Bloomberg Battered by more than a month of protests, Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika said he would step down before the end of his fourth term on April 28, but suggested he would still craft the foundations of the transition to come. The announcement appeared aimed at avoiding what could be a military-sanctioned, and embarrassing, constitutional push to have him declared ...

Bloomberg Thailand’s army chief slammed exiled former leader Thaksin Shinawatra in a rare briefing following a disputed election, a further sign that his allies will struggle to form a government. “He never admits to his crime,” Apirat Kongsompong told foreign media organisations in Bangkok. “If someone has money and is powerful, does that mean you can never go to jail? ...

Bloomberg India’s main opposition Congress party has pledged to tackle unemployment and poverty as it seeks to wrest power from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling coalition just days out from a national election. Led by Rahul Gandhi, the party released its election manifesto in New Delhi, promising to rid India of poverty by 2030, waive farm loans, introduce a single ...

Bloomberg Theresa May is expected to confront her most senior ministers with the potentially explosive option of delaying Brexit by months, as the UK struggles to find a plan for leaving the European Union. The British prime minister will hold five hours of crisis talks with her cabinet, with the pro- and anti-Brexit factions in her top team set to ...

Bloomberg Mozambique has confirmed more than 1,000 cases of cholera as an outbreak of the water-borne disease spreads following a tropical cyclone last month which has so far killed at least 598 people in the southeast African nation. The number of cholera infections rose from 246 on March 30, the health ministry said in a statement. President Filipe Nyusi last ...

Here’s an interesting exercise: Compare what is arguably President Donald Trump’s signature policy achievement, the late 2017 tax cut, with perhaps his top policy goal, a wall on the border with Mexico, in purely numerical terms. Set aside for the moment all the political and social arguments about immigration and the border. The companies in the S&P 500 have already ...

Italy’s agreement to sign on to China’s Belt and Road Initiative has unnerved European and US leaders who hoped for a united front against Beijing’s geo-economic ambitions. “Endorsing BRI lends legitimacy to China’s predatory approach to investment and will bring no benefits to Italian people,” White House’s National Security Council (NSC) warned via Twitter. While Chinese investment in Europe is ...

You know the situation must be dire if a company’s shares spike after it confirms plans to dilute shareholders. Japan Display Inc., a maker of screens for the iPhone and other gadgets, jumped as much as 14 percent. The catalyst was a brief statement from the company earlier in the day that said it was aiming to reach agreements this ...

Today, around $10 trillion of bonds are trading at negative yields, mainly in Europe and Japan. In the next recession, US interest rates, too, may enter negative territory: Short-term rates are currently running around 2.5 percent, and cuts of between 3 percent and 5 percent are commonly needed to restart economic activity. In markets where rates are even lower or ...

Love is in the air again among the world’s automotive manufacturers. The alliance of Renault SA, Nissan Motor Co. and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. aims to restart merger talks in 12 months before moving on to a takeover of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV, the Financial Times reported last week. Peugeot-owner PSA Group is also looking to build a partnership with Fiat ...