Bloomberg The US and China look to be preparing for a protracted confrontation over trade and investment as they each try to line up allies for their cause. The struggle for support is being waged worldwide, with its locus shifting this week to Washington and the semi-annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Behind the battle: an effort by ...

Bloomberg Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. sweetened its offer for drugmaker Shire Plc to more than $60 billion after three prior bids were rejected, wooing investors in the US company with a higher cash component. The Japanese company boosted its offer to 47 pounds ($65.84) a share from 46.50 pounds a share, confirming a Bloomberg News report that it was considering a ...

Bloomberg Asian technology stocks joined their peers in a global swoon after a disappointing sales outlook from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Apple Inc.’s main chip supplier, rekindled concerns that the smartphone industry’s best days may be behind it. TSMC fell 6 percent — its biggest loss since July 2013 — after predicting current-quarter sales about a billion dollars less than ...

Bloomberg It’s all adding up for Liu Yachao. The chief operating officer of TAL Education Group, a Beijing-based provider of tutoring services for Chinese students in core academic subjects, became the company’s second billionaire as its stock more than doubled in the past year. Chinese parents spend an average of $42,892 on their children’s education, with 93 percent of them ...

Bloomberg Indonesia’s Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti deals with some dangerous men in her role, but they don’t rattle her. She has an equally intimidating weapon on her side: Google. Partnering with the search engine firm, Pudjiastuti is catching illegal fishing activity in real time, after thousands of vessels’ locations were revealed online. In her mission to clean up an industry ...

Bloomberg US President Donald Trump hailed “big progress” as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged to halt nuclear testing, a largely symbolic gesture that appeared aimed at softening the ground for talks between the two leaders. Kim told a ruling party meeting in Pyongyang his regime would suspend tests of atomic bombs and intercontinental ballistic missiles after achieving its ...

Bloomberg Hello, Pyongyang. This is Seoul calling. For the first time since the division of the peninsula, the two Koreas set up and tested a direct phone line for their leaders, South Korea said. The first call between South Korea President Moon Jae-in and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un was expected take place sometime before their historic April 27 meeting, ...

Bloomberg The Democratic National Committee (DNC) ued Russia, the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks claiming widespread interference in the 2016 election as part of a “brazen attack on American democracy”. The civil lawsuit could force President Donald Trump’s 2016 staffers to answer questions under oath about campaign activities. Evidence gathered by the DNC could be made public in court filings and ...

Bloomberg With Paraguay’s economy booming, this Sunday’s elections are less about policies and more about the candidates and their parties. In terms of growth, this landlocked country — roughly the size of California — is one of the few bright spots in Latin America in recent years. Barring an upset, Mario Abdo Benitez, a 46-year old former senator whose father ...

Bloomberg Angela Merkel has enjoyed a relatively painless start to her fourth term in office. That could be about to change with the German leader’s Social Democrat coalition partners poised to elect a combative one-time party rebel as their leader. Andrea Nahles, who made her mark as a rabble-rousing opponent of former SPD Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s labour reforms, is slated ...