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  Caracas / AFP Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro can pass his 2017 budget without the approval of the opposition-majority legislature, the Supreme Court ruled, triggering an outcry from the leftist leader’s opponents. Maduro and the National Assembly have been at each other’s throats since the center-right opposition took control of the legislature in January, ending the left’s 17-year monopoly on ...

  Berlin / AFP Germany’s top court on Thursday gave the government the go-ahead to approve a planned EU-Canada free trade deal, in a setback for activists who had sought to block the agreement. The Constitutional Court did set certain conditions however, stipulating that Germany may only commit to the so-called CETA deal if it wins assurances that it can ...

  Brussels / AFP The EU misspent 5.5 billion euros ($6 billion) in 2015, the bloc’s financial watchdog said Thursday, warning that Brussels needed to regain the trust of European citizens shaken by Brexit and other crises. Badly spent funds went on paying overcharged personnel costs for developing cloud computing services, it said. Another example included aid earmarked for small- ...

  New York / AFP Coca-Cola and Pepsi, the two major US soda giants, have given millions of dollars to health organizations while quietly fighting anti-obesity measures such as taxes on soft drinks, a new study shows. The Coca-Cola Co and PepsiCo, from 2011 to 2015, sponsored 96 national health organizations battling public health problems such as obesity, diabetes and ...

  In a kinder, gentler, alternate universe, Ohio Governor John Kasich is the Republican nominee for president. Former Florida Governor Jeb Bush is out stumping for Kasich and plotting the education and immigration policies that he’ll pursue in the vice president’s office. (Substitute Senator Marco Rubio in the veep slot if you prefer; I went with the Floridian who demonstrated ...

  Over the past eight years, the major central banks have increased their balance sheets to $18 trillion from $6 trillion, predominantly through the purchase of their own government’s bonds. While the Fed has ended its QE program, the European Central Bank and Bank of Japan continue theirs. But those too will eventually come to an end. What happens next ...

  Events have lately been mounting an impressive case against referendums. Britain voted to leave the European Union. Colombia rejected a deal to end its decades-long conflict with FARC revolutionaries. Hungary just said no to (modest) European Union quotas for the resettlement of refugees. Poor choices all. These recent cases aren’t anomalies. They’re consistent with a history of bungled decisions ...

  The news that the UAE will have a sharia-compliant trade bank soon has given a big boost to the Islamic economy. Earlier, the launch of ‘My Salaam’ portal and mobile app — an innovative step — manifested the keeness of the country to consolidate the Islamic ecosystem. The launch of Awqaf International Organization is also an initiative that will ...

  It wasn’t so long ago that rivers of bicycle commuters coursed through Chinese cities. As a means of navigating urban roads, two wheels couldn’t be beat. They were cheap (and China was poor), and Chinese cities were compact enough to allow for conveyance by pedal power alone. As recently as 1986, 63 percent of Beijingers used a bike as ...

  The minutes of the September meeting of the Federal Reserve’s Open Market Committee released Wednesday explained why three Fed board members had dissented from the majority’s “close call” decision to keep rates unchanged. The highly anticipated transcript provides insights into internal and external developments, illustrating the “unusual uncertainty” that policy makers must contend with. The transcript is an important ...