Bloomberg Egypt’s government said extremists were behind a blast that killed at least 20 people in central Cairo, one of the deadliest acts of violence by extremists in the North African nation’s capital in years. Extremists were transporting an explosives-laden vehicle for an attack when it detonated outside the National Cancer Institute, the Interior Ministry said. Forty-seven other people were ...

Bloomberg Somalian authorities executed two al-Shabaab militants who were convicted for a December attack that killed at least 13 people in the capital, Mogadishu. The men “were executed by firing squad on Monday morning,” Chairman of the Somali military court Hassan Ali Nur told reporters. The al-Qaeda-linked militants have waged an insurgency in Somalia since 2006 in a bid to ...

Bloomberg Iran is responsible for security in the Persian Gulf and is acting more vigorously to protect it, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said, suggesting that a showdown between his country and Western powers over crucial shipping lanes could escalate. “We used to overlook some violations but no longer,” Zarif said at a press conference at the Foreign Ministry in Tehran. ...

Bloomberg Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam warned of a “very dangerous situation” as protesters moved to shut down the Asian financial hub with a general strike on Monday after a ninth straight weekend of unrest in opposition to China’s tightening grip. Demonstrators hampered the financial hub’s busy morning commute with actions that left traffic snarled, subway lines inoperable and airport ...

Bloomberg The deadly mass shootings in Texas and Ohio have reignited criticism of President Donald Trump’s divisive rhetoric about immigrants and minorities. Several Democratic presidential hopefuls called for reinstating the ban on assault weapons that expired in 2004, while many accused Trump of stoking racial animus — he’s described Mexican and Central American immigrants as criminals and gang members — ...

Winnow: verb. To expose (grain or other substances) to the wind or to a current of air so that the lighter particles (as chaff or other refuse matter) are separated or blown away — Oxford English Dictionary It is time to dust off this marvelously appropriate verb for its quadrennial use to describe the thinning of a field of presidential ...

Verizon Communications Inc. is the wireless industry’s sleepi- ng giant. Suddenly, its smal-ler rivals — AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint and Dish Network —are giving it every reason to wake up. Shares of Verizon have been a snooze this year, as AT&T steps up the competition and the drama around T-Mobile’s merger with Sprint continues to dominate the news. Verizon said it ...

With markets focussed on rate cuts from the Federal Reserve and what sorts of policy levers might be used in a downturn, we got good news this week in learning that Americans’ personal saving rate is higher than previously thought. Should we enter an economic downturn in the near future, households will have room to spend more and save less, ...

The Donald Trump administration is planning to move hundreds of federal jobs away from Washington. In principle, this idea could make sense — so long as it’s competently executed and done for the right reasons. In practice, the plan seems likely to fail both tests. As currently designed, the proposed relocations promise to yield meager, if any, savings to taxpayers. ...

I wrote recently about why Amazon.com Inc.’s commercial messages in product searches are a risky way to levy additional fees on the companies that sell through its digital mall. Apple Inc. is increasingly wading into similar waters. Type in “maps” in the search bar of Apple’s widely used iPhone app storefront, and you might see a result for Google Maps ...