Bloomberg Old-school rental-car agencies may have a road map to prosper in the age of self-driving taxis after all. Avis Budget Group Inc. agreed to manage a fleet of 600 self-driving Chrysler minivans for Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo autonomous technology division. In addition, Hertz Global Holdings Inc. will lease Lexus sport-utility vehicles to Apple Inc., which will convert them to self-driving …

Bloomberg Comcast Corp. and Charter Communications Inc., the two largest US cable companies, met with executives at Sprint Corp. in the past month to discuss reselling wireless services or an acquisition, people familiar with the matter said. The more likely scenario is the cable giants strike a deal that lets them resell services on Sprint’s wireless network, the people said, …

Bloomberg Stada Arzneimittel AG’s months-long sale process unraveled as a small group of the German drugmaker’s investors held out for a better deal than the 5.3 billion-euro ($5.9 billion) offered by two private equity firms. Only 65.5 percent of the shares were tendered in Bain Capital and Cinven’s offer by the Thursday deadline, Bad Vilbel, Germany-based Stada said in a …

WASHINGTON / Reuters The White House warned Syrian President Bashar Al Assad that he and his military would ‘pay a heavy price’ if it conducted a chemical weapons attack and said the United States had reason to believe such preparations were underway. The White House said in a statement the preparations by Syria were similar to those undertaken before an …

Bloomberg Bahrain accused Qatar of a ‘military escalation’ of the crisis that has embroiled the Gulf region for the past three weeks, and warned there would be consequences. While he didn’t identify Turkey by name, Foreign Minister Khalid Bin Ahmed Al Khalifa was apparently referring to the Turkish government’s decision earlier this month to accelerate legislation on the planned deployment …

Bloomberg Prime Minister Shinzo Abe shouldn’t rush to change Japan’s 70-year-old constitution, a former defense minister and rival for the ruling party’s leadership said in an interview. Shigeru Ishiba, 60, a member of the Liberal Democratic Party who has emerged as a critic of Abe, said he was concerned that the premier was being hasty in asking his party to …

Bloomberg US President Donald Trump warned Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi his country must do more to reduce obstacles to U.S. exports even as he offered thanks for recent purchases of American-made equipment. Trump said at a joint public appearance with Modi after the leaders met at the White House that their two countries must have “a trading relationship that …

Bloomberg The party overseeing Mongolia’s economic recovery plan was dealt a setback after its presidential candidate finished second behind a populist businessman promising stricter controls over mineral resources. Democratic Party candidate Battulga Khaltmaa, a former cabinet minister, received 38.1 percent of the vote, securing an unprecedented run-off election against Parliament Speaker Enkhbold Miyegombo, according to the General Election Commission. Enkhbold, …

Bloomberg Donald Trump has been U.S. president for less than six months but it’s been enough time to send opinions of American leadership plunging. According to a Pew Research Center public survey of 37 countries, a median of just 22 percent of respondents have confidence in Trump to do the right thing in international matters, compared with 64 percent at …

Among the many things it does, the federal government is one of the nation’s largest lenders. It lends to farmers, homeowners, students, small businesses, exporters and rural electric utilities, among others. Altogether, there are more than 100 loan programs administered by 20 agencies overseeing lending worth $3.4 trillion in fiscal 2015, up from $1.5 trillion in 2007. These fascinating figures …