Bloomberg Iraq’s Mohammed Tawfik Allawi declined to form a cabinet and stepped down as designated prime minister, ending weeks of squabbling and returning the country to a political vacuum. In a televised address on Monday in Baghdad, Allawi said he was quitting because of what he called “pressures from political parties seeking their own interests.” Allawi, a former communications minister, ...

Bloomberg President Donald Trump’s appointment of Virginia’s former attorney general as head of the immigration service violated federal law, a federal judge concluded. The ruling voids controversial policy changes that made it more difficult to get asylum in the US. Ken Cuccinelli’s appointment in 2019 as acting director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), a unit within the Department ...

Bloomberg The Democratic Republic of Congo’s president called for a rapid investigation into the sudden death of the country’s head of military intelligence shortly after his suspension from the army. General Delphin Kahimbi died last week in Kinshasa, the capital, President Felix Tshisekedi told his council of ministers later that day, according to minutes of the meeting on the PM ...

Bloomberg Joe Biden is looking to use a blowout win in South Carolina to paint the Democratic primary contest as a clear choice between his traditional centrism and Bernie Sanders’s democratic socialism. In multiple television interviews on Sunday, the former vice president touted his success with South Carolina’s diverse electorate and portrayed Sanders as a risky choice who’d lose key ...

Bloomberg Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says he doesn’t know when or where President Donald Trump’s meeting with the Taliban would take place. “They have an enormous amount of American blood on their hands,” Pompeo said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “We’re going to see if the Taliban are prepared to live up to the commitments they made.” ...

Bloomberg The worst stock rout since the global financial crisis showed signs of easing on Monday amid optimism that central banks will help cushion markets from the impact of the coronavirus. Crude oil rebounded. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index jumped, with 17 of 19 industry sectors in the green, and futures for all three main American indexes advanced in the ...

Bloomberg China’s biggest stock rally in months signals investors are counting on Beijing to loosen the purse strings after data showed a collapse in economic activity. Old-economy stocks led the charge on Monday, helping the CSI 300 Index close 3.3% higher for its biggest gain since May last year. A gauge of industrial shares rose 5.5%, the best day since ...

Bloomberg The Federal Reserve is now prepared to reduce interest rates this month even though it recognizes monetary policy cannot completely shelter a US economy increasingly threatened by the coronavirus. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell opened the door to a rate-cut at the Fed’s March 17-18 meeting by issuing a rare statement pledging to “act as appropriate” to support the economy. ...

Bloomberg China’s financial regulators will allow the nation’s lenders to delay recognising bad loans from smaller businesses reeling from the deadly coronavirus outbreak, giving temporary reprieve to trillions of yuan of debt. Qualified small- and medium-sized businesses nationwide with principal or interest due between January 25 and June 30 can apply for a delay to the end of the second ...

Bloomberg Global central bankers from Japan to the UK pledged action aimed at stabilising financial markets rattled by the spreading coronavirus as pressure builds on them to ease monetary policy to safeguard their economies. In an emergency statement on Monday, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) said it would “strive to provide ample liquidity and ensure stability in financial markets.” The ...