China calls for US, European firms to join Belt and Road

Bloomberg China pledged greater cooperation with American and European companies on Belt and Road ventures, in its latest bid to counter criticism that President Xi Jinping’s initiative is focused on projecting Beijing’s influence at the expense of host countries. China wants to combine its manufacturing and construction know-how with the advanced technology of Western firms on the global trade-and-infrastructure program, ...

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‘Japan should scrap sales tax hike’

Bloomberg Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should abandon a scheduled increase in the sales tax this year as it risks pushing Japan’s economy into recession and hampering efforts to generate stable inflation, according to former economy minister Heizo Takenaka. “Of course a sales tax hike would increase the possibility of a recession,” said Takenaka, who is now a professor at Toyo ...

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Germany’s bid to catch up on digital age hinges on 5G auction

Bloomberg Germany’s effort to catch up to the digital age starts this week when the gavel falls on the auction for the airwaves to build ultra-fast 5G wireless networks. The rollout of the technology is critical as Europe’s biggest economy seeks to transition away from its reliance on old-school engineering. The country lags behind the likes of Albania and Moldova ...

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Brookfield’s Oaktree deal marks ascent as private equity giant

Bloomberg Bruce Flatt put Wall Street’s biggest private equity players on notice that the Canadian juggernaut was coming for them three years ago. The head of Brookfield Asset Management Inc. told Bloom-berg Television then that his firm — pushing into private equity — should be mentioned in the same breath as Blackstone Group LP, Carlyle Group LP and KKR & ...

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Amazon wins final incentive deal for HQ2 in Northern Virginia

Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc. won the last approval it was seeking for an incentive plan that helped lure the largest online retailer to Northern Virginia. The five-member Arlington County Board unanimously approved $23 million in incentives for the company to build a headquarters in the Crystal City neighborhood, just outside Washington, D.C. — after six-and-a-half hours of testimony, protests and discussions ...

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Fiat recalls 863,000 vehicles that violate US emissions standards

Bloomberg Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV recalled almost 863,000 vehicles that violate US emissions standards, another setback for a company that just agreed in a separate case to make amends for building trucks and SUVs that polluted more than legally allowed. The voluntary recall of 2011 through 2016 model year Jeep, Dodge and Chrysler brand vehicles will be implemented in phases ...

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Five years on, Putin is paying price for Crimea annexation

Bloomberg Half a decade has passed since Vladimir Putin annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula. For Russia, the costs continue to mount. The accession treaty signed to bring the Black Sea territory into Moscow’s fold is still unrecognized by most countries and the US and European Union led a broad effort to punish Russia with sanctions. Undeterred, Russia has kept integrating Crimea ...

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Worst hurricane in a decade kills dozens in southern Africa

Bloomberg At least 43 people died in central Mozambique and Zimbabwe after a tropical cyclone tore through the southern African nations, knocking out electricity and phone networks and cutting power to South Africa from a hydropower dam. The storm, the worst to hit Mozambique in at least a decade, had windspeeds of more than 200 kilometers per hour (124 miles) ...

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Azerbaijan’s president orders release of politicians, activists

Bloomberg Azeri President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree pardoning more than 400 people, including opposition politicians and pro-democracy youth activists who were listed as political prisoners by international human rights groups. Fuad Qahramanli and Gozal Bayramli, deputy leaders of the opposition Popular Front of Azerbaijan Party, are among the pardoned, according to a statement on the presidential website. Pro-opposition youth ...

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Paris violence returns as yellow vests protest continues

Bloomberg Violence returned to Paris as the Yellow Vests protested for the 18th weekend. Footage from TV news channels showed broken windows at stores as well as a ransacked restaurant on the Champs Elysees. A bank was set on fire near the iconic avenue, leading to 11 wounded in the building, including two police officers, AFP reported. The so-called Yellow ...

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