Bloomberg North Korea threated a “security crisis” over US-led military drills, in what appeared to be a campaign to pressure South Korea’s pro-engagement president for greater support before he leaves office next year. Training exercises scheduled to start on Monday risk sinking a two-week-old deal between Seoul and Pyongyang to improve ties, said Kim Yong Chol, a North Korean ruling ...

Bloomberg Russia filed new charges against jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny using a law that has mostly been applied to cults, as the Kremlin moves to crush dissent ahead of parliamentary elections next month. Navalny and his allies are accused of creating “a non-profit organisation that infringes on the persons and rights of citizens,” Russia’s Investigative Committee said in a ...

Bloomberg A Chinese court jailed a Canadian tour organiser for 11 years for spying, while leaving room for his eventual deportation — a ruling that appeared timed to pressure Ottawa in extradition proceedings against a top Huawei Technologies Co. executive. Michael Spavor, who organised tours to North Korea, was sentenced after being found guilty of stealing and illegally providing state ...

Bloomberg French President Emmanuel Macron rebuffed accusations that he’s handling the Covid-19 crisis in an authoritarian way on Wednesday and renewed his call for people to get vaccinated to beat the pandemic. “Never before in our history was a crisis of such magnitude fought in such a democratic way,” Macron said at the beginning of a virtual defense cabinet meeting ...

Bloomberg Afghanistan’s acting finance minister Khalid Payenda has resigned and left the country after the Taliban captured key customs posts bleeding the administration of revenue, reinforcing the government’s isolation as the extremists make swift gains. Payenda has “resigned and left the country because Afghanistan is grappling with declining revenues after the takeover of the custom posts,” Finance Ministry spokesman Mohammad ...

Bloomberg Senate Democrats took a major step towards the biggest expansion in decades of federal efforts to reduce poverty, care for the elderly and protect the environment, passing a $3.5 trillion budget framework that opens the way for President Joe Biden’s economic agenda. The party-line 50-49 vote marks an abrupt reversal from the tax-cutting philosophy of Republicans when they controlled ...

Bloomberg European Sustainable Growth Acquisition Corp is buying Germany’s ADS-TEC Energy GmbH, which creates technology used for electric charging platforms, in a deal that will give the combined firm a market value of about $580 million. The transaction with the special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, includes a $156 million private investment in public equity, or PIPE, with investors such ...

Bloomberg Germany will expand Covid-19 testing requirements for non-vaccinated people and end free tests to prod more residents to roll up their sleeves. Starting later this month, negative results will be required for people who haven’t been inoculated or can show they’ve recovered from the disease to eat in restaurants, go to the hairdresser and attend sporting events. The government ...

Bloomberg Coinbase Global Inc shares were little changed in extended trading after the largest US cryptocurrency exchange noted that customer usage slowed at the start of the current quarter. The warning came while the company said second-quarter profit jumped to $1.6 billion from $32 million a year earlier. Revenue climbed to $2 billion from $178 million. Analysts polled by Bloomberg ...

Bloomberg Rivian Automotive Inc, the electric-vehicle startup backed by Amazon.com Inc, is in talks to invest at least $5 billion to build a factory near Fort Worth, Texas, according to a document obtained by Bloomberg News. The factory — codenamed “Project Tera” according to the document — will be able to produce 200,000 vehicles a year, and will create at ...