May, 2019

• 5 May

  Blackstone in talks to acquire minority stake in BC Partners

  

  Bloomberg A Blackstone Group LP unit that buys stakes in alternative asset managers is considering a minority investment in BC Partners, according to people familiar with the matter. Discussions between Blac-kstone Strategic Capital Hol-dings and BC are at an early stage and no deal has been reached, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is ...

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• 5 May

  Gaza-Israel fight surges with sides readying next phase

  

  Bloomberg Israel and Gaza-based fighters are digging in for extended fighting after a barrage of hundreds of rockets and retaliatory airstrikes boiled over into a second day, threatening to undo months of Egyptian-brokered efforts to reach a long-term truce. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said he instructed the army to continue its “massive attacks” in Gaza and bolstered forces near the ...

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• 5 May

  Guaido: US military action on the table for Venezuela

  

  Bloomberg Venezuela’s opposition leader Juan Guaido said he cannot rule out the option of the US military working with his nation’s armed forces to oust President Nicolas Maduro, telling the Washington Post that such an offer from the Trump administration would have to be voted on in the parliament he leads. Guaido, who is the National Assembly president and is ...

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• 5 May

  Kim oversees live-fire military exercise

  

  Bloomberg Kim Jong-un oversaw a live-fire military exercise that potentially included North Korea’s first ballistic missile launch since 2017 — challenging US President Donald Trump’s bottom line in nuclear talks. Kim watched as “large-calibre, long-range multiple-rocket launchers and tactical guided weapons” were fired off North Korea’s eastern coast, according to the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). The state media’s ...

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• 5 May

  Anti-apartheid legacy a boon for ANC in vote

  

  Bloomberg Siyabonga Matlala is unequivocal about who he’ll support in South Africa’s May 8 election: the same party he’s backed since apartheid ended a quarter century ago. “I will always vote African National Congress,” the 49-year-old farm labourer said in Fisantekraal, a shantytown on Cape Town’s outskirts. The unwavering loyalty of voters like Matlala has underpinned the ANC’s grip on ...

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• 5 May

  The woman standing between Modi and a majority

  

  Bloomberg Santu Adhikari scavenges with scarred hands through the rubble of a Tata Motors factory where he once hoped to work. But the plant was torn down before it was finished, and the 28-year-old now spends his days among its ruins in this field outside Kolkata, hunting for scrap iron to sell. Adhikari blames his grim predicament on one of ...

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• 5 May

  The $100trn question

  

  We live in an age obsessed with economic inequality. There is too much of it, most people seem to agree. After Donald Trump — his personality, behaviour and policies — inequality may well become the dominant issue in the 2020 election. This poses dangers, the most obvious being the tendency to blame the rich and the super-rich for everything that ...

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• 5 May

  Macron’s Merkel strategy hasn’t worked

  

  Emmanuel Macron swept to power in 2017 on a pro-EU, anti-far right ticket, determined to reshape the bloc in his image with the help of Germany’s Angela Merkel. But his early ambition to deepen Europe’s ties in a host of areas – including a common budget for the euro zone – was soon replaced by fudge and vague promises, as ...

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• 5 May

  The West finally has its Huawei smoking gun

  For more than a decade, executives, intelligence agencies and conspiracy theorists have been warning about the dangers of equipment from China’s Huawei Technologies Co. And for almost as long, Huawei has denied that its telecommunications products pose any kind of security threat. The West has finally found its smoking gun. Yet it may not be enough to sway those on ...

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• 5 May

  Fed needs to develop a better feel for markets

  This was supposed to be a no-drama, non-event Federal Reserve policy meeting — and was, until a small communication slip led to outsize moves in markets, with stocks and bonds selling off simultaneously. Understanding why tells us a lot about investor mentality and market positioning, not to mention the need for the Federal Reserve to develop a better feel for ...

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