Bloomberg The UK sent officials to Afghanistan to hold talks with Taliban leaders for the first time since the mass evacuation of Kabul in August. The officials discussed on Tuesday how the UK could help Afghanistan address a humanitarian crisis, the importance of preventing the country from becoming an incubator for terrorism, and the need for continued safe passage for ...

Bloomberg France’s European affairs minister, Clement Beaune, said the European Union (EU) could look to leverage its electricity supplies to the UK in an effort to force Boris Johnson’s government to grant access to British fishing waters. Beaune said that the EU will take action in the next few days to increase the pressure on the UK, which is a ...

Bloomberg China will not impose an anti-sanctions law on Hong Kong for now, local news organisation HK01 reported, a seemingly unusual backtrack from Beijing on a move that had alarmed businesses in the Asian financial hub. The decision to shelve the controversial law in the near term came after executives from Hong Kong and mainland Chinese financial institutions raised their ...

Bloomberg Romanian Prime Minister Florin Citu and his government were toppled in a no-confidence vote, intensifying political tensions that have already sent the national currency to a record low. Rivals and former allies joined forces on Tuesday in parliament to sink Citu, a 49-year-old former investment banker who’s been in power for less than a year but fell out with ...

Bloomberg European banks are beginning to drop clients that pose a climate risk rather than face possibility of higher capital requirements, according to the watchdog overseeing the development. Banks are raising prices, denying loan requests, “de-selecting industries and in some cases clients,” said Jacob Gyntelberg, director of the economic and risk analysis department at European Banking Authority (EBA). There’s already ...

Bloomberg Colombia raised interest rates for the first time in five years, following in the footsteps of all the other major inflation-targeting economies in Latin America struggling to curb a surge in prices. The seven-member board voted to lift the benchmark rate by a quarter percentage point to 2% in a split decision, central bank Governor Leonardo Villar told reporters ...

Bloomberg New Zealand’s central bank (RBNZ) is expected to embark on a series of interest-rate increases to tame inflation and rein in soaring house prices, even as a coronavirus outbreak that has now spread beyond Auckland poses a greater risk to economic growth. Reserve Bank policy makers will raise the official cash rate by a quarter percentage point to 0.5% ...

Bloomberg China has urged financial institutions to help local governments stabilise the rapidly cooling housing market and ease mortgages for some homebuyers, another signal that authorities are worried about fallout from the debt crisis at China Evergrande Group. At a meeting chaired by central bank Governor Yi Gang, authorities told financial institutions to cooperate with governments “to jointly maintain the ...

Bloomberg Hamza Lemssouguer, a former top debt trader at Credit Suisse Group, is raising hundreds of millions of dollars from Squarepoint Capital as he starts his own hedge fund. Lemssouguer, 31, known for amassing large, risky bets on corporations, will manage the money as part of a venture with London-based Squarepoint. The Moroccan-born trader, who hopes to attract other investors, ...

Bloomberg Morgan Stanley is preparing to invest $1.36 million in five startups led by women or ethnic minorities in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, expanding a program that’s run for the past four years in the US. The Wall Street bank aims to help groups that often struggle to find seed capital. According to Morgan Stanley, less than 3% ...