Trump tariffs: Firms dangle cash prizes in lobbying push

Bloomberg Some US companies anxious for exclusions from Donald Trump’s tariffs are turning to creative ways to get the president’s attention. One Texas steel pipe maker is promising that it will invest millions and hire new workers in return for a temporary break on tariffs. It’s also offering its employees cash prizes for writing the best postcards to Trump advocating ...

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China’s ‘jet diplomacy’ shows influence in Trump-Kim talks

Bloomberg China isn’t officially represented in the historic talks between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, but that hasn’t stopped Beijing from making its presence felt. Kim arrived in the city state on Sunday aboard a Boeing 747 operated by Air China Ltd., China’s state-run flagship carrier. The flight was both a potent display of China’s ...

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Pompeo: Sanctions to remain until North Korea denuclearises

Bloomberg The US plans to keep economic sanctions in place until North Korea eliminates its nuclear weapons capability yet is prepared to offer “unique” guarantees to ease the regime’s security concerns, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said. The top US diplomat emphasized that complete denuclearisation “is the only outcome that the United States will accept” from North Korea, sending a ...

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League surges as Salvini slams door on migrants

Bloomberg Italian voters rallied behind the center-right in local elections as its leader, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, left a boat with over 600 migrants stranded in the Mediterranean. As Italy’s populist government dials back its challenge to the European Union’s budget rules, Salvini is dramatising his commitment to turning the tide on immigration. Salvini visited Como in northern Italy to ...

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‘Mini 1MDBs’ rife across Malaysia, says PM adviser

Bloomberg Malaysia has discovered “many mini 1MDBs” in its campaign to root out corruption in the state, according to a top adviser to PM Mahathir Mohamad, signaling the wrongdoing unearthed at the debt-ridden fund may be more widespread. Daim Zainuddin, 80, who was appointed by Mahathir to head up a Council of Eminent Persons to advise the new government on ...

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Merkel backs US-Russia summit in nod to Trump

Bloomberg German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she favours a US-Russian summit, seeking to point global diplomacy forward after a tumultuous meeting of Group of Seven leaders. Russian President Vladimir Putin wasn’t invited to the G-7 summit in Canada, although US President Donald Trump suggested he be readmitted. In an echo of Cold War meetings on neutral ground, Austria is encouraging ...

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‘Serbia must be clear it chooses EU over Russia’

Bloomberg Serbia’s government mustn’t send conflicting signals about its strategic goal of joining the European Union rather than aligning with Russia, Deputy Premier Zorana Mihajlovic said in a thinly veiled rebuke of her party’s ruling partners. “We who lead Serbia should more clearly say so, to avoid the situations which in the morning we want to be in the EU, ...

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The cowardice of the political class in US

The trustees for Social Security and Medicare issued their annual reports last week. This is cause for discouragement because it reminds us how much we’ve mortgaged the country’s future to spending for older Americans. Already, Social Security and Medicare constituted 42 percent of federal spending in 2017, say the trustees. If they had included Medicaid, the share would have exceeded ...

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Japan pension fund’s ‘struggle’

Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) has nearly $1.5 trillion in assets and a legion of external asset managers running its portfolio. The GPIF sees itself as a ‘super-long-term investor’ with the goal of a century or more of sustainable investment and outflows. Managing money for that long is a matter of stewardship, not just picking assets — and in ...

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Germany’s banking turkeys won’t fly anytime soon

If Germany has too many banks and beleaguered lender Deutsche Bank AG is too reliant on its trading businesses, wouldn’t a merger with rival Commerzbank AG fix two issues at once? Probably — but for Deutsche’s chairman to bring it up now is as ill-timed as cracking a joke at a funeral. His bank needs to address its problems first ...

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