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BEIJING/WASHINGTON, Nov 7 (Reuters) – China and the United States have agreed to roll back tariffs on each others’ goods as part of the first phase of a trade deal, officials from both sides said on Thursday, offering a new sign of progress despite ong…
November 7, 2019Read More
Kentucky Republicans sue prospective McConnell challenger MarketWatch
November 7, 2019Read More
Two Eastern Kentucky men killed in construction site crash in Tennessee WKYT
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BEIJING/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – China and the United States have agreed to roll back tariffs on each others’ goods as part of the first phase of a trade deal, officials from both sides said on Thursday, offering a new sign of progress despite ongoing di…
November 7, 2019Read More
Days to Brexit deadline: 85(Bloomberg) — Sign up here to get the Brexit Bulletin in your inbox every weekday.Today in Brexit: The Bank of England will unveil its latest forecasts for an economy hampered by uncertainty.What’s happening? As the U.K. ele…
November 7, 2019Read More
Iran resumed uranium enrichment at its underground Fordow plant south of Tehran Thursday in a new step back from its commitments under a landmark 2015 nuclear deal, raising alarm from Western powers. Engineers began feeding uranium hexafluoride gas in…
November 7, 2019Read More
An international medical relief agency said Thursday that a hospital it runs in western Yemen was damaged in a recent attack. Yemeni military officials blamed the Houthi rebels for the drone and missile attack that targeted buildings near the hospital…
November 7, 2019Read More
(Bloomberg Opinion) — Germans of a certain age will be writhing with conflicting emotions this week, 30 years after the Berlin Wall cracked open, as they listen to an emissary of U.S. President Donald Trump. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will mark the anniversary with a speech in Berlin. Looking on will be Chancellor Angela Merkel, the opposite of everything Trump represents. Pompeo plans to exhort her to “defend free nations and free peoples.”Rhetorically, that sounds like the America of three decades ago, and could have been uttered by President George H.W. Bush or his secretary of state, James Baker. But the Germans will be rolling their eyes, and some may shed a stealthy tear. For Pompeo’s oratory will sound empty and hypocritical to them, and thus frightening. As they know better than Americans do, nothing is the same between Germany and America, and that’s a disaster.When the Berlin Wall crumbled, the U.S. under Bush senior was the only one of the Allied Powers that had occupied Germany after World War II to immediately grasp the moment as an opportunity rather than a threat. The French, British and Soviets, by contrast, instinctively feared a return of the “German Question,” and had to be coaxed by Bush and Baker before acceding to reunification in 1990.America’s magnanimity was as remarkable as the anxiety of the other Allies was understandable. For centuries, the German Question had described a recurring problem of continental imbalance. The sprawling lands at Europe’s heart were either fragmented and weak, thus sucking in competing powers as Syria does today; or, after 1871, united and overbearing, thus menacing the continent.Germany’s defeat and division in 1945 had fortuitously seemed to answer the Question. There were to be two Germanies, one in each geopolitical bloc. Instead of Germany forever agonizing about whether it was part of the West, the East or mystically “equidistant,” one part was now over here, the other over there.Under the benevolent guardianship of the U.S., West Germany could now reintegrate itself into the larger cultural and commercial West. In this way, America became dad. It was the protector against the Soviets as well as the role model of cool. Elvis Presley, briefly deployed to West Germany with the U.S. Army, embodied this dual role.If the U.S. was dad, France was mom. It was the other West, the former enemy and victim with whom Germany had to make amends. Thus was born what is today the European Union. For the French, it may have been a vehicle to keep projecting French power (even against the U.S.) after the loss of empire and glory. But for the Germans, Franco-German friendship and “Europe” were forms of atonement. Everybody knew that this embrace was only possible because U.S. power now subsumed the old rivalries.Adopted by these parents, Germans believed they were burying nationalism and embracing a post-national identity. Germans would henceforth be good world citizens, people who trade rather than shoot, who seek cooperation rather than self-interest. To play this role, of course, they needed the U.S. and the international system of rules it policed.When the Berlin Wall fell, the Germans made a big mental mistake. They assumed that the whole world would now grasp the same lessons they had learned, by adopting the same liberal, multilateral, win-win mindset. The reunited Germans felt they were ahead, and that the zeitgeist would catch up with them. They would soon be in for a shock.Many shocks, in fact. But no instance of German cognitive dissonance came close to Trump’s victory in 2016. Here was dad himself turning nationalist and negating all German assumptions. Here was another German-American U.S. president, who seemed the opposite of Dwight Eisenhower, the gracious conqueror-turned-liberator.Tone-deaf, Trump keeps berating Germany, and Merkel personally. He’s right that Germany spends too little on its army (having outsourced military prowess to the Americans for so long). He’s right that its trade surplus needn’t be so big. But the Germans weren’t ready to go from family to foes overnight. Would the U.S. still defend them in a pinch? Germans feel like a child that is grown but not yet independent and is suddenly being disowned.Among the many aspects of the relationship that Trump fails to grasp is that America’s retreat as benevolent hegemon reopens Europe’s old German Question. That frightens all Europeans, including the Germans. But the breach cuts deeper than geopolitics; it is personal and emotional.Merkel was on the eastern side of the Berlin Wall on that night, 30 years ago. (Not immediately grasping that the moment was historic, she carried on with her sauna visit.) Like many East Germans of her generation, she adored the U.S., both as an idea and a destination — she still raves about a trip to San Diego and her feeling of freedom there.When Trump won the White House, Merkel was gutted. Every signal he has sent since confirmed her worst fears. As she diplomatically listens to Pompeo lecturing her about “freeing peoples,” she will suffer the pain of an orphan.To contact the author of this story: Andreas Kluth at [email protected] contact the editor responsible for this story: Jonathan Landman at [email protected] column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Andreas Kluth is a member of Bloomberg’s editorial board. He was previously editor in chief of Handelsblatt Global and a writer for the Economist. For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinion©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
November 7, 2019Read More
North Korea says planned U.S.-South Korean military drills would amount to “throwing a wet blanket over the spark” of nuclear negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington. Since the start of the nuclear talks last year, the U.S. and South Korea have …
November 7, 2019Read More
(Bloomberg) — Welcome to the Brussels Edition, Bloomberg’s daily briefing on what matters most in the heart of the European Union. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every weekday morning.German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz’s push to break the gridlock on EU banking-market integration will get a reality check when he meets euro-area counterparts today in Brussels. Southern European countries will get a chance to express their views on the long list of demands attached to Germany’s compromise proposal on a joint deposit insurance. But even if finalizing the project remains an uphill battle, including within Germany, there’s one thing Scholz has already achieved: After years of talks in obscure working groups, he’s put banking union on the front pages again.What’s HappeningEconomic Outlook | Finance ministers will also take stock of the latest economic forecasts, due to be published by the European Commission today and likely to further downgrade growth projections. Amid timid signs of resilience, and increasingly dire warnings to prepare for the worst, Germany is sticking to its guns that no emergency action to stem the slowdown is needed.Greek Taxes | Gone are the days when Greece was a permanent item on the agenda of finance ministers’ meetings. The former euro-area problem child is instead focusing on re-branding itself as an investors’ paradise, with the introduction today of an alluring flat tax for wealthy people willing to shift their residence to the Mediterranean country.Cypriot Passports | Another sunny EU country that sought tax haven status for the wealthy has found itself in the international spotlight for attracting rather shady personalities. Now, Cyprus is beginning the process of revoking the citizenship of some of the “investors” it lured in, including the alleged mastermind of one of the world’s biggest financial scandals.Turkish Sanctions | Cyprus appears to be succeeding in getting the EU to impose sanctions against Turkey over drilling in the Eastern Mediterranean. The decision may be taken by foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday, unless, among other things, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan convinces Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to stall the process when they meet in Budapest today.Car Crunch | The EU’s trade chief sounded oh-so-cautiously optimistic about the bloc avoiding U.S. tariffs on autos — President Donald Trump is expected to make a decision on the matter as soon as next week. “There seem to be very few people defending the idea of tariffs in the car sector,” Cecilia Malmstrom told a European Parliament committee in Brussels yesterday.In Case You Missed ItU.K. Election | Things keep going wrong for Boris Johnson as he seeks to win a Conservative majority in the U.K.’s Dec. 12 general election. While the Tories have a double-digit lead over the main opposition Labour Party in several recent polls, the negatives are piling up. Here’s why.New Commission | Following a fair share of slaps by the European Parliament, the new EU executive arm is being filled, after President-elect Ursula von der Leyen picked Adina-Ioana Valean as Romania’s Commissioner-designate. The U.K. is the only country not to nominate a Commissioner, and EU leaders have yet to show any signs they’ll let Boris Johnson get away with that.Eastern Malaise | A slowdown in global car sales and the threat of U.S. tariffs are curbing economic expansion in eastern Europe, a key manufacturer for the continent’s auto industry, according to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Slovakia, the world’s largest car producer relative to population, suffered the biggest downgrade in the bank’s forecasts, based on its exposure to Germany’s auto giants.Climate Emergency | More than 11,000 experts from around the world warned “clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency.” Saving ourselves from catastrophe would require a profound transformation of the way we live, consume, eat and move. Is anyone listening? The EU is suggesting it is, with a pledge to push green finance within months.Chart of the DayGreece’s bonds are going from strength to strength, and nowhere is that more noticeable than in the yield spread against their peers in Italy. The gap in borrowing costs is tighter than at any point in the past decade, showing investors increasingly see Greece as a safe place to put their money, despite the nation’s lack of an investment-grade rating.Today’s AgendaAll times CET.9:30 a.m. The EU’s lower court rules in a challenge by Campine NV against EU fines levied in 2017 against a number of recycling companies for teaming together to push down prices for car batteries 11 a.m. European Commission publishes quarterly economic forecasts 3 p.m. Euro-area finance ministers meet in Brussels EU Competition Commissioner Vestager speaks at Lisbon Web SummitLike the Brussels Edition?Don’t keep it to yourself. Colleagues and friends can sign up here. We also publish the Brexit Bulletin, a daily briefing on the latest on the U.K.’s departure from the EU. For even more: Subscribe to Bloomberg All Access for full global news coverage and two in-depth daily newsletters, The Bloomberg Open and The Bloomberg Close.How are we doing? We want to hear what you think about this newsletter. Let our Brussels bureau chief know.\–With assistance from John Ainger.To contact the authors of this story: Nikos Chrysoloras in Brussels at [email protected] Weber in Brussels at [email protected] contact the editor responsible for this story: Vidya N Root at [email protected], Iain RogersFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
November 7, 2019Read More
The United Nations chief Antonio Guterres denounced as “disturbing” reports that Iraqi security forces have fired live ammunition at anti-government protesters in Baghdad, as mass rallies continued to rock the capital and southern Iraq. The demonstrat…
November 7, 2019Read More
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