Bloomberg Businessweek-Europe Edition 11/13/2017

Asia ● Syria announced it would join the Paris climate agreement, leaving the U.S. as the only United Nations member outside the accord. ● Donald Trump sent mixed messages on North Korea during his Asian trip, saying it would make sense for Kim Jong Un to come to the negotiating table but also attacking his regime for turning the country into “a hell no one deserves.” ● Lebanon Prime Minister Saad Hariri resigned on Nov. 4, citing an alleged assassination plot against him. ● Tencent Holdings acquired a 12 percent stake in Snap. The announcement came hours after Snap’s shares plunged 22 percent in reaction to disappointing third-quarter earnings. ▷ 20 ● Iran rejected accusations from Saudi Arabia that it had supplied Yemen with a missile “for the purpose of attacking” the country. The Saudi military…

It makes sense to be cynical about Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s ostensible crackdown on corruption in Saudi Arabia. Among the 11 princes, 4 ministers, and dozens of well-known businessmen arrested were some of the 32-year-old’s last potential rivals to the Saudi throne. The move also smacks of an asset snatch. Police nabbed 3 of the Arab world’s 10 richest men, including investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal (page 25), the billionaire best known for rescuing Citicorp in 1991 and making big bets on Apple Inc. and 21st Century Fox Inc. But was it only a Machiavellian power play? Or is this the start of a dramatic, go-for-broke attempt to transform a country that’s resisted change for decades? Prince Mohammed seems to be playing the equally ruthless roles of autocrat and reformer.…

Emmanuel Macron has accomplished more in six months than his predecessor managed in five years. Trouble is, that’s a low bar—and the president will need to keep pushing if France’s economy is to achieve its full potential. Macron’s first phase of reforms addressed the country’s 3,000-plus pages of labor rules. The changes are aimed at lightening the burden of regulation on employers—for instance, by letting more of them negotiate terms directly with employees. The new rules are valuable, especially for the small and midsize companies that account for almost half of France’s workforce. They’ll also make it easier for multinationals to fire workers at struggling French subsidiaries, while encouraging them to hire more workers when times are good. Yet these changes, welcome as they are, don’t go far enough. Macron agrees, and…

Personal $0.5t All told, the top 1 percent of households would get the biggest percentage gain in after-tax income. Tax brackets Top rates for most would fall, costing $1.1 trillion in revenue over 10 years. The rate for the highest incomes stays at 39.6 percent—except, oddly, it’s 45.6 percent for dollars earned between $1 million and $1.2 million. Standard deduction The standard deduction roughly doubles, to $24,000 in the case of a married couple. But personal exemptions of $4,050 per person would go away—bad news for big families. Higher education The bill kills the deduction for interest on student loans, repeals two tuition tax credits, and ends the tax-free status of employer tuition reimbursements. Pass-throughs There’s a new 25 percent rate for people who report business income on their personal returns. They currently pay the personal rate on this…

Mihin Rosie regularly travels from her job in southern India to her hometown in the far eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, bordering Tibet and Myanmar. She loves catching up with relatives, but the journey is a hard slog. The 29-year-old government employee flies from Bengaluru (formerly known as Bangalore) to Guwahati, takes a train to Ziro, then rides a bus or car to her family in Hapoli—an 18-hour expedition. Air service between Guwahati and Hapoli could save her 15 hours, she says. But the rural towns don’t have modern airports, let alone scheduled service. Now, SpiceJet Ltd., a fast-growing Indian budget carrier, wants to open up the globe’s third-biggest aviation market to help travelers such as Rosie. That means targeting the 1 billion Indians—97 percent of the population—who’ve never flown, either…

“For the majority of these chemicals, their properties and their safety to the human body are not properly evaluated” Early on a snowy winter morning in January 2012, Wu Xiaoliang, a 37-year-old farmer, stopped by his local doctor for a headache remedy. At a small clinic near his village outside Quzhou, in eastern China, he received two injections made from traditional Chinese herbs. Hours later, villagers saw him struggling to prop himself up on his moped as he drove home. By noon, he was dead. What killed Wu was later described in an autopsy report as a “drug allergy.” But doctors couldn’t pinpoint what he was allergic to, because the shots he was given contained dozens, if not hundreds, of different compounds extracted from two herbs. For centuries, Chinese have bought plant and…