Bloomberg A late-night talk-show host and performer of the Balkan analog of gangster rap is itching to end the run of one of Europe’s longest-serving leaders in a Bulgarian election do-over. Stanislav Trifonov, a pop-folk singer known as “Slavi,” has been railing against inequality and corruption even before Bulgaria joined the European Union in 2007. He’s tapping into discontent among ...

Bloomberg Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative bloc widened its lead in a weekly poll ahead of Germany’s election as support for the Green party fell for a third consecutive week. With Merkel’s Christian Democratic-led bloc steady at 28% in the Insa poll, the opposition Greens declined 1 percentage point to 17%, leaving them level with the Social Democrats, Merkel’s junior coalition ...

Bloomberg France must “live with the virus” rather than count on a new lockdown to contain the spread of a new variant of Covid-19, a key ally of President Emmanuel Macron said ahead of a presidential address. The country could reintroduce limits on the number of people allowed in restaurants and other venues, and extend the use of the so-called ...

Bloomberg The UK government is set to issue guidance that people are “expected to” continue wearing masks in indoor, enclosed spaces after coronavirus restrictions are lifted in England on July 19. Although face coverings will no longer be mandatory in any setting, there will be an expectation for people “to wear masks indoors, in crowded places, on public transport,” Vaccines ...

Bloomberg Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease specialist, said “ideological rigidity” is preventing people from getting Covid-19 shots and voiced frustration at the struggle to boost vaccination rates in parts of the country. “It’s not an easy solution,” Fauci said on ABC’s “This Week”. “We’ve got to get away from this divisiveness that has really been a problem right ...

Bloomberg In the upside-down world of global banking, getting back to normal is bad news for the bottom line. Wall Street churned out massive windfalls during the pandemic, but the economic reopening made possible by widespread vaccinations means this year’s earnings will look weaker by comparison. The big down arrow will be trading revenue, which is expected to show a ...

Bloomberg Bank Indonesia could begin tightening monetary policy next year, including potential moves on interest rates, if the economic recovery remains on track and policy makers see signs of inflation, Governor Perry Warjiyo said. The bank’s exit strategy is to gradually reduce liquidity in the financial system “and then later, the end of next year, maybe some interest-rate action,” Warjiyo ...

Bloomberg HSBC Holdings’s streamlining drive has reached its top executives, with the bank promising to shake up a “hierarchical culture.” Several hundred managers will have their “leadership bands” altered over the coming months, according to an internal memo from human resources chief, Elaine Arden. Europe’s largest bank found it had a more complicated management system than peers and a lack ...

Bloomberg Bank of America Corp (BofA) created a new team dedicated to researching cryptocurrencies, marking Wall Street’s latest push to capitalise on investors’ frenzy for digital assets. Alkesh Shah will lead the effort, which will also cover technologies tied to digital currencies, and report to Michael Maras, who leads fixed-income, currencies and commodities research globally, according to an internal memo ...

Bloomberg Credit Suisse Group AG and JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s asset and wealth management business are working together to develop a new investment strategy focused on sustainable nutrition. The fund will invest in public companies that “address the ties between nutrition, health, biodiversity and climate, with a particular focus on nutrition’s societal and environmental aspects,” Credit Suisse said in a ...