Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg was a courteous guest during a joint session of Congress, playing down current frictions within the alliance and praising President Donald Trump’s effort to get Europe to pay more for its own defense. This was more than just astute diplomacy: It was recognition that, despite the impression given by Trump’s many disparaging remarks about Nato, ...

Since 2004, China has been the world’s largest generator of waste, including plastics. And, since 2010 at least, China has been the largest source of waste plastic flowing into the world’s oceans. To its credit, the Chinese government has tried to shrink the problem. In recent years, it’s forced retailers to charge for single-use plastic bags that aren’t biodegradable (with ...

The jobs report brought a little good news for investors worried that a key part of the decade-long bull market is about to run out. Profit margins, which have reached record levels, are predicted to drop in the first quarter for companies in the S&P 500. While the drop is not expected to be sharp, there has been a growing ...

It has become fashionable on social media and in certain publications to argue that capitalism is killing the planet. Even renowned investor Jeremy Grantham, hardly a radical, made that assertion last year. The basic idea is that the profit motive drives the private sector to spew carbon into the air with reckless abandon. Though many economists and some climate activists ...

Bloomberg Ethiopian Airlines Group is reconsidering its order for 25 additional 737 Max jetliners from Boeing Co, in part because of the “stigma’’ surrounding the aircraft involved in two fatal air disasters in five months — one of them an Ethiopian Airlines flight. Tewolde GebreMariam, the state-owned carrier’s chief executive, spoke in an interview with Bloomberg News a day after ...

Bloomberg Just like some millennials, the new Sears is counting on a hand from their parents. Baby boomers are the ticket to luring in the coveted group of young consumers, who are currently in the process of starting households and loading up on appliances, beds and other staples, according to Peter Boutros, the company’s chief brand officer and president of ...

Bloomberg Tennis star Naomi Osaka surprised industry watchers by signing an endorsement deal with Nike Inc, switching from the US sports brand’s biggest rival, Adidas AG. The sports world had been anticipating that Adidas would pay a record sum to renew a clothing endorsement with No. 1-ranked Osaka, who seized global media attention by defeating Serena Williams at the US ...

Bloomberg Alarmed at Amazon.com’s rapid growth in Europe, grocers are considering fighting back with the help of a tiny Portuguese startup. Sensei, a 16-month-old technology company based in Lisbon that’s backed by Germany’s Metro AG and Portugal’s Sonae SGPS SA, is pitching its technology to European supermarkets as they race the e-commerce giant to open the region’s first checkoutless stores. ...

DUBAI / Emirates Business The UAE’s non-oil private sector has maintained a solid monthly improvement, according to the latest Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) issued by Emirates NBD. The improvement in business conditions reflected sharper increases in output, new orders and stocks of purchases, as well as a return to job creation. These all in some way were linked to anecdotal ...

Dubai / WAM Start-ups and other young companies can provide around 50 percent of all new job prospects in the market at the seed stage and those operating for two and a half years hiring an average of 12 workers. Several reports reveal that start-ups generate significant employment opportunities globally, helping drive immense economic growth prospects. The role of start-ups ...