Bloomberg The US said it’s at the “threshold” of a deal with the Taliban after the latest round of talks ended, even amid reports that the group attacked another Afghan city on Sunday. US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad said he’ll be travelling to Kabul for consultations after discussions with the Taliban. The withdrawal of American and NATO ...

Bloomberg Efforts by France and Iran to salvage the nuclear deal are gaining momentum as Tehran sends its special envoy back to Paris while signalling it could be edging closer to a plan to restore some of its oil exports. On Monday President Hassan Rouhani’s special representative and deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, will head an economic delegation on his ...

Bloomberg Hong Kong protesters caused major disruptions to the city’s international airport on Sunday, massing outside the building in attempt to paralyse transport to and from the facility. MTR Corp, operator of the city’s rail system, cancelled express trains to the airport, while demonstrators blocked buses from leaving the airport terminal. Protesters vandalised turnstiles at some of stations and sprayed ...

Bloomberg Hundreds of Russians marched through the streets of Moscow in what appeared to be the most peaceful unauthorised rally in a summer of demonstrations against President Vladimir Putin. The Interior ministry, which usually understates the scope of protest activities, put the number of march participants at 750 people, according to Interfax. No detentions were reported, but there was a ...

Bloomberg Germany made an emotional appeal for forgiveness to neighbouring Poland 80 years after the start of World War II that was met by a renewed demand for reparations by the fellow European Union member’s prime minister. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, visiting the town of Wielun, Poland, where Nazi bombers caused the first large-scale civilian casualties of the conflict in ...

On this Labour Day, the American economy — the source of jobs for almost all of us — is full of promise and peril. It is hard not to be impressed with its job-creation capacity. Since the low point of the 2007-09 Great Recession, payroll employment has increased by 21.7 million jobs, with strong growth under both President Obama and ...

Sweden is considering selling 100-year bonds to take advantage of the unprecedented decline in global yields. With almost half of the nation’s debt already owned by the central bank, though, there’s skepticism about how much demand the debt office can drum up in what is an already illiquid market. So the country should accelerate plans to issue its first green ...

Dan Loeb’s team is unlikely to be celebrating over Sony’s decision to sell its stake in Olympus Corp. Investors in Japan have reason to put a few crates of bubbly on ice, though. The sale was a mere side note on the laundry list of changes that Loeb’s Third Point LLC asked for at Sony, in an eight-page letter published ...

Even a trade truce could have its losers. The economic conflict between the US and China has been jarring, no doubt – decades-old commercial relationships have been torn up, supply chains are getting upended, global growth is slowing, and investors and businesses are rattled. On days when the standoff seems endless, you might find yourself asking: Can’t we just go ...

Asia’s biggest cities, from Shanghai to Dhaka, are struggling to manage the impact of decades of growth. Some are sinking. Most are traffic-choked. And almost all struggle with chronic air pollution. Worst of all, coastal cities face the threat of being inundated by rising seas. Indonesia’s capital Jakarta suffers these urban ills more acutely than most, which is why President ...