April, 2019

• 15 April

  Bashir’s old guard fights for power amid Sudan protests

  

  Bloomberg Sudanese pro-democracy protesters won further concessions from the army that overthrew President Omar al-Bashir, as upheaval in the ruling military council signals a power struggle among the remnants of his 30-year regime. Since taking control, the council has cancelled its curfew, freed prisoners, changed leadership and vowed to review laws that brought trials for perceived indecency or apostasy, all ...

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• 15 April

  South Korea’s Moon calls for summit with Kim

  

  Bloomberg South Korean President Moon Jae-in said it’s time to prepare for talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, commenting just days after returning from a visit to the White House where he tried to get faltering nuclear negotiations back on track. Moon, who has tried to be a bridge between Kim and President Donald Trump, said North Korea’s leader ...

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• 15 April

  Finns reject austerity as leftists win polls

  

  Bloomberg After the tightest election in over half a century, Finland looks set to get a more left-leaning government as voters rejected years of austerity. Former trade unionist Antti Rinne is poised to become Finland’s first Social Democrat prime minister in 16 years, winning by fewer than 7,000 votes. But he faces a tough set of coalition talks, after the ...

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• 15 April

  US to slap new sanctions on Venezuelan officials

  Bloomberg The US is ready to apply new sanctions on Venezuela’s leadership, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, as the government steps up pressure on Nicolas Maduro to relinquish power and allow new elections to be held. The US government will use all political and economic means at its disposal, including sanctions and visa revocations against those propping up the ...

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• 15 April

  Murder drove Caputova to presidency, unifying mission

  

  Bloomberg When a colleague from Zuzana Caputova’s little-known political party suggested she run for president last year, she thought the idea absurd. But then the murder of a journalist friend — an act that launched Slovakia’s biggest protests since the fall of communism — made it personal. The former NGO lawyer ran and won by a landslide, and now she’s ...

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• 15 April

  What really caused the financial crisis?

  

  It is astonishing that, even though the global financial crisis occurred a decade ago, we do not yet have a clear and convincing explanation of its basic cause. To be sure, theories abound. Liberals blame Wall Street greed and lax government oversight. The conservatives’ villain is the government’s aggressive promotion of homeownership, which flooded the economy with bad mortgages. Although ...

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• 15 April

  Tesla’s growth story needs a new charge

  

  Tesla Inc.’s stock is back in its $260-$270 hot-zone again April 11, falling on news that a key supplier is taking things down a notch. Panasonic Corp. and Tesla are reportedly “tempering expansion plans” at the Gigafactory, the giant facility in Nevada that produces battery packs for the electric vehicle-maker. Panasonic supplies batteries and has invested heavily in the plant, ...

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• 15 April

  Two cheers for Norway’s renewable energy push

  After several years of lobbying, Norway’s $1 trillion wealth fund has persuaded the government that it would be a good thing to invest some of the country’s nest egg in unlisted renewable energy infrastructure projects. But the amount involved is paltry, given both the scale of the world’s climate-change challenge and the potential investment opportunities likely to be available to ...

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• 15 April

  The Brexit pause gives Britain one last chance

  Pushing Britain’s deadline for exit from the European Union (EU) to the end of October answers none of the questions that have been torturing the country for three years. The new schedule removes the immediate risk of an unintended no-deal Brexit, which would otherwise have occurred. That’s something. But it sheds no light on what needs to happen instead. Fatigue with ...

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• 15 April

  Japan is an example for other developed nations

  

  As Japan’s emperor Akihito prepares to abdicate, what’s known as the Heisei period — January 8, 1989, through April 30, 2019 — draws to a close. Those 30 years will forever be associated with the spectacular asset bubble that burst right at the beginning, and the economic lost decade that followed. Heisei was also when Japan’s population peaked and started ...

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