Bloomberg In the corridors of the UK Parliament, an idea that four months ago seemed laughable is now being seriously discussed. Is another referendum a way out of the Brexit deadlock? Speaking privately, some ministers raise it unprompted. At a press conference, leaders of the smaller opposition parties urged the government to consider it as a contingency worth preparing for. ...

Bloomberg Kosovo lawmakers adopted a set of laws to upgrade its lightly armed troops into a formidable force, which neighbouring Serbia sees as security threat and an obstacle to normalising ties between the two Balkan nations. Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic demanded an urgent meeting of the United Nations Security Council after the Kosovo’s parliament ignored objections from ethnic Serb ...

Bloomberg A fifth weekend of protests by France’s Yellow Vests movement started in relative calm in Paris, with police arresting several dozen people in the capital compared with hundreds a week earlier. As protesters gathered in front of the opera house and on the Champs-Elysees avenue in central Paris, police used tear gas to prevent a small breakaway group from ...

Bloomberg Sri Lanka’s top court ruled against President Maithripala Sirisena’s plan to dissolve the island nation’s parliament and call a new national vote, extending a political crisis that has roiled the island nation since late October. The Supreme Court ruled as unconstitutional a presidential notice to dissolve parliament before a period of four-and-a-half years from its first sitting unless the ...

Bloomberg Maria Butina pleaded guilty to acting as an undeclared Russian agent in the US and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors, advancing an inquiry into Russia’s efforts to build back-channels to politically connected Americans. The 30-year-old gun enthusiast operated as a Kremlin agent as she befriended National Rifle Association leaders (NRA) and influential US conservatives, she admitted in federal court ...

Bloomberg Swedish opposition leader Ulf Kristersson, the man most likely to be asked to form a new government after Stefan Lofven’s second defeat in parliament, is calling for a quick resolution to the country’s political stalemate, warning that the chances of a snap election are now rising. “Ultimately, we are heading at quite a high speed toward a new election,” ...

Pay attention to the financial markets. If the Great Recession and 2008-09 financial crisis taught us anything, that was it. Until then, the Federal Reserve had focused mainly on fighting inflation and unemployment. What we learned is that overborrowing, shaky mortgages and inflated stock and home prices could also plunge the economy into crisis. Predictably, then, economists and business executives ...

If a country has a problem with its banks, the thing to do is to come up with a strategy and execute it swiftly. The trouble with Greece is that it has too many plans – and is taking too long to choose between them. The Greek banking system is saddled with a very large number of non-performing loans, a ...

India can burn through as many central bankers as it wishes, but unless politicians let the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) do its job, the economic setup will fall short of the nation’s aspirations. It’s commendable that Prime Minister Narendra Modi moved swiftly to replace Urjit Patel, who quit this week as RBI governor. It’s never good to have a vacuum ...

Count the straws in the wind, and it looks like the trade tensions between the US and China could be moving closer to a resolution. Don’t relax just yet, though. Beijing will delay by a decade some of the targets in its Made in China 2025 program to move into high-technology industries, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News ...