News from Around the World

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim Announces He Is Stepping Down

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim announces he is stepping down at the end of January.

World Bank to Investigate if China Loan Funded Muslim Detention Camps

WASHINGTON — The World Bank is investigating whether a $50 million loan it granted in 2015 for an education project in China’s Xinjiang region has been used to fund Muslim detention camps.

The review comes amid growing global concern that China has detained one million or more Muslim Uighurs and placed them in “re-education” camps where they are forced to renounce their religious beliefs and embrace the ideology of the Communist Party.

World Bank's David Malpass talks 'decentralization' and private investment

WASHINGTON — World Bank President David Malpass outlined a growing country focus at the bank in a speech on Tuesday where he also called on governments to make structural reforms and to create the building blocks for successful private sectors.

World Bank's new president skips China's Belt and Road for Africa trip

David Malpass, fresh from a senior Trump administration post at the U.S. Treasury Department, is instead making his first foreign trip as the World Bank’s leader to sub-Saharan Africa to highlight his vision for the bank’s poverty reduction and development agenda.

World Bank: Peace Deal With Taliban to Help Improve Struggling Afghan Economy

ISLAMABAD - The World Bank estimated Sunday that Afghanistan’s economy grew by less than two percent (1.8 %) in 2018 primarily due to ongoing war, drought and political uncertainty, likely leading to further increases in poverty.

In its latest assessment of the Afghan economy, the Bank noted that sustained and substantial improvement in the security situation are key to better economic conditions required to reduce poverty from high current levels.

World economy at risk of another financial crash, says IMF

The world economy is at risk of another financial meltdown, following the failure of governments and regulators to push through all the reforms needed to protect the system from reckless behaviour, the International Monetary Fund has warned.

With global debt levels well above those at the time of the last crash in 2008, the risk remains that unregulated parts of the financial system could trigger a global panic, the Washington-based lender of last resort said

World Economy Edges Closer to Recession as Trade Woes Spread

The escalating trade war between the U.S. and China is nudging the world economy toward its first recession in a decade with investors demanding politicians and central bankers act fast to change course.

World Leaders Set to Convene Argentina Summit Clouded by Disputes

BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) - A summit of the world’s top economies will open on Friday with leaders struggling over fallout from a U.S.-China trade war that has roiled global markets and bracing for the kind of divisive geopolitical drama that President Donald Trump often brings to the international stage.

WTO Judge Blockage Could Prove 'The Beginning of the End'

The World Trade Organization is facing a major crisis as its appellate body loses its ability to rule on new dispute cases. The US has been blocking the appointment of new judges to protest the way the WTO does business.

The appellate body of the World Trade Organization (WTO), considered the supreme court for international trade, lost its ability to rule on new dispute cases at midnight Tuesday.

WTO to Set Up Panels to Rule on U.S. Tariff Disputes

GENEVA (Reuters) - The United States and opponents of President Donald Trump’s steel and aluminium tariffs both confirmed their wish to litigate on Wednesday, triggering the procedure for World Trade Organization dispute hearings, a Geneva trade official said.

China, the European Union, Canada, Mexico, Norway, and Russia all confirmed they would escalate their disputes by starting adjudication proceedings, while the United States confirmed its wish for dispute panels against Canada, China and the EU.