s largest private company, has announced a $1.2 million donation to support the United Nations’ (UN) efforts to avert a major humanitarian, economic, and ecological disaster in the Red Sea. The donation is the first committed by a private sector organisation. The FSO SAFER oil tanker is one of the world’s largest shipping ...

Bloomberg Shell Plc, ExxonMobil Corp., Chevron Corp. and Equinor ASA plan to withdraw multibillion-dollar lawsuits against Nigeria’s state energy company after finalizing new terms for deep-water oil production in Africa’s largest crude producer. In letters to two New York federal judges, the oil majors said they had agreed to settle with the Nigerian National Petroleum Co. and will terminate ongoing ...

  Bloomberg Pakistan’s military-backed establishment faces a dilemma: The more they seek to boot Imran Khan out of politics, the greater the risk he becomes even more popular. Since his ouster in a no-confidence vote in April, Khan has sought to rally his supporters in the world’s fifth-most populous country to hit the streets and push for a fresh national ...

  Bloomberg As the Pentagon rushes to replenish billions of dollars in weapons sent to Ukraine, its inspector general says he’s on high alert for signs of fraud and abuse in the thousands of contracts being awarded. “We have developed a universe of thousands of Ukraine-related contracts” that come in under $2 million each, Acting Inspector General Sean O’Donnell said ...

  Bloomberg Taiwan proposed raising its total spending on the military by almost 14% next year, contributing to what’s expected to be a record increase in the government’s budget as it bolsters its defenses from a surge in Chinese military activity. The cabinet signed off on spending plans for 2023 at its weekly meeting Thursday. At a briefing in Taipei, ...

  Bloomberg President Jair Bolsonaro’s ability to further gain ground with voters less than six weeks before Brazil’s election depends largely on the impact of economic relief measures and his ability to moderate his rhetoric, according to leading pollster Ipec. Approval of Bolsonaro’s administration has been slowly but surely improving this year and now stands close to 30% — a ...

  Bloomberg Bank Indonesia is undertaking its own version of Operation Twist, selling short-term notes and buying up longer ones, which it says will shore up the rupiah by bringing in foreign inflows. Indonesia’s central bank will sell off shorter-tenor government bonds to boost their yield differential over US rates and attract foreign inflows that would help underpin the currency, ...

Bloomberg Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) said interest-rate hikes may trigger higher monthly payments for about 80,000 customers with variable-rate mortgages. The increases will average about C$200 ($150), a level the lender expects most borrowers can afford, and most of Royal Bank’s variable-rate mortgage customers won’t hit those trigger rates. Less than 0.5% of customers will require so much as ...