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Bloomberg State-owned conglomerate China Merchants Group is exploring acquisitions of offshore rig operators, which have struggled to recover from a collapse in oil-industry spending, people with knowledge of the matter said. As part of this analysis, the Chinese firm has looked at various assets and companies including Seadrill Ltd. and Shelf Drilling Ltd., the people said, asking not to be ...

Bloomberg South Korea detected that North Korea is continuing to prepare for a possible intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launch, a move that would further raise tensions a day after it conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear detonation. Chang Kyung-soo, acting chief of the defense ministry’s policy planning office, told lawmakers on Monday that North Korea was making preparations for ...

Bloomberg The United Nations asked the International Criminal Court to investigate whether human-rights violations committed in Burundi constitute crimes against humanity. A probe by the UN Commission of Inquiry on Burundi found that the authorities in the East African nation committed crimes including extrajudicial executions, torture and enforced disappearances over the past two years, according to a report published on ...

Bloomberg Kenya’s economy may pay the price of opposition leader Raila Odinga’s successful bid to nullify the outcome of last month’s election, as prolonged political uncertainty pending a court-ordered rerun weighs on growth and investor confidence. “There was a lot of exuberance that the elections were over,” Kenneth Minjire, head of securities at Genghis Capital in Nairobi, said by phone. ...

Bloomberg Angela Merkel’s election opponent, Martin Schulz, failed to score a decisive breakthrough in their only televised debate as the chancellor stood firm on her record, insisting that controversial decisions on keeping the country’s borders open for refugees and striking a deal with Turkey were right. Trailing badly in the race to determine Germany’s next leader, Schulz repeatedly failed to ...

Bloomberg The resignation of Taiwan’s premier sets the stage for a broader reshuffle and provides President Tsai Ing-wen a chance to raise her poll numbers ahead of local elections next year. Premier Lin Chuan, who had been seen as Tsai’s chief economic policy architect, said on Monday he told the president on Sunday he would resign after passing key pieces ...

Bloomberg The UK’s decision to leave the European Union was “stupid” and only the will of the British people can stop it, Martin Selmayr, the chief of staff to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, said. “Brexit is bad, and it’s a stupid decision,” Selmayr said at a conference in Brussels on Monday. “The only people who can reverse it would ...

Bloomberg The race to lead South Africa’s ruling party is turning increasingly nasty. Allegations that Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, a front-runner for the post, had extra-marital affairs with at least eight women and paid expenses for some of them were splashed across the front page of the Sunday Independent, which cited Ramaphosa’s private emails to back up the story. It ...

A week ago I expressed the hope that President Donald Trump’s lamentable performance after the Charlottesville protests would hurt his standing in the polls. This didn’t happen. If there was a blip, it was in the other direction. I’d be pleased if Trump’s regrettable decision to pardon former sheriff Joe Arpaio dented his popularity, too, but I’m not holding my ...

William Cline is going against the grain. Cline, a well-known economist, isn’t convinced that the stock market is wildly overvalued. That’s an increasingly lonely view. “Warning Signs Mount as Stocks Stumble,” The Wall Street Journal headlined earlier this week. “Investors are running out of reasons to keep buying US stocks, exposing a growing number of warning signs,” the Journal wrote. ...