Bloomberg For London office developers at least, the Brexit waiting game is over. Developers mostly steered clear of doing new projects on spec in the political upheaval that followed the UK’s 2016 vote to leave the European Union. Now the surprising resilience of London’s office market, highlighted by technology giants like Alphabet Inc. committing to open new bases in the ...
Read More »Palestinians set to boycott US-led Mideast peace summit
Bloomberg The Palestinian Authority said it will boycott a conference launching the Trump administration’s Middle East peace plan because it’s focused on economic issues rather than the political disputes at the heart of the conflict with Israel. The White House announced that it will hold a conference in Bahrain next month to promote economic development in the Palestinian territories as ...
Read More »China has more to offer than US, says Philippine diplomat
Bloomberg The US is projecting “strategic confusion†in the South China Sea, the Philippines’ top diplomat said, prompting the Southeast Asian nation to deepen its ties with China. President Rodrigo Duterte prefers China’s offer of loans and investments in the absence of a clearer stance from the US in the disputed sea amid growing rivalry between the two nations, Philippine ...
Read More »Merkel successor red-faced as move backfires
Bloomberg Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer is fighting to preserve her position as Angela Merkel’s heir apparent after her attempts to accelerate the transfer of power backfired. Kramp-Karrenbauer, who replaced Merkel as head of the Christian Democratic Union in December, embarked on a charm offensive to demonstrate her loyalty to the German chancellor after failing to win support for an effort to persuade ...
Read More »Salvini’s top aide turns against Italy premier
Bloomberg Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini’s top aide turned against Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte as tensions within the populist government escalated over immigration before this week’s European vote. Giancarlo Giorgetti, who’s also Cabinet secretary, voiced long-running frustration among lieutenants of the right-wing League party against the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, which picked Conte a year ago. “Conte is no longer impartial,†...
Read More »Farage is winning Brexit cyber war in EU election battle
Bloomberg Nigel Farage’s newly-created Brexit Party is threatening to wipe out Theresa May’s Conservatives in the European Parliament elections. One reason behind the Farage surge in the polls may be his dominance of social media, the crucial election cyber war. With a series of polished and professionally produced videos — rapidly cutting from packed rallies with the party’s diverse candidates ...
Read More »Is America losing the trade war with China?
The Trump administration is going about its trade war with China all wrong. Its strategy and tactics are muddled. If Trump were a general watching the battle unfold, what he’d see is his troops getting slaughtered, while the enemy, though suffering casualties, was holding most of its positions. Trump has two goals, says Bill Reinsch, a trade expert at the ...
Read More »Italy’s options all look terrible
Spare a thought for Luigi Di Maio and Matteo Salvini. Italy’s youthful deputy prime ministers have little idea of how they will cobble together a budget for next year. The two leaders of the ruling Five Star and League parties must try to stick by their expensive promises to voters, while not upsetting Italy’s euro zone allies and the financial ...
Read More »Trump hands Huawei a stick to beat the US with
Twin moves by the White House and Commerce Department have made clear where the US stands on Chinese technology, specifically Huawei Technologies Co. The message to US companies seeking to buy products from the telecom-equipment vendor is unambiguous: Don’t even think about it. The message to Huawei, meanwhile, is: Don’t push us. In his executive order, President Donald Trump summarised ...
Read More »Multiple trade battles will pressure markets
Global stocks rebounded on optimism that maybe cooler heads will prevail before the trade wars get out of hand. That optimism is likely to be short-lived. Investors should not only expect to be buffeted repeatedly by tit-for-tat measures by the US and China, but by global trade disputes on two other major fronts. Such pessimism on the part of investors ...
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