Three years ago, Chinese Premier Li Qiang took on a role largely stripped of its former glory. Now, in a surprise twist, he’s becoming President Xi Jinping’s top emissary on the world stage. When China’s No. 2 official steps out in Johannesburg at the first Group of Twenty leaders’ meeting ever held in Africa this…
Chicago grains futures rose Monday on hopes the US may be nearing a compromise to end the longest government shutdown on record, restoring access to agricultural data. The possible compromise comes after the US Senate on Sunday advanced a deal to end the shutdown with the support of a group of moderate Democrats. The Senate…
Calling the peak for anything is dangerous. So here goes: We’ve reached peak tariffs, as both an economic weapon and almost certainly as a political one. President Donald Trump signaled as much on Sunday when he turned to social media and declared people who oppose tariffs “are FOOLS!” He then offered everyone a tariff “dividend”…
Hi, this is Allen Wan in Shanghai, otherwise known as the world’s most compelling coffee city. I’m enjoying an Americano at a pretty empty Starbucks in my neighborhood as I write this and wondering what the future holds for this iconic American coffee chain in China. Despite getting this tea-drinking nation hooked on lattes and…
First Bakhmut, then Avdiivka, now Pokrovsk. In each of the last three years, Russia’s generals have identified a midsize Ukrainian town as their invasion’s next critical target, expending vast amounts of manpower and hardware to take it. The question is not whether Pokrovsk will fall, but what that will mean for the war. Pokrovsk’s capture…
Senate Democrats are pushing the Trump administration for more information on US efforts to prevent American private equity and venture capital firms from bankrolling advances by China and other adversaries in key technologies including artificial intelligence and quantum computing. In a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, five Democratic senators demanded a update on plans…
China’s services activity expanded in October even though growth was the weakest in three months, a private survey showed, as holiday spending and travel by households supported the industry during a deepening economic slowdown. The RatingDog China services purchasing managers’ index slipped to 52.6 from 52.9 in September, according to a statement published Wednesday, extending…
China will effectively suspend implementation of additional export controls on rare earth metals and terminate investigations targeting US companies in the semiconductor supply chain, the White House announced. The White House issued a fact sheetBloomberg Terminal on Saturday outlining some details of the trade pact agreed to earlier this week by President Donald Trump and…
Just as nuclear war, in all its sheer insanity, has returned to Hollywood and public attention, the leaders of the world’s two atomic superpowers seem to be doing their best to make the jitters worse. First, Russian President Vladimir Putin, who’s been breaking nuclear taboos for at least three years, boasted about a (new-ish) torpedo…
China’s factory activity slump worsened in October, reaching its longest decline in more than nine years as a deepening economic slowdown sets in during the final quarter. The official manufacturing purchasing managers’ index was 49, versus 49.8 in September, the National Bureau of Statistics said Friday. The median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg was…