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The trillion-dollar spending package that the Senate has passed along to the House is being described as a once-in-a-generation fix for America’s deteriorating infrastructure. It should be viewed as only the first in a long series of such big investments, because Earth’s climate is changing faster than America’s existing roads, bridges and other infrastructure can withstand. In the past 12 ...

Bloomberg US Special Representative for North Korea Sung Kim, who is currently visiting South Korea, is planning to meet Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov in Seoul on Monday to discuss North Korea issues, Yonhap News reported. Kim arrived at the Incheon International Airport on Saturday, just hours before Morgulov was due to land, Yonhap said. Kim is scheduled to ...

Bloomberg President Joe Biden’s promise to help vulnerable Afghans flee their country in the face of a Taliban onslaught is running up against his reluctance to budge from an August 31 deadline to withdraw all US forces. Refugee groups and former officials says he can’t sustain both. Biden said he was essentially putting Afghan allies of US and Nato forces ...

Bloomberg Ismail Sabri Yaakob was sworn in as Malaysia’s third prime minister in 18 months, heralding the return of a pro-Malay party that has dominated politics for decades and as the focus on reviving a pandemic-ridden economy becomes more urgent. The monarch presided over the swearing-in ceremony for Ismail, 61, the deputy leader of the previous government and a longtime ...

Bloomberg Four of the top five Canadian banks are taking a stricter stance with their return-to-office policies, requiring that workers be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 before coming back to company buildings, while the fifth is moving in the same direction. Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD), Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) and Bank of Montreal joined other major financial firms in requiring ...

Bloomberg Standard Bank Group Ltd is aiming to grow its customer base by at least 10 million across the 20 African countries it operates in over the next four years. Africa’s biggest lender is looking to add more digitally engaged customers, forge alliances with distribution partners and expand its product offering as it plots a recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. ...

Bloomberg New Zealand’s central bank refrained from raising interest rates during a coronavirus outbreak and nationwide lockdown but left little doubt it intends to start lifting them soon. The Reserve Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee kept the official cash rate (OCR) at 0.25%, but Governor Adrian Orr said the decision was made in light of the lockdown and that policy was ...

Bloomberg The Philippine central bank will stop accepting applications for digital banking licenses from September 1, Governor Benjamin Diokno said. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas will close the application window for three years to allow the regulator “to better monitor” the performance of the industry, Diokno said in a briefing. Submissions on or before end-August will be processed on a first-come, ...

Bloomberg Goldman Sachs Group Inc’s Petershill unit, which specialises in buying stakes in alternative asset managers, is considering listing a permanent capital vehicle in London as soon as this year, people familiar with the matter said. Petershill is working with advisers on the potential initial public offering (IPO), the people said, asking not to be identified because the information is ...

Bloomberg Indonesia’s central bank left its benchmark interest rate at a record low to protect the currency, and said it had formulated a plan to deal with eventual US policy tightening. Bank Indonesia kept the seven-day reverse repurchase rate at 3.5%, as expected by all 28 analysts in a Bloomberg survey. Interest rates have been on hold since February’s 25-basis ...