­­­­­­­­­­­Bloomberg Alstom SA’s merger with the train-making arm of Siemens AG will mark the end of a bitter rivalry as the European rail industry’s biggest adversaries unite in an effort to fend off the challenge from China and Japan. The ill-tempered contest between Alstom and Siemens has been a feature of the sector for decades and reached boiling point in …

Bloomberg A federal agency that regulates apples wants to make regulations on Apple Inc. a little easier. The Food and Drug Administration, which oversees new drugs, medical devices and much of the US food supply, said that it had selected nine major tech companies for a pilot programme that may let them avoid some regulations that have tied up developers …

Bloomberg Uber is testing out a new conciliatory tone in London, where officials said they wouldn’t renew the ride-hailing service’s operating license. It’s going to have ample opportunity to see if that approach will work in the US. San Francisco’s city attorney is investigating whether Uber Technologies Inc. is a public nuisance. In New York, officials are mulling ways to …

Bloomberg Cisco Systems Inc., the biggest maker of computer networking equipment, said it will cut about 310 jobs at its headquarters in San Jose, California. Cisco is trying to shift from a reliance on revenue from high-cost proprietary equipment, which some customers are turning away from, to software and services. The company has more than 73,000 employees, according Bloomberg data. …

Bloomberg Twitter Inc., struggling to attract new users, will lift its 140-character limit on tweets in an experiment with a small group that may expand to the entire social media platform. The test will let users send tweets with as many as 280 characters. Lengthening the character limit may result in more engaging conversation on the platform, helping its bid …

Bloomberg One year after designer Maria Grazia Chiuri showed her first collection for Christian Dior Couture, Chief Executive Officer Sidney Toledano says customers are responding to her creative changes. Chiuri, who was formerly co-creative director of closely-held Valentino SpA, is the first woman to lead Dior since it was founded in 1946. “She is totally excited—obsessed—to understand what is the …

The Trump administration often talks about North Korea policy as if it’s an on-off switch. President Trump thundered that the US will “totally destroy” North Korea to defend itself and its allies. But Defense Secretary James Mattis blandly insisted the next day that it’s “still a diplomatically led effort.” Somewhere in this maze of public statements—including the announcement of new …

Margaret Thatcher redefined the UK’s relationship to Europe in 1988 in a fierce speech on the continent that chastised her European partners while promising to stick with them. Twenty-nine years later, Prime Minister Theresa May made a similar journey to do the opposite. In a speech Friday in Florence, May addressed continental Europe softly, about separation. When Thatcher went to …

For generations, the open road has provided good jobs for Americans, whether truckers, novelists or country-music lyricists. Soon it may be crowded with some less sympathetic protagonists: self-driving robots. Trucks with some degree of automation are already plying ore mines and hauling freight. Investment is pouring into the industry. As Congress debates a new law to promote self-driving technology, however, …

Angela Merkel’s victory in Sunday’s election gives her a fourth term as Germany’s chancellor and should be seen as a remarkable achievement—one that few would have predicted back in 2015, when her popularity slumped during the worst of the refugee crisis. Merkel’s resilience, based on a careful blend of principle and pragmatism, deserves to be celebrated. To be sure, this …