Bloomberg A Spanish court issued an international arrest warrant for self-exiled Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont and four others, ramping up pressure on the separatist campaign and buffeting Madrid’s plans to dampen support for the movement. National Court Judge Carmen Lamela wrote in her ruling that the separatists promoted “violent force” and incited “insurrection.” Minutes after her order was made public, ...

Bloomberg Six months ago Sao Paulo Mayor Joao Doria revealed unbridled presidential ambitions, travelling the country and the world professing an aggressive pro-market agenda and an management style with the slogan “Speed It Up.” In an interview in his Sao Paulo office this week he struck a more humble, down-to-earth tone, talking about the need to do more in his ...

Bloomberg Kenya’s main opposition alliance called for a boycott of three of the country’s biggest companies, including mobile operator Safaricom Ltd., to press its demands for electoral reform. The National Super Alliance said its supporters should also spurn Brookside Dairies Ltd., part-owned by Danone SA of France, and closely held Bidco Oil Refineries Ltd., a Nairobi-based manufacturer of edible oils. ...

Needing a victory to validate their majorities, congressional Republicans have chosen not to emulate Shakespeare’s Henry V before Agincourt. He advocated stiffening the sinews, summoning up the blood and lending the eye a terrible aspect. The Republicans would rather define victory down. What began with a bang of promises of comprehensive tax reform will end with a whimper: The only ...

Last weekend, officials in Puerto Rico announced that they’re pulling the plug on a controversial $300 million contract to rebuild the island’s electrical grid after Hurricane Maria. The previous contractor, Whitefish Energy Holdings LLC, a Montana company with just two full-time employees prior to the award, will leave the island within 30 days, while officials try to find an alternative ...

Hong Kong has tried just about everything to attract technology companies. It has incubators and accelerators, hubs and clusters, a Cyberport and an InnoCentre. The government has even established a lavish fund to invest in cutting-edge companies. Yet all this has produced nearly no startups of note. Don’t expect its latest idea to fare much better. Hong Kong’s securities regulator ...

As a response to the Russian campaign to sow discord in the 2016 presidential election, the so-called Honest Ads Act is wholly inadequate. It is also entirely necessary. The legislation, introduced last week by Democratic senators Mark Warner of Virginia and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, requires online platforms with at least 50 million monthly users — think Facebook, Google and ...

Given that the Indian economy has been reeling from one shock after another, a bit of good news would be welcome. And some has just arrived: The World Bank has declared that, over the course of a single year, India jumped from No. 130 to No. 100 in its “ease of doing business” ranking. The rise wasn’t entirely a surprise. ...

Samsung Electronics Co. made two major announcements recently amid its third-quarter earnings release. They need to be understood separately, but analysed together. First, South Korea’s biggest company pledged to double dividend payouts next year and dish out a total of 29 trillion won ($26 billion) in the three years through 2020. Second, the world’s largest maker of displays and memory ...

As Google appeals the European Commission’s antitrust ruling that cost the search giant €2.42 billion ($2.82 billion) and pretends to provide a remedy, its biggest competitor in shopping search, Amazon, is offering better service to customers. Google needs to shift gears—and fast—by focusing on improving its product, not the legal confrontation. The European Union has published a summary of Google’s ...