Bloomberg Italy’s novice premier-designate Giuseppe Conte struggled to form a populist government throughout the weekend, stranded between a president who objects to a euroskeptic candidate for the economy ministry, and a coalition ally threatening to force early elections. Conte, 53, is working on a list of ministers to propose to Sergio Mattarella, 76, the head of state whose task it ...

Bloomberg A conference to help resolve a seven-year crisis in Libya and lead to United Nations-backed elections in the North African country has been set for Paris on May 29. Four Libyans—UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj, eastern military stro-ngman Khalifa Haftar, the president of the eastern House of Representatives Aguila Saleh, and Khaled Al-Mishri, president of the High Council of ...

Bloomberg Outspoken Brexit supporter and frequent government critic Jacob Rees-Mogg said he’s not going to challenge Prime Minster Theresa May for her job. “I don’t wish to be prime minister, I’m very happy as a backbench minister in Parliament,” Rees-Mogg said on the BBC’s “Andrew Marr Show” on Sunday. “Of course I wouldn’t challenge the prime minister. The prime minister ...

Bloomberg Russian President Vladimir Putin urged patience in efforts to resolve a territorial dispute with Japan that’s lasted since World War II after Kremlin talks Saturday with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in a disappointment for the Asian country’s leader, who’s made striking a deal a priority. “It is important to patiently continue the search for a solution,’’ Putin said. Abe, ...

The new government finally taking shape in Italy is one of the weirdest coalitions you could imagine — and a pretty effective combination if your aim was to sabotage the European Union. Although predictions about where this Italian misadventure is heading are difficult, it could easily be worse than Brexit for the EU. The coalition partners — the left-populist Five ...

Walmart Inc. shook investors earlier this year with an e-commerce stumble. Last week, it took a step towards reclaiming the narrative that it has a handle on its digital strategy. As the big-box retailer reported first-quarter earnings, much of the focus was on one number: Its US e-commerce growth. Walmart’s digital business had been booming for a while under Jet.com ...

Archie Norman, the famed turnaround specialist who is now chairman of Marks & Spencer Group Plc, is hoping for a textbook turnaround of Britain’s biggest clothing store by value. He is certainly reading from the classic first page: on Wednesday the company announced 514 million pounds ($688 million) of one-time charges, more than halving pre-tax profit in the year to ...

President Donald Trump’s aggressive new trade policy isn’t going too well. His threats to impose tariffs on imports from China, Europe and other trade partners have so far yielded much less than he promised — and instead of retaliating, he shows signs of backing off. It’s right to criticize him for saying one thing and doing another, but bear in ...

First the good news: Homelessness in the US is down. In the mid-2000s, President George W. Bush’s ‘housing first’ program made substantial inroads against the problem. President Barack Obama continued the campaign with the Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program in 2009 and a follow-up program in 2010. As a result of these efforts, the nationwide homeless population has continued ...

The world doesn’t like its essential commodities being controlled by a small group of producers. Less than a year after BHP Billiton Ltd. announced plans to merge its iron ore operations with those of Rio Tinto Group in 2009, the proposal was dropped amid expectations that regulators in Europe and Asia would oppose the deal on antitrust grounds. So why ...