Bloomberg As the death toll among Myanmar’s protesters rose dramatically last weekend, military air strikes against one of the country’s largest rebel groups stoked fears of another problem: Full-fledged civil war. The Karen National Union, which controls an area in the southeast along the Thai border, confirmed on Monday that about 10,000 residents fled to a safe zone last weekend ...

Bloomberg Dozens of people were said to have been killed in a raid by suspected militants in Mozambique, as an upsurge of violence threatens billions of dollars-worth of energy projects in one of Africa’s poorest nations. The violence began March 24 when armed attackers described by the government as terrorists assaulted the northern coastal town of Palma, close to a ...

Bloomberg Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is under pressure to join other major democracies in imposing sanctions on China over human-rights violations as he prepares for his first face-to-face summit with US President Joe Biden. Numerous reports of serious human-rights abuses against the Uyghur ethnic group in China’s far western region of Xinjiang have prompted several countries in the West ...

Bloomberg Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison reshuffled his cabinet, adding one additional woman to the 22-person body and elevating others to more senior roles as he seeks to ease a backlash against his government sparked by its handling of sexual assault allegations in parliament. While Morrison has promoted women to helm the high-profile attorney-general and home affairs portfolios, he risks ...

Bloomberg Hong Kong will cut mandatory hotel quarantine to 14 days from 21 for people coming from low-risk areas including Singapore, Australia and New Zealand, as the city works to reopen its pandemic-battered economy. People coming from medium-risk areas and who have been vaccinated will also only be asked to quarantine for 14 days, officials said at a briefing Monday. ...

Bloomberg The Bank of England (BOE) flagged instances of illiquidity as a broader risk to the financial system after a rout in some government bond markets pushed yields higher. The comments in a routine assessment of threats to the financial system indicate concerns at the central bank that Governor Andrew Bailey has sought to play down. The bank’s Financial Policy ...

Bloomberg Philippine central bank Deputy Governor Mamerto Tangonan has long wanted to make electronic money so ubiquitous that one could pay at a street stall via mobile phone. Now he’s leading the bank’s digital drive. “This is my life’s purpose,” Tangonan said in a March 24 interview, his first since he took office in February. Tangonan, 58, is point man ...

Bloomberg Mexico’s central bank will continue taking a data-dependent approach to monetary policy going forward, central bank Governor Alejandro Diaz de Leon said in an interview, after the board decided to keep borrowing costs at their lowest in almost five years. The bank’s decision to hold its benchmark interest rate at 4% amid an inflation spike prompted some analysts, including ...

Bloomberg New Zealand’s central bank is requiring Westpac Banking Corp.’s local unit to hold more liquid assets while it sorts out problems with risk governance processes. Westpac NZ was found to be in breach of the requirements of the Reserve Bank’s liquidity policy over a period from 2012 to 2020, the RBNZ said in a statement in Wellington. It has ...

Bloomberg Commerzbank AG nominated Helmut Gottschalk, formerly at DZ Bank AG, to head its supervisory board in an attempt to put a quick end to a leadership crisis that threatens to derail bank’s reorganisation. Gottschalk was proposed as a new member of the board, which intends to elect him chairman immediately after his appointment by the annual general meeting, the ...