Bloomberg Taiwan welcomed its third US congressional visit this month, as Senator Marsha Blackburn began a three-day trip to the island that’s likely to further test Washington’s tense ties with Beijing. Blackburn, a Republican on the Senate’s Armed Services Committee which oversees defense policy, met Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen on Friday morning, after landing in Taipei the previous evening. Days ...

  Bloomberg Representatives from Turkey, Finland and Sweden met on Friday and agreed on further talks as the Nordic countries seek to convince Turkey to ratify their applications to join defense alliance Nato. The meeting of officials took place in Vantaa, Finland, on Friday, the Finnish government said in an emailed statement. Turkey remains one of seven members of the ...

  Bloomberg President Joe Biden’s approval rating rose to 44% in the latest Gallup poll, the highest in a year and a fresh sign he and his party are gaining political ground ahead of November midterm elections. Biden’s approval rating in August jumped six percentage points from July, when it hit a low of 38% in Gallup’s survey. But even ...

Bloomberg President Vladimir Putin ordered his army to boost its troop total by 137,000 to 1.15 million, the highest level in more than a decade, as Russia digs in for its war against Ukrainian forces backed by the US and its allies. Putin’s brief decree, published on the Kremlin’s website, didn’t explain the motivation for the increase or where the ...

  Bloomberg Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy reinforced his call for occupying Russian troops to withdraw from Europe’s biggest nuclear power plant after damage to transmission lines in the occupied territory disrupted power supply. There are no immediate safety concerns and the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is being powered through a restored electricity line, Ukraine’s state-owned nuclear operator Energoatom said. Transmission ...

Bloomberg Brazil’s presidential front-runner Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva pledged to lead a stable economy and avoid the mistakes of his successor, Dilma Rousseff, if he’s elected. During a 40-minute, prime-time interview on the nation’s most-watched news show, Lula said he’ll govern with predictability, stability and credibility in comments that sought to reassure the undecided voters who have doubts about ...

  Bloomberg Royal Bank of Canada’s (RBC) profit took a hit last quarter as a slump in investment-banking activity took a toll on revenue and a deteriorating economic outlook prompted higher-than-expected provisions for loan losses. RBC Capital Markets’ revenue falls by a third to $1.27 billion in the fiscal third quarter, the Toronto-based bank said in a statement. Overall profit ...

  Bloomberg The Bank of Korea raised its key interest rate by a quarter-percentage point, returning to its usual pace of tightening as Governor Rhee Chang-yong made clear his view that outsized rate hikes were no longer essential in the battle against inflation. The central bank increased its seven-day repurchase rate by 25 basis points to 2.5%, in line with ...

  Bloomberg Citigroup will wind down its consumer and commercial banking operations in Russia after President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine complicated the sale of the business. The company will incur $170 million in costs tied to the wind-down, mostly tied to restructuring expenses and vendor termination fees, according to a statement. Citigroup will continue to try to sell certain ...

  Bloomberg Bank of America Corp (BofA) is expanding its investments in digital channels as customers shift their transactions online in record numbers. Clients logged in to the bank’s electronic platforms 1 billion times in July and 2.8 billion times — an 11% increase— in the second quarter, Bank of America said in a statement. New investments will focus on ...