Bloomberg Kenya is bracing for street protests as the East African nation awaits the electoral commission’s response to opposition leader Raila Odinga’s decision to withdraw from a presidential vote rerun that’s threatening a constitutional crisis. Opposition supporters gathered on Wednesday in the capital, Nairobi, and in the western city of Kisumu to join demonstrations called to protest what Odinga said …

Bloomberg UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond said he will start releasing more money to help the government prepare for a “no deal” Brexit if there aren’t clear signs of progress in talks with the EU by early 2018. “There will be some areas where we need to start spending money in the new year if we can’t tell …

Bloomberg The techno soldiers of Kim Jong Un are growing more aggressive in defending North Korea’s supreme leader against threats from Donald Trump and South Korea. The country’s hackers stole military plans developed by the US and South Korea last year that included a highly classified “decapitation strike” against the North Korean leader, according to a South Korean lawmaker. The …

Bloomberg Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy stepped up pressure on Catalonia to halt its drive for independence, taking the first step in a process that could strip the region’s separatist government of its limited autonomy and impose direct control from Madrid. Rajoy, speaking after an emergency session of his ministerial team, said the cabinet had agreed to issue a formal …

Bloomberg Election officials in Liberia started counting ballots after polling stations closed in presidential and parliamentary elections that regional observers said were conducted peacefully. Liberians chose a president to replace Nobel Peace Price laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf from among 20 candidates who include a retired soccer star, a former warlord and a wealthy chicken farmer. The turnout among the 2.1 …

Critics have complained about President Trump’s bombast on foreign policy, but some GOP insiders worry about a less visible problem—a hollowed-out bureaucracy that has been slow to develop and implement strategy. Skeptics say that on major issues—Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, Iraq, Russia—the Trump administration hasn’t explained clear, systematic plans for achieving results. Even where there seems to be a coherent diplomatic …

Several state attorneys general have announced they will sue to block the Environmental Protection Agency’s rollback of President Barack Obama’s signature Clean Power Plan. Can they win? And should they? The answer to both questions is no, but not because of anything inherently wrong with the plan to cut greenhouse-gas emissions from power plants. Although administrative decisions must be rational, …

The vast majority of high-level economic officials gathering at the International Monetary Fund-World Bank annual meetings in Washington this week will welcome and embrace both the recent and the prospective improvements in the global economy. And they should. The ongoing synchronized pick-up in growth has taken a long time to materialize, and is occurring in the context of unusually subdued …

Three years since their banking union began to take shape, European Union regulators are seeking fresh powers to deal with lenders in trouble. Their plan would let them stop withdrawals from a failing bank for a few days while they address the problem, with the aim of preventing a run. But this approach could easily have the opposite effect, spreading …

A candid memoir by former US Defense Secretary Ash Carter provides a rare opportunity to better understand President Barack Obama’s Syria strategy before it recedes into the historical distance. His many valuable insights raise one big question, however: Why did the US even get involved? The apparent goal of Carter’s detailed reminiscences is to establish his role in the defeat …