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Seeking to bolster its image as a forward-looking metropolis, Dubai hosted the largest-ever international robotics contest this week, challenging young people from 190 countries to find solutions to global ocean pollution. Event organizers say their s…
November 1, 2019Read More
(Bloomberg) — Want the lowdown on what’s moving European markets in your inbox every morning? Sign up here.Good morning. The impeachment process took a step forward, British election campaigning took a step up and Christine Lagarde has stepped into her new role. Here’s what’s moving markets.ImpeachmentU.S. lawmakers voted to move to the public phase of the inquiry targeting President Donald Trump, putting him on a path towards becoming only the third president to be impeached. The House voted almost entirely along party lines and all Republicans voted nay, indicating that while Trump’s presidency is on its most treacherous ground yet, getting the Republican-controlled Senate to ultimately back removing him from office should he face trial there is going to be a very tall order. There’s a long way to go yet, but the partisanship and rancor was on full display and there’s no reason to think that’ll ease as the inquiry progresses.ElitesLabour leader Jeremy Corbyn set out his stall for the U.K.’s election on Thursday, detailing plans for re-nationalization, attacking the “elite” and railing against Prime Minister Boris Johnson with claims the National Health Service will be fair game for U.S. companies in a trade deal Trump says will be tough to get done. On Friday, Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party will get its campaign started and the question will be whether they will field candidates everywhere or, in an attempt to strengthen Johnson and the Tories, they will step back to consolidate the Brexiteer vote with the Conservatives.New BossChristine Lagarde starts her new gig atop the European Central Bank with a predictably long list of challenges to face and she’ll be the only woman in the room for the first few weeks. The tools she has at her disposal to implement effective monetary policy, in particular negative rates, may be falling out of favor before she’s even had the chance to get her feet under the desk and fellow policymakers are already warning about the side effects of the strategy the bank is pursuing. All in all, she’s going to have a tough job on her hands to boost the euro.Trade VenueThe U.S. and China are still seeking a new place to sign the first phase of the trade deal the pair are working towards, which Trump says remains entirely on track and which China cast doubt upon on Thursday. Any further, more concrete doubts arising that this first phase will get signed may well take the wind out of stock markets, so watch for anything further on that front. Those doubts, plus rising output from Saudi Arabia and swelling American crude stockpiles, has put oil on track for its biggest weekly drop in a month.Coming Up…Asian stocks were mixed on Friday and European futures are pointing to slightly higher open after a fall on Thursday, with markets digesting the latest on trade, better-than-expected Chinese manufacturing data and with the jobs report ahead in the U.S. Manufacturing data is due for both the U.K. and the U.S. later and it’s a much quieter earnings day, topped by two Danish names in insulin maker Novo Nordisk A/S and lender Danske Bank A/S.What We’ve Been ReadingThis is what’s caught our eye over the past 24 hours. A trader says he was pushed out of his firm due to mental illness. Tesla’s Solarglass can survive a pumpkin drop. Auctioneers are seeking relief from tariffs. The search for extra-terrestrial intelligence is intensifying. Deadspin is revolting against its private equity owners. The challenge of being unemployed and finding work. Skyrocketing demand for bulletproof cars.Like Bloomberg’s Five Things? Subscribe for unlimited access to trusted, data-based journalism in 120 countries around the world and gain expert analysis from exclusive daily newsletters, The Bloomberg Open and The Bloomberg Close.Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can’t find anywhere else. Learn more.To contact the authors of this story: Sam Unsted in London at [email protected] Perri in Amsterdam at [email protected] more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
November 1, 2019Read More
For those who were there, the memories are still fresh, 40 years after one of the defining events of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, when protesters seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and set off a 444-day hostage crisis. Veteran Iranian photographer K…
November 1, 2019Read More
News of Santiago summit’s cancellation reportedly came as heavy blow but youngsters decide to push ahead with boat tripAdélaïde Charlier on board the Regina Maris, which is sailing from Amsterdam to Rio. The young campaigners say they are determined to…
November 1, 2019Read More
Eastbound lanes of I-64 shut down due to fatal accident involving pedestrian WDRB
November 1, 2019Read More
Eastbound lanes of I-64 shut down due to fatal accident involving pedestrian WDRB
November 1, 2019Read More
Lexington intersection reopens following crash WKYT
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel got a toxic welcome to India on Friday as Prime Minister Narendra Modi treated her to a military parade in New Delhi’s severely polluted air. Ignoring medical advice to the choking megacity’s 20 million inhabitants, Mer…
November 1, 2019Read More
(Bloomberg Opinion) — Nord Stream 2, the controversial Russian natural-gas pipeline project, has received the last permission it needs to close the distance between the Leningrad Region and the Baltic coast of Germany. It’s now probably too late for the U.S. to prevent Russia from finishing the project by the end of this year.Nord Stream 2 is part of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plan to send natural gas to Europe without needing to go through Ukraine. The new pipeline will be able to carry 55 billion cubic meters of natural gas, more than half of what Russia now pumps through the Ukrainian system, and would mean for Ukraine a loss of $3 billion a year in gas transit revenues. The U.S. would like to prevent this, and also keep relatively cheap Russian gas from becoming an obstacle to increasing exports of U.S. liquefied natural gas to Europe. President Donald Trump has argued that Germany is too dependent on Russian gas, and has repeatedly threatened European companies involved in the project with sanctions.Meanwhile, Russia has rushed to lay the pipe. On Oct. 1, Gazprom, the Russian gas export champion, said construction was 83% finished, with 2,042 kilometers (1,270 miles) laid across the bottom of the Baltic Sea. There had been a snag, though: For two years, Denmark put off granting permission for the section that was to pass through its territorial waters. On Wednesday, Denmark finally granted it, allowing the pipeline to take the shortest possible route, and Gazprom says that section can be built in five weeks.This is a blow to Ukraine, albeit not a surprise. “We expected it this fall,” Andriy Kobolyev, chief executive officer of Naftogaz, the Ukrainian state company that runs the pipeline system, posted on Facebook. “Denmark’s principled position held back the project for some time, but geopolitical weapons cannot be stopped by means that regulate pure trade relations.”It’s true that Denmark could not have held the fort forever while the U.S. dithered. The recent spat over Trump’s interest in buying Greenland did little to encourage the Danish government to keep dragging its feet.Kobolyev called for Western sanctions as the next step. And in that, he’s supported by some American legislators. Republican Senator Ted Cruz promised to push his colleagues to pass the bill he has proposed with Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen, which would impose sanctions on vessels laying the pipeline. That bill, however, is unlikely to delay the construction by much. Although Gazprom has used a Swiss-based contractor, Allseas Group SA, to lay the pipe, it can use its own vessel, the Akademik Cherskiy, for the final stretch. So it’s too late for the U.S. to act. Sanctions against financing the pipeline could have been effective at the stage before European companies — Royal Dutch Shell, Engie, Uniper, OMV and Wintershall — provided what was needed. Sanctions against pipe-laying vehicles could have made a difference before the construction work began. In any case, they could have given Ukraine more time to renegotiate its gas-transit contract with Gazprom, which runs out at the end of this year.A completed Nord Stream 2 will at least help Germany’s plans to stop using coal to generate power by 2038 — plans that cannot rely entirely on renewable energy, at least not until storage technology advances. (Most of the coal that will be replaced, by the way, is Russian coal.)Now Ukraine, backed by the EU, wants a 10-year year contract to pump 40-60 billion cubic meters of natural gas. But Russia insists that any long-term agreement should resolve Ukraine’s billion-dollar legal claims on Gazprom, and for now is likely to agree only to a short-term, placeholder deal. Meanwhile it will keep working on bringing both Nord Stream 2 and the Turkish Stream project, meant to supply gas to southern Europe, to full capacity. To contact the author of this story: Leonid Bershidsky at [email protected] contact the editor responsible for this story: Mary Duenwald at [email protected] column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Leonid Bershidsky is Bloomberg Opinion’s Europe columnist. He was the founding editor of the Russian business daily Vedomosti and founded the opinion website Slon.ru.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
November 1, 2019Read More
(Bloomberg) — Sign up to our Brexit Bulletin, follow us @Brexit and subscribe to our podcast.If there’s one thing that’s certain in the coming U.K. election, it’s that you shouldn’t trust opinion polls. After surprise results in 2015, 2016 and 2017, i…
November 1, 2019Read More
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