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Ramaphosa called to answer claims in S African graft probe

Bloomberg South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has until June 21 to answer anti-graft ombudsman questions after being implicated in a probe into a donation his campaign received from a company linked to a bribes scandal. The rand fell. Ramaphosa received notification about the preliminary outcome of the investigation, which will be finalised once he has responded, Busisiwe Mkhwebane said in ...

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Kazakh leader calls for dialogue, new protests planned

Bloomberg Kazakhstan’s new president called for dialogue with protesters after police arrested hundreds of people demonstrating against his election and opposition groups called for rallies to continue. Former Senate leader Kassym-Jomart Tokayev dominated the presidential ballot, taking 71 percent of the vote to cement a transfer of power by Nursultan Nazarbayev, who had ruled the country since before the collapse ...

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Trump plans Poland troop announcement

Bloomberg President Donald Trump plans to make an announcement on US troop commitments in Poland after discussions about establishing a military base that the country’s president has dubbed “Fort Trump.” The announcement will come as Polish President Andrzej Duda meets with Trump at the White House, according to administration officials. The officials, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity, wouldn’t ...

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Argentine president boosts re-election bid

Bloomberg Mauricio Macri, Argentine president, kickstarted his re-election bid with a surprise running mate that shakes up the nation’s political alliances before the October vote. Macri chose Senator Miguel Pichetto, one of his critics and a moderate opposition leader, to be his vice presidential candidate. The move boosts Macri’s odds of winning, but analysts say it’s also an admission that ...

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With Trump’s blessing, Japan aims to mend ties with Iran

Bloomberg Japanese PM Shinzo Abe, a rare friend of both President Donald Trump and Iran’s leaders, set off for Tehran with the daunting task of bridging a divide that could plunge the region into renewed chaos. Abe’s visit comes as the US has given scant indication it’s ready to ease sanctions it reimposed after abandoning a 2015 accord meant to ...

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Britain: The club Trump resents but wants to join

President Trump’s love-hate relationship with Britain has been on display in London. This ambivalence takes an especially bizarre turn in comments by the president and his supporters about British intelligence, historically America’s most important secret partner. After bashing prominent British figures on his way to London, Trump was on good behaviour, after a glittering state dinner the night before with ...

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Italy’s scary parallel currency threat

It’s hard to think of a more important question for the future of the euro than how committed Rome really is to the single currency. Italy is the third-biggest economy in the monetary union, and had the bloc’s largest public debt in absolute terms last year. The League and the Five Star Movement, which have run the country in coalition ...

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The best way to boost electric cars in China

In China, the most talked-about and coveted feature associated with Tesla Inc.’s new China-made Model 3 electric vehicle isn’t the car’s high performance, sleek design or semi-autonomous capability. It’s the license plate — which should tell advocates hoping to move the world’s drivers off fossil fuels something. The recent buzz is the result of a misunderstanding. A social media post ...

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Don’t ask the Fed to manipulate dollar

An old debate looks poised to make one of its frequent comebacks: How much, if at all, should the Federal Reserve concern itself with the value of the dollar? Oddly enough, it’s a question on which President Donald Trump and Senator Elizabeth Warren seem to agree. Warren proposed “aggressive intervention on behalf of American workers” and, in particular, “more actively ...

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Boris Johnson is underpriced by world’s financial markets

Sterling is in the dumps as the interminable delay to resolving Brexit is clearly holding back the UK economy. Perhaps the contest to choose a new leader for the ruling Conservative party, which started in earnest on Monday, can provide a change in direction for the currency. After all, the winner will take over as prime minister from the hapless ...

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