Bloomberg PM Scott Morrison’s government pledged to freeze Australia’s refugee intake for the next three years as it thrust immigration to the heart of its campaign for re-election. The number of asylum-seeker visas granted each year will be kept at 18,750 for the next term of government if the Liberal-National coalition retains office on May 18, Minister for Cities Alan ...

Bloomberg One of Joko Widodo’s top political opponents said he’s open to working with the Indonesia president following a disputed election this month, raising hopes for a peaceful outcome. Prabowo has refused to accept unofficial quick counts that show Widodo, known as Jokowi, has won a second term in office. Election authorities have until May 22 to release official results. ...

Bloomberg Fugitive Lam Wing-kee has been protected by rules dating back to the time of the former British colony’s handover to China that prevent extradition of Hong Kong citizens to the mainland. Now, that protection could be lifted by a proposed amendment to the law, and Lam is not the only one who is worried. “The impact would be huge” ...

Joe Biden’s limitations as a presidential candidate are so obvious that they’re almost a litany: He’s too old, too white, too male, too touchy-feely, too loquacious. But he has one huge plus: He may be the person who could move Donald Trump out of the White House. Biden rightly put the obligation of replacing Trump at the center of his ...

With Japan’s economy softening, its central bank needs to at least consider further steps to support growth. There’s one major hurdle, however, and only Prime Minister Shinzo Abe can remove it. A 2 percent hike in consumption tax, scheduled for October, would shore up Japan’s fiscal position and thus its ability to pay for an aging population. Yet this plan ...

You’d think all the pressure on Huawei Technologies Co. would make life easier for archrivals Nokia Oyj and Ericsson AB. In some senses, things have got harder. The US has intensified criticism of Huawei over the past year, saying its network equipment is vulnerable to exploitation by Chinese state-sponsored actors. That’s led to various bans in Australia, New Zealand and ...

Rarely have policymakers seemed so keen to snap the links that connect global markets, even at the risk of economic self-harm. Theresa May’s dogged pursuit of a Brexit that takes Britain out of the European Union’s (EU) single market and customs union is an obvious own goal, considering the City of London’s global position. The UK’s intransigence has already sent an ...

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has an election to fight. So naturally, his government is touting statistics that show 7 percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth in the fiscal year that ended last month, despite skepticism from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) among others. As for jobs, the official version is that since there’s such high growth in output, they ...

Asia’s central bankers should consider themselves lucky: Unlike their counterparts in the West – with a few exceptions – they have the scope to combat an economic downturn and low inflation through traditional tools. What they may lack, though, is the will to use those assets en masse rather than the ad hoc efforts to date. India made a surprise ...

Measured by attention received, or noise made, London’s climate change protests have been a rousing success over the past week. As ever, there are doubts about whether the campaign of civil disobedience will make any real difference; but it does pose questions about the limits of democratic politics in the age of legislative gridlock. With their banners, their graffiti, their ...