Bloomberg Google claimed the European Commission’s tough antitrust enforcement is a threat to internet innovation on day one of its courtroom fight against a 2.4 billion-euro ($2.6 billion) fine for allegedly thwarting smaller shopping-search rivals. “If Google would have faced the commission’s decision in 2008, Google would have had no other option but to abandon its innovative technologies and its ...

Bloomberg Vladimir Putin’s surprise firing of Russia’s government and unveiling of constitutional changes that would weaken the presidency may only be Plan B for retaining power after his final term ends in 2024. In the month before Putin’s January 15 announcement, he’d pushed hard to convince his longer-serving counterpart in Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, to revive a moribund agreement to create ...

Bloomberg Bernie Sanders’s narrow win in New Hampshire makes him the undisputed leader of the Democratic Party’s left flank, with a second powerful showing that puts him in position to stake a claim to the Democratic presidential nomination as the race turns west and south. A surprisingly strong third-place showing from Amy Klobuchar in New Hampshire further scrambles the race ...

Bloomberg North Korea’s decision to shut the border with China to avoid the coronavirus will set back its nascent economic recovery, renewing pressure on Kim Jong-un to return to nuclear negotiations with Donald Trump. A jump in fuel prices, a dip in port activity and the suspension of train and air links show the early impact as reports emerge of ...

Bloomberg Opposition leader Juan Guaido returned to Venezuela to a chaotic scene at Caracas’s international airport, as President Nicolas Maduro’s loyalists clashed with opposition lawmakers there to greet him. After passing through customs and immigration, Guaido was swarmed by the clashing lawmakers and Maduro backers. He and his travelling entourage were able to leave the airport without being arrested for ...

Bloomberg Matteo Salvini will stand trial for refusing to allow stranded migrants to enter Italy, an outcome he sought as it could bring one of his favourite themes to the forefront of the nation’s political debate. In a preliminary vote, the Rome-based Senate gave the go-ahead to a trial for Salvini, leader of the right-wing League party, after he blocked ...

Every society in the world is going to pay a price for global warming. But it’s the poorest countries and communities who will suffer the most from rising seas and burning lands — and likely also from any drastic measures taken to prevent climate change. The environmental crisis is closely linked to the humanitarian one, and requires the joint action ...

The European Central Bank (ECB) faces many thorny issues as it embarks on its first monetary policy strategy review in nearly two decades. From the setting of the bank’s inflation target, to its role in tackling climate change, the famed diplomatic skills of President Christine Lagarde will be tested. One aspect of the review should prove uncontroversial, however: The ECB ...

In the lumbering takeover battle for HP, Carl Icahn-backed Xerox Holdings Corp. had been wielding plenty of stick, so it was about time for some carrot. What came was more of a crudite, but it might just be the appetizer that HP needs. In the three months since Xerox’s initial bid, Icahn, who’s already the biggest investor in Xerox, took ...

The coronavirus outbreak is already threatening oil markets. The fear of lower demand — from a disease-stricken China and eventually globally as the economic impact widens — has destabilised prices, sending crude to its lowest levels in more than a year. For major oil-producing countries, the declines, coming at a time of curtailed output, threaten economic shocks that if long-lasting ...