Bloomberg Egypt has begun talks over plans to sell electricity to Europe and Africa, pressing its advantage as a producer of cheap renewable energy in a bid to become a regional export hub, the head of its sovereign wealth fund said. The nation, which has a surplus of electricity, sees unspecified “power-hungry” countries to the north as possible customers, according ...

Bloomberg London-based private-equity firm Actis is looking at African energy projects to add to the $1 billion it has already invested in the sector on the continent. “We’re seeing some new opportunities that we’ve not yet approved,” Neil Brown, a partner and head of the Investor Development Group at Actis, said in an interview. Investments will probably be spread across ...

Bloomberg The Mekong is one of Asia’s most important rivers, supporting 60 million people in Southeast Asia. But for the second consecutive year, the lower Mekong basin has hit a record low water flow, affecting irrigation, rice production and fisheries, all vital to the region’s food security. The drought has also damaged habitats for turtles, reptiles and other critically endangered ...

Like most people outside of the Kremlin, mainstream German politicians are outraged about the poisoning of Alexey Navalny, the Russian opposition leader who’s being treated in a Berlin clinic and has just come out of a coma. Then again, they’ve been outraged countless times about whatever Russia under President Vladimir Putin has got up to. And their indignation has never ...

As the eighth round of trade talks with the European Union is about to start, UK government officials from the chief trade negotiator, David Frost, to Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab have put out the word that Britain is ready to walk away. To underscore the point, Boris Johnson is setting a deal deadline of October 15. The PM  is also ...

Better late than never? Three years of efforts to combine China’s giant state-owned chemicals companies Sinochem Group Co and China National Chemical Corp, or ChemChina, may finally be paying off. A merger between the two unlisted companies is at last “in progress,” Frank Ning, the chairman of both companies, said last week. Such a deal would create a behemoth with ...

The presidential campaign of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris has a proposal aimed to restore the value of 401(k) and other deferred tax retirement plans for young median-wage workers. It’s a step almost exactly in the wrong direction. Under current policy, standard deferred tax retirement plans, including 401(k)s, IRAs and other variants, are taxed at distribution time rather than contribution ...

Bloomberg British pilots already fearing for their jobs as the coronavirus crisis hammers air travel face a new risk as a potential no-deal Brexit threatens to deprive them of the right to fly EU-registered planes. With the UK’s split from the EU set to be completed on December 31, there’s no agreement in place that would allow aviators holding UK ...

Bloomberg PizzaExpress’s creditors approved a company proposal to cut rents and shut 73 of its UK restaurants as part of the chain’s effort to fix its finances amid the economic slump. The plan will put 1,100 job at risk. Almost 90% of the firm creditors and a majority of landlords supported a so-called Company Voluntary Arrangement proposed by the company, ...

Bloomberg Amazon.com contract drivers have noticed a sudden change in how the company assigns delivery routes, a sign that it has found a way to prevent rogue operators from gaming the system to snatch orders first. Bloomberg revealed that drivers were putting smartphones in trees outside Whole Foods and Amazon delivery stations in the Chicago area to get a jump ...