May, 2019

• 11 May

  At UN event, Japan, US press North Korea abduction issue

  

  Bloomberg The United Nations Security Council debated conflicts from Syria to Libya to Bosnia this week. Missing from the agenda: North Korea’s missile launches, explicitly prohibited by unanimous council resolutions. With the US and its allies offering a muted response to Kim Jong-un’s latest violation of international resolutions, UN attention on North Korea came at a small side event on ...

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• 11 May

  Maduro hunts Guaido allies, exacting revenge for revolt

  

  Bloomberg A week after an audacious attempt to topple Venezuelan autocrat Nicolas Maduro, his regime is cracking down on those it holds responsible, searching homes, issuing arrest warrants and sending opposition leaders into hiding. Top allies of Juan Guaido, the head of the powerless legislature who says he is the nation’s rightful president, are circulating among safe houses, holing up ...

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• 11 May

  Mexico detains 79% more migrants

  

  Bloomberg Mexico detained thousands more migrants in April than a year ago after US President Donald Trump threatened to close the border, representing a shift in focus for the nation’s leftist president away from granting humanitarian visas. Under President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, 20,564 people were presented to immigration authorities in April compared with 11,486 in April 2018, an increase ...

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• 11 May

  Ramaphosa helps halt decline of S Africa’s ANC

  

  Bloomberg South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC) has extended its quarter-century grip on political power and it largely has President Cyril Ramaphosa to thank for halting its decline. The ANC won 57.3% of the votes cast in the national elections, official tallies from 90% of the voting stations show. The party looked to be in danger of losing its majority ...

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• 11 May

  Too much at stake for Trump to leave Pentagon in limbo

  

  At a time when America is facing a potential military confrontation with Iran, an escalating trade war with China and a showdown with North Korea, you’d think President Trump would want a permanent secretary of defense to oversee Pentagon plans. But Patrick Shanahan is still cooling his heels as acting secretary, awaiting a formal nomination that was expected nearly two ...

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• 11 May

  Facebook is its own worst enemy

  

  The forthcoming European parliamentary election was meant to be Facebook Inc.’s big chance to please a constituency that trashes it on a regular basis: Politicians. After all of controversy around fake news on website and the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the company hired the former British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg to help clean up its act. The social network has ...

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• 11 May

  AstraZeneca gets an $8 billion punishment

  It raised $3.5 billion from the stock market in March, only for its market value to dwindle by almost $8 billion. AstraZeneca Plc’s first-ever stock sale has been a painful experience. It could become an unwelcome deterrent to other companies that ought to do the same. The British drugmaker was exploiting its strong share price to get its financial house ...

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• 11 May

  US should put an end to this reckless trade dispute

  President Trump, self-declared “Tariff Man,” lived up to his billing and wielded his favorite weapon yet again ahead of crucial trade talks with China this week. Enough is enough. The US needs to bring these negotiations to a close before more damage is done. US officials say Trump’s threat to raise tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods came ...

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• 11 May

  Russia’s aircraft ambition exceeds its competence

  

  The crash at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport that killed 41 people on Sunday hasn’t been fully explained yet. Yet it should serve as a reminder that post-imperial ambitions have a cost, including in human lives. The doomed Aeroflot Sukhoi Superjet 100 had returned to the airport some 30 minutes after takeoff due to a lighting strike, then made a hard landing ...

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• 11 May

  Why investors love Singapore’s malls

  

  Singaporeans aren’t spending like they used to, at least not in shopping malls. There are too many already and more are being built. But investors still have good reasons to back mall owners. The city-state has 6.1 million square meters of retail space, of which 8.7 percent is vacant. Yet companies are forecast to add a further 364,000 square meters, ...

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