Did India’s political leaders learn anything from the deadly second wave of Covid-19? Hospitals in the capital, New Delhi, are once again overwhelmed with patients and the health authorities don’t have beds for them. The disease has changed — dengue, not coronavirus — but the dysfunction remains the same. For the country that wants to be the pharmacy to the ...
Read More »Johnson faces UK parliament grilling over lobbying furore
Bloomberg UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is battling a mounting backlash over his attempt to protect a Conservative lawmaker found to have broken lobbying rules, with Parliament set to hold an emergency debate. Johnson was forced to perform a U-turn following widespread condemnation — including from fellow Tories — of his decision to try to tear up Parliament rules rather ...
Read More »African Union envoy, Tigray leader hold talks on Ethiopia crisis
Bloomberg The African Union’s special envoy held talks with a top Tigray official on the civil war engulfing Ethiopia. The discussions, which took place at an undisclosed location, were “fruitful,†Tigray People’s Liberation Front official Getachew Reda said on Twitter. African Union Special Envoy Olusegun Obasanjo, a former Nigerian president, travelled to Ethiopia last week to help mediate an end ...
Read More »Nicaragua leader set for landslide election win
Bloomberg Nicaraguan leader Daniel Ortega is on course for a landslide in Sunday’s presidential election after he jailed his main opponents. With nearly half of ballots tallied, the 75-year-old former guerrilla had 75% of the votes, according to a partial count by the electoral authority published in state-run-newspaper El 19. The US, the European Parliament and Human Rights Watch have ...
Read More »Poland: Large migrant group may enter from Belarus
Bloomberg Polish officials warned of intensified tensions at its eastern border as hundreds of migrants gathering at the Belarusian side are expected to try to enter European Union country in one group. “We’re now seeing the largest attempt of mass forced entry into Poland,†Stanislaw Zaryn, the spokesman for the country’s secret services chief, said on Twitter on Monday. He ...
Read More »German SPD taps Scholz ally
Bloomberg Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) nominated one of the main architects of their victory in September’s election to take over as party co-leader, and played down suggestions that their goal of forming a new government by early December is at risk. Top SPD officials meeting in Berlin on Monday proposed Lars Klingbeil, general secretary since 2017 and a close ally of ...
Read More »Lagarde faces widening split at ECB over EU’s inflation path
Bloomberg A rift is opening at the European Central Bank (ECB) over how rapidly monetary policy should respond to stubbornly high inflation. A key meeting to determine the fate of post-pandemic stimulus is just six weeks away, and opinions are diverging on whether price pressures will mostly fade or endure. The debate is unfolding as global policy makers try to ...
Read More »Biggest Kenyan bank’s 9-month profit rises 78%
Bloomberg Equity Group Holdings Plc’s profit soared in the first nine months of the year as the economy recovered and the Kenyan lender generated more income from business loans and the government securities. Net income from January through September grew by 78% to 26.3 billion shillings ($236 million) from a year earlier, the East African nation’s biggest bank by market ...
Read More »India’s banks must turn to markets for funds: Minister
Bloomberg India’s banks need to raise funds from markets for their growth rather than depend on the government for recapitalisation, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said. “Banks are today less burdened because books are cleaner,†Sitharaman said at the annual general meeting of the Indian Banks’ Association. “As a result they will able to go and raise money from markets. I ...
Read More »JPMorgan sells $3bn bonds in post-earnings bank boom
Bloomberg JPMorgan Chase & Co. is selling $3 billion of bonds in the US investment-grade market, adding to a streak of debt transactions from big Wall Street banks including Citigroup Inc, Goldman Sachs Group Inc and Bank of America Corp. The biggest US bank is selling bonds in a single-tranche transaction, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. ...
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