Arab and Muslim national leaders are pushing Hamas to accept US President Donald Trump’s Gaza plan, saying the need to end the fighting outweighs concerns about the finer details. While some aspects of the 20-point proposal differ from what Trump agreed on with those leaders at a recent meeting in New York, they are united behind the goal of ending Israel’s military offensive, sources say. Nearly a million rank-and-file members of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party are eligible to vote in a leadership election on Saturday. The LDP has dominated the country’s politics for most of the post-war era and its leader almost always becomes prime minister, but this ballot comes as the party is losing its grip on the voters who built its decades-long dominance, amid the rise of populist and far-right challengers. Group of Seven nations are closing in on an agreement to significantly increase sanctions on Russia, including on oil sales, over its war in Ukraine, and European Union leaders are building momentum for a plan to provide Kyiv with €140 billion ($164 billion) in loans by leveraging frozen Russian central bank assets. The Kremlin may nationalize and sell off foreign-owned businesses in retaliation under a new privatization mechanism. White House Budget Director Russell Vought is planning to swiftly dismiss federal workers, sources say, a sign that Republicans plan to lean into hardball tactics to pressure Democrats to cave and end a government shutdown. Trump and his team have moved quickly to capitalize on the situation to shrink the size of the federal administration while blaming Democrats for the impasse with the idea that voters will punish them in midterm elections next year. A two-decade-old law that allows Haitian textiles into the US tax free expired Tuesday after the government in Washington shut down, gutting the country’s last stable industry — one that employs nearly 25,000 people. In a nation riddled with crime and rampant gang violence, the sector is one of few that’s working, yet without the trade deal, it’s unlikely that companies can continue to function. On today’s Big Take podcast, Bloomberg White House reporter Gregory Korte and economics editor Molly Smith join host David Gura to talk about what the government shutdown means for economic data and how it could impact policymakers, investors and everyday Americans. Subscribe to the Big Take podcast on Apple, Spotify or iHeart. The widening corruption scandal in the Philippines, involving billions of dollars in fraudulent flood-control allocations, has triggered mass protests and cast a shadow over its once-promising economic outlook. A protest against corruption in Manila on Sept. 21. Photographer: Ezra Acayan/Getty Images AsiaPac Brazil and the US are working to arrange an in-person meeting between President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Trump, with a potential encounter likely to take place in a third country, Brazilian sources say. The EU plans to hike tariffs on its steel imports to 50%, aligning its rate with the US which has sought to push back against overcapacity from China, a draft proposal shows. The US Supreme Court refused to allow Trump to immediately oust Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook while she sues to keep her job, dealing a setback to his efforts to exert more control over the central bank. On this week’s Trumponomics, we’re widening the lens a little with a panel from the Bloomberg event "Women, Money and Power." Host Stephanie Flanders spoke with Alessandra Galloni, editor in chief of Reuters, and Zanny Minton Beddoes, editor in chief of The Economist, about how their news organizations are grappling with the sheer volume of news coming out of Washington and the Trump administration's aggressive approach to the media. Listen on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. |