JEDDAH / Reuters Arab countries and Qatar should enter into direct talks to solve a diplomatic dispute, Russia’s foreign minister said on a trip to Saudi Arabia on Sunday, urging all parties to restore regional unity. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt severed ties with Qatar on June 5, accusing it of supporting terrorist groups – a ...

BEIRUT / Reuters A rocket-bearing Iranian military vessel confronted an American battleship in the Gulf and warned it to stay away from a damaged Iranian fishing boat, Tasnim news agency reported on Sunday, but the US Navy denied any direct contact with Iranian forces. The American battleship turned away after the warning from the Iranian vessel, which belonged to the ...

Bloomberg Russia is testing the West by conducting war games on NATO’s eastern flank in its biggest military exercise in four years, UK Defense Secretary Michael Fallon said. “This is designed to provoke us, it’s designed to test our defenses, and that’s why we have to be strong,” Fallon said on the BBC’s “The Andrew Marr Show” on Sunday. “Russia ...

Bloomberg US President Donald Trump and Turkey’s Tayyip Erdogan spoke and agreed to continue to work toward stronger ties and regional security, Erdogan’s office said, a day after he lashed out at US authorities for indicting one of his ex-ministers. Ties between the United States and its NATO ally have been strained by Washington’s support for the YPG Kurdish fighters ...

Bloomberg UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s closest advisers froze out Chancellor Philip Hammond as they drew up their plans for June’s election, according to a new book revealing the rift that developed between the two most senior teams in the British government. May herself raised her eyebrows at the mention of Hammond’s name in meetings, while his relations with her ...

Bloomberg German Chancellor Angela Merkel called anti-immigration demonstrators “rowdies” driven by intolerance, her strongest reaction yet to protests that have disrupted many of her election rallies this summer. Just over two weeks before the German ballot, Merkel addressed her increasingly aggressive enemies from the Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, and the far-right National Democratic Party, head-on. A day earlier, ...

What has been missing in Washington for the past two or three decades is a serious debate about the role of the federal government. What programs are effective and justified? Who deserves government benefits and how much? The issue is not whether we’ll have big government or small government. To paraphrase President Clinton: The era of small government is over. ...

Moody’s Investor’s Service released a very interesting report on Amazon.com Inc. this week. It was distinctly different from the usual Wall Street research, which tends to be glowing about anything related to the company’s founder and chief executive officer, Jeff Bezos. I am a fan of his work and company, so in order to check myself, I seek out opposite ...

European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi is discovering that exiting quantitative easing is harder than introducing it. The more the euro rises, the more downward pressure it puts on inflation, making it harder for the central bank to taper its bond-buying program, which in turn boosts the euro. It’s a vicious circle, driven largely by the improved economic outlook ...

The absurdist political theater surrounding the US government debt ceiling is having another revival. With debt default looming next month, President Donald Trump has agreed to a deal that will grant emergency relief for Hurricane Harvey and raise the ceiling — until December, when another phony fiscal crisis is scheduled. Given the impressive dysfunction of Congress, compounded these days by ...