Bloomberg Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the US is prepared to negotiate with North Korea without preconditions, but the Trump administration would first want a “quiet period” without nuclear or missile tests for discussions with Kim Jong Un’s regime to begin. “Let’s just meet. We can talk about the weather if you want,” Tillerson said in a speech at …

WASHINGTON / Reuters The United States is voicing skepticism about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement of a major withdrawal of Russian troops from Syria and is arguing that his declaration of victory against IS was premature. Putin, during a surprise visit to Russia’s Hmeymim air base in Syria, declared that the work of Russian forces was largely done in backing …

BEIRUT / Reuters Iran’s southeastern province of Kerman was hit by multiple strong quakes on Tuesday and Wednesday, injuring at least 18 people and damaging some 20 houses, state media reported. The first quake of magnitude 5.9 struck on Tuesday morning 35 miles (56 km) north of Kerman, a city with a population of more than 820,000. The tremor, initially …

Bloomberg The premier of South Africa’s richest province warned the ruling African National Congress will lose its majority and extend an economic slump if it elects the wrong leaders this weekend. “If it doesn’t give South Africa the leadership that will win public confidence, not only is the ANC going to lose 2019 elections, but the country will be in …

Bloomberg Australian Senator Sam Dastyari resigned from parliament amid mounting criticism of his links with a Chinese businessman who had ties to the Communist Party. Dastyari, a member of the main opposition Labor Party, last month came under pressure amid media reports that he warned the businessman that his phones were being tapped by Australian intelligence agencies. He had previously …

Of all the follies of 2017, the most tawdry may be the GOP’s headlong rush to pass a tax bill that even its proponents don’t understand. What’s especially sad is that otherwise sensible Republicans seem to be capitulating to the tax-cut frenzy. Political desperation is the mother of this legislation. Despite Republican control of both houses of Congress, the Trump …

The seminal financial event of this year, the current decade, and possibly our generation is here: Futures trading in bitcoin has begun. But the derivative that would really damp the current crypto frenzy and make digital tokens a speculator-friendly—if not investment-worthy—commodity, currency, tulip, or whatever, isn’t futures. It’s options. It’s hard to see how even existing futures trading rules can …

The great clearance sale of Australia’s bancassurance industry is almost complete. With Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. offloading its life unit OnePath to Zurich Insurance Group AG for A$2.85 billion ($2.1 billion) on Tuesday, the country’s big banks have all but sold out of life insurance, an industry they dominated as recently as 2015. Only Westpac Banking Corp. …

Puerto Rico’s post-hurricane plight has drawn attention to the Jones Act, the 1920 law that compels all maritime commerce between US ports to be carried on ships built, owned and crewed by Americans. The law is adding to the island’s problems, and should be set aside for that reason alone — but the Jones Act was, or should have been, …

China is suffering from a frigid winter, but it can’t blame Mother Nature alone. Late last week, following a widespread uproar, officials reversed a policy banning some provinces from using coal for heat — which had the inadvertent but predictable effect of leaving large swathes of the country freezing cold. China’s government has been keen to reduce air-pollution levels, which …