March, 2018

• 28 March

  Trump aide in touch with ex-Russian spy before vote

  Reuters A month before the 2016 presidential election, a campaign aide to Donald Trump directly communicated with a man he knew was a onetime Russian spy, according to a court filing by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Rick Gates, the campaign aide, told an attorney for a US law firm that a Russian national they worked with in Ukraine was a ...

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• 28 March

  Polish ruling party support drops amid EU clash, bonus scandal

  Bloomberg Poland’s ruling party suffered its biggest drop in popularity in two years as clashes over democratic standards and a Holocaust law, a government shakeup and a public bonus scandal were compounded by mass street protests. The Law & Justice party saw its support drop more than a quarter to 28 percent, from 40 percent a month earlier, according to ...

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• 28 March

  Berlusconi open to coalition with Five Star

  

  Bloomberg Silvio Berlusconi is open to his party joining a possible coalition government formed by Italy’s center-right alliance and the anti-establishment Five Star Movement — but he wants its leader Luigi Di Maio to stop demanding the premiership. Berlusconi believes Di Maio should drop his claim on the prime minister’s job, and focus on drawing up a common program, according ...

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• 28 March

  UK to review visas for 700 rich Russians as part of crackdown

  

  Bloomberg Hundreds of wealthy Russians who moved to the UK promising to invest millions of pounds in businesses will have their visas reviewed under plans for a crackdown following the nerve agent attack on a former spy. Home Secretary Amber Rudd said her officials will be trawling through the cases of 700 Russians who were given permission to come to ...

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• 28 March

  Ethiopia ruling party picks leader from protest-hit region

  

  Bloomberg Ethiopia’s ruling coalition appointed a top official from the protest-hit Oromia region as leader, as the government tries to quell unrest that’s posed the biggest challenge to its rule in a quarter-century. The Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front chose Abiy Ahmed, 42, a retired lieutenant general and recently appointed chairman of the Oromo People’s Democratic Organization, to succeed Hailemariam ...

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• 28 March

  Ghanaians protest in Accra against military deal with US

  Bloomberg Hundreds of Ghana opposition members took to the streets of the capital, Accra, to demonstrate against a government decision to allow a US military base in the West African nation. Former Vice President Kwesi Amissah-Arthur and general secretary of the main opposition National Democratic Congress Asiedu Nketia joined protesters calling themselves Ghana First Patriotic Front. Members of the Convention ...

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• 28 March

  What does Europe care about? Watch its spending

  

  “Don’t tell me what you value,” Joe Biden once said. “Show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.” He wasn’t talking about the European Union, obviously, but it’s a great line that’s as telling today in Europe as it was when he used it to criticize Washington Republicans in 2008. Negotiations on the next seven-year budget cycle ...

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• 28 March

  China’s stock rally isn’t about economy

  

  A curious thing is happening in China: Its stocks appear immune to any economic slowdown. For years, there was a strong correlation between China’s GDP growth rate and the performance of the benchmark MSCI China Index, which tracks Hong Kong and US-listed Chinese companies. The relationship was so pronounced that fund managers sifted through an array of macro indicators trying ...

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• 28 March

  Novartis’s new CEO has cash, momentum for an overhaul

  Asset swaps have been a big thing in pharma over the past few years. Now it’s time for the un-swap. Novartis AG said it was unwinding part of a complicated 2014 asset swap with GlaxoSmithKline PLC, trading its stake in their consumer-health joint venture for $13 billion. The decision isn’t a huge surprise, though the timing is unexpected. It suggests ...

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• 28 March

  These trade jabs don’t look like economic warfare

  So is a trade war upon us? President Donald Trump announced last week that the US would place $60 billion worth of tariffs on Chinese goods, but what does that mean for the future of world trade? This conflict seems more likely to remain a modest spat than to blossom into a slugfest. First of all, China responded to Trump’s ...

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